Tuesday morning we couldn’t wait to get to Islands of Adventure. We woke up early and made it to the entrance almost an hour before the park was scheduled to open. Did I mention we were excited? A nice treat that morning was when they started letting people through the gates 30 minutes before the scheduled opening.
Once inside we skirted through Seuss Landing, under the tracks of the Sky Seuss Trolley, plowed right through the middle of The Lost Continent, and in no time we were staring up at the entrance to Hogsmeade. Wow! It’s enormous.
A cobblestone street winds through the middle of Hogsmeade, shops line the edges: Zonko’s, Honeydukes, the Three Broomsticks, and the Hog’s Head are on the left; the engine to the Hogwarts Express, the entrance to Dragon Challenge ride, the owlery rest area, Dervish and Banges, and Ollivanders are to the right. The buildings were all slanted and misshapen, like magical buildings usually are. The roofs held patches of snow, large icicles dangled in a few places and there was a snowman too. Hogsmeade has so much to take in, so many little details; we just walked through staring in wonder and amazement, trying not to bump into the few hundred other people who filled the streets that morning.
Past all the shops in Hogsmeade Hogwarts castle jutted out of a rock foundation, looming high into the sky, more impressive still. That is where we wanted to go, no matter how long the line was – our first experience at Islands of Adventure had to be Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The entrance to the castle was visible, as was the line.
We followed the line backwards, out through the other entrance to Hogsmeade, from Jurassic Park. We found the end of the line close to the T-Rex photo op. Undaunted we fell in line along with many other Harry fans right behind us. The line moved faster than I expected. And as a side bonus we got to reenter Hogsmeade from a different angle, with plenty of time to soak it in. A young wizard who worked at Hogwarts castle, near the gate, was dressed in a robe; he may have been a prefect. I asked him if we were in the right line for first years, and how soon the sorting would take place. We all had a chuckle. Then another couple walked up and asked him what the line was for. He said it was “to place your bags in a locker.” My wife and I looked at each other thinking he’s messing around with these people. Then some kids behind us say, “Is he going to tell them he’s joking?” Right then we noticed a fork in the line – one side was completely crowded, and the other side was wide open. So we ask him again, “What is this line for?” He answers, “It’s for lockers, you can’t take any bags on the ride.” So, first tip of the day, if you’re not carrying any bags, which we weren’t, you can bypass a lot of standing around. Live and learn I guess.
We raced through the entrance of the castle, only daring to stop briefly to inspect the décor fearing we’d be passed by others rushing in. We finally caught up to the end of the line, back outside the castle in a greenhouse, which is positioned between the castle levels. The line winds up and around inside the greenhouse past rows of mandrakes protected inside a cage along with various tools I guess Madame Sprout doesn’t want stolen.
Once you go back inside the castle there is so much more to see. It starts off with a couple of statues and the enchanted hourglasses that keep track of the House Points – spoiler alert: Gryffindor is in the lead. The line winds around the large gargoyle guarding the entrance to the headmaster’s tower. Past that is the headmaster’s office filled with many curious gadgets, including a pensive. At this point Dumbledore speaks to you. From here till you get on the ride you’ll see: talking portraits of the house founders, the portrait of the fat lady, and the sorting hat among other things. Another big room is the defense against the dark arts classroom; Harry, Ron and Hermione make an appearance there.
The ride itself is exciting; it’s a mixture of projected video, 3d animatronics, and an enchanted bench which moves, tilts, and twists you around in dramatic fashion. This ride was hands down our favorite for overall experience, including all the stuff to look at while you’re in line. The little details make it great.
The journey ends like most rides, in a gift shop. But not just any old gift shop: Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods. The only thing I didn’t like about it was all the other people jam packed in there. It was like that in all of the shops in Hogsmeade. If it wasn’t for the crowd I would have picked up and thoroughly investigated everything for sale in the entire store, as it was I only got to touch half the stuff.
Right outside Filch’s is the entrance to Flight of the Hippogriff. This line winds around the front side of Hagrid’s hut, and past a baby hippogriff. The ride is brief, it wasn’t terrible but we had no desire to repeat. From there we walked back into Hogsmeade and noticed quite a long line outside of Ollivanders. Unsure exactly why there was a line waiting to enter the wand shop, we bypassed the crowd in hopes that later on, the line would die down enough for us to figure out what we were missing.
The Dragon Challenge was more interesting anyway, before entering the castle there are lots of banners cheering on the Triwizard Tournament Champions. You also walk past the backside of Hagrid’s hut and Arthur Weasley’s flying car. The Goblet of Fire sits in the entrance to the castle, make sure you’re the proper age before submitting your name. The ride itself is the old Dueling Dragons, Fire & Ice, that was in the park before the Harry Potter World. Nevertheless, it still ranks high on favorites list, second only to Harry’s Forbidden Journey.
The Dragon Challenge was more interesting anyway, before entering the castle there are lots of banners cheering on the Triwizard Tournament Champions. You also walk past the backside of Hagrid’s hut and Arthur Weasley’s flying car. The Goblet of Fire sits in the entrance to the castle, make sure you’re the proper age before submitting your name. The ride itself is the old Dueling Dragons, Fire & Ice, that was in the park before the Harry Potter World. Nevertheless, it still ranks high on favorites list, second only to Harry’s Forbidden Journey.
As much as we loved Hogwarts and Hogsmeade we felt compelled to investigate the rest of the park. So we headed back the way we came. My wife kept trying to get my daughter to try something in Seuss Landing, but she’s just “too big” for that I guess. Instead we hit The Incredible Hulk Coaster. I love how that coaster blasts off at the beginning. But my head tends to bang around in the safety restraints. So, I like it, but not as much as the other rides where I don’t have to hold my head together after I get off.
