Dean, when do you want to go?

[NormanPride]

To Hogwart's (http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/1767/1/?redirectURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2F blogs-and-stories%2F2010-06-21%2Fharry-potter-park-debuts-view-photos%2F%3Fcid%3Dhp%3Amainpromo8) of course.

I realize this is for the kiddos, but I'm a huge nerd and I really want to go. Baj, can we? Pleeeease? :O

[SunnySooner]

WE'RE GOING TOMORROW!!!!! OMG, I'm so excited, I doubt I'll sleep tonight. We may actually just do the rest of the parks and wait til Wednesday for HP, get there really early so we don't have to wait so long, the 5 year old doesn't do 6 hour lines real well. But we've been watching the construction for the past 3 years and I've heard it's just beyond words.

I'll report back if ya want, or I'll keep my mouth shut if you want to just experience it all for yourself. I wish you were all coming with us, we would have way too much fun.

[Okla-homey]

WE'RE GOING TOMORROW!!!!! OMG, I'm so excited, I doubt I'll sleep tonight. We may actually just do the rest of the parks and wait til Wednesday for HP, get there really early so we don't have to wait so long, the 5 year old doesn't do 6 hour lines real well. But we've been watching the construction for the past 3 years and I've heard it's just beyond words.

I'll report back if ya want, or I'll keep my mouth shut if you want to just experience it all for yourself. I wish you were all coming with us, we would have way too much fun.

Don't let Satan get you.

You know that Harry Potter stuff is demonic, dangerous, and a gateway drug to full-blown occultic obsession, right? Eternal damnation awaiteth all black arts practitioners and therefore HP and his demonic environment are most defintely NOT fittin' for Christians who risk being lured away from the Light by HP's fun and adventure...or so sayeth my mom's pastor in ArdVegas.

[SunnySooner]

Don't let Satan get you.

You know that Harry Potter stuff is demonic, dangerous, and a gateway drug to full-blown occultic obsession, right? Eternal damnation awaiteth all black arts practitioners and therefore HP and his demonic environment are most defintely NOT fittin' for Christians who risk being lured away from the Light by HP's fun and adventure...or so sayeth my mom's pastor in ArdVegas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Satan can kiss my broomstick, I'm a little firmer in my convictions than children's literature can persuade. But I'll raise a toast to the good pastor with my butterbeer tomorrow. :P :D

[A Sooner in Texas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Satan can kiss my broomstick, I'm a little firmer in my convictions than children's literature can persuade. But I'll raise a toast to the good pastor with my butterbeer tomorrow. :P :D

I hear the butterbeer is quite tasty. Have fun, Sunny!

[SunnySooner]

I hear the butterbeer is quite tasty. Have fun, Sunny!

I guess it's frozen, so in FL, that's pretty much always a good thing. Thanks!!

[Okla-homey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Satan can kiss my broomstick, I'm a little firmer in my convictions than children's literature can persuade. But I'll raise a toast to the good pastor with my butterbeer tomorrow. :P :D

Ok. I warned you. My conscience is now clear. I hope you enjoy eternity roasting in Hell.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Hell is fun!

[NormanPride]

I expect a full report!

[C&CDean]

Yeah, a full report. I'm actually planning on doing an England/Scotland/Ireland trip one of these days and visiting several of the actual places the films were shot. Kings Cross Station, the abbey in Scotland that was Hogwarts, etc.

I loathe Florida, but after the crowds thin down I'll get to TWWOHP for a look-see.

[olevetonahill]

Waiting in line for 6****ing hours?:confused: you must be insane :eek:

Hell I wont stand in line fer very long for something Important .;)

[NormanPride]

When you're young, you don't have to worry about croaking while waiting to use the toilet. :P

And Dean, that trip over the pond sounds awesome. I think they have tours set up that do that kind of thing, but it would probably be more fun to do it all yourself.

[StoopTroup]

I've been to lots of the Castles in Ireland. The first thng you notice is how much bigger they are in your mind. Most of them are cramped places. Even the larger rooms pale in comparison to one of Americas Basketball Venues.

The cool part for me was that what you see was cutting technology back then.

[OUMallen]

I'm no Potter nut by any stretch, but that slideshow looked amazing.

[NormanPride]

Yup. I'm normally not into the whole fiction-made-real parts of theme parks, but the pics had me kind of pumped to see Hogwart's.

[MclOUvin]

Oh my, a bunch of grown ups about to gizz all over the place because of harry potter, wow

[OUMallen]

Oh my, a bunch of grown ups about to gizz all over the place because of harry potter, wow

Who hurt you? Did your distant Uncle Ned play 'wrestle tag" with you too much as a little one and you lost all child wonderment?

