Wizarding World of Harry Poter Review Part 1

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Today at 10:46am | Edit Note | Delete

Ok, I want to start off this review by qualifying myself. I know a lot of you think of me as a Disney person through and through, and that is true to an extent, however, I see Disney and Universal as apples and oranges. They are both Theme Parks and are competing for that tourist dollar, but they are trying to attract different audiences and they have different mindset on how things should run. There are pluses and minus to each organization (Don’t even get me started on Universal’s parking system and how almost every restaurant at Disney seems to have a Character buffet.)

I will be going in to details and there will be spoilers. I will give a spoiler warning before I write about the actual Forbidden Journey ride, but otherwise than that consider yourself warned.

Atmosphere

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter shows the world that Universal Creative can work just as much magic as Imagineering.

It really feels like you are in the movie. Now, I don’t know if Universal made this point clear enough. They are replicating the movies, not the books. So if you think something doesn’t mention the description in the book, then you are right, because it matches the movies. But this isn’t really too much of a concern, because JKR had a large part in design of the movies and in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I could have spent hours browsing the windows of the shop, because each window has a magical effect. Yes, the owls in the Owlry looked very fake, but do you really want real owls sitting over your head? The details are amazing and nothing should be overlooked. For example, you have to make sure you plan a trip to the bathroom, because Moaning Myrtle is in there. The ATM says Gringotts Bank. It is incredible.

The Shops

The shop like their exterior are highly detailed and if you don’t geek out in Honeyduke’s or Zonko’s something is wrong with you. However, they are very small, because they replicating the movie, which is great, but this is an theme park in Orlando not a movie set and you are expecting tens of thousands of people a day for the first year or more, it will become a claustrophobic nightmare. Get your merchandise early and utilize package pick-up, especially if you get a wand, because they do not fit in the lockers.

I will go into more detail about Honeyduke’s in the food section. I will tell you that you can purchase almost every food item you read about in the Potter universe and get a Wizard card!

Zonko’s was cute, but very small. Don’t forget to look up to find the extendable ears. It will be hard to resist buying a Pygmy Puff. I am still regretting my decision to walk away. It is super cute. They sell Zonko’s related merchandise in addition to all the sneakoscopes and shrunken heads.

In Dervish and Banges, you will find floating brooms and a snarling Book of Monsters in a cage. Here they sell a lot of quidditch merchandise, Quibbler glasses, and everything on your Hogwarts school supply list, including a cauldron.

In the Owl Post, you will find Hogwarts stationary and you can mail a letter from there, so you letter will have a Hogsmeade post mark. This is also were you can purchase your wand from Olivander’s or one of the hero wands.

Olivander’s

Olivander's is very small, but it is a perfect replica. It is magical. The show inside is very cute, but I think I expected more. The kids next to me, however, were eating it up.

This will be the second longest line after Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The show is about 5 minutes long and then you exit into the Owl post, where you can buy your wand. However, it was so crowded in there and even with the assistant wand maker's help I couldn't find the right wand and it was too crowded for me to really look at the selection let alone move.

Tomorrow, I will talk about the food and the attractions. So stay tuned!!!

Ok, so we have arrived safely in PR. Nothing exciting to report, except it is like being in Miami, and we arrived late at night so I can't tell if we have a view of the ocean or not, but we are on an island so I am sure if we squint our eyes we can see it...

We watched "Be Cool" on the plane and I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

I have used my 10 Spainish words already and my goal is to double my vocab by the end of the trip. Thanks to google being in Spainish here I am really perfecting my reading skills.

I leave you with a couple videos that are playing through my head while I am here. Enjoy!

America from West Side Story

Que Hora Es?

Hasta Luego!

If You Give Megan Access to the Internet…

So I am totally cool I didn’t finish this vacation portion of my blog. I think it was a good creative move on my part, because it appears to become the Blair Wizard Project. Did I survive? Did mom leave me behind in Canada? Was I converted into a scary nutjob that write fan fiction?

We know it’s not true, but it leaves a great story element to it all.