We started looking for food after the Hulk. We ended up in the Comic Strip Café in Toon Lagoon, passing up a couple of so-so options on the way there. Once you get past the sticker shock of the park food this place was one of the better ones.
After the food break we had unfinished business in Marvel Super Hero Island. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and Doctor Doom’s Fearfall were calling out to us “ride me, if you dare.” My daughter wasn’t about to back down from the dare, but my wife and I were longingly wishing we were back in Hogsmeade slurping down some butterbeer. The Spider-Man ride is one of my favorites, but it always seems to have one of the longest waits. Doctor Doom’s line was plenty short as is the ride, someone must be compensating.
Having conquered our super hero and super villain fears, we went back to Toon Lagoon. Now, forgive me for being critical, but by the time we got back there I wasn’t really in the mood for toons, especially the ones that get you wet – I hate walking around any park soaking wet. And I’ll be danged if just about every ride in Toon Lagoon didn’t get you wet – hey, maybe that’s why lagoon is in the name? I seriously just noticed that as I was typing, must have been too many head banging Hulk rides for me notice while I was there.
This is where our day turns a little sad. Even though my daughter opts to skip Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges, no argument from me or my wife, she stands in front of Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls and looks at it longingly. She does like to get wet. And to be honest, the people on the ride looked like they were having some real fun, I get that. I was close to caving, but it had 90 minute projected wait time. We didn’t even wait that long when we rode Harry’s Forbidden Journey. There was no way I was going to wait 90 minutes to get drenched and then walk around the rest of the day with squeaking shoes. That’s the moment when the camera’s zoomed into my heart and found it was 3 sizes too small. I talk a good game but we all know who’s really calling the shots. In the end I had to make a deal to postpone my encounter with Dudley Do-Rights’ 90 minute torture chamber. How do I know it’s a torture chamber you ask? Maybe the projected wait time was inaccurate, or maybe the line is really fun like the Harry Potter ride. You think? You can skip down to Friday’s events if you’re an impatient person. Anyway the good news was I didn’t have to wait 90 minutes to get wet. The bad news was I had one disappointed daughter; in case you didn’t know, disappointed daughters aren’t very much fun.
We moped all the way to Jurassic Park. On the way I tried to sell her on the Jurassic Park River Adventure, “This ride is going to be awesome: dinosaurs, action, suspense you name it. And we’ll probably even get wet.”
“I just wanted to get wet on the log ride,” she said through a frown, her forehead scrunched up for added emphasis. She wasn’t having any of it.
“Yeah, but remember, we’re going to do that ride when we come back here on Friday or Saturday – I promise.” Hoping the last part would cheer her up.
“Ok.” She said, this time with her patented attempt at smiling while at the same time displaying extreme disappointment in her eyes. She’s 9-years-old and she’s already mastering manipulative looks. Look out future husband.
The wait for the Jurassic Park River Adventure wasn’t particularly long in actual minutes, but it sure felt like a long time. The ride itself was enjoyable, and I think given almost any other circumstances we would have appreciated it a lot more. As it was it became the buffer ride we needed to get past the disappointment in Toon Lagoon.
The best news after that was the fact that Hogsmeade is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the river adventure. And what better place to cheer up than that wonderful wizarding world. It was getting late in the day, around 5:00 pm when we walked into Hogsmeade. This is when we learned a valuable secret about Islands of Adventure: the lines are a lot shorter at the end of the day than they are at the beginning. We strolled past the main entrance to Hogwarts castle, all the way through the greenhouse, and found the end of the line right at the second entrance to the castle. Score! Nothing cheers up disappointed spirits like short lines. When we were done in the castle we tried to prove our theory about the end of the day short lines and it held true – the Dragon Challenge ride line was even shorter.
Feeling downright saucy now, we wandered over to the Three Broomsticks to see what it was like inside. We ordered 1 butterbeer and 1 frozen butterbeer, found a table tucked away in the corner next to a huge wall filled with antlers, sat down and laughed at each other taking turns making butterbeer mustaches.
We made silly jokes like “Got butterbeer?” Then licked the butterbeer cream off our lips and did it again. It was, um, magical. I’m not sure if it was a really great drink or the fact that we were drinking it inside the Three Broomsticks, it just doesn’t matter. Our mood had changed for the better.
We made silly jokes like “Got butterbeer?” Then licked the butterbeer cream off our lips and did it again. It was, um, magical. I’m not sure if it was a really great drink or the fact that we were drinking it inside the Three Broomsticks, it just doesn’t matter. Our mood had changed for the better.
While we laughed and drank our butterbeer we decided to go see what all the hubbub at Ollivanders was about. The line had died down significantly, still though, people were waiting. My wife approached one of the wizards in charge there who explained that they take in 36 people at a time and have a little experience in the wand shop. He estimated the wait time to be about 30 minutes. Since the line was the shortest we’d seen it all day we decided to wait.
When we finally got in the door my daughter was chosen by Ollivanders’ assistant to participate in the demonstration. He handed her a wand and told her to summon the ladder propped against the wall. “Accio ladder.” She said. A bunch of boxes of wands on the shelves went haywire popping in and out, but the ladder stayed put. He handed her a second wand then told her to simply swish her wrist and ring a single bell on the wall above us. She flicked her wrist and all the bells started ringing. “That’s no good.” He said. Then he asked her, “When is your birthday?” After her reply he thought out loud, “I have one more wand for you to try it’s a 12-inch, made of holly, with a unicorn core. It’s very unique, but it might be …” he trailed off looking for the wand on the shelves. He found the box he was looking for, opened it and handed her the wand. As soon as she touched it it was clear the wand had chosen her – as if a light from the heavens shown down upon her. The grin on her face showed more excitement than I’ve ever seen before. My daