Fly with me to Harry Potter's Wizarding World

Okay....so I mentioned I have a give away and I do! I've had it ready for awhile...BUT, I became sidetracked with something else that I really want to share with you all first. As most of you know, I am from Florida and something quite magical just happened this past weekend in Florida. Do you know what it was? Well I'll tell you...

The grand opening of Harry Potter's Wizarding World is what happened. Being annual pass holders to Universal Studios for many years, we have watched impatiently as that section of the park was closed off to build a new section dedicated to the wonderful world of Harry Potter. So on Friday when the news was showing Harry and Ron and the others at the grand opening, along with a GAZILLION people lined up to get in....reality fled and insanity kicked in. Any witch or wizard with half a brain would have avoided that hot, sweltering mad house like the plague. But I never said I was a 'sane' and 'rational' witch. And apparently neither are my children. The husband is, but sadly for him, he tends to get overruled most of the time because the inmates run this asylum...ha!

So I let them conjure me into going, against all my better judgement, to head out there and brave the crowds just for a glimpse of that magical world. Now we did wait until later in the day to go. You can do that when you live close and have annual passes. So we got out there about 5:00pm and the lines looked like they had shortened considerably. But it turns out that we still waited in line for an hour and 45 min. just to step foot in that section of the park. However, just to see it all was for me worth that wait. The whole area was packed with Muggles and there were additional lines for EVERYTHING from the rides, to the shops to even getting a 'ButterBeer'!

But our timing was pretty good and we did manage to get our sweaty lil' hands on some ButterBeer and Pumpkin Juice. We also rode the amazing new ride called Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey and boy was that INCREDIBLE! Giant spiders, Death Eaters, Flying on Broom in a Quidditch Match....this is a must for anyone who goes there if you can handle the crazy motion. We got off of the ride after 10pm so the section was closed and most people had cleared out. But the stores that earlier had 2 hour lines to get in them, were now open to just walk right in. So we got Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes which are to die for, and a very cool Bethany Lowe Owl/Moon Halloween ornament. All in all.....a fantastic day, but the heat and humidity took its toll and the LONG walk back to the parking garage was grueling to say the least.

We laid around and began our Harry Potter movie marathon week on Sat. and then turned around, got up early and went back out on Sun. The lines were all shorter, but still long and it was so bloody hot...ugh! But the kids wanted to pick out their wands and we really wanted to eat lunch at the 3 Broomsticks Restaurant. The wands are very nice and quite pricey at $28.95. But you can get character wands that match the ones each of the actors used in the movies, or you can get Celtic Calendar wands based on your birth month. These are nice, heavy, good quality wands that are really lovely. My son got Prof. Snape's and my daughter chose Syrius Black's wand. I liked them both, but they made me get Hermione's so they'd all be different. I'll post photos of them later.

But I can tell you that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is nothing short of magical. And it is winter in Hogsmeade Village so there is snow on the rooftops. I think it will be very enchanting to go when the weather is cold and it really feels like you are there in the winter. But we'll go back many times before then I'm sure, because I am a nutter like that. But I wanted to share it with you all so that you too can catch a glimpse of the magic. So I've enclosed a slideshow of my photos at the bottom of this post. And I attempt to tell you what each one is at the bottom, so you'll know what you are viewing. I hope you enjoy it as much we enjoyed going! And my next post here will be a giveaway, I promise.