My sister and I went to Orlando for four days, and believe me, four days of going to amusement parks is enough. We had a wonderful time but I am parked out! On the other hand, I highly recommend going during low season -- it never really got horribly crowded and we were usually able to just walk on to most of the rides -- very little waiting time, if any. That's worth braving a bit of cool weather.
As a quick aside, I tried a new shuttle service to get to the airport and they were ON TIME (which is not my experience with most airport shuttle services). So I recommend VIP Shuttle Serivce, 1-800-235-8VIP.
We stayed at the Portofino Hotel,, which is a poshy, Italian-themed hotel inside the Universal Studios compound. We bought a package that included the hotel, VIP pickup at the airport, water taxi transportation from the hotel to the parks, entry passes to the park, early park admission (a very important benefit), and express access to rides (you get to skip the regular line and get on the rides faster). It was a really good deal and I recommend doing that. It allowed us to have a great time without renting a car and spending lots of time driving and lots of money on parking fees.
And I must say that the Portofino is a luscious hotel. Elegant, relaxed, comfortable. It sits on a little bay and looks at bit like a little fishing village -- very well done. And the restaurants and bars are great. We especially appreciated its relaxed and quiet atmosphere after spending all day in max-stimulation at the theme parks.
OK, on to Harry Potter. The Universal compound contains three hotels, two separate amusement parks, and one central entertainment area called Citywalk. Citywalk has lots of restaurants and clubs -- more on that later. The amusement parks are Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. The Harry Potter stuff is a big section in the Island of Adventure.
On Day 1 we arrived at the entrance gate one hour before the regular opening time (which we did every day) and dashed in with the rest of the crowd and walked directly to the Harry Potter section. When we arrived at the entrance gate to Hogsmead, we did what everyone does -- we stopped dead in our tracks, looked around, and said "Wow." And then started taking a ton of pictures. Universal really did it right. They recreated the train station with the Hogwart's express, Hogsmead, and Hogwarts. It is truly amazing. Really. They paid attention to every detail. We spent a lot of time just slowly walking around and looking at everything. We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks -- ho hum food but great atmosphere (you really need to make a reservation). As we sat there eating, various shadowy things happened in different parts of the restaurant -- great fun. And we had our first taste of pumpkin juice and butter beer. Pumpkin juice is a combination of apricot and apple juices, with pureed pumpkin mixed in. Actually tastes pretty good. But the real treat is butter beer, which is only served on draft from carts in the street. I wanted so badly to bring home a bottle but there was no way. Anyway, it it hard to describe the taste -- a hint of root beer, a hint of cream soda, and some other stuff, and topped with lighly-whipped cream. Yum!
We wandered into Honey Dukes (the chocolate frogs are just plain milk chocolate but the packaging is fabulous -- the fizzing whizbees were simply peanut clusters -- and of course, they had lots of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, but I wasn't brave enough to buy any of those, I probably would have gotten a box with earwax flavor). And we went into Zonko's (no puking pastilles or skiving snack boxes but they did have extendible ears and pigmy puffs and lots of other fun stuff). All the shops are small, the shelves go to the ceiling, and the aisles are narrow. All-in-all a wonderful feel but a tad frustrating in the middle of the afternoon when the place is crammed with people and baby strollers. They have a version of Flourish and Blots but it has a different name that I can't remember, which sells all kinds of wonderful things, including small snapping books that will bite your finger if you're not careful. And of course, we went to the interactive experience at Olivander's Wand Emporium, where we met Mr. Olivander who picks out one child and then helps that child select her first wand. Mr Olivander was played by a marvelous actor, who was perfect in every way, and the little show was mesmerizing. There is an owl post area with lots of owls (not actually real ones but amazingly realistic). And Mr. Filch's Emporium that sells all kinds of stuff like Hogwarts robes, scarves and ties for each house, three different models of broomsticks, etc.
There are three Harry Potter rides. The Dragon Challenge is a high-velocity, twisty roller coaster. We skipped that one although it is reputed to be great. The Hippogriff ride is a smaller, more gentle roller coaster that rides around Hagrid's Hut and you even get to see a hippogriff. Very fun. In the hippogriff cars, the seating is two across, so my sister and I sat together. The seats are very low and narrow, so by the time we sat down the two of us were pretty well wedged in. At the end of the ride, we had to unwedge ourselves and step up, which was not easy, so we looked at each other and started trying to get up and couldn't. Then we got to laughing so hard we couldn't move at all. By that time we really needed to exit the ride, which we did accomplish, but we both had visions of having to keep going on the ride, around and around, because we couldn't get out. I don't think anyone knew why these two old ladies were laughing their heads off.
We did the third, and best, ride on Day 2, so stay tuned for that description.
Oh, I almost forgot about the singing toads. They have an acapella quartet that does shows and they hold large toads on pillows. The group is very good and the toads provide the base background for the group. It is a great show!
So all in all, we spent a large portion of the day, although not all, at the Harry Potter section. I must confess that by 11:30 am we both started aching so we went back to the hotel to ice our feet and knees and take a wee snooze. After two hours we both felt quite refreshed and went back to the park to see some of the other sections.
At the end of the day, we left the park and wandered around the Citywalk and decided to stop at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant. What a hoot. We loved it. Drank margaritas (of course), sang the songs along with the rest of the crowd, watched the volcano blow a couple of times, and ate great cheeseburgers (what else! -- after all, we were at Jimmy's place). They've really created a wonderful place to have fun and everyone there was in a happy party mood but not ugly drunk. Just a typical Jimmy Buffett crowd. And very medicinal -- when we left our feet and knees felt just fine.
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