Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Day 2- All things Harry Potter!

Day 2 was my favorite.  Probably the most walking/tiring but all we did was Harry Potter stuff all day long!  Sorry for the picture overload,  I did narrow it down but there were so many good things I want to remember!
Entering the park!
Warm enough for no jackets and shorts if you're Marti!

THE KNIGHT BUS
The shrunken head on the Knight Bus asked me my name then he made a joke about having errands to run.  Har har.  The details were spot on and my favorite part to see how much they got perfect!
If you go around the back you can climb on and look inside the knight bus.  I wonder how much they would charge to sleep in the park on one of those beds?  




LONDON PHONE BOOTH
Crammed in the London phone booth trying to get into the Ministry of Magic by dialing "magic" on the rotary phone.  So fun!  I would recommend it actually spit out badges and turn into an elevator, but still pretty cool.

ENTRANCE TO DIAGON ALLY
Entering Diagon Ally, if you listen you can hear bricks moving as you walk through from the muggle London

STREET PERFORMANCES



Celestina Worbeck- great singing and dancing

Applying band-aids or moleskin on Madi's poor foot!

Waiting to take a picture of the dragon breathing fire.  It's supposed to go off about 6 times an hour but it stopped part way through this day.  The next day it was going off fine again but it did smell like lighter fluid.  I think the dragon ran out!

GRINGOTTS BANK RIDE


ENTER STRANGER, BUT TAKE HEED
OF WHAT AWAITS THE SIN OF GREED,
FOR THOSE YOU TAKE, BUT DO NOT EARN,
MUST PAY MOST DEARLY IN THEIR TURN,
SO IF YOU SEEK BENEATH OUR FLOORS
A TREASURE THAT WAS NEVER YOURS,
THIEF YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, BEWARE
OF FINDING MORE THAN TREASURE THERE.
If that doesn't give you chills I don't know what will.  I love some good J.K. Rowling prose.  She is the master!

We rode the Gringott's ride a TON this day.  I can't remember how many times.  We rode through the regular line to hear the whole story a few times, we went through the slow line so we could take pictures and video and look at all the details, then we rode the fast way a lot trying to get in the front row of the first car.  We finally did by telling the line person we wanted to wait for the front row. 
Cool spiral staircase in Gringott's.  The stairs were a little hard on mom after 6 or 7 times!  She was a trooper!

OLLIVANDER'S WAND SHOP/EXPERIENCE


This was one of my favorite things.  Ollivander's wand shop had so many cool wand boxes.    You go in a group and they bring you in a room and choose one person out of your group to get their wand. Lia had tried to get a wand 3 times on a previous trip so she was bitter and didn't want to do it again.  We were so happy when she was picked to do the wand ceremony!   They wave the wand 2 times and things fly off the wall etc. then the the third time...

The lights come on and the music swells!  The wand chose Lia!!

Watching Lia wave the wands...
Marti and I had to try some of them out.  $50 interactive wands and real wood wands.  They had so many more characters than I thought they would!  The interactive wands come with a map of where you can do magic on each side of the park.  It was one of my favorite features.  Alyn/Lia bought one and let us use it!  
Happy Lia purchasing her wand!

PLATFORM 9 3/4 AND KINGS CROSS STATION


So cool!

Dreams coming true, riding the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts!

Hogsmeade/Hogwarts Side
The lovely ladies of Beauxbatons!

Even though the castle ride was closed we were allowed to walk through the line and see all the cool details like the talking portraits.  Happy discovery!






Greenhouses



Love these people!  So glad we got to go do this together.

My favorite meal of the trip at the Three Broomsticks. It's nice to eat some vegetables, potatoes and corn instead of just fast food junk.

Trying to make some magic.  My wand skills weren't the best.

I love that mom's always game for anything!





Afternoon on the Diagon Ally Side
I think this was the Magical Menagerie or Eelops Owl Emporium?  Alyn or Marti could help me out. 
I bought a Three-Headed dog here for Abby, her one request when I came on the trip.

Pigmy Puff (sp?)
Florean Fortecue's Ice Cream shop.  Butterbeer ice cream was so good.








Winner of the best Hagrid face award would go to me!
Notice Kreacher peeking in the window upstairs after you knock on #12 Grimmald place.  So cool!



Cool window displays...


You have to use your wand to get a drink from this fountain or spray someone 10 feet away!




Exchanging muggle money at the Gingott's bank.  You can ask the animatronix goblin teller questions.  It works just like real money and there is no fee to exchange.  The money works all over Universal Studios.  Some people keep it as a sourviner.  Someone at the Magical 

Sorry so blurry!

Lighting up a huge window in Diagon Ally with the cool wand.

3 comments:

  1. I look like a real fan.... Need more butterbeer....Maybe a trip photo album! Thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh what FUN with some of my FAVORITE PEOPLE!!! Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete