We are back from our week long trip to Florida, where we got to be Harry Potter immersed for 3 days! We did do plenty of other things, but the new Diagon Alley was what we really came to see. We have TONS more pictures of the Harry Potter theme areas – ask us and we can show you. I have 40 photos and some videos to share. You might want to settle in with a snack for this blog post…

We stayed at the Portofino Bay hotel. It is an on-site property, so it came with a bunch of perks, like Express passes for most rides, early admission to Harry Potter, and being able to send any souvenirs back to the room instead of carrying them around. We also could take a water taxi from the bay seen below right to the gates of the park.

The girls wanted to check out the pool, but stopped by the bay for a picture.

Ashley stopped for a “ride” on the decorative scooter.

This pool has a small beach and lots of noodles floating around.

You walked this path between the buildings to get over to the pool. It is supposed to be a replica of Portofino, Italy.

Swimming sisters!

This castle in the middle of the pool contains the water slide. You can see the exit just behind the lady in the pink suit (center of pic).

We had a room on the 5th floor with a balcony. This is the view to the right of our balcony.

This is the view to the left. At the far left center is the dock for the water taxi. Over those trees is the park.

Originally, we were going to be on the 4th floor, but had our room switched to the 5th floor to be closer to the elevator. In the confusion of changing rooms, some of my stuff got left behind. Nothing major I suppose, so now I get to go shopping! New curling iron for me!

We got up EARLY to be at the park before 7AM for the early admission. It is the only chance you have to go through the Harry Potter themed sections and not wait hours and hours for the rides that don’t take the express passes. Our first day in the park, the girls went all out and wore their robes. Employees in those sections addressed them like they were real Hogwarts students! They got a real kick out of that! Of course, those robes lasted until about 10AM, when I made a trip back to the hotel. It was 90 degrees every day.

Our Hogwarts girls in front of Ollivanders, where their cousin Greyson was “chosen” by an interactive wand.

For the Harry Potter fans, here is Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. The details in all of the shops and areas were truly amazing!

Kayla by the mer-fountain. This had an interactive feature that is activated by the special wand.

Greyson had Ashley use his wand to turn on lights and cause the fountain to spit water out.

Breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron was included in our package (and breakfast at the Three Brooksticks the next day). Nothing like a cup of butterbeer to start your morning!

Love this sign.

The main feature in Diagon Alley is the dragon atop Gringotts bank. This thing randomly growls and spits fire.

Ashley causing a quill to write by itself.

True Harry Potter fans will recognize this door and location….

How about a closer shot? Kind of scary how much they look like Kevin and I right there.

Maybe seeing Kreacher peering from the window would help. He actually moves the curtain of #12 Grimmauld Place, looks out, then goes back in.

Another new feature is the Hogwarts Express. You can take the train from one side of the Harry Potter parks to the other (London to Hogsmeade and back again). The cars look like the movie, and have projection screens instead of windows (even on the door to the compartment). While you ride, scenes are played on the “window” and the compartment door/windows. Very cool! Love the look that Kayla is giving Kevin.

Here is the train pulling into the station.

Outside of Diagon Alley is the rest of “London”. If you step into this phone booth and dial “magic”, you get a Ministry of Magic recording. It was REALLY funny that neither girl knew how to operate the rotary dial! But Kevin did.

On day 2, we started on the Hogsmeade side so that we could tour Hogwarts Castle. We got some nice family shots at sunrise. You can see what my missing curling iron + high humidity does to my hair…

While in Hogsmeade, the girls mailed some letters to friends. We used a tea bag to age some paper, found the right fonts, and printed Hogwarts letters. Mailing them from Hogsmeade means the letters have postmarks as though they came from that town! We also popped into Dervish & Banges to visit the Monster Book of Monsters (the video is a little long, and the book charges the camera near the end in case you have easily startled viewers).

Of course, what would a Florida trip be without the daily thunderstorm….

We all got soaking wet, and it rained so much we just called it a day around 4PM. Before we could head out for dinner, we needed some dry footwear. Just turned on the dryer, inflated the sock, and let it run until dry! The same trick worked wonders on the shoes too.

There are other things at Universal besides Harry Potter. The Islands of Adventure side has a Jurassic Park section. Ashley bonded with a baby dinosaur. What makes the whole thing different is that every employee is in character at all times. The handler for this baby dino talked about it like it was real, giving kids real facts about the breed and everything. That’s Greyson next to her. He was 1 year old at my wedding – he’s 18 now!

Ok Jurassic Park fans. Look what is hiding right behind the Vitamin D in the dino hatchery….

Ashley is scanning and identifying dinosaur eggs.

We also went through the raptor encounter. Again, notice how the employee is completely in the act.

In the Marvel section is a monster coaster – The Hulk. Ashley was so excited to be tall enough to ride it, and those Express passes meant only a 10 minute wait at most.

We visited Seuss land. This is the CaroSeussel.

We rode the train around Circus McGurkus.

That’s one big green ham, with fork, and some green egg shades down below.

The girls are waiting for me to bring back their cheeseburger and hot dog lunches outside Mythos, “The #1 Theme Park Restaurant in the World!”. Food service in the park was frighteningly slow (took me an hour to get their lunches!). The rest of the group ate at Mythos and said the food was pretty good even though the service was slow.

Back to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes – an egg plant. It’s a little fried and needs some watering, or so the employees there told us. I know. Awful.

Ashley waiting outside Shutterbutton’s. Another package perk was a special session at Shutterbutton’s, where you can make a video of moving pictures. The rest of the group wanted to go ride stuff that Ashley didn’t like, so she and I made the video. It is cheesy and funny (and my hair is REALLY showing signs of humidity stress and lost curling iron!). We have a link to share our video after the picture.

https://photoconnect.amazingpictures.com/VideoShare.aspx?id=15150

Hope that link works!

The next 2 pics are for Grampa Dusty. Nice stargazy pie! This is a prop in a window, not something you could really eat.

This is the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley where we had butterbeer ice cream. If you see under Toppings, sprinkles are properly named (first one).

The bay had tons of ducks that are very used to people and being fed. We had some plain Cheerios and thought that might be OK since they won’t expand in the ducks’ stomachs being safe even for toddlers. The girls fed ducks.

And we took one final picture in the mini-courtyard of the hotel.

It’s good to be home! It was a very busy trip, tons of fun but also very tiring. Those Express passes were worth the money for sure, and we rode lots of rides and made lots of memories. We got home late last night, so I didn’t get a chance to check my garden until this morning. Nobody watered my garden for a week and we had no rain. Didn’t stop my zucchini plant though. It had two teeny zucchini when we left. This is what I found this morning (yardstick included for reference).

Looks like I’ll be making zucchini bread! Yum….with Nutella, more yum…..too bad Aunt Shannon isn’t here! Guess Ashley will have to eat your zucchini bread with Nutella for you…..