Walt Disney World: It's Not Just for Kids » Harry Potter

Wordless Wednesday: July 13, 2011

Hedy — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:03:16 +0000

In honor of the last Harry Potter movie coming out this weekend, here is the theatre in London where it premiered.

Harry Potter trip report-Sunday morning…

Hedy — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:12:55 +0000

My alarm went off. I dressed myself in my “Muggle” shirt. I went down to the Orchid Court lounge and grabbed a cinnamon bun-it was good. I headed onto the walk to Citywalk, which was empty as all get out. I was meeting M at 7:15, so I waited in a chair at Margaritaville. She was right on time, so we entered by 7:30 and headed off to the WWoHP. We decided to give Ollivander’s a shot. As it was so early, we were the second group in. The young girl next to me (I’d say she looked middle school aged) was picked. It was really cool-Ollivander was great, but I wouldn’t wait too long for it. We went into the wand store, which was packed. If you are looking for a wand, I’d recommend checking out Ollivander’s express by Hogwarts.
From here, we headed into the FJ queue. The queue is awesome-the moving paintings, the 3-D core three, etc. Then we got to the test seats. Ok, warning-I’m going to be describing my body type-consider yourself warned. I’m a 40C, and a size 20 pant at Torrid, Old Navy plus, and Faith 21. Shirtwise, I prefer 2x but can make XL’s at the Gap/NY & Co work. I got three clicks!
I was thrilled. I popped my camera in the tiny holder, and we were off. The FJ was cool, but honestly felt like a different form of Spiderman. We headed into the gift shop. I picked up a Luna love good shirt. I was shopping for a birthday present for Ferdie, but the gift shops were so packed (at 8am, nonetheless) that I could barely think. We stopped by Ollivander’s Express, but I wasn’t wowed by Ferdie’s birthday wand.
We headed onto Flight of the Hippogrifff. Pros-awesome views, cool details (Buckbeak is currently the lock screen on my phone). However, it’s really the same as it was when it was flight of the Unicorn. We went into the Owl Post store-the luggage tags I’d wanted to get my sister and her SO were out of stock, so I ended up getting them quill pens and parchment. I also got Mordie, Ferdie, and Sharpay postcards with the Hogsmeade postmark (actually-I got Ferdie two-one I sent to him, the other I used as his birthday card.) M picked up a Hufflepuff robe and backsack. We decided to do Spiderman next, but it was down. We headed over to Universal Studios. The plan had been to go ride RRR, but it was down. I suggested we head over to the Simpsons and MIB. We were just past T-2 3-D when the skies opened up. We waited. It continues to rain. I finally decided to call it and head back to the resort. I took a pedicab back, and went up to my room. I debated what to do for

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Trip Report-Saturday Afternoon

Hedy — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 21:07:51 +0000

My dinner decision was based in a very logical, responsible choice: Bob Marley’s was celebrating Jamacian independence day. In my handy Citywalk party pass brochure, it indicated that this included $4 Bacardi drinks. I boarded the Water taxi. There was kind of a wait-your on-site hotel key pushes you up in line. I headed over to the bar, where I got a coke and Peach Bacardi. It was good. My table was ready. I ordered the veggie patties. They were good, there was a live Reggae band and people on stilts. I left right before things got really hectic.
So for whatever it’s worth, I was so over Citywalk last year, yet I loved it this year. Anyway, I treked over to IOA. I headed through Seuss Landing to WWoHP. I gotta admit, despite reading multiple TR’s and seeing photos, Hogsmeade took my breath away. It really was like walking into a scene from the movies. I had a mission-I wanted to see if I fit into the Forbidden Journey test seat. I went up. A very nice little Britsh team member pushed and pushed, but I did not fit.
I headed onto Dueling Dragon Challenge. I stored my bag in the locker, and headed through the queue. Holy revisionist history. Potter, Krum and Delacour were all mentioned, but there was no sign of Cedric Diggory. Um, what? I have heard that there is now a Cedric Diggory banner there. I wussed out of actually riding it, and got many confused looks as I used the chicken exit. Whatever.
I got in line for Butterbeer. The cold was very good-like cream soda on steriods, I also picked up a pear cider in a bottle, which was good. I went into the Owl Post area. Possibly the biggest WWoHP tip I can give is to do your souvenir shopping at the airport-the Hogsmeade stores are zoos. I loved the house merchandise-Ravenclaw represent. (It’s not that we’re smarter than you, except it totally is. LOL.)
I popped into to visit Moaning Myrtle, which is the coolest part of WWoHP in my book, and headed home. Quick funny story-the class dean my first year of college was named Tom Rydell. He began with “My name is not Tom Riddle, and this is not Hogwarts.“ I would be seeing Harry again at early o’clock the next morning.

