Too Much Information: FLORIDA-post #2

Ok Day 3 in Florida was Day 1 in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

This is the reason for my trip, really.

I took wayyyyy too many pictures but, well, I wanted to.

I bought a two day, two park pass to Universal Studios.

In order to ride the Hogwarts Express you have to buy a two park pass because it takes you between the parks. Plus I wanted to see and do ALL THE THINGS.

My plan was to spend day 1 just wandering and taking it in.

Ride whatever rides caught my fancy, but just enjoy with no agenda.

It is done really well.

There's the Knight bus!

Inside the bus:

Of course we had to pose with the bus.

Then there is an unobtrusive opening in the wall that leads to...Diagon Alley!

The joke shop

Lots of things are built at odd angles and it makes you feel a bit dizzy at times but it gives the place that other worldly feel for sure.

Gringotts with the dragon on top.

He shoots fire at intervals.

Also a fun ride inside!

Olivanders!

Butterbeer, of course!

After we looked around for a bit we went into King's Cross to catch the train.

There she is, the Hogwarts Express!

Just standing in line, waiting to catch the train was fun.

All the details of the train station were awesome.

I was worried that the Hogwart's Express wouldn't be up to snuff.

I was afraid we would just be siting on benches all together.

But thankfully, it was very well done!

We had compartments (as is appropriate)

It is also a fun ride with stuff going on that I won't tell you about in case you go...but it isn't just transportation to the other park, it's fun too!

On the other side is Hogsmeade.

It's just as magical as Diagon Alley.

It is all decked out as if it were winter though, which is kind of funny when it's 80 degrees.

But I enjoyed the look of the place a lot.

Since I was there at the beginning of November, some of the park was decorated for Christmas so that was fun.

Here is the Hogwart's Castle!

My brother had warned me that the ride was pretty intense and could make you dizzy/queasy but that just standing in line was worth it because you get to wind all through the castle.

Cool Statues

Ah, the entrance to Dumbledore's office!

Much of it is a little on the dark side so the pictures aren't great but it's filled with cabinets full of magical things and all kinds of fun things to look at.

You go into Dumbledore's office and he talks to you.

The sorting hat

(it talks to you, of course)

The ride itself was pretty fun but a lot of the rides at Universal are this idea of 3D or 4D so there's a lot of movie type special effects. They do make me dizzy. We got off that ride feeling a bit iffy but it was definitely worth doing.

We went out into the rest of the park for awhile after that to get some lunch and just see what else there was. We made the mistake of riding The Hulk roller coaster way too soon after the ride in the castle. That is a pretty intense roller coaster and afterwards both Annavon and I were feeling quite wretched.

Once we recovered a bit, we took a picture in front of the Hulk statue to prove that we were there.