I wasn’t quite sure about visiting the two Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando (Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure), seeing as we already have something very similar back home and c’mon, Universal just ain’t no Disney. Not by a long shot. I was leaning towards spending those 3 extra days soaking up more of that Disney magic instead but I was in two minds about it because The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was beckoning.
The husband and sister and I, we’re all potterheads and the rules are that potterheads have to stroll down the little lanes of Hogsmeade at least once during our brief muggle existence to pick up some Bertie Botts every flavour beans and take a swig of rich, frothy butterbeer (which by the way, is exactly how I imagined butterbeer to taste like – it’s delicious).
In terms of theming, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was splendid.
(Lots of pictures coming up, brace yourselves!)
//Hedwig taking five on a snowman wearing a Gryffindor scarf? Love it!
//And doesn’t Hogwarts look just grand? Within those towers lie the Forbidden Journey, the best ride in all of Universal.
//We had lunch at Three Broomsticks and a drink at Hog’s Head. That was all kinds of awesome.
//I might have actually squealed when I saw the Hogwarts Express.
The kids weren’t infected with potter madness so they were quite bewildered by all our effusive shrieking at random objects like train schedules and butterbeer carts and puking pastilles window displays. (Even the toilets had a looping audio of Moaning Myrtle, how about that?!!)
They were, however, quite interested in Honeydukes, because candy!
Speaking of, I thought of being contrary and trying Bertie Bott’s vomit and earwax flavours so I asked the lady at the counter if it really tasted of vomit or it just had a mildly-flavoured artificial vomitty sort of taste and she looked at me without flinching and said, “100% real vomit. It’s very authentic.”
So I chickened out. I’ve tasted my fair share of other people’s vomit (3 of those people, in fact) so I think imma pass.
In any case, they had fun riding broomsticks and giving snuggle-kisses to pigwidgeon and princess sparkles.
The rest of the park (as well as Universal Studios) was disappointingly, sort of mediocre, languishing in 5/10 territory but I’ll qualify this by saying that if you’re a potterhead, the potter section (albeit a little small) is really cool and it bumps the overall score to a solid 7.
Verdict? If you’re a potter fan, you’d want to check it out at least once. If not, head on over to Disney (OMG DISNEYYYYY!!!) instead.
8 Comments
Agreed on the ain’t no Disney man! But then I’m a HUGE Potter fan so this is a must go for me then.. :)
you most definitely should! go for ollivander’s show and ride the forbidden journey, those are really good. :)
OMG…those pictures look amazing. I really REALLY want to go there.
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Thanks! Had a blast taking the pictures but the place is far more amazing than it looks in pictures.
ahhhhh i am a hugeeeee potter fan! Wanted to go the other time but it wasn’t open yet! I would have squeal at everything I see there!!
Hahaha I most certainly did. There’s lots of squealing going on at Harry Potter world :)
Hi Daphne, I’ve been reading your blog for some time and been meaning to ask you – how do you manage the kids for such a trip to the States? It must be tough with the long haul travelling and jet lag? I would love to bring my 4YO daughter to Disneyland other than Hong Kong’s but just the time difference scares me. I had it bad during my first time in LA – sleeping in the day and waking at night. Did your kids handle the time difference well?
They’re really good on flights so that was easy – ipads + inflight entertainment + occasional naps.
The jet lag was tough though! They took about 4 days to adjust, sleeping 4-5 hours in the afternoon everyday and bouncing off the walls at night. It was good that we did NYC first so we could explore the city while they napped in the stroller in the day. Thankfully they adjusted by Orlando so it was all good.