The wizarding world of Harry Potter in 44,000 steps

 Day 58 – 61 – Nov 27-30

Weather – warm to very warm.

The big day finally arrived – we were headed out on our Universal studios, Harry Potter adventure spectacular. We’d booked a 3 night, 4 day experience, staying at Cabana Bay resort inside the Orlando Universal Studios compound. Included in the package was the Harry Potter experience – various HP perks when you got to the parks and hotel, plus a 4 day ticket to Universal Studio and Islands of Adventure. It was a pretty big splash out – the main reason however, wasn’t the rides or the resort – it was the allure of Wizarding worlds of Harry Potter – Hogsmead and Diagon Ally – located in the two theme parks. Harry Potter mania has swept through Lucy’s school this year - Lucy has been reading the books and is up to the 5^th book – The Order of the Phoenix. After she finishes each book, we watch the movie together. Lucy is so enamoured with Harry Potter that she dressed up as him for book week and for Halloween! We’re all fans of the series so we were really looking forward to our adventure. We left Deland around midday -usually you can’t check in until 4pm, however I called though and they said they had the room ready at 1pm. It’s about an hour south of Deland and an easy drive along the Hwy. Universal has 8 resorts located in the parks – we picked the resort in the middle of the range, they “best value” pick. Mostly because they had a family room with a sliding door between the beds and the kitchen – so when Lucy went to bed we could still hang out. The fact they had two huge resort pools, a lazy river, a water slide and spa pools also factored in our calculations. 

Cabana Bay resort is designed as a 50’s themed, old school Florida resort, complete with vintage cars out the front and 50’s and 60’s TV and ad’s playing on the big screens in the hotel diner. There’s even a bowling ally upstairs! The weather was perfect when we arrived – warm and sunny, perfect for the pool. This time of year is the calm before the storm, the crowds for the Thanks Giving holidays are gone, and the Christmas rush has not yet started. The hotel was at best 50% occupied, so getting a spot by the pool was easy enough. Lucy made friends with a little girl and went down the water slide 100 times, and Katie and I lounged around by the pool and in and out of our room. 

We planned to get up early at 7am to get the most out of early entry perk for the park as hotel guests. That way we beat the crowds and get in some of the rides before any crowds. As a result, Sunday night was an early night, we had burgers and wings at the bowling alley upstairs and then had a few games in the arcade before an early night.

Day one in the parks was an epic day. The weather was warmer than predicted, but not to warm to be uncomfortable. We started by catching the shuttle bus to City walk, you can walk to the entrance to the park – about 20mins along a track between the resorts, or you can catch the shuttle bus, which takes you to the entrance to Universal city walk – an entertainment precinct with all the big high end chain restaurants like Hard Rock café and Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. There’s also Movie theatres and stores. You don’t need tickets to get in here – just money to spend!  The walk from the busses is still about 10mins, so I’m not sure you save that much walking by catching the bus. Only Islands of adventure is open early at the moment, so our plan was to walk though, catch the Hogwarts express from Hogsmead to Diagon Ally, and then get breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron at Universal Studios (We had breakfast included both days). The attendance at the park wasn’t too bad, however, the most popular ride – Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure already had a 100min line. It’s one of the few rides in the park that doesn’t have an express pass line. To explain – we had express pass tickets, and this means that you can take the shorter line for most of the rides. Each ride has an estimated wait time at the front, and seats to try to see if you can fit before you line up. If the line says 30mins, then its probably half the wait time or less in the express line. You feel a bit rude at the beginning passing all the people in the regular line, but personally the express pass is a must if you want to have a stress free day. 

