I thought I've written about my trip to Orlando in USA before, but I can't find it on my Pinmapple map, so I guess it's a sign of me growing old again. Anyway, if anyone remembers seeing a similar post from me before and you're a Harry Potter fan, then you're in luck, have a double dose!!!
This trip was from back in 2010 Christmas. If I remember correctly, it's my third visit to Florida, and everytime I've been, it's always been Orlando. I've never been else in Florida. My sisters used to have a holiday condo out there as an investment, and every year they'd go out there for holiday. Sometimes a few of us would go with her. This was one of those times. Five of us siblings plus partners plus four of the kids, total fourteen of us. Here's us, or our shoes, not sure where the other two wandered off.
We flew out on 24th December and the next day immediately marched down to Universal Studios. In Orlando, it's either Disney World or Universal Studios. The latter was our first stop this year as they'd just opened Harry Potter world in summer. To be honest, I'm not a Harry Potter fan. I've only ever watched one of the movies before, so I can't really appreciate what all the fuss is about. But anyway....
We headed off to Hogsmeade Village first. I guess HP fans will be jumping up and down with envy now. Don't you wish you were me 😁 One of my niece is a big HP fan and she went a bit crazy here especially when she saw the Wand Shop. And you know what, she bought herself a wand for USD30!! THIRTY BUCKS!!! THIRTY BIG BUCKS!!!!! Call me stingy , but $30 for a bit of stick!!! And this was 11 years ago!!! If the wand really has magical powers, I'm going to borrow it off her, wave it in front my post, hopefully there's some magic spell that will make my post trend and fly Hive to the moon!!!
This is Hogwarts Castle, and there's a ride inside called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Visitors sits in a seat which is suspended off the ground by a track above. The track takes visitor around different scenes from the films in the dark so every turn is a surprise. Basically it's a bit like a train ride except the track is above instead of below, and your seat spins and swings and even tilts forward and backwards. You get the idea? Good. Well, it was a bloody nightmare for me!!
So here I am looking all happy and cool as a cucumber as we'd just arrived. The kids, and some of the young at heart wanted to go on the rides, the Flight of the Hippogriff, a family friendly roller coaster. I'd never do one of those massive 360 degrees triple somersault ones, but this one was called a junior roller coaster and looked ok so I figured why not? After all who comes to Universal Studio without going on rides?
You'll be pleased to know I survived the Flight of the Hippogriff, a little wobbly but I made it out alive, yeah!!! But the kids and young at heart weren't done yet. There were two other Harry Potter rides, and of course they were going to conquer them all. The next one was the the Forbidden Journey, the one I mentioned above, and they kept pushing me to join them. They even gave me time to recover from the roller coaster before we started to queue. So once I felt a bit better, off we went.....
Not long after the ride started, so did the chair spins, Sometimes it was left right, then left right left or right left right, I lost count. Occassional it was a 360 degree spin, or two. Followed by moving along the track in the dark, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sudden stops, tilting backwards and forwards. OMG! It was hell !!! I had barely recovered from the roller coaster and now I was being thrown all over the place by Harry Potter and his magic. I started to feel sick, and this is physically, not literally. I hated Harry Potter even more than before!! I could feel my vomit gushing up. I kept my mouth tightly close, covering it with both my hands, hoping that the vomit would subside. When you can't throw up, there's only one way that your vomit can go. I kept my eyes closed and wonder if there was an exit from hell.
When we got to the end of ride (at last!!!!) my husband who was sitting next to me had to help me release my seat belt as my own hands were a bit occupied. I shall spare you the fine details here, but I dashed out running faster than Usain Bolt doing his 100m and threw up outside!!! By the time the rest of the family caught up with me, some of them were laughing so hard when they saw the state I was in!!!😡😡
Towards the end of our stay, we went to Epcot Center, that's always been my favourite theme park. And of course, I had made a full recovery from my Harry Potter ordeal😄
You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below
That's kind of a funny story, made for a memorable one for you! I don't think you have to be a fan of Harry Potter to still have fun at that place, given you aren't being tossed around too much. The castle looks pretty neat.
