The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and stuff :D

So, wanted me to post a journal about my trip to the grand opening of Universal Studio's The Wizarding World of Harry Potter so I am!

It was FREAKIN' AWESOME. I and my two other friends got there at 6 in the morning and the park was open just so people could line up for HP World, it was insane. I mean, we got there so early and yet we were still maybe a few hundred people to a thousand people back in the line. We waited in line for about 5 HOURS wherein we saw fireworks go off, which I later found out was due to James and Oliver Phelps setting them off!!

Yeah. That's right. A majority of the cast was there that morning. O_O Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Tom Felton , James and Oliver Phelps, Bonnie Wright, and other people I can't recall at the moment. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see anyone because the opening ceremony was held inside the park and only those people who had special freakin' passes got to go in but still, to know I was that close is both wickedly AWESOME and furiously INSANE.

Anywho, once we got in, it was just mindblowing. I had purposefully shied away from reading anything about the park and therefore didn't know what to expect. I was definitely awed. Although the snow everywhere was definitely jarring to see with the 95 degree weather and what felt like 100 percent humidity...

BUTTERBEER IS FREAKIN' FANTASTIC. Oh dear god. It's like an orgasmic explosion of butterscotch and cream soda-y goodness. Do NOT get the frozen one, get the cold one. The frozen one is a rip-off. The cold one has this awesome layer of creamy foaminess that just...GAH. It's amazing. And the pumpkin juice is a pleasant surprise! I thought it would suck in all honesty. When I'd read that the Hogwarts students were having iced pumpkin juice with their meals, I'd be like, "Eww. That sucks." But it's great! I'd drink it for breakfast. It's like a complex substitute orange juice. It's all cinnamon-y and sugary and pumpkin-y.

The Dragon Challenge (or Dueling Dragons as I will continue to call it) is awesome as always. The line was 5 minutes long the whole day, oddly enough, and we rode it twice over. The line for it is awesome, how they've renovated it to look like different areas of the Triwizard Tournament. I do miss the old room with the ice everywhere and the hanging knights and such. But it's a loss I barely remember.

But the best ride (I didn't ride Flight of the Hippogriff because the rides were stopped just at that moment for lightning), the BEST RIDE, is The Forbidden Journey. I had NO IDEA what I was getting into. I had looked up NOTHING about the ride and therefore was completely and utterly MINDFUCKED. Oh dear god, the ride is brilliant! The technological advancements, the effects, the car design, the movements, it's all brilliant! I won't give too much away, but it is mind-blowing. The effects used just amazed me and I couldn't understand how things felt the way they did, how I was experiencing what I was experiencing without actually experiencing! I do believe that ride has set the bar for future rides. The wait is beautiful too! You go through main rooms of Hogwarts and the portraits move and talk and it's all awesome! The line moves pretty fast too because the ride is continuous. The wait is usually shorter than posted.

I didn't get to see a lot of the stores and the stores I did see (Zonko's and Honeydukes) were so packed that it was impossible to get the full experience. Dervish and Banges had a fairly long line and Ollivander's line wrapped around two buildings and down the back alley, it was insane! The Three Broomsticks had a line with a three-hour wait! But, I am going back next week Thursday so hopefully it won't be SO crowded.

When we left at 4 (we were SO DOG-TIRED after less than three hours of sleep and being up for 11 hours) the line was still so far back, with people waiting to get into HP world, it was crazy.

But yes, that was my experience. The only thing that would've been the candles on the icing on the cake would've been to meet even one of the stars. Although a friend of mine later told me her friend saw Tom, Dan, Rupert, and James on the upstairs level of the Hard Rock restaurant watching the World Cup. Go figure, haha.