I’ll say up front, most of today was actually dedicated to WWoHP. When we arrived at the park, it was pouring again, so we decided to get ponchos. I know people are always talking about making sure you have ponchos so you don’t have to buy them at exorbitant park prices, but we don’t usually use them, even in the rain, so we didn’t have any. $16 later, we both had ponchos. G showed up, already ponchoed up, so we went to brave the stormy weather and make our first journey into Hogwarts. Well, Rin’s and my first journey, G had been there once before, so she knew what was coming.
We waded through puddles, and slowly made our way to WWoHP. When we rounded the corner and Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the train all came into sight, Rin started to cry (I usually won’t make these things worse for myself, but I believe the phrase he’s looking for is “sob uncontrollably while gripping both of their hands” I was at HOGWARTS). Seems to be a pretty common theme. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Rin cries constantly. I showed her the “One More Disney Day” video the other day, and she started crying.
G and I started cracking up in the middle of the Dr. Seuss land. We were wading through a puddle about a foot deep, and we realized we were essentially crossing the Great Lake to get to Hogwarts. Could. Not. Even.
First thing’s first, we headed into Hogwarts to do the Forbidden Journey. There was literally no line. We wound up not being able to see a few of the things we wanted to because the staff members were ushering people to move along the line and not stop to check things out. After our whirlwind trip through Hogwarts, we were on the ride. I have to say, not my favourite. The volume seemed off in certain parts so that I couldn’t hear the voices over everything else that was going on, and the overall ride just seemed kind of like “Hey, how can we cram as much stuff from the books into this 5 minute ride while trying to make it coherent?” There was just too much being done, and honestly, some of it didn’t make sense to me. Sure, the ride vehicle was cool, but I didn’t find it as ‘revolutionary’ as some.
And it was terrifying. No, seriosuly. Blind, unadultered terror. It started with the realization that a dragon was probably going to stick it’’s face it my face. This was when I closed my eyes a bit, peeking through to see when it was over. Then, we were entering the forrest. Ah, but this is where acromantulas live, the Potterhead in me warned. Eyes closed again, and let’s get a good grip on these restraints, shall we?
Then came the Dementors.
I like to draw on Lupin’s words of comfort when Harry’s Boggart is a Dementor. Because this was when it was over for me. Eyes squeezed shut, legs draw up, gripping the restraints for dear life. I actually screamed a couple of times, too. Then I peeked. Oooh, I should not have peeked.
I love you, Harry Potter. But you can keep your Forbidden Journey, I think.
After we finished the ride, we spent a lot of time just wandering Hogsmeade and checking out the shops and whatnot. I have to say, the area itself is well done, if a bit cramped. We saw a part of the Frog Choir show before they had to leave because of rain, but we didn’t get a chance to see the Durmstrang/Beauxbatons demonstration, again, likely because of the on and off rain. We got a few postcards, and bought some stamps off of a person who only needed like 2 out of the pack of 10 they bought, and sent them off to friends. None of them knew they would be getting them, so they were really excited when they showed up, Hogsmeade postmark and all.
My sister actually cried. :)
Rin got herself a scarf and t-shirt, both Ravenclaw, and got her sister a Slytherin scarf as well. Prices actually weren’t bad, imo. We looked for a wand, but at the time, they were still only selling the movie wands. Rumour has it that they’ll start getting in Pottermore wands once the site goes public, but at the time, the site had just started Beta, so there were no ‘unique’ wands yet.
This broke my heart a little bit. I really wanted my wand, the one JK in all her wisdom had deemed would choose me. Oh well, next time, I suppose... Hilariously, all we did was ask for an ebony wand and the guy was like “Pottermore, right?”
After all of our shopping, we picked up our camera from the locker we had stored it in, and put in our shopping bags. It was time to go explore Hogwarts for real. We spent a good deal of time going through, got lots of pictures, marvelled at the moving paintings, etc, etc. When we got through the ‘tour line’ (as opposed to the ‘ride line’), the staff member manning the exit was willing to let us go on the ride again. But, since I had our camera, and since Rin had closed her eyes for most of the first ride (scared of the spiders and Dementors), we passed.