Beta-potter

Hedy — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:47:42 +0000

This post is part of the Disney Blog
Carnival. Go check it out! Based upon the awesome Betamouse Podcast, I thought I’d discuss the techier side of Universal Orlando. Universal Orlando recently took down their mobile site, so I found that the Android App Ridehopper to be my only option. I’ll review RideHopper more in a later post, but I found it pretty meh. Henry from Betamouse had said he wasn’t impressed with it, but as he isn’t exactly a neutral source, I wanted to try it for myself. I paid for the paid version, which had what was probably my favorite feature: park hours, whenever I needed to find out Universal Orlando or Islands of Adventure I could just fire up the Android Futurebox and find them out. The wait times app was a mixed bag-while it did ok on general crowd info, I would often findthat wait times were off by a good 15-20 minutes.

This was my first trip with a future box. I studied up on the Betamouse Episode on bringing your Smartphone in the parks. I set up one of my HTC Sense home screens to be switches to allow me to turn airplane mode, mobile internet, and gps on and off with a touch. I turned airplane mode on when I went on a dark ride, especially if it meant I was storing my bag in a locker. I also reduced my screen’s brightness. I picked up the Duracell Instant Power Charger for USB Compatible Devices, which was a nice external power source that fit easily in my park bag.

I found that the Royal Pacific felt much more tech savvy that the on-site Disney resorts. While in-room internet connectivity does cost an arm and a leg, RPR had wifi as well as corded Internet access. Also, RPR and Portofino Bay have free wifi in their lobbies, and plenty of plugs to charge your electronics. There is even lounge area with cards encouraging you to stay and surf in the Internet at RPR. Also, my hotel bill was e-mailed to me automatically after check out. Finding outlets in my hotel room was do-able but not great-I really wish all hotels would switch to having the lamps with plugs on them or other easily accessible outlets.

The big techy thing that was anticipated in my trip was the tech in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Truth be told, it’s a great ride, but I honestly wouldn’t claim it to be a game-changer. In the queue, they have Harry, Ron and Hermione talking to you in Musion Eyeliner technology. Musion Eyeliner is seriously cool technology-it really and truly looks like they are there in 3-D. However, outside of that, the technology did not seem much more complicated than in the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman-the blending of video and audio anamatronics is cool, but not new.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter etc.: win, fail or meh

Hedy — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:37:14 +0000

Woohoo! I am home from my Wizarding World of Harry Potter trip! I have a bunch of posts to come up, but I figure I’d start things off by taking a page from Betamouse’s book and play “win, fail or meh.”

Win:

Wizarding World: The theming of this area is beyond reproach. The touch of Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms is awesome. Butterbeer is awesome-I prefer the frozen-imagine drinking a frozen Walker’s shortbread cookie.

Royal Pacific Resort (RPR): Service was great, and you can’t beat the location. I really did not miss club level, except for one day when rains created a resort day for me. I stayed in Tower 2, which is the pet-friendly tower. However, I neither saw any pets nor heard any barking. Also, despite being a convention hotel, there was not the drunk business people element there was at the Dolphin.

Dtd: Once again, my time at dtd was among my favorite. There’s just something about being there that gives me the warm fuzzies in a way that Universal Orlando doesn’t.

