Hello everyone! Welcome back to the show!
We left off in London. You know, the one in Orlando. We had basically just arrived, gotten coffee and were ready for some Harry Potter madness. This is where I’ll post a little disclaimer: Grant and I are huge Harry Potter nerds. If reading a bunch of stuff about the HP world is not your thing, then this section of the trip might confuse you a bit.
The first thing we saw in London, Orlando was the train station. This was King’s Cross Station that would take you from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley. We were still early enough that the wait wasn’t too bad so we got on to explore.
The attention to detail was pretty crazy. I was so impressed! There were section in the line where it made it look like you were walking through the platform wall, just like in the movie. I felt like I was walking around on the movie set. When we finally got on the actual “platform” I’m pretty sure I started to squeal in excitement. I was on Platform 9 ¾! (It's ok, everyone was squealing with me)
First view of the train!
The ride is a very convincing train (it even has the “chugga-chugga” and the steam) but since the line was so short so there was no stopping for photos. But it looks exactly like the inside of the train in the movie, with the sliding doors and everything. Each carriage would fit 6 people, so it was a little awkward to take photos. The window was actually a screen that would show the Harry Potter movie world. Hagrid, the flying car and dementors showed up as the train made its way to the other park. When we got to Hogsmeade in the other park, we turned around and rode the train again!
Back in London, we started to actually walk around and explore. We noticed the Knight Bus in the corner, and I took a couple pictures.
Check out that shrunken head
The head could actually talk to you and the conductor. It was a fun time talking to him!
It the middle of me taking pictures, Grant said, “Well, this is underwhelming.” I asked him what he meant and he said, “Well this is it! Just the train and the bus. I thought it was going to be a whole new thing.”
“You’re right,” I said. “But I know there is more stuff, I just don’t know where.” Then we noticed a suspicious looking walkway with people coming out of it with butterbeer and wizard candy. Hmmm, let’s investigate.
What’s this?
Hmmm?
Ah, there we go.
That makes sense. It is supposed to be hidden from the non-magical world!
This place was so darn cool. It really was just like seeing my favorite childhood movies recreated in front of me. Everything was so true to the movie! I wanted around to take a couple pictures, but first things first. Snacks. Specifically: butterbeer.
Butterbeer is basically cream soda with butterscotch foam on top and it's delicious.
The left is the slushie version and the right is the liquid version. I prefer the slushie and Grant likes the liquid version. They were so delicious, but very, very rich. We actually had to struggle to finish them. While we were enjoying butterbeer, we walked around. The area is actually very large and there are a lot of things to look at. We stumbled into the “dark side” of the HP world, Knockturn Alley. I was pretty excited to see the Borgin and Burkes store from the book and the movie.
It was so cool seeing all these creepy props in recreated! I don’t know how many people will recognize some of these props. Where are the HP nerds? Hello wherever you are!
More cool prop replicas!
We did a lot of shopping and walking around to take everything in and then we decided to attempt the new Gringotts ride. Grant was very excited, but I was not so much. The warning signs scared me and told me to avoid this ride at all costs if I had motion sickness. But since Grant seemed so excited, I wanted to try it anyway. We got in line and I started to get even more worried, especially after we picked up the 3D glasses. 3D does not work well with me. As we walked through the line I kept hearing people talk about what was on it. Rollercoaster, 3D, jerky movements....
So in the line (we were halfway to the ride and had already waited 20 mintues) I asked a staffmember how bad it really was for someone with motion sickness. Was I going to survive this one?
Come back next time to find out what happens! 
I actually went outside to stretch a bit while taking in the views.
now to get caught up
I also managed to sneak a shot of the inside of the Knight Bus. Universal went full out on the decor! 
I'm also a huge baby when it comes to thrill rides, so that could be it. 
I loved the scenery and feeling like I was in the movies. All I have to do is plan better (or actually plan lol) to make the rest of Universal and IOA worth it to us. I need to get better at riding faster rides!