Anyhoo…it’s been like 8 months since I have blogged and it is killing me because I need to just sit down and utilize this forum to get out all my crazy ideas I have while I am working at IKEA or during the 45 minute car ride home. Not to mention the crazy stories that I have experienced that appear only happen to me. I don’t have time for all my stories today, but I will focus on my most recent creation later on in the blog. I hope to sign on later this week and share my great book idea and random thoughts and rants.

OK, so last night after building another sofa bed at IKEA (another rant for another time), I was a little tired and loopy on the way home and for some reason, I start thinking about softball and how I got here. I know, it’s weird, but tired and loopy. So I start thinking about how I left the Stars from a ton of reasons, but I was said to leave my friends behind. I was thinking about how I also did this, because I wanted to try something on my own and I was going to meet new people and I was eventually have the new and old people meet and we would have a bigger base of friends. Well, I get to the team and they need girls and then Amy joins and Bonnie and Kat are coming to games, so I am not on my own anymore, but I have fresh start. I talk to Krystle on Saturday and she wants to join my team, like now. So I have been working on that. Bonnie is contacting cast activities and I asked Eric if it was ok. So we will see how it goes. Anyways, the point of this is, this situation made me think of that children’s book “If you give a mouse a cookie” and it inspired a story about this situation. So here is what I think of at 11:30 at night, please enjoy!

If Megan joins a new team, they are going to need more girls
If they need more girls, then Amy joins the team.
If Amy joins the team, Bonne and Kat come to cheer because it is so much fun.
If Krystle hears how much fun that is had by all, she tries to switch teams
If Krystle switches teams, Jameson comes to keep score because he is crippled and can’t play.
If Jameson the cripple can’t play, Zane, Laetitia, and Billy come to keep him company and cheer for Megan and Amy.
If Zane, Laetitia, and Billy come, John Kessel magically appears out of nowhere and somehow has been on the team for the past six months.
If Kessel has been on the team for the past six months, then Matt Fishbein will have to stop and wonder where his team went and why they aren’t as good as they could be and realize he tried to screw over the wrong people!

And they lived happily ever after.

OMG! I am back and I have a lot tell about the rest of my weekend but it is 2am in the morning and I have to leave for MK to do an American Story in less than 4 hours and I have to shower and find my costume and shower and maybe sleep. I will update this all this afternoon after the program.

Bonnie. You are right...i don't want to be the assistant.

Melissa- I have not worn the hat. I chose ravenclaw because I knew i could outsmart these fools...

Rest of Day 6

I took a local bus tour and toured this beautiful city. It is absolutely amazing and I can't wait to move here! I cannot express how clean it is here and how nice everyone is and the fact they turn Evil Dead into a musical, but I am just going to say this is the one city that feels like a small town. Everyone is perfect! As i toured the city, they showed me city where different films where filmed, including Chicago, raiders of the Lost ark and x-men. Oh and Toronto has this really cool law that is the bulding was built before 1940 and you want to rebuild on that spot you must keep the original architechture. This makes for some of the most beautiful skyscrapers. Oh the tour I got off at the Hockey Hall of fame and listened to the story about Dorthy the ghost that haunts the second story and I saw the shrine to Wayne Gretzky. I played commentar and since i know know this about hockey it sounded a lot like "They are skating and They are skating to the left and then they won! go USA!" I finished the rest of the tour and found my new canadian moe's. I then went and changed for Quidditch. I get to the field and my team hasn't picked a captian and since i am a sub I took over and let me tell you I am great quidditch captain...if my team listened to me. We lost but that wasn't me. I had to start 0ut with my weaker players and we couldn't come in until they were tired. I then came back and changed and headed out on my ghost tour. It was amazing and interesting and i did have an experience. I am going to tell you my experience, but you may not believe it and that is ok. Actually...I have to go so I will tell you tonight. Any ghost story is better at night.

Bonnie: Why wasn't I included in Billy and Bonnie's Hotspots? there should be a special star for where Nugget attends!

