Alright, I confess. I am a geek. A Harry Potter geek to be specific. I started reading the series 13 years ago and have been hooked ever since; some of my best summer memories are of getting the newest book and curling up in a hammock to read, not wanting to do anything else till I’d finished. And then I usually would read it again, just because I could (I know pretty much the entire series by heart). Eventually my entire family became hooked and so for Father’s Day this year we gave my Dad a family trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando.
It was like walking into the movie (if you ignored all the tourists ^-^’). The recreation of Hogsmead is amazing, all the details are there, down to the voice of Moaning Myrtle occasionally making comments in the bathrooms. And looming beyond the village is the hulking mass of Hogwarts Castle. I’ve been waiting to walk through those gates since my eleventh birthday (upon which I received a Hogwarts school letter delivered by a wonderful snowy owl; guess it just took a little while to get my credits transferred over 
).
The details in the castle are beautiful, especially the holograms of the characters talking to you and the moving portraits. The interior of the castle is actually the queue for the ride “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey”, a roller-coaster/ virtual reality experience that takes you on a flight through the school grounds and the forbidden forest. Closet you can get to actually hopping on a broom and taking off.
We spent two days in Universal Studios (both parks), starting and ending in the Wizarding World with big mugs of butterbeer (the frozen butterbeer is fantastic!). Our third day was a slight change of pace with Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A good park in it’s own right but somewhat anti-climactic after the sheer awesomeness of the Wizarding World. The landscaping in the park is spot on, from Asia with it’s looming version of Mt. Everest and prayer flags to Africa with it’s sprawling savannah (complete with a safari ride). Definitely not a ‘high thrills’ park but Expedition Everest is a decent coaster and the safari ride is pretty cool for what it is (especially for those who have never been on a real safari, which is probably the majority of people there). My sister thought that part was pretty neat as well and called it a good preview for the next two months, which she will be spending as a medical volunteer in Kenya. Probably one of the big highlights of Animal Kingdom for me was the “Festival of the Lion King”, which was a musical and aerobatic performance of the Lion King (my favorite Disney movie). Made me even more determined to see the Broadway performance while I’m in the city.
More to come soon,
Cheers!