The Best..pt 2

On to day 2. I have a feeling this day is the one my siblings missed doing the most. You see, it didn't exist the last time they were there...

My dad had one day before classes started and one thing he really wanted to see. I give to you:
The Wizzarding World of Harry Potter!!!

I have already mentioned the fact that I am a bit of a geek. If I were ever to truly tell you how much of a geek, I have a feeling a few of you would never talk to me again as your "cool" points would suffer just knowing me. One thing my family loves, and is actually VERY mainstream is Harry Potter. The only problem is we don't just love it like everyone else, we LOVE it. We reread the books over and over (my dad even rereads it in French to get a fresh perspective), we know random bits of fun facts that most people don't. We analyze the relationships between characters, compare the story lines to ancient mythology, and I'm sure one of these years I will force my kids to dress up as Gryffindors for Halloween.

It was a dream come true (literally) to step into the world of Harry Potter. To see the town,
the Hogwarts Express, the castle,
and even see and hear the icky mandrakes (luckily nobody died!).

I knew we would be going to this park and spent the summer reading the first three books to Ethan and Ella (and most of the time Livi, who didn't want to be left out) so they could fully appreciate it. I think they were only half as excited as I was (which is to say that they were ecstatic).

We rode on the amazingly crazy main ride at the castle which had a stunning line for the first 5 minutes, the most boring line for another 90 minutes and then they rushed us through the interesting castle part so we could barely even see all the cool touches. I wouldn't have minded spending less time out in the heat in the garden and more in the cool hall of portraits or Dumbledore's office, but considering it was Universal and not Disney it was extremely well done (I am such a Disney snob!!!).

The ride was part 3D CGI and part haunted house and is was awesome. The only non-awesome part was I got so sick I threw up in my mouth and only the thought of the mortification of getting off the ride with vomit all over me when 6 year olds were leaping off with smiles, kept it all down.

We ate lunch at The Three Broomsticks, which I'm sure was yummy but I couldn't really enjoy since I was SOOOOOOO sick. We tried pumpkin juice and butterbear, shopped in Honeydukes for candy, I feel like Ethan is saying "TWO chocolate frogs! Beat that!"

and Zonkos for practical jokes.

Ethan, Ella and Eric went on The Flight of the Hypogriff (which I was too queasy to even look at) and we had enough Easy Passes they could go on a second time, but only if the kids went by themselves. This was suppose to be a "family friendly" roller coaster, but I think Universal Studios and I have different ideas on what family friendly means. I watched with pure terror as my little adventurers waited in line and boarded the death contraption and all I could do was watch on helplessly because Eric vetoed me and said they would be fine and I was babying them. Thanks a lot Eric, but I guess this is one of the reasons why kids need a mom and a dad (so they can have fun sometimes).

About half way through exploring Livi got restless. She was sick of hearing she was too little to go on things, so we headed over to Dr. Seuss land to ride some Livi rides. We were lucky we had the Easy Passes so we could just walk on the rides because if I had to wait 5 minutes for most of those rides I would have demanded compensation for my time. Livi seemed to love them though and Dad was a good sport and went on most of them with us.

I was sad every time we left the Harry Potter world. I didn't care about the Jurassic Park area but I guess since it was technically a family vacation and not all about me I had to put on a smile and watch the kids (and Eric and my mom) get completely drenched on the scary dinosaur ride.

Their faces were so priceless I had to pay the exorbitant fee to buy the photo!

I could have spent just two hours in Harry Potter world and felt like my admission was worth it. I could also have spent all day just exploring all the shops, oohing and awing over all the little hidden gems, and waiting in line again for the ride (but not riding it) just to get a better look at all the parts we were rushed through.

And to top off the great day, the maid arranged the girls stuffed animals to greet us when we got back, put a tiara on one, and made a cute toothbrush holder with a grinning face! (Kind of like Grandpa Alan had set it up!)