Harry Potter Theme Park: Part IV

Part IV: Hogwarts



Ahh, Hogwarts. I think we could have spent all day just gazing up at the castle. It was magnificent. Two winged boars (hogs?) sat at the entrance, and the walkway ran up to the entryway embellished with the Hogwarts school seal. The Forbidden Journey ride was in the castle, and the line wound through the familiar rooms and past the magical objects that had only existed in my imagination.



We first tunneled through towards the back of the castle, passing the Mirror of Erased and doors to the potions classroom and the kitchens, finally reaching the greenhouse in the back where we encountered some devil’s snare and a few potted Mandrakes. Back into the castle we saw a few statues including the hippogriff statue that marked the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. We also saw the hourglasses keeping track of the house points (RavenclaW was in last place… boo!). Then we moved into a tall corridor covered from floor to ceiling with framed oil paintings. The four “paintings” of the school founders were talking to each other discussing an upcoming Quidditch match. From there we moved into Dumbledore’s office. It had cabinets full of dusty objects and a pensieve off to the side. Gryffindor’s swore sat on the top of one of the cabinets. And there above Dumbledore’s desk was a hologram of Dumbledore. I didn’t really catch what he was talking about, but Kelley said he was just spouting random quotes. (Urging us to be good I’m sure.)



Then we moved into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared from beneath the invisibility cloak (again in hologram form). They were talking about how Professor Binns was going to be teaching DADA that day and that we should probably skip class to watch the Quidditch match instead. Ron then tried to cast a spell but instead made it snow; snow was very welcome after standing in the Florida heat all day. After that we shuffled through the Gryffindor common room and came upon the sorting hat, which I thought was really funny. He was chanting the safety precautions for the ride… “Do not ride this ride if you are pregnant. If you get motion sickness or feel dizzy you probably shouldn’t ride the ride…” Heheee.



Then came the ride. It was amazing; I think it’s the coolest ride I’ve ever been on. Each “cart” held 4 people in a row and it was separate from all the other carts. First we saw Hermione we threw green powder on us to make us fly. A burst of green air blew on us and our seats were raised up and we were off! I don’t know how well I can explain it without using my hands as props, but sections of the ride involved moving movie screens so it looked and felt like we were flying around the castle or on the quidditch pitch as our seats moved with it. The screens were curved so you couldn’t see the edges – it was just really cool. We were immediately chased by one of Hagrid’s escaped dragons. We were moved from the movie screen past props of fire breathing dragons, water spraying spiders, the flailing whomping widow, and spooky dementors. After successfully vanquishing the dementors and escaping the dragon a couple of holograms of the movie cast waved and cheered us on and we were back at the beginning. I know it sounds lame when I describe it but Kelley and I rode that thing five time – it was definitely one of my favorite parts.



And now I’m back at home and back at school, but I had such a good time! It was fun hanging out with Kelley – playing 20 questions in the long lines, making videos for everything edible (“Butterbeer! *points* … *sips* …mmmm!”), and making fun of her for playing with her wand in the hotel room (hahaa <3). Kelley also knows way more about Harry Potter than I do; I used to be such a devoted fan! I need to reread the books.



I feel like I’m back at the Dursleys’, now that I’ve been to Hogswarts. *sigh*

The End.

Harry Potter Theme Park: Part I

Part I: Lines

Kelley and I took off to Florida on Thursday, the day before the grand opening of the Harry Potter theme park. We had a shuttle take us to the hotel, and after nudging Kelley and pointing to the huge Harry Potter billboard out the window, we discovered that everyone else in the van was there to see Hogwarts too. That night we had dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s (who had a Harry Potter WALL) and we met a kid from Australia who had flown more than 18 hours to be there.



The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn… okay it was only like 6:00 am, but that’s 5:00 am Texas time! We were sure we were going to get a good place in line. We had special passes that let us into the park an hour before the general public (pft, peasants!) and we made it there by 7:30, thirty minutes before even we were supposed to be let in. This is not what happened.

The crowds were so huge that they let everyone in early as to avoid mass hysteria or something. (Harry Potter is serious business if you didn’t know.) We still thought we had it pretty good. We stationed ourselves at the end of the line, and not armed with any type of map we were sure Hogsmeade was just around the corner up ahead. As 8:00 rolled around we waited for the line to move so we could glimpse the castle. Helicopters hovered in the sky and by now we were nowhere close to the end of the line.

By 8:30 the crowds were getting anxious. The family behind us were upset that after spending $5,000 to stay in one of the Universal hotels they weren’t going to be able to see the opening ceremonies. Apparently members of the Harry Potter cast and the news stations were living it up on the streets of Hogsmeade. Good Morning America was interviewing Daniel Radcliff and Rupert Grint, and we were all waiting outside. They didn’t actually open the park to the public until 10:30 after the cast had left. (Personally I don’t blame them, Warwick Davis might have been trampled or something!)

So by 10:30 we took a look at a map, courtesy of our line friends April and Uncle John (when you stand next to someone for half a day it’s easy to make friends). It turns out we had started waiting about 2 miles outside of the park gates! Some people were quoting 4:00 as the time we would be in. Some said we wouldn’t make it in that day. Either way, we weren’t getting out of line.


It was hot. We eventually whipped out the umbrellas we had brought in case it rained. Everyone held places in line as people went to get food, drinks, or take bathroom breaks. At about 11:30 a guy who had been in the park was coming out down the line with his son. We all huddled for information. What was it like? Did he see the cast?? He said he had been there since 3:00 AM and had got some paparazzi style pictures of the cast by standing on a boulder and holding his camera over his head. He also said the ride inside the castle was the most technologically advanced ride he had ever been on, but that the park wasn’t worth the huge wait. (Pssh, said the guy who showed up at 3:00 in the morning.) We got back in line excited for what was ahead, a little envious, and completely stumped on why the guy would leave after only being there for an hour.



By 12:00 we were getting close, and people who had not been waiting in line for 4+ hours were trying to cut. Silly, silly people. Every now and then we would hear cheers as people were kicked out of line. “Woo! End of the line buddy!” Some girls even tried to sneak in behind us, but security was immediately called. One of the security guys, Steve, started to stop people from moving past the lines towards the park. He was very loud about it, shuttling people backwards, and he developed a huge fan following that day. There were yells of, “Steve for President!” and mentions of facebook fan pages. (I need to check if that actually happened.) Finally we made it to a bridge that looked out over a lake and onto the castle and the back of the Hogsmeade shops. One girl fainted from the heat and a wheelchair was fetched for her. The crowd cheered her on as she was rolled up the line into the park. We were all in good spirits; we were so ready to be there! At one point a squirrel was running along the bridge’s railing. Someone (possibly me) yelled, “Line jumper!” and it caught on as everyone watched. “Cutter!” “Back of the line!!” The squirrel, caught off guard by the yelling, stopped and took a few slow steps back then ran forward as fast as possible. This left the line in giggles and many mentions of animagi. (Harry Potter fans are cool.)

Finally, after making it through a weird dessert park, we passed under the gates to Hogsmeade (which says, "Hogsmeade. Please respect the spell limits."). It only took 5 ½ hours, and yes Mr. I-woke-up-really-early-man it was worth it.