Orlando: Harry Potter World!

Relaxing by the pool

Matt and I arrived very early Monday morning into Orlando after spending the night on a plane. Thanks to a lengthy delay we arrived at just about the same time as Fiona!

We found our way to the “hostel”- which turned out to be more like a hotel/motel! Very incredibly good value for money. It’s about $13 per night, we get heaps of breakfast, a room to ourselves, a pool, and its walking distance from a bunch of the theme parks. That first we spent mainly relaxing. Matt napped while Fiona and I wondered around the area, and then we all went out and chilled by the pool.  It’s really really hot in Orlando! It was 35 degrees, and humid.

HOGWARTS!!

The next morning we went to HARRY POTTER WORLD! (Otherwise known as Universal Studio’s “Islands of Adventure”) The Harry Potter part is only one small park of a massive theme park; the other areas included Jurrasic Park, Seuss, Superheros.. We went immediately to the Harry Potter area as we’d been told the castle ride would get crazy busy.

Cheers to butterbeer

We jumped in the line for a 120  minute wait! (When we returned later in the day it was much less busy: don’t go in the morning!) The wait was madness in the heat! But once you get inside- after about an hour and a half- it’s awesome! You walk through “hallways” with moving portraits!! And they actually look like paintings, not screens. So well done. Then..finally..we got to the ride! The ride is AMAZING. It’s mainly a simulator, but you are moving the whole time (being “levitated”!). Some bits are in rooms with giant spiders, dementors, the whomping willow, the dead basilisk. The idea is that you are following Harry (on his broomstick) though a tour of Hogwarts. It’s so so so much fun (we may have gone on it 4 times...)

Fiona testing out the
Elder wand!

We discovered a nifty way to cut the huge lines- don’t bother buying the expensive express pass..just go in the single riders line! You’re allowed to all go in together so long as you are happy to go onto the ride separately (filling the gaps, essentially). It cuts a two-hour queue down to 20 mins! We managed to get on one ride in less than 5 mins.

Super fun log ride

So anyway we spent a lot of time in Harry Potter world; tasting butter beer (kind of made me feel sick..) looking around Hodsmeade- Honeydukes, Zonko’s, Hog’s Head Bar, Three Broomsticks, Deverish & Banges.. But we also explored the other areas. First was Seuss- very child-like rides, but I liked the Cat in the Hat one. Being such a hot day we headed for water-rides.. We got completely drenched on Pop-eye’s cruise. (better than being drenched in sweat! Ha) Matt and Fiona are too wimp for the rollercoasters, so I had to do them on my own! The first one I went on was a Hulk themed one, which spent an awful lot of time upside down. It was fun. Then I also went on a log-boat ride..where I got completely drenched again! But also very fun. Then it started to rain.. A lot... It essentially turned it to a bit of a storm (saw on the news that the lightning caused hospitalisation for 4 people at a different theme park!), so heaps of the rides closed. However, the castle ride (being indoors) was still open!!!! Hurruh! We also waited to go into Olivanders for a good half hour in the rain. And it was pretty lame. It’s not a shop, its more like a little show. Olivander picks a kid to test some wands. He asks them to do a spell and the first two don’t work, and when handed the third there was very cheesy lighting and wind (much like in the first movie)

I thought the whole day was fun, despite the crazy weather! I highly recommend Harry Potter World to anyone who is a Harry fan!