boom-boom: Island of Adventures!

I remember how anxious we were getting for our day at Island of Adventures. We also wanted to gobble up our complimentary breakfast at the Three Broomsticks! We decided not to walk this time and so we ended up taking the shuttle that arrived at 8:00am. The shuttle was late and we kinda were getting nervous because our reservation was at 8:30am. Taking the shuttle actually took longer than us walking!

Waiting for the shuttle...and yes, we wore our Harry Potter shirts!

Racing through City Walk, we finally get to the entrance of Island of Adventures but we still had to pick up our tickets and upgrade them. By the time we were done, it was almost 8:30am so we were kinda scared that we were going to miss our reservation! I was amazed on how many tickets they gave us...

They looked glorious! Ha!

When we finally entered the park it was empty because we got early admission. It was awesome! Before heading out to Harry Potter World we got stopped by the picture takers up front. It was really funny because they took a normal picture and then they had us put our hands together like we were holding something. We were pretty excited to see how the pictures came out! The guy gave us our ticket to retrieve our photos in a couple hours and then another photo guy came up to us and yelled out..."GRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYFYFFFFFIIINNNDOOOOOOOOOOORRRRR!!!!" It was so funny! Our Griffindor Harry Potter shirts definitely got a lot of attention.

Inside the park we went. No map, no sense of direction, no nothing. We just kept kept our eye on Hogwarts and walked as fast as we could. The whole park is pretty much one big circle.

Through Dr. Suess World!

Through The Lost Continent

Monique kept telling me, "I can't wait for some pancakes!!!!" as we were walking hastily, haha!

We were getting nervous and asking each other..."Do you think they'll still take our reservation since we're late?"..."What if they don't?"..."I hope so, because I want some pancakes!!!"

When we approached the entrance to Harry Potter World, we were so frickin' happy! I really felt like I was in the movies.

Then we finally arrived! We were so starving!

We both ordered the American Breakfast (I think that was the name of it...or the Classic, something like that) but I ordered a butter beer with my food. We took our seats near the bar. Our breakfast was delicious! Our first sip of my butter beer caused our eyes light up. It was sooooo yummy! Like brown sugar vanilla soda with a butterscotch cream on top!

There was a boars head hanging on the bar wall that would randomly move and snort here and there. The lady who upgraded our tickets told us that they used this bar part in some of the movies.

We ate super fast and continued to absorb the sights and smells of Hogsmeade.

When we were looking at wands, some of the Slytherin cast members reacted to our shirts and were like, "Ew Gryffindor! Gryffindor sucks!"

We saw people entering the path into Hogwarts so Monique and I just started to follow people. We were were like, "Maybe it's a tour! Yay!" But honestly we had no clue what we were walking into. As soon as we get into the entrance to Hogwarts, cast members were directing traffic to the lockers yelling out, "You must put all belongings in the lockers!"

We were thinking, "Why? Why do you need to do that for a tour?" And then we were like, "Is this a ride?" But after stuffing our things into a locker, we just kept following people inside. So, it was kind of like a mini tour. I felt like we were being rushed though, I wanted to absorb everything in Hogwarts. Momo left her camera in her purse so I tried to take as many photos as I could.

There was holographic talking Harry, Hermione and Ron. All the paintings moved and I loved seeing the painted lady. There was also a holographic Dumbledore when we walked through his study but it was really hard taking a picture of him because it was super dark in there. Just like I'd imagine it being in the movie!

And it was a ride! It was called the Forbidden Journey. It was a 4 seater simulation ride. Our feet dangled from our seats. I took my flats off and held on to them for dear life. It was as if we were on broomsticks and we flying through everything, following Harry P through a Quidditch Game, through and around Hogwarts, through the Forbidden Forrest, battling Dementors and having Harry save us through the whole battle. It was quite exhilarating!

I wish I could have bought the picture of us on the ride but they wanted $30! I laughed soooooo hard!!! I looked like I was being electrocuted. My mouth was so distorted and it looked like my eyes were rolled back into my head. Monique, on the other hand, looked proper. She had a smile on her face, it looked like her eyes were looking at me and she had her hands folded all proper like she was ready to take a portrait picture, haha. We probably went back a few times just to look at the picture again and get a good laugh!

After that, we kinda got motion sickness so we ended up chillin and having a Butterbeer. I took this video while Mo was ordering.

It was funny because I have a front facing camera on my phone and so throughout our trip we ended up perfecting the technique of taking pictures of the both of us without having to hound some stranger down. I'd hold the camera and Momo would push the button. So, in some of the pictures, it looks like we're checkin' someone out in the crowd or something haha!

We wanted to ride the Hippogriff ride next! All I can say about this ride is holy crap it was short!

Super fun though!

After we rested, I just couldn't wait to ride this one attraction called Dragon Challenge. Momo doesn't really like roller coasters, so I was so stoked that she totally took one for the team and road it with me!

We ran into Hagrid's hut and the Muggle Mobile!

Dragon Challenge was another feet dangler and of course, I was scared my flats were going to fly off like that one time at Magic Mountain where Alex rode X and ended up coming off the ride without them. This time, I stuck my flats in the back of my pants. It had 2 upside down loops and two corkscrews. The last time I rode a roller coaster with a loop in it was 2006. Eek! It was really fun!

I don't know if we're getting old or something, but we got a little sick after that. So, we took it easy, walked around and enjoyed the sights and smells. We made our way towards the Jurassic Park entrance and we decided we were starving.

Mo took this pic of me and then I told her to take another one with the Jurassic sign in the background like the one I took of her. So, she took another one...