**january 29, 2019**
We may be a Disney loving family, but there are a few of us...okay, maybe secretly all 8 of us...who would do a happy dance if we received a letter from Hogwarts. So for the very first time on a trip to visit Mickey, we left the magic realm of DisneyWorld and headed to Universal.
Besides, in a "nearing Christmas conversation" about cell phones the oldest kids suggested that they'd put off asking us for phones for one more year if they got a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and had the interactive wands. With a trip to Disney already in the works, it wasn't much effort to add an extra day to the trip so we could see if the park lived up to expectations.
We arrived over an hour before Universal's official opening because my dear friend Bekkah who is a Magical Vacation planner managed to score us early access. Excitement levels were high as we sailed past all Universal had to offer and went straight to "London." We passed the train station, paused to check out the red phone booth and then, there it was, the Leaky Cauldron.
We stepped through and understood why the Wizarding World gets all the hype.
A-Maze-Ing!
It all came to life...even stores you can't enter have fronts that deserved a closer look.
There was so much to check out, but we had an objective...get to Olivander's before the morning crush once the land opened to the rest of the hoards.
After all we had to get those interactive wands (creatively given as a Christmas gift in the form of a gift certificate to the legendary wand shop thanks to my friend Melissa).
One of our aspiring wizards was chosen for the wand ceremony...
And then we all entered the shop to let our wands find us.
From there our day primarily focused on following our map in order to find spots to "cast spells."
And of course escaping from Gringots...
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| the detail in this bank was unbelievable |
Some of us were "naturals" with our wands. Some of us not so much. I *may* have struggled in the beginning, but I did get better throughout the day when I began to loosen up and become more sweeping with my wand strokes.
Mid-day Daniel's wand was acting up, so we headed to the Owlery as we were in Hogsmeade to get it repaired. The interactive wands seemed crazy expensive but as a Christmas gift it sure added a lot of fun and excitement to the day. And the best part is that they will still work if we ever return (or we could let friends borrow them if they were going).
And what trip to Hogsmeade is complete without a trip to Honeydukes?
All the stuff from Bertie Bott's Every-flavour Beans to Chocolate frogs was available.
Just had to show off our M8 Hogwarts shirts. Melissa did us right!
Seriously, casting "spells" with the wands was so much fun!
And walking through Hogsmeade...
...and seeing Hogwarts with our own eyes brought the books to life!
We enjoyed a late lunch at Three Broomsticks, took a forbidden journey twice in Hogwarts, rode a Hippogriff and took in all the sights before we began to tire out and needed to catch the train back to London so we could return to our hotel.
We did get to meet the conductor who was impressed that Ian and I were both proud members of Ravenclaw...poor guy was on the receiving end of the magic of our kids though.
Tired as we were, we wanted to retrace our steps through Diagon Alley to make sure we didn't miss any details. Caught and idea for when the Transit wears out...
And watched the dragon breathe fire several more times before heading out.
As we left Kreacher was watching from #12 Grimmuald Place.
Because we had plenty of meals left on our dining plans, we drove back to our hotel to catch dinner. Caleb got the biggest hotdog I've ever seen him eat!
Despite a long day on our feet, no one was ready for bed when we got back...there were too many spells, charms and memories of the day to discuss!
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