Anyway, so we head across to Diagon Ally, via the Hogwarts express. You arrive in “Kings Cross Station”, and then head out into Universal Studios. It’s very well done. Then you walk through the bricks into Diagon Ally. Wow is this a show stopper. They have done an amazing job of getting everything just right. Up the street you see a dragon perched on Gringotts Bank – it breaths fire every 10 minutes, it’s also the entrance to an amazing ride called escape from Gringotts. You have Olivanders wand shop – where you can get your interactive wands that you then wander around the streets casting spells and interacting with various set pieces that you can control if you get the swish and flick right! Breakfast in the Leaky Cauldron was actually pretty good – full English for me with a cold butter beer, Katie went for the frozen butter beer. Not a huge fan – it was like a creamy soda, but with something else there… Not sure about that one. Anyway, I could go on and on about the rides and the park. I will summarise our highlights. Lucy and I went on most of the rides, however our favourites were escape from Gringotts and the Rip Rockit roller coaster. I honestly thought Lucy would cry after the roller coaster, but she just said after a shocked pause – can we go on that again! We finished up around 5:00pm after 22,000+ steps throughout the day. Exhausted but buzzing. There was so much we didn’t do – but we had the next day to follow up so no need to worry. Back at the hotel, we went for a quick lazy river swim and Lucy wanted a few shots at the water slide, and then pizza to the room and all of us in bed. I think Katie and I were asleep by 9pm.

Picking out a wand

Butter beer - tastes a bit like creamy soda and salted caramel.

Inside Gringotts bank

The rip rockit roller coaster - Lucy's favourite ride

Day 2 again started early, Islands of Adventure – which is the more thrill ride focused park. The Harry Potter section here is Hogsmead – with the Hogwarts castle, and they also have a major Jurrasic park section. This time our plan was for Lucy and I to head out early at 7:30 in an attempt to get at the front of the line for the Hagrids Motorbike ride. Unfortunately, our plan failed as the delayed sign was up outside the ride and the park attendants said that they weren’t sure when it would open. There was already a big line and the risk was we’d waste an hour or two not even moving. Not to worry, Lucy and I decided to hit the Velocicoaster – the main roller coaster in this park, which is part of the Jurassic park section.

Inside at the Velocicoaster - Katie took some outside pics and will post soon.

Katie casting a spell

This section is really well done – I mean the movie is about a dinosaur rheme park – and this is pretty much a spot-on replica with the real dinosaurs – the animatronic dinosaurs are awesome. We hit the velocicoaster twice – personally, I thought it was more full on than the rip rockit – and Lucy looked like she had blow-dried her hair after the first go – Lucy and I went on this one 5 times throughout the day – the crowds were really small on Tuesday and the weather was perfect – 27c and sunny – we really lucked in. Katie joined us later and had rented a scooter due to her sour foot – she had broken it earlier in the year and it was really playing up. We had a blast exploring Hogsmead and testing out the spells in this section of the Harry Potter Wizarding world. Honestly – I think they’ve done a great job, and judging by the crowds at the Harry potter sections and the amount of merchandise that people were wearing (Full Hogwarts outfits were very common), I think Universal are thanking their lucky stars they bought in on Potter Mania. The one low light for the day was the water ride in the popeyes section. It really should have had a warning stating that you will get absolutely soaked and should probably wear bathers. We got totally surprised by the amount of water that got dumped on us. Not ideal, but thankfully it was a very warm and sunny day. We did have to use the people dryers!!

Very wet after our water ride

Kings cross station - Harry Potter style

Again, we went back to the resort after a long day of theme park fun -  and another 22,000+ steps. Thankfully we could relax in the spa and cool off in the water. 

What an amazing couple of days at the two parks! We did have a late check out on the Wednesday and resort access until midnight, and we also had theme park access for another day so there was a momentary discussion of maybe going in again. However, common sense and the allure of the clear skies and warm weather, and a nice sleep in meant that we decided to go with a pool day for our last day. Lazing by the pool and just rejuvenating was the right move. Although I did test the walk to the park from our room as I was up first – it’s about 12mins walking reasonably quickly. And them I might have gone for a sneaky look around the park and attempt one more velocicoaster ride… Unfortunately, the line was 30mins, so I just wondered around the Jurassic park discovery centre and then meet Katie and Lucy for Breakfast back at the resort.

relaxing by the pool

Without a doubt, one of the most fun and crazy experiences we’ve had on the trip so far. Not cheap if I’m honest, but also not super crazy expensive. We have a few more days in Deland to come and then were off to San Francisco for the final leg of our around the world trip. It feels like we’ve been gone for 6 months! I am looking forward to getting home and just getting back into some semblance of normality though.