It was getting close to 5:00 at this point, so we started to head back to the front of the park. It was about this point that the sun finally came out. We went to the locker, grabbed my backpack, and carried on. Then we realized that the purchases weren’t there. We couldn’t figure out what happened, and Rin was panicked, but finally we had the thought that we left them in the locker. Luckilly, no one had taken that locker yet,so the staff member manning that area was able to open it for us and retrieve our stuff. Yay!
Zife missed the Butterbeer! How could he miss the Butterbeer??
After years of dreaming and imagining and substituting, I finally had a Butterbeer. I chose to go with a cold one, where G actually got hers frozen. Both were amazing. I was not in the slightest but disappointed.
Also, we checked out Honeydukes and Zonkos - both very awesome. I really wish I had more money. :( The music playing in the background kept making me tear up, too. Le sigh, maybe Zife’s right about me...
We did Hulk on the way out, which is still awesome, as well as Spiderman, which was alright, and headed over to Universal. I was meeting some people from the DIS Boards to do HHN with them. We had a bit of time before the park closed and everyone got cordoned off in the ‘New York’ area of the park, so we decided to check out Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit since Neither Rin nor G had been on it. It was closed. So we thought we’d check out the Mummy. The sign said 10 minutes, we waited 10 minutes and the line didn’t move. It was about this time I had to meet the group at Finnegan’s, so we hopped out of line, I left Rin and G, and began looking. I looked for about an hour, until the park was about to open up again for HHN. I never found them, and since I was still wet from earlier in the day (especially my shoes), I was grumpy, and decided to just call it a day. I met Rin back in the parking lot, and we headed out.
Rin had planned to do the Titanic Exhibit while I was at HHN, and had already bought her ticket. So, on the way back to the hotel, I dropped her at the exhibit and went back to the hotel to get dry clothes, shoes, etc.
I’ve had a small Titanic problem since I was about eleven years old. I knew everything about it - I had books of facts, every fiction I could find, a replica newspaper, 3D puzzles, the works. The night before the movie came out on video I literally couldn’t sleep, I was just too excited.
So there was no way I wasn’t going to see Titanic the Experience. Not when it was just down the street from our hotel.
And to be honest with you, it was actually really cool. We were led on our tour by one of the ship’s cooks, and given an identity of a real person who had been on the ship. They had giant replicas, actual artifacts from the Titanic and her sister ships, and entire rooms done up (such as one of the dining rooms and the grand staircase, my favourite). I definitely had quite a few what we in the business call “fangirl moments”. Luckily, there was a very nice teenage boy there with his parents who kindly took a couple pictures for me so I could avoid the awkward SLR one-handed self-portrait.
I think that might have been one of the best parts of the whole thing - we were welcome to take as many pictures as we liked.
When we had to head out to the lifeboats, it was actually dark and very cold! Another cool thing they did. And in the final room of the experience, we got to search for ourselves on these giant lists of passengers and crew to see if we survived.
I did :)
After that, there were a couple more rooms revolving around this kid (his family runs the experience) who was the youngest person to go down to the Titanic’s wreck, and then movie props from the Cameron film.
Score.
Once it was all done, the second best part of the experience happened. There very nice boy who checked me in had an accent, and while I was waiting for Zife (all alone, everyone else had booked it once the tour part was over and I had lingered in the last two rooms), I went up and asked him if he was really British, or just put it on for the show. Turns out he actually was a legitimate Brit, so we spent a while talking about what brought him there, where I was from, what we both did as students, he asked me to psychoanalyse him (as a Psych Masters student I get this a lot, even though I’m doing developmental and am no more qualified to analyse you than Zife is), and so on. He actually also works at WWoHP ( a job, he confessed, he took on because he already had the accent and figured he was a shoe in) and told me next time I was there to ask the conductors to see their watch - apparently they’re very cool.
After a while, Zife showed up and I left my new friend, thus ending my wonderful Titanic experience.
Oh, and the guy was from Southampton, too. He made me promise not to make fun of him - all of his friends already did mercilessly.
Once Rin was done at the exhibit, she texted me, and we decided what to do for supper. I had a Restaurant.com thing for Il Mulino at Swan & Dolphin, but we decided just to hit the TGI Friday’s across the street. Yes, it’s a chain, and I try to avoid chains when on vacation, but I really like TGI Friday’s, and we don’t have them in Newfoundland (or in Canada I think). Also, this was a night that I just wanted something familiar and basic. Comfort food, if you will. I'm not going to review it though, because I simply don't care enough.
