Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!!!!!!

On Thursday the 16th we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure park to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - which is an area in the park.  They did a great job with the buildings and the castle.

This is the Three Broomsticks.  We ate lunch here - they have British food - fish & chips, shepherds pie, cornish pasties, english trifle, and of course, Butterbeer!



The Three Broomsticks



Inside the Three Broomsticks



Butterbeer





The Hogwarts Express was at the beginning of the "Wizarding World".   The village includes Zonko's Joke Shop, Honeydukes Sweet Shop, Dervish & Banges, the Owlrey (where you can get postcards postmarked from Hogsmead), the Three Broomsticks, The Hogs Head, and Olivander's Wand shop (which really resides in Diagon Alley).
There is another roller coaster ride called the Dragon Challenge - Staci and I started to go in the line - but once we got past the gate, we saw that it was just a regular roller coaster that had lots of loops and drops - and we decided we didn't really want to go on it.  I think we are showing our age! :-)




Honeydukes Sweet Shop

 



The Hogwart's Express









Hogsmead Village

















Hogwart's Castle sits at the other end of the "Wizarding World".  The castle has a ride in it.  The line weaved around the outside first - through some of the "grounds" and the greenhouses.  Then, it went into the castle through several rooms with moving/talking picutres on the walls.  We saw the headmaster's office too.  The ride was on a bench that they strap you in and then it moves around quite a bit - plus has video (like the "Star Tours" ride).  It was fun.  We wished that we could go back through the castle just to see the stuff in there again - but we didn't want to wait in line for the ride again.

Next to the castle there was a small roller-coaster called the "Flight of the Hippogriff".  Hagrid's hut sat by the roller coaster and also Buckbeak was in a nest close by.






Hogwarts Castle



Hogwarts Castle























It was fun to see the Wizarding World - I wish that it was bigger and they had more stuff there!  We started to walk around to see some of the other areas in the park, but it was very HOT and HUMID and we ended up just leaving and not doing anything else there - instead we went back to the hotel and I got in the pool to cool off.



Florida

Staci and I took a quick trip to Orlando last week.  We left on Wednesday the 15th early in the morning and arrived at the hotel that evening.  We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club - International Drive.  They have 7 buildings that circle a lake.  It was very pretty!  They put us in building 1 first (which you can see is the taller building on the left of the picture below) but after the first night, we asked to move.  It was by the pool (they have movie nights - so there was lots of noise) and right by the elevators (very noisy all night long) and it was a handicap room - so the bathroom wasn't the best (no counterspace). 

So on Thursday morning (after we went to the Timeshare marketing meeting at the HGV Park Soleil resort) we moved to building 7 - which is across the lake - but easy access to the pool and the main area by the bridge.

The pool was very nice - and there were a couple of hot tubs that we used almost every night!



There were ducks and turtles in the lake - and we enjoyed feeding them and watching the ducks try to avoid the turtles!