The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Potty about Potter:

Dutchy suggested an alternative title for this post “I’m just wild about Harry” which isn’t bad, but whose blog is this anyway?

Universal Studios has a sister theme park by the name of “Islands of Adventure” in which you can find The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which was our main reason for coming to Orlando.

Having only three full days in Orlando, we sensibly decided to theme park on the Wednesday and Friday, and have Thursday as necessary “down time.” My Achilles thanked me for that decision.

A guy in England wearing a Hogwarts T-shirt had suggested we make our way to the ride “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” first off, which we did. Waiting time was only 20 minutes, and during that time we were entertained by chatting moving paintings and other little vignettes. Unfortunately it cost us $25 in taxi fares each way, because we were at a hotel closer to Disney than Universal, about seven miles apart.

Butterbeer creates brain freeze. It hurts my head just remembering it. Yummy though, and it had a somewhat caramel flavour as I had hoped it would. The idea of pumpkin juice didn’t thrill me so I didn’t spend any money on that.

It will be the only time we’re here was our mantra, as we spent money on Harry Potter memorabilia. The wand chose me, I swear. Dutchy even entered into the spirit of things and bought himself a Tri-wizard Cup that lights up and is ornamented with a dragon, one of his favourite mythological creatures, which will sit nicely on the bar.

Loving lettering and calligraphy as I do, I just had to buy a lovely bound notebook emblazoned with a pewter-looking “H” for Hogwarts (or our surname Holland). To go with this, I purchased a Hogwarts seal and sealing wax. Excess baggage watch out!

Making a spectacle of oneself:

The only dampener to the day was when I lost my prescription glasses at Universal. Unfortunately I only bought them a few months ago, and they were beautiful gold, bling-trimmed transition multifocals that cost about $600, so along with entry to the Park and souvenirs, this could have been the most expensive day of the trip, and even more costly than Moulin Rouge in Paris, but probably more fun on an hour-by-hour basis.

I rang Universal every day for a few days, to no avail. When I asked about emailing them so that they would have a record of my loss, they were very unhelpful. Obviously I didn’t want to keep ringing from all over the country, as the further away I moved, the more expensive the call would be. While I was at Teri’s later, in New Jersey, she let me use her phone for one last effort. At least this time I was speaking with Sybil, with only one personality, and she was particularly helpful, searching through different files and locations to source the glasses. Unfortunately they were not located, but she was the only one who actually recorded all my details so that if they are found they could be catalogued and sent to Australia, slim as the chances are. I didn’t feel fobbed off any more.