Food was decent, restaurant was loud, and someone thought I worked there because I was wearing my Magic is Might shirt that said STAFF on the back. Whoops!
We waded through puddles, and slowly made our way to WWoHP. When we rounded the corner and Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the train all came into sight, Rin started to cry (I usually won’t make these things worse for myself, but I believe the phrase he’s looking for is “sob uncontrollably while gripping both of their hands” I was at HOGWARTS). Seems to be a pretty common theme. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Rin cries constantly. I showed her the “One More Disney Day” video the other day, and she started crying.
G and I started cracking up in the middle of the Dr. Seuss land. We were wading through a puddle about a foot deep, and we realized we were essentially crossing the Great Lake to get to Hogwarts. Could. Not. Even.
First thing’s first, we headed into Hogwarts to do the Forbidden Journey. There was literally no line. We wound up not being able to see a few of the things we wanted to because the staff members were ushering people to move along the line and not stop to check things out. After our whirlwind trip through Hogwarts, we were on the ride. I have to say, not my favourite. The volume seemed off in certain parts so that I couldn’t hear the voices over everything else that was going on, and the overall ride just seemed kind of like “Hey, how can we cram as much stuff from the books into this 5 minute ride while trying to make it coherent?” There was just too much being done, and honestly, some of it didn’t make sense to me. Sure, the ride vehicle was cool, but I didn’t find it as ‘revolutionary’ as some.
And it was terrifying. No, seriosuly. Blind, unadultered terror. It started with the realization that a dragon was probably going to stick it’’s face it my face. This was when I closed my eyes a bit, peeking through to see when it was over. Then, we were entering the forrest. Ah, but this is where acromantulas live, the Potterhead in me warned. Eyes closed again, and let’s get a good grip on these restraints, shall we?
Then came the Dementors.
I like to draw on Lupin’s words of comfort when Harry’s Boggart is a Dementor. Because this was when it was over for me. Eyes squeezed shut, legs draw up, gripping the restraints for dear life. I actually screamed a couple of times, too. Then I peeked. Oooh, I should not have peeked.
I love you, Harry Potter. But you can keep your Forbidden Journey, I think.
After we finished the ride, we spent a lot of time just wandering Hogsmeade and checking out the shops and whatnot. I have to say, the area itself is well done, if a bit cramped. We saw a part of the Frog Choir show before they had to leave because of rain, but we didn’t get a chance to see the Durmstrang/Beauxbatons demonstration, again, likely because of the on and off rain. We got a few postcards, and bought some stamps off of a person who only needed like 2 out of the pack of 10 they bought, and sent them off to friends. None of them knew they would be getting them, so they were really excited when they showed up, Hogsmeade postmark and all.
My sister actually cried. :)
Rin got herself a scarf and t-shirt, both Ravenclaw, and got her sister a Slytherin scarf as well. Prices actually weren’t bad, imo. We looked for a wand, but at the time, they were still only selling the movie wands. Rumour has it that they’ll start getting in Pottermore wands once the site goes public, but at the time, the site had just started Beta, so there were no ‘unique’ wands yet.
This broke my heart a little bit. I really wanted my wand, the one JK in all her wisdom had deemed would choose me. Oh well, next time, I suppose... Hilariously, all we did was ask for an ebony wand and the guy was like “Pottermore, right?”
After all of our shopping, we picked up our camera from the locker we had stored it in, and put in our shopping bags. It was time to go explore Hogwarts for real. We spent a good deal of time going through, got lots of pictures, marvelled at the moving paintings, etc, etc. When we got through the ‘tour line’ (as opposed to the ‘ride line’), the staff member manning the exit was willing to let us go on the ride again. But, since I had our camera, and since Rin had closed her eyes for most of the first ride (scared of the spiders and Dementors), we passed.
It was getting close to 5:00 at this point, so we started to head back to the front of the park. It was about this point that the sun finally came out. We went to the locker, grabbed my backpack, and carried on. Then we realized that the purchases weren’t there. We couldn’t figure out what happened, and Rin was panicked, but finally we had the thought that we left them in the locker. Luckilly, no one had taken that locker yet,so the staff member manning that area was able to open it for us and retrieve our stuff. Yay!