Rest of Day 6

So for the past year I have been planning to make sarcastic t-shirts that make fun of my mother and that I am here. Well, the transfers didn't work on all of them except "Long Lost Weasley Triplet". I was devastated and I need time to kill before dinner, so I played wizard's chess. Now I don't know how to play chess and I am horrible at checkers, but even I knew the moves our stupid chess master was telling us to make was bad. I was a lonely little white pawn and by the end of the game I was the only survivor besides the King. I was the pawn who lived. Ok, I still have 2 hours to kill, so I get my quidditch schedule and I start looking at all the freaks. I can't even dare to begin. To the drag version of Bellatrix, to the Lady with a voldermort puppet, to the all the mad-Eyes and tons of students. This one hermoine won't let go of her cat and this one Ron dyed his hair to be ron. These people go all out. I did geek out of mrs. Weasley. I had to pick my house so I decided to be Ravenclaw, since I am smarter than everyone and after a while the theater person got to me. I really wanted to sort of fit in. So i go up to the vendor room, buy a Ravenclaw sweater and tie and I get a button that says head girl and I am off. Mom is beaming with pride. I couldn't help it. we go to the feast and we sit next to this woman who looks so familiar, well because I have seen her on the travel channel on one of the Disney specials. We go to a Wizard rock concert after and all the songs are about Harry Potter. there was a song about owls and everyone held up there owl! So mom feels bad for me and buys me a drink. well, they renamed a bunch a cocktails to them Harry potter. I had a felix felicus aka Tequila Sunrise. we then went to plan out today and sign up mom for her classes. I went to the hall of remembrance to mourn a few of the character that died and then off to bed!

I meet mom at breakfast today and she is being bombarded with people telling her all about fan fiction and telling her where to go read it. this is going to be a long day.

I will be updating all weekend and on Monday I will have up loaded all the pictures as a slide show. I will see you all soon!

Day 5 and part of Day 6

Oh Dear God...I am here at the convention. Pray for my soul.

Kat, I do wish we were together. Hell...I would rather be hanging out with Dara or listening to Michael Potyraj right now.

Day 5

So, mom has signed us up for this Whirlpool Jet boat tour that takes us to the Niagara whirlpool and through Class 5 rapids. I love white water rafting, but this for some reason doesn't interest me, but off I go anyways. in fact, I am not a huge fan of getting wet. When I ride Splash Mountian, I know where to sit and when to duck to avoid minimal water. So we get there early and we are one of the first boats of the day. They take us through the same clas 5 rapids 4 times. Each time we went through it was like getting hit by a wall of water and the third time I can compare to drowing, because you did not know when you would come up to the surface. The fouth time it was like getting hit with a cement truck of water. Mom was lifted off her seat and into me. So at this point we are drowned rats and we are off to tour wine country. I go to the winery were my favorite wine is made and we go to a little town that looks like the Canadian Stars Hollow. It is beautiful and perfect and mom wants to move there, so it is even more perfect. we find this awesome ice cream shop and this nice bakery and a perfect little small town cafe. Across the street is another ice cream parlor named taylor's. Now if you watch gilmore girls, you will get that signifigance. We then make our way to the great Canadian institution of Wal-Mart. We pick up a few souviners and we are off to the hotel to do laundry. After 3 loads, we the head back to Niagara falls and we have dinner at the Top of the Falls resturant. We make our way back to canada, but we turn down a street and find I-Drive!!! A cleaner version but it has all the staples like the Ripley's and Guiness's museum. They have a slingshot and cafe TuTu Tango; but they added a few extra things that involve the WWE, MGM, and Marvel comics. They also have 3 haunted houses. we watch the fireworks over the falls and then we take off back to the hotel.

Day 6

We head out. Mom and I fight again over the GPS and directions. This one was worse than last time. We make it to Toronto and well...mom is loving this. Me...I can't believe i am actually the coolest person here. This is going to be interesting. I promised mom I would be social so i am going to go play qudditch. I am sub, so it will be just like Billy playing for the Stars! Then I have a feast and a Ghost Tour tonight.

I am going to have to figure out how to post pictures of these fanatics...including my mother.