Wizarding World of Harry Potter Part Two

Okay, still on day two of our vacation, still in Universal’s Island of Adventure park, still in the Harry Potter part of the park.  After riding the Flight of the Hippogriff we headed for the main attraction, the Hogwarts Castle.

Remember, it’s super cloudy, rainy and cold.  Pretty much like being right there in merry old England!

When you first enter the castle you are in the conservatory where the students learn about herbology.

The house points.

Entrance to Dumbledore's office!

The talking pictures, and yes they moved and talked, mainly about muggles being in the castle.  :)

The pensieve.  Cool.

   You can barely see it, but on that screen is Dumbledore himself, moving and talking although I can’t remember about what.  I was just in awe lol.  How silly to get so excited about “seeing” characters and places out of a book!

And on that screen is Harry, Ron and Hermione, telling you how to skip the professor’s lecture and go with them on a broomstick tour of the castle.  I had read online that this ride is pretty much a juiced up version of Soarin’, so ds3, ds4 and I decided not to ride.  Turned out to be a good decision as dh came off the ride a little woozy, and he is a roller coaster expert!  He said it was still neat, though.

After the ride you are dumped into a pretty cool gift shop with all manner of Harry Potter related merchandise.  And for those who are wondering, the boys and I walked through the castle with dh and ds2 and were then escorted to the “child swap” area to wait on them to finish the ride.  There was a big screen TV with Harry Potter movies playing of course, and plenty of benches for sitting.

Outside the castle you can pose with the house banners.

You know my allegiance, but dh couldn’t decide lol.  Ugh, I still have that poncho hairdo going on!

We headed to the shops…here is a giant chocolate frog on display at Honeydukes.

The ceiling in Zonko’s Joke Shop.

It was time to move on and see the rest of the park.  One last glimpse of the Hogwarts Express!  Next post will be the rest of our day at Universal Studios.