Taking a Trip to Hogwarts

Ever since it opened in the spring, I’ve been dying to go to the Harry Potter island at Universal’s Islands of Adventure back home. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been anywhere near Florida since Memorial Weekend. 😦

So when Thanksgiving weekend came around, I jumped at the chance to go. Let’s just say that if heaven looked like Hogsmeade (a village in the book), I’d join a convent.

Since I’m also a little of a superhero geek, we started out in Marvel Super Hero Island.

I “nicely” made my cousin Marina go on the Hulk– which was her first roller coaster. It probably wasn’t the best idea to make your first roller coaster experience one that’s several minutes long and goes upside down more than 8 times, but hey… go big or go home, right?

Funny part is, she looks like she was having a blast in the picture they take of you. I looked like I was dying. I swear, they just caught me at a weird moment.

Alright, alright. Enough procrastinating. ON TO THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!

We waited in a bit of a crowd to get into the island.

After a little shuffling, a lot of claustrophobia, and even more patience, we got in.

And we saw this.

Zonko’s Joke Shop.

Honeyduke’s Sweet Shop.

Shelves and shelves of wands in Ollivander’s.

Cheesy tourists.

Hogwarts!

So excited we could burst. Well, at least I could.

I’m the biggest kid out of all of us.

And since this blog is technically about food, here comes the eats. It was a theme park, so there weren’t very many healthy options. But, since we did nothing but walk all day, and my only other meal was a kid’s size bowl of spaghetti, I just ate what I wanted once we got to The Wizaring World of Harry Potter. That included..

BUTTERBEER.

You could get it frozen or regular, but it was a little toasty outside. So frozen it was. It was super-sweet and tasted a lot like caramel.

Butterbeer mustache.

For dinner I got a shepherd’s pie and a salad from The Three Broomsticks.

And for dessert? PUMPKIN JUICE!

My sister and cousin got a chocolate frog to split…

… and I had a taste the next day. 🙂

I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a theme park since my friends and I drank around the world at Epcot (which you need to do if you haven’t yet!).

Harry Potter/Hogwarts… I hope we meet again soon!

Coming Up Next

You get to see how I deal with being sick, sans meds.