The Universe of Harry

We took the mother of all family vacations this last week. 9 days straight of nothing but theme parks. This family loves theme parks so while this vacation was intense, it was great fun. 

No, we do not normally take two vacations in a summer. But the last year has been a living hell and this is the Summer of George. We needed to bring some balance to our lives and we had a lot of misery to make up for. 

We started in Universal, which is better known as "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Plus a Bunch of Meager Efforts at Other Stuff". I'll hit the highlights.

As soon as we got there, we had to have butterbeer. Now, I make butterbeer at home and it is awesome. This was not awesome. It was cream soda with whipped cream on top. 

But on the flipside... Harry Potter World!!! It was so cool and so spot on. 

Look at this! It's Hogsmeade! We were there! And, I was selected for "The wand chooses the wizard" show. Mostly because I was wearing a Harry Potter shirt and it's obvious that I have cancer hair. But I will take it. I elbowed aside all those kids and got my wand experience at Olivander's. 

Hogwarts! Shut up!

Look! I'm eating Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream in front of Gringotts!

The Knight Bus! For real! It didn't move, but whatever.

And then we took a run at the wall between platforms 9 and 10 and found ourselves at platform 9 3/4.

                                            

                                            

where we boarded the one and only Hogwarts Express!!

It was amazing. The Harry Potter theming is spot on and Emily and I felt like we had finally gotten our Hogwarts letters. 

And then there was the rest of the park....

There were a few other rides of note at Universal.

Jurrassic Park was pretty cool.

And Rip Ride Rockit, which was my very first x-coaster, did not disappoint. Emily and I rode with zeal. And then she rode it again with Chris. 

Other than that, Universal was mainly those simulated motion type of rides that do nothing but make me vomit. It felt a bit lazy of Universal to do ride after ride after ride in front of movie screens. All in all, it was a fun 2 days and the Harry Potter experience was well worth riding "Minion Mayhem" with Jane. 

Next up: On to Disneyworld!