After hearing horror stories of a two and a half hour wait to ride the main ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey, we immediately went to the castle and saw a mere 45 minute wait for it. We stowed our belongings (no carry on purses or bags were allowed) and got in line. In truth the line itself was an entertaining ride itself. We saw talking pictures that a camera could not adequately capture; they actually looked like portraits. We saw the Sorting Hat, spouting warnings to the riders. Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all made appearances and spoke to the crowd. Ron even made it snow over our heads.
When we got to the ride itself, we had no idea what to expect. You get on the ride and your feet are dangling. What follows is a 3-4 minute ride that whirls you around on the experiences that Harry had at Hogwarts: Quidditch, Death Eaters, Aragog, Tri Wizard Tournament, and so much more. You are tossed on your back, spit on by spiders, made queasy from the flying. We ended up riding more than once, which is good because I shut my eyes for part of the first time. . .
The first night we were also able to make a special trip to Ollivander's to get a wand. Groups of 20 or so are ushered into Ollivander's where Ollivander selects a boy from the crowd. In our group he chose Andrew! Then, the scene in the movie where Harry gets his wand was reenacted with Andrew.
Finally, the wand chose Andrew! Can you see the bright light on his face?
Hogsmeade at night was a truly magical experience in itself with all the lights blaring through the town. It was my favorite time there.
The next day we went back to Harry Potter and imbibed some butterbeer. (Some grown ups even chose the Hogsmeade brew which is made there and only sold there- no where else in the world!) 
We ended up in the Hogshead as the wait to get into the Three Broomsticks took a considerable amount of time. 
The hogs head on the wall periodically spoke! We could get our butterbeers either frozen or normal. The first day we all tried frozen and loved them. Brendan proclaimed them "life-changing!" We did try the normal type on a later date and savored the creamy butterscotch, cream soda like taste.
We also tried the Pumpkin Juice mentioned in the stories. I thought it tasted alot like apple juice with an additional pumkin-esque flavor.
This is the site where we drank our butterbeers both days. We had a great view of the castle.
We shopped at Honeydukes (chocolate frog shown below) and Zonko's. The boys all bought at least one wand from Ollivander's; Andrew even bought a quaffle to play with at home.
Harry Potter land was everything I had hoped for.
Andrew wishes there would have been a Quidditch pitch, but I do think the the land gave everyone just a little piece of magic.
1 comment:
So, so cool!
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