Tchoup chop: I had a delicious dinner there, and a great lunch as well. However, they offer shrimp chips as your bread course, so beware if you don’t eat shellfish.

Citywalk: Yes, despite being underwhelmed there previously, I had two enjoyable times and meals there.

Fail:

Dragon Challenge: it’s themed to the Tri-wizard Tournament in Goblet of Fire. However, it is themed for Fleur, Krum, and Harry Potter. Yeah. A little bird told me that a Cedric Diggory banner will be going up soon, but still. Cedric’s death is such a big part of everyone realizing that Voldemort is back that it seemed kind of crucial to me.

Islands Dining Room: I had a mediocre, over-priced cheese plate.

Forbidden Journey test seats: As those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I tried the test seat outside the ride and did not fit. However, I fit on the ride.

Meh:

Taxis: true to form, I took a few cabs about Orlando. There were a couple of great cabs; however, I also had a few mediocre cab rides. The lesser issue was a driver who stayed in the slow lane on I-drive. The worse one involved a driver going the wrong way, then playing the “I’ll give you a discount if you pay in cash.” card. When I said I was going to report him, he said he would “get in trouble.” A few well placed calls later, and I had gotten my rate reduced after speaking with his manager.

Pictures!

Hedy — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:09:56 +0000

Having a great time-can’t wait to tell you all more, until then, check out my posterous for some pictures.

Wordless Wednesday July 28, 2010

Hedy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:22:35 +0000

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Construction, August 2009

Just 9 more days until I get to see how this turned out! See all Wordless Wednesdays here

Trip Planning Updates: July 25, 2010 (including my WWoHP Touring Plan)

Hedy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:51:53 +0000

OMG! Less than TWO weeks to go until Universal-w00t!

I ended up moving around my DTD day in order to do a DIS meet. I’ve also added lunch at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop to my agenda. I may be canceling my Paradisio 37 reservation as I’ll be using my OpenTable check to fund the lunch, I think.

WWoHP touring plan wise, here’s what I’m thinking. I’m starting off at FJ as soon as possible after checking to see if I’ll fit, otherwise I’m just doing the queue. I’ll probably hit up the shops after that-you can’t ship stuff to the front of the parks in Hogsmeade, but you can have stuff you buy in Hogsmeade shipped to the front of the park from the gift shop at Sinbad’s: I’m planning on picking up a few Christmas and birthday gifts while I’m there. From there, I’ll probably do Flight of the Hippogriff and buy some Butterbeer.

I did end up swapping my plans for Sunday and Monday in order to do a DISMeet, which I am excited for.

If any of my readers are interested in a meet when I’m in Orlando, e-mail me or DM me on Twitter!

Shall we take list at the planning list:

* Continue to check car rental rates (I’m pretty sure I’m just using cabs though.) Forget about rental cars, cabs are how to get to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
* Once vacation time is finalized check Hotwire for the Hyatt MCO. Done!
* Cash out Opentable cheques. . Done! One $20 one for Tchoup Tchoup, another $20 one for Paradiso 37.

* Confirm plans
* Get singles from bank
* buy hooks for door hanger
* Print out coupons
*Order water from Staples (I’m doing this next Friday)
*Pick up packets of Emergency-C at Wholefoods

Trip planning updates, June 29, 2010

Hedy — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:30:35 +0000

I am now thisclose to being one month out from my Universal Orlando trip. As such, I’m going to chat a bit about planning and share my to-do lists.

As the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP)is now open, I have begun a more fleshed out touring plan. I had been pretty settled on not going to Islands of Adventure (IOA) my first day. But let’s get real-patience is not one of my virtues. Besides, who sleeps on an Orlando vacation? If you want to, that’s what Sinbad’s is for (I speak from personal experience). I toyed with the idea of staying at an on-site Universal Orlando hotel for the night I’m scheduled to be at the Hyatt MCO, but I found that prices range from arms to legs. I’m sticking with the Hyatt MCO for now. Here’s the plan:

Thursday: Go to Logan after work. Have dinner at Johnny Rockets. Fly to MCO. Land. Check into the Hyatt.

