I think the tour guide planned the sequence of the theme park visits well, because Universal's Island of Adventure was probably my favorite out of all the theme parks I have been to (with Orlando Disneyland followed close behind), because it had the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!! What a way to end the string of theme park visits with a bang! I think a lot of people are confused and think that WWOHP is a theme park of it's own. But it is actually situated within Island of Adventure. Refer to map below:
There is actually three theme parks under Universal Studios in Orlando - Island of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida and the Wet N Wild theme park. Universal Studios Florida has pretty much the same rides as the one in California. So it was a good thing that we were gonna experience something new! Was especially excited about WWOHP because I am a mega huge fan of Harry Potter!
Sidetrack: When we were planning for this USA trip, I specifically only wanted to sign with the tour agency that included this theme park in their USA package. It was quite difficult cos many agencies did not have the East Coast + Orlando combination (cos it's not very popular during winter) and some did but they didn't include in Universal's Island of Adventure, but I'm glad to have finally found one that suited all our plans during the NATAS fair!
Containing our excitement and patiently queuing up to enter. Spot the kids/mum of the other family in our tour group (girl in pink, mum in orange, and boy in black behind my sis, father and another girl not pictured). The theme park really bonded us together (even though we were strangers at first) cos we spent so much time queuing up for rides and chatting to pass the time. lol
Me the eager beaver walking ahead of the group!
The entrance of the theme park begins with the area called the Port of Entry.
Love the attention to detail! The vibe is totally different from Disneyland's Mainstreet, more "rugged"!
First ride of the day, we went for the big one right away - The Incredible Hulk! This was situated right at the start of the area called Marvel Super Hero Island. Prior to this, I had already researched and watched youtube videos of this ride. Like people who rode this literally held a video camera while going through this ride. (I'm sure that's not even allowed!) I found out that it had 7 loops altogether! Immediately freaked out the day before and decided that I won't be taking it. But upon seeing the actual thing I had no idea why I suddenly had all the courage in the world. So I went for it!
I'm so glad I did! It is probably one of the best I've sat. For most other rollercoasters, the starting part of the ride would be the coaster slowly climbing up the ramp to a height and then dropping down. But not this one! Immediately from the embarking point, you are being launched from 0 km/h to 65 km/h in just two seconds! Simply exhilarating! Highly recommended. :D
After that we headed deeper into Marvel Super Hero Island. Next up was the the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man ride. According to my sisters who went to USS and sat the Transformers ride, this was pretty much similar. You had to wear 3D glasses and the ride was a mix between a mild roller coaster and a 3D show, there were even special effects such as smoke, water and fire. Superb!
Next up, Toon Lagoon. We didn't get a chance to explore each area thoroughly, because of time constraint. For each ride, we had to queue for about 1 hour to 1.5 hours on average, so our tour guide helped us sieve out the best so we won't waste time.
Check out the huge minion at the right side of the picture!!!
We knew some rides would leave us soaking wet, so my family (being kiasus) bought ponchos beforehand in Singapore. Toon Lagoon had two wet rides! We went for the Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Budges.
I wish I could take a picture of how we looked like when seated in the raft! Besides ponchos, we had plastic bags over our feet/face - basically any part of the body that was exposed! It was super exaggerating. While all the angmohs didn't bother and didn't mind getting wet, we Asians really went all out to try and prevent ourselves from getting wet. They were probably thinking, "Might as well don't sit!" Even though I was totally covered, my leggings/cardigan still got wet! The water rapids were very violent and water literally entered the raft from every direction possible.
The second water ride was the Ripsaw Falls, which most of the kids went for but I decided to give it a miss. I just felt it wasn't worth it to get wet! (I'm very vain, didn't want to ruin my hair/makeup lol) Plus, it being "winter" meant we were wearing two/three layers of long sleeved cardigans/sweaters and leggings/thermal/jeans. It was a pain to get them dry afterwards. Best to ride this during summer!
But seriously, this ride was no ordinary flume ride. Once you made the large drop (as pictured), you would experience another smaller drop and then afterwards go below the yellow building and practically get soaked (see how violent the water currents are). My brother (who sat the ride) reported that he took a huge gush of water to the face after the drop, and his clothes were totally soaked even with a poncho. No mercy!!!
