20th Anniversary trip - day FOUR

 Tuesday we went to Universal Studios, which is the main reason we headed to Orlando in the first place. I've been dying to see "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" ever since it opened.  We got to the park right as they started letting people in.  

We walked right onto the Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster.  It was seriously the best roller coaster I've ever been on. It was AWESOME.  It had seven inversions including a zero gravity roll, a cobra roll, two vertical loops, and two corkscrews.  As soon as we got off we ran around and got right back on again ( except for Darren who was seriously sick the rest of the day ).

We rode several more rides in the Marvel Super Hero section including the "Storm Force Acceletron" shown at left, "Dr. Doom's Freefall" and the "Amazing Adventures of Spiderman" ride.  We continued around to "Toon Lagoon" and proceeded to get drenched in a series of water rides.  








We didn't experience significant lines anywhere except the "Dudley Do-Right's Rip-Saw Falls".  We were squishy from head to toe by the time we were done with all the rides in this section. The humidity was so high we wondered if we would ever dry out.









We rode the Jurassic Park River ride which was kinda funny to me for some reason.  I don't know why.  It is always fun to scream in mock scariness however. I think Darren and I saw the first movie on our honeymoon 20 years ago. 







It was time to enter The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The kids wanted to get the full effect by going through the "front gates" but us old people didn't want to walk clear around the park. We sent them on their way and had a chance to explore Hogsmeade on our own for a few minutes.





I'm totally not embarrassed to admit I got a bit teary eyed as I entered the park. It really was a magical experience. While I'm enough of a Disney snob to think Disney could have done it even better, I was still very happy with what I saw.

The street windows and the roof-lines were exactly what you would see in the movie.  Magical things were happening inside each, from dresses that sewed themselves to books that turned their own pages.  











As soon as the kids reached the park we had to take their picture by the Hogwarts Express. It appears some type of expansion is going on that will enable a real train to take park goers between the two different parks at Universal Studios.

















We explored Zonko's Joke Shoppe and Honeydukes Candy shop.  They were just darling. 

 
 After riding a few of the rides (which were surprisingly good), we ate dinner at "The Three Broomsticks".  We ate in the back room by the fireplace. It was very charmingly done and felt so authentic.  We ate English foods (Shepherds pie, Fish and Chips, etc) and finished up with Fortescues Strawberry and Peanut Butter ice-cream.

We rode a few more rides and then attended the show at Ollivander's Wand shop.  Nathan was selected to be the child testing the wands and it was really cute.  He really hammed it up well.  He was pretty excited to get to buy the wand that "picked him".















 
 Elizabeth and Elissa decided not to buy robes in hopes that Grandma Taylor would help them make some instead.  They did select patches to be sewn on the lapel. Elissa and Nathan chose Gryffindor and Elizabeth chose Ravenclaw.  We were souvenir junkies in this area of the park, buying key chains, mugs, patches, clothing, wands, etc.  I got a darling time-turner for my Christmas tree and an awesome "Mischief Managed" mug for my desk.














 For the last ride of the day we did Harry's Forbidden Journey. Darren was practically green by this point but couldn't miss the amazing line queue which in my opinion was better than the ride.  He just bailed out right before we go on the ride itself.  The movie for the ride was so grainy I was surprised. But it was all still a lot of fun and really well done.  Once again we had pretty much zero lines the entire day.

The hourglasses for the house competitions

My poor husband.....

The park was closing so we got our Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice "to go".  We tried both the regular and the frozen and our consensus was that the frozen was the best.  It tasted exactly like I thought it should. Isn't that an amazing thing to have happen?

Below is my favorite picture of the day. 
What a fantastic day in a wonderland from one of my favorite  books/authors with some of my favorite people.  It was an awesome day.