I was tossed around for sure on that ride!!!! I still get teased about it by my nieces and nephew whenever we talk about that trip!!!
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Wow, cool. I went to the one at Orlando several years ago. Of course no Platform Nine and Three-Quarters then.
That must have been before 2010? There always seems to be new rides and stuff everytime I go to Orlando, I guess that's how they keep pulling people back
Definitely way before 2010.
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I haven't been to Orlando Disney. I've been to the Epcot Center, which by the way was very interesting! We ran out f time!
Thanks for showing us the Hogwarts Castle @livinguktaiwan!
CHEERS!
You're welcome @silversaver888, Personally Epcot Center is my favourite out of all the theme parks. It's very educational yet fun, it's always great to learn new stuff when its fun
Did you see the inverted plants... through hydroponics? I thought that was cool!
I didn't see that, maybe I was still recovering from my ordeal!!!
Well, Epcot is large, you can easily miss it.
Anyway... they have a facility where they planted (without soil) from tomatoes to green onions and flowers, and it was wonderful.
It's so fun. I'm also not a Harry Potter fan. But I would like to visit the castle. It's been a nice trip. Thanks for sharing.
Such memories are also good. We laugh as we remember.
So true, we still have a good laugh over my ordeal after all these years
We went to Harry Potter world a few years ago for my wife's 30th birthday and we both really enjoyed it. She also bought one of those expensive wands, the interactive ones that allow you to do "magic" around the park. She was standing in line with all these 8 year old kids waiting waiting her turn. It was pretty funny. That's That's shame that you felt so sick on the rides. That's no fun. I felt nauseous on the rides with the screens, the 4D rides, I think they're called. I still went on all of them but was always glad when they were over lol.
Also, I read the Harry Potter series as an adult (last year basically) and really enjoyed it. It's quite good if you ever need something easy to read.
Did you read the whole series, during lockdown? At least, that was something nice to keep you occupied during lockdown. So your wife is a Harry Potter fan? The thought of her standing in queue with the kids does sound quite funny. Did you have to stand with her 😊?
Yes I read it during lockdown. You kind of have to push yourself through the first book because it's poorly written (expected from a first time author without a proper editor) but then it gets very good. The series becomes more adult as you go along. I really enjoyed the movies as well though. My wife is a huge H.P. fan and has read them multiple times. Luckily I didn't have to wait in line with her lol.
Awe no that must have been pure hell, I can just imagine how you must have felt! But...I'm sure the rest of the trip was great! Will we ever see crowded places like that again? Wonderful memories and photos, except for the last bit;)
Travelling with family is always fun, apart from when we have the occasional disagreement on where to go for dinner 😀 But this was all good fun, I still get teased about it now
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Lovely post. I am a HP fan and have read all the books and seen all the movies. Great tour around Hogwarts. Kinda missing a write up on the favorite drink of HP and friends while in Hogsmeade, the Butterbeer 🤔 I've always wondered how it tastes hehe.
Those feet and shoes would be great for guessing game. Guessing which is yours haha. That would be fun!
Thanks for sharing.
You're reading my mind..... 😀
Hey - I'll be undelegating my Yodin later today, I want to level up and play with it!
Sure of course! Thanks for delegating to me, it helped me a lot when I was playing
I love to watch Harry Potter and I only seen the second one. I hope I can watch more but it is hard to find the good one. Have a good day.
I hear it's better to watch the whole series from start to finish? I'm sure you will get round to watch them all some time, they're so popular will always be around.
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Lay off the Butter Beer next time!
I see you're a Potter fan as well. That was without the Butter Beer, god knows what would happen to me if I had one!
Disney does seem to have the magic about it, and it makes you feel so young and happy when you're there. It certainly had that effect on me. Maybe because I didn't do any rides there!!!
That's at Watford where the studio is? I used to work in the offices nearby, but never went before. I hear it's very good, especially if you're a Harry Potter fan