Once the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was announced, I started dreaming about a vacation to Orlando! After much consideration, we decided to leave the boys home so we could really enjoy ourselves. Jeanette graciously offered to watch our adorable and somewhat crazy children!
It was a dream come true; I felt like I was really walking through Hogsmeade! They had almost everything you could think of: The Hogwarts Express, Honeydukes, Zonkos, Olivanders, The Owl Post, The Three Broomsticks, BUTTERBEER,Overpriced Souvenirs, They even had Moaning Myrtle's voice in the bathroom!
To get to the Forbidden Journey ride, you get to walk through the castle and see Dumbledore's office and The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Both are exact duplicates from the movies and realistic projections of Dumbledore, Harry, Ron and Hermione that talk to you. They also have talking portraits, the sorting hat and other replicas from the movie. It was awesome!
The Dragon Challenge ride was a pair of roller coasters, the Hungarian Horntail and the Chinese Fireball. They were our favorite ride and the line was never long so we rode those quite a few times! The Flight of the Hippogriff was a small roller coaster that went by Hagrid's Hut and Buckbeak's nest.
I should probably mention that we saw the other attractions at Universal and Islands of Adventure but Harry Potter World was by far the best! They had mini performances from the frog choir, the Beauxbaton girls and the Durmstrang guys every hour. I tried to load the videos but it didn't work. I'm sure you could find a video on youtube. The Butterbeer was delicious and I wish we could have brought some home!
We had so much fun and I probably could have stayed there forever, but I missed my little boys! When we got home, Logan gave me a big hug and it was the perfect ending to our amazing vacation!