[StoopTroup]

Oh my, a bunch of grown ups about to gizz all over the place because of harry potter, wow

Some of them have been in the military.

juan
Just thought you should know.

[C&CDean]

Oh my, a bunch of grown ups about to gizz all over the place because of harry potter, wow

Like I give a **** what some guy who spells "jizz" as "gizz" thinks. "Gizz" is the sound you make when your boyfriend is jizzing into the back of your throat.

[StoopTroup]

Like I give a **** what some guy who spells "jizz" as "gizz" thinks. "Gizz" is the sound you make when your boyfriend is jizzing into the back of your throat.

Now there's some McLovin for ya....

[SunnySooner]

I'm back!! And my calf muscles are KILLING ME, but it was worth it. Spoilers ahead for those wanting to do the ride themselves!

I got to ride "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" twice, and it is ALLSOME!!! You ride a flying bench (which is sorta like a cupboard/locker thing--4 people to a bench, with dividers inbetween), as Harry, Ron and Hermione accompany you on brooms. They are sneaking you out of the lecture you're supposed to hear so you can go to the Slytherin/Gryffindor quidditch match. It's a bit of an ordeal getting there (escaped dragons, huge spiders, and that damn Whomping Willow), but finally you're zipping around the pitch, having a great time--until the dementors show up and all hell breaks loose. Our heroes use their skills to rescue you and you make it out alive, yippee. The ride is just amazing, a combination of props, holograms, big video screens, fog, lighting, etc. Sitting in the cabinet/bench thing, your feet dangle, and a track overhead moves you thru the ride, so it often does feel like flying! The line before you get on the ride is fun too. Just before you enter the castle, you go thru Prof. Sprout's greenhouse with all kinds of funky plants, then into the castle, into a room with talking portraits of the 4 Founders (amazing, don't know how they did that, it looks exactly like a normal oil painting, but the people are moving, unreal) along a hallway into Dumbledore's office. You'll recognize statues from the books, and the office looks just like the movies. Dumbledore speaks to us from the balcony, the effect is so real, even when the line moves to the side, the image seems to have depth. Then into Prof. Binn's classroom where our 3 heroes reveal their plan to help us ditch the lecture.

Then, it's into Hogsmeade, where you can enter Olivanders and hopefully a wand will choose you ( a little show where they pick someone from the group and do a little magic), but if not, for $30 you can still own one. We had dinner at The Three Broomsticks, they have rotisserie chicken, ribs, Cornish pasties, etc., it was good, and not outrageously expensive. Butterbeer comes frozen or non-frozen, and it's only $10 if you get the souvenir cup. It's really good, like a very rich cream soda with a dash of butterscotch thrown in. The frozen was my group's fave, but both were good. We also had some pumpkin juice, and it's good too. If you like pumpkin pie, you'd prolly like it.

The crowds were pretty bad during the day, but thinned out in the evenings. The first night, we waited in the regular line, we got there about 8 p.m. and it took about an hour and a half to get thru, not bad. The next night, I went thru the single rider line, where they just stick you in wherever there's an empty spot, so you don't ride with your friends, but that line was only about 20 minutes during the 8-9 pm timeframe. I would say go thru the regular line at least once, because that's where you see Dumbledore and all that, the single line skips it, but after that, the single line is way faster, and the way the ride is set up, you can't see anyone you're riding with anyway, so what does it matter?

The lines into the shops (Zonko's, Honeydukes, and Olivanders) were all pretty long, so we just looked thru the windows. The Hogwarts Express is near one entrance, and there are costumed conductors, complete with British accents, who will pose with you for pictures, or take the picture for you. The other 2 rides are The Flight of the Hippogrif, which is a little family-style roller coaster, fun for smaller kids, but fun for me too, and then Dragon Challenge, which is 2 rollercoasters that intertwine. They are the type where your feet dangle and our experience is the red one is a little faster, the blue one is a little twistier, the blue is my fave, but they are both really good.

Overall, as a HP fan, I was very happy with how it all turned out--it's so detailed, down to the smallest things, that it just all works together, and it really matched a lot of the pictures I had in my head from reading the books. From the window displays in the shops, to just the detail in the mouldings along the walls, things like that, it was all very well done, and I wasn't the least disappointed.

I hope y'all get to go, from previous experience, I can tell you that October and November are very uncrowded times at Universal. We went one year over Veteran's Day in November, and the weather was perfect, and we could just walk on to almost all of the rides. Good time to go if you can.

[C&CDean]

Thanks for the report. I too believe October/November the best time to do anything in Orlando. I was doing a conference there several years back and we did Epcot and Disney in a single day. No lines at all. It was great.