Friday: Get ready to go around 6am. Take taxi to Royal Pacific Resort (RPR) . Check in, get keys for FOTL. Be in line to enter IOA by 7:30. Hit WWOHP. Do more IOA. Grab lunch at Pastamore (new!). Head over to catch a few shows at US. Head to RPR for Torch Lighting. Grab dinner at the pool bar (new!)

Saturday: Start at US for Mummy, MIB etc. Lunch at Finngans. Head over to do some stuff at IOA (by which I mean Spiderman a zillion times). Diner at Bice, possibly (new!).

Sunday: Shopping day! Go to Premium Outlets (and possibly Prime as well). Take cab to DTD. Have lunch at Paradiso 37 (new!). Go up in Characters in Flight (new!). Head home. Eat at the Kitchen at HRH.

Monday: IOA early. Lunch at ?. US in the evening. Dinner at Tchoup Tchoup.

Tuesday: Breakfast at Three Broomsticks. A little IOA, a little US. Cab to MCO to go home. :(

To do list:

Continue to check car rental rates (I’m pretty sure I’m just using cabs though.)
Once vacation time is finalized check Hotwire for the Hyatt MCO.
Cash out Opentable cheques. . Done! One $20 one for Tchoup Tchoup, another $20 one for Paradiso 37.
Cash out at Sunshine Rewards. Done for the $40 I earned in June.
Confirm plans
Get singles from bank
buy hooks for door hanger
Print out coupons

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Revealed

Hedy — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:26:30 +0000

This post is in Disney Blog Carnival #5! Last night, NBC broadcasted a piece of Islands of Adventure’s new Wizarding World of Harry Potter (if you missed it, you can watch it online here). I saw it, and have some pretty conflicting thoughts on it. (Please note: I will be discussing some book spoilers in here. Consider yourself warned.)

My biggest problem with the show was that I felt it was misleading. If you have half a brain, you could probably figure out that this was pretty much an infomercial for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP). I knew this would be the case going into it, which is why I feel that this show was deliberately misleading. My first issue is around the way the WWoHP was portrayed. I was bothered by the fact that they still seem to be pushing the “Themepark within a themepark” concept around. I don’t know about you, but two old rides, one new ride, some stores and a restaurant do not a theme park make in my book. Tangentally, the way in which the actors were discussing Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff made them sound as if they were new attractions, not just merely re-themed attractions. As many non-Universal fans would be watching this show, I would think that they would feel a bit bamboozled if they were to discover that two of the “new” rides weren’t that new. For crying out loud, the mobile Universal Orlando site still lists them under their old names.

I found it interesting that they were spending such a long time discussing authenticity, but that they did not discuss the fact that a number of stores which are in Diagon Alley, including the focal point of Ollivander’s, are in the Hogsmeade -themed WWoHP. (Apparently the store will be selling Nimbus 2000′s. Please tell me I’m not the only person this makes giggle).

I liked how they included the interviews with the actors. Tom Felton referring to people touring the parks as “muggles” was a funny moment which didn’t seem too contrived. I also learned I have been mis-pronouncing J. K. Rowling’s name-they pronounced it as rawl-ing, I’ve been pronouncing it as roll-ing. I also liked that they referred to her as Jo, as I think trying to appeal to young boys is a pretty moot point at this point.

One thing I will be curious to see is how continuity plays out. It sounds like much of the attractions are based upon the first few movies, which leaves some questins open as to how it will work. I also think they could have used a better clip for the Dragon Challenge-had they gone with one that included Robert Pattison many people would be more interested in going ;). In general, I also wonder how the hype will play out-so much was made of the living paintings, but people who cannot fit on the Forbidden Journey cannot see it, will people complain?

One thing I do have to give NBC/Universal credit for is having this special on TV. It seems that their competitors have given up on this medium. Once upon a time, Disney used to do these specials for guests on NBC.