Do you know what rain Monday means for Tuesday? It means everybody who was going to go the park on Monday goes on Tuesday instead….man was it packed!
We got up early and made it to the park before opening time (9 am). The whole goal was to get to the Harry Potter ‘section’ and do everything that needed to be done there.
The Village of Hogsmeade….took this picture as we were walking in. Think the Universal people need to do a better job on directing the crowds at the beginning….was a bit of a mess.
Hogwarts
The boys as we are about to head inside the castle for the ride
Like every other ride in the world, you walk back and forth and back and forth in line….once you are inside in the castle you pass statues and pictures….not sure who either of these dudes are though.
Pictures were a challenge…it was really dark and flash just made things worse….
Harry, Ron, and Hermoine appear in this part of the line and tell you that they are going sneak us out of the terribly boring Mr. Binns’s class and get us out to the Quidditch match….
This lady is the ‘'guard’ into Gryffindor tower….just like the books and movies, the paintings…
animate and come to life.
The sorting hat tells you that this ride will move and bounce and blah blah blah
The ride isn’t a lot of movement…you are essentially at the end of a robotic arm that you might see in a car factory and it moves you up and down and around while the screen in front of you shows you flying through the air or there are animatronic spiders or dragons or trees attacking you. It’s the kind of ride that will definitely get my stomach moving around and I had to close my eyes more than once to stop the vertigo feelings. Happily, the boys don’t have any of those issues and really enjoyed it.
Another (better) view of Hogwarts
Hagrid’s house at the other coaster near the castle….This coaster is very short and very low-impact
We happened to walk out of the Castle right as the show with the teams from the Tri-Wizard tournament was starting.
another view of Hogsmeade. I didn’t take any pictures of the storefronts; just imagine wall to wall people between each of these buildings
I did take a picture of this quidditch set as we waited to go inside Ollivander’s
The boys had fun….I bet we would have had a better time coming on Monday in the rain, because I think the crowds and lines were just overpowering everyone by the end of it.
Not much to report on the rest of the park. This is the Hulk coaster, which Matthew described as “Awesome!” and has certainly signed on to be Kevin’s roller-coaster partner in crime. We didn’t do many other high-impact rides…the Jurassic Park water ride was a must (since the soaking rides seem to be a family tradition at this point…) and we didn’t walk away too wet. Finally went home about 12 hours later….
The rest of the night was pretty sedate; boys went to the pool almost immediately; Kevin was asleep by the time we got back….the oldest kid was the most exhausted (to be fair, he did say he had a headache…..)