Zife missed the Butterbeer! How could he miss the Butterbeer??
After years of dreaming and imagining and substituting, I finally had a Butterbeer. I chose to go with a cold one, where G actually got hers frozen. Both were amazing. I was not in the slightest but disappointed.
Also, we checked out Honeydukes and Zonkos - both very awesome. I really wish I had more money. :( The music playing in the background kept making me tear up, too. Le sigh, maybe Zife’s right about me...
We did Hulk on the way out, which is still awesome, as well as Spiderman, which was alright, and headed over to Universal. I was meeting some people from the DIS Boards to do HHN with them. We had a bit of time before the park closed and everyone got cordoned off in the ‘New York’ area of the park, so we decided to check out Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit since Neither Rin nor G had been on it. It was closed. So we thought we’d check out the Mummy. The sign said 10 minutes, we waited 10 minutes and the line didn’t move. It was about this time I had to meet the group at Finnegan’s, so we hopped out of line, I left Rin and G, and began looking. I looked for about an hour, until the park was about to open up again for HHN. I never found them, and since I was still wet from earlier in the day (especially my shoes), I was grumpy, and decided to just call it a day. I met Rin back in the parking lot, and we headed out.
Rin had planned to do the Titanic Exhibit while I was at HHN, and had already bought her ticket. So, on the way back to the hotel, I dropped her at the exhibit and went back to the hotel to get dry clothes, shoes, etc.
I’ve had a small Titanic problem since I was about eleven years old. I knew everything about it - I had books of facts, every fiction I could find, a replica newspaper, 3D puzzles, the works. The night before the movie came out on video I literally couldn’t sleep, I was just too excited.
So there was no way I wasn’t going to see Titanic the Experience. Not when it was just down the street from our hotel.
And to be honest with you, it was actually really cool. We were led on our tour by one of the ship’s cooks, and given an identity of a real person who had been on the ship. They had giant replicas, actual artifacts from the Titanic and her sister ships, and entire rooms done up (such as one of the dining rooms and the grand staircase, my favourite). I definitely had quite a few what we in the business call “fangirl moments”. Luckily, there was a very nice teenage boy there with his parents who kindly took a couple pictures for me so I could avoid the awkward SLR one-handed self-portrait.
I think that might have been one of the best parts of the whole thing - we were welcome to take as many pictures as we liked.
When we had to head out to the lifeboats, it was actually dark and very cold! Another cool thing they did. And in the final room of the experience, we got to search for ourselves on these giant lists of passengers and crew to see if we survived.
I did :)
After that, there were a couple more rooms revolving around this kid (his family runs the experience) who was the youngest person to go down to the Titanic’s wreck, and then movie props from the Cameron film.
Score.
Once it was all done, the second best part of the experience happened. There very nice boy who checked me in had an accent, and while I was waiting for Zife (all alone, everyone else had booked it once the tour part was over and I had lingered in the last two rooms), I went up and asked him if he was really British, or just put it on for the show. Turns out he actually was a legitimate Brit, so we spent a while talking about what brought him there, where I was from, what we both did as students, he asked me to psychoanalyse him (as a Psych Masters student I get this a lot, even though I’m doing developmental and am no more qualified to analyse you than Zife is), and so on. He actually also works at WWoHP ( a job, he confessed, he took on because he already had the accent and figured he was a shoe in) and told me next time I was there to ask the conductors to see their watch - apparently they’re very cool.
After a while, Zife showed up and I left my new friend, thus ending my wonderful Titanic experience.
Oh, and the guy was from Southampton, too. He made me promise not to make fun of him - all of his friends already did mercilessly.
Once Rin was done at the exhibit, she texted me, and we decided what to do for supper. I had a Restaurant.com thing for Il Mulino at Swan & Dolphin, but we decided just to hit the TGI Friday’s across the street. Yes, it’s a chain, and I try to avoid chains when on vacation, but I really like TGI Friday’s, and we don’t have them in Newfoundland (or in Canada I think). Also, this was a night that I just wanted something familiar and basic. Comfort food, if you will. I'm not going to review it though, because I simply don't care enough.
Food was decent, restaurant was loud, and someone thought I worked there because I was wearing my Magic is Might shirt that said STAFF on the back. Whoops!
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