The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

For Christmas last year, we had a Harry Potter theme that tickled both me and the kids. (Remember this picture?) 

 

 

We got robes, scarves, brooms, legos, certificates for wands, and tickets to Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida. Consequently, once we arrived in Florida, the kids started counting the days until Grandma and Grandpa McArthur, and well as Uncle Greg and Aunt Michelle arrived for the big day.  It was hard to wait for all of the fun, but we assembled all of our Harry Potter Lego sets and read chapter after chapter of Harry Potter books to keep us preoccupied.

 

Finally the big day arrived and we drove ourselves to Orlando to meet up with all the crew.  Here we are the morning of our Harry Potter World adventure.

And here we go into the park...

 

Although all of my kids were decked out in Harry Potter gear, Spencer still managed to steal the show.  He wore his Harry Potter glasses and navigated us through the whole park.  Everywhere we went people stopped and stared and often times asked to have their picture with him.  It brought back memories of the kids being photographed at Plymouth Plantation.  Spencer's young cousin Ben even started calling him Harry, and continued to do so for the remaining days we spent together.  It was hilarious!

 

Upon entering Hogsmeade Village, our first stop was to get a photo in front of the famous Hogwart's Express.  Real steam blows from the engine and we were officially sucked into all the magic as we stood by its side.  It was as though we had just stepped off of the train ourselves...

and walked straight into the true Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The snow capped buildings were enchanting,

the castle majestic,

the rides exhilerating, (Nick and I both voted the castle ride as our favorite amusement park ride ever!)

 

and even standing in line was made all the better by the occasional wizarding duel, (only our little wizards were dueling with their swords of Griffindor)

or cold sip of pumpkin juice.

One of our favorite stops in the village was of course Ollivander's Wand Shop, and who else would Ollivander choose to wand than our very own little witch--Madison.  She was delighted, and took the experience ever so seriously.  She was measured and tested, each wand stroke exactly mimicking the wand strokes of Harry himself when he first recieved his wand.  Eventually, there was a wand 'curious' enough to suit our little one and the wind, lights and music declared it to be the perfect fit for her.  We bought it at once, and then let each of the other kids pick out a character wand of their own.  Spencer chose Harry's, Emma chose Hermoine's, and little Mason chose the greatest wand of all--the Elrder wand.  Fitting.

 

With Ollivanders under our belt, we made a quick stop at the owl post to mail some letters, and then did a little window shopping.  The girls especially liked gawking at Hermoine's Yule Ball dress, each dreaming of themselves wearing the silky smooth layers of lavender ruffles.  It was hard to tear them away,

but the prospects of a cool butterbeer and great feast in the Three Broomsticks Resteraunt certainly did the trick.  That rich and frothy butterbeer was just as sweet and refreshing as descibed in the books.  If only there was a Three Broomsticks in Rochester, I might become a butterbeer-aholic!

 

The great feast was pretty good too, and certainly reminded one of those feast offered up in the Great Hall at Hogwarts.

It was a delightful mid-day meal, and was followed by none other than a trip to HoneyDuke's Sweet shop and Zonko's Joke Shop.
 

Although nothing in the Joke shop caught our eye, nearly everything in the sweet shop called out to us.  We filled bags with licorice wands, fizzy whizzbees, sherbet lemons and other goodies.  Then each of the kids picked out a chocolate frog and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.  It was truly a kid in a candy shop experience!

  

 

Eventually we pulled ourselves away from Harry Potter World and visited a few other parts of Universal Studios,

 

 

but visiting Harry Potter World stole the day and will go down in the history of our family as being one of the greatest days on record.  It was everything we could have hoped for.  The only imporvement they could make on the park would be to make it even bigger!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa McArthur for such a wonderful Christmas present, and especially for coming out to share it all with us.  It was a day we will never forget!

 

 

Almost as memorable was a few days later when we let the kids break out their chocolate frogs and Every Flavor Beans.  True to form, it was really the wizarding cards you wanted when it came to the chocolate frogs.  And the Every Flavor Beans...well, I want to know how much the people who tested these things got paid.  They were nasty!  And I mean bad!  The vomit flavored ones actually made me vomit!  After sampling each flavor we picked out all the gross ones and laid them aside.  Sometime they will be a great practical joke--leave them in a candy dish somewhere and catch someone completely off guard!