My tour guide advised the eager (soaking wet) riders not to take off their ponchos because the next ride was the Jurassic Park River Adventure. It was pretty similar to the one in Singapore and California. Again, I chose not to sit this and found myself munching on churros instead while waiting for the riders. Haha!
And finally, we are approaching WWOHP!!!!!
Welcome to Hogsmeade! (: For those who aren't Harry Potter fans, Hogsmeade is actually a wizarding village near the Hogwarts School.
Silhouette of the Hogwarts Castle.
I was so in awe of the whole place! See below for an actual screenshot from the movie. What a realistic re-creation! I guess it helped that the weather being slightly cooling (aircon temperature) made the fake snow on the roofs more believable. As opposed to seeing snow on the roofs when it is summertime. :/
From this point onwards, we actually broke off from the tour group as it was free-and-easy till our rendezvous time. As recommended by the tour guide, the best place for lunch at the theme park was at The Three Broomsticks. Pretty easy to spot. It literally has three broomsticks over the door lol.
Blur photo but it's the only one I got. Awesome spot that we managed to get (the place was sooo packed). If you watched the movie you would find this antler wall familiar. (:
My meal: Spareribs platter and of course, the very famous Butterbeer! It isn't actual beer, more like butterscotch cider coupled with butter cream on top. But it is super delicious!!! It is popular because it is always mentioned/drank by the characters in the movie.
Another shot of the antler wall. I love that they bothered to recreate this!
Panorama of Hosmeade. The building pictured is actually the main general souvenir shop.
My family decided to check out the shops while waiting for our food to be digested. My siblings and I were also eager to buy the House Scarves so we could get into the "mood". haha
Ironically, I actually expected more people to dress up in the full wizard costume. Kinda disappointed that only a handful did! I didn't have harry potterish clothes, but I wore a black skater dress with leggings because that was the most wiazrdy thing in my closet lol. Also black would match well with the Gryffindor scarf I was gonna buy. (;
There were also specialized shops that you would expect to find in the real Hogsmeade. Zonko's Joke shop was really stocked with real tricks and joke products, toys and what-nots.
Loved the colors and candy inside Honeydukes sweet shop!
Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans!
As much as I was tempted to, I didn't buy any of the sweets cos I felt that they were overpriced ordinary sweets that came in fancy packaging! My siblings did though, and now the chocolate frogs are sitting inside the fridge untouched. :/
And finally, we headed over to the souvenir shop to look for our scarves! Unfortunately we were told that the ones we wanted with crests were found in the castle souvenir shop instead.
Don't you just feel like you're inside the movie? Look at the stuffed owls at the left hand side of the picture! It's all in the details. (:
So finally, we walked over to the Hogwarts Castle. Made a quick stop at the souvenir shop to get out scarves and joined the queue for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. On average, the queue for this ride would be 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours. We were so fortunate to see the kids from the other family already far ahead in the queue. So we did what anyone would do, cut queue! We probably saved more than half an hour.
Us with our scarves and our obvious declaration of loyalty! Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Gryffindor FTW!
The queue brought us into the Herbology greenhouse.
And then through the castle's corridors! Pretty neat idea to have a mini walkthrough inside the castle to kill the boredom of queuing.
Entrance to Dumbledore's office!
Portrait room where the portraits actually talked and moved.
Bad quality picture (cos it is very dark inside). But that is actually a moving hologram of Dumbledore in his office.
In the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, we met up with the holograms of Harry, Hermione and Ron who "briefed" us about their battle plan and how they helped cast a spell so we can follow Harry on his broomstick while he defeats Voldemort.
OMG. This ride was A M A Z I N G x 100000. I can't repeat this enough, it is really the most technologically advanced ride ever created! I literally felt like I was flying. I could feel real breeze as the capsule was rocked back and forth and side wards as we flew in and over Hogwarts, through the Quidditch arena during a game, and into the Forbidden Forest. The feeling was super realistic. (Above picture taken off the internet showing the capsules we were in. We had to be strapped in so tightly for a good reason!)
I found myself closing my eyes and screaming at a lot of parts because in the Forbidden forest we met with larger than life giant spiders and Dementors that came literally right in front of you. (Not images but actual physical lifelike props!) So damn realistic that I was truly frightened and my heart beating damn fast. The spiders even spat water at us. Number 1 ride that I have ever taken in. my. whole. life. Not kidding.
