Check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Completed: December 4, 2018

In 2001, the first Harry Potter movie was coming out in theatres and as a class project we read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone book. We even got sorted into houses; I got put in Slytherin. Ever since then I have enjoyed the Harry Potter series and have read all 7 books at least 3 times and have all the movies as well. So when I heard that Universal was making a land based around the JK Rowling series at their Florida location, I knew I had to go at some point. My cousin, Kiersten is a big fan of the series too and has even met Matthew Lewis (who plays Neville Longbottom).

We decided to dedicate two days to going to Universal Orlando. Kiersten and I got park-to-park tickets so we could go on the Hogwarts Express which was really cool. It was a long wait but worth it. Our first day at Universal was on the Friday of our trip. There was so much to take in when you walked through the brick wall to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I asked an employee at the London train station where Diagon Alley was and they didn't know so I was glad to see them playing their roles. It is narrow walk ways so even though it was not as busy as it is some other times, it was still difficult to move around and see everything especially since we didn't get one of the special wands that do 'spells'. We did see a wand ceremony at Ollivander's and got to go into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes where we both got some candy. That night, we stay to watch the fireworks and light show they have on the castle.

On our last day in Florida, we went back because we didn't get to see everything in the HP world and I also wanted to buy a few extra things including postcards to send to my family. I tried Butterbeer for the first time, got the frozen kind which was really sweet so I had a hard time finishing it. We also went into Zonko's and watched a couple of the HP themed performances.

I really wanna go back and spend more time because there was some stuff that we didn't get to do. I didn't do any of the rides because they are all roller coasters and the one I thought I might've been able to do, a few of my friends said that they got sick on it because it moves you around like you're flying so I decided against going on it. It was the one in the castle which I really wanted to see the detail inside so I thought I was out of luck but there was an exit ride before the ride.

The attention to detail was really well done, it was exactly how I imagined Diagon Alley to look like. They even had snow on top of the shelves since it was late November when we went.