Another picture of the castle, this time with the statues over the gate. Can't get over this epic ride!!!
We went for the Dragon Challenge next. It is kind of like USS's Battlestar Galactica, only instead of Human vs Cyclone, it's Chinese Fireball (Red) vs Hungarian Horntail (Blue). It's meant to symbolize two dueling dragons, so the coasters will be launched together. But apparently, there were cases of riders being hit and injured by loose objects (presumably dropped by the riders in the other coaster) so they no longer launch the coasters together. I'm not sure if USS still launches them together, cos when I visited in 2011 they still did, but I hope they change it soon! For the safety of the riders.
Again, not quite sure why my fear of coasters didn't resurface (boyfriend had to spend damn long to convince me to ride Battlestar at USS two years ago, and when I was on it I was frightened out of my wits I couldn't open my eyes at all). This time I actually chose to go for the scarier one - Chinese Fireball! Only had time for one. ): Cos the sun was setting (at like 4 or 5pm) and we wanted to take pictures and move on to other areas.
Hogwarts Express train conductor. He was so funny!!! My sisters (wearing Slytherin scarves) took pictures with him first. And he was in character so he pretended to be weary of them cos Slytherins are supposedly "bad". Then when it was my turn he was super happy and excited and even asked me what I was doing hanging out with Slytherins. lol
Couldn't resist getting another cup of Butterbeer. We actually bought the Butterbeer in a souvenir mug during lunch, so after washing it I only paid for the refill! Love this picture (though it's grainy and dark) cos it essentially sums up my experience in Hogsmeade - sipping on Butterbeer like a true Gryffindor in the chilly weather while enjoying the view of the snow-capped cottages. So magical!
So after reluctantly bidding farewell to Hogsmeade, we moved on to the other unexplored parts of the park. Next area was The Lost Continent.
We happened to walk pass the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad Stunt Show just as it was starting, and quickly found some seats.
In my opinion, the show was a little draggy, and not as much stunts/special effects as the Waterworld stunt show in USS. Would have rather spent that half hour queuing for a ride or something! I would recommend giving the show a miss! We also didn't have time to sit the ride Poseidon's Fury which we walked past afterwards cos the queue time was too long. ):
Last area to cover, Seuss Landing. This felt like more of an area for kids cos the rides were mostly kiddy. Didn't sit any!
We did shop though! lol. Love the Thing 1 Thing 2 merchandise! But if I buy the teeshirt and wear it no one in Singapore will know who they are!
If you have no idea who they are, they are characters found in Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat!
Me with the interior decor, plus unglamly holding the dirty empty Butterbeer mug cos I haven't found the washroom :/
Sisters bought some Dippydots ice cream to satisfy their cravings. Cold weather best time to eat ice-cream (?) By this time of the night around 7pm, the weather was starting to turn cold! I indulged in churros instead (again)!
Final stop before our meeting time.
Got to try on the full robe (: Missing the wand though. Was tempted to buy a wand and was actually hoping to get the Elderwand. But thought it was too impractical and expensive. Will probably end up sitting in its box somewhere in my room. Same goes for the robe (which costs more than $100 USD).
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I did however find something more wearable! A teeshirt inspired by Harry's Quidditch jersey! (: It was about $30 something USD. A little steep for a teeshirt. But I love it nonetheless! Haven't gotten a chance to wear it out yet.
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And being the avid pin collector I am, I bought these pins! The top row belongs to me: "Thing 1" badge while my sister bought "Thing 2", Hogwarts crest featuring all the houses, and a Gryffindor badge. Bottom: souvenirs for friends who love Harry Potter/Minions from Despicable Me.
Typing this post makes me miss this theme park so much. :') At the end we wanted to go back to sit The Incredible Hulk one more time, but didn't get the chance to. I will definitely x 10000 go back one day! Especially since they are in the process of building a Diagon Alley / London extension to the WWOHP! (That's why you can see some cranes in the background of the Hogsmeade pictures.) Heard that there will be a Gringotts ride. It will be a good chance to visit the other theme parks in Orlando as well when I go back. Can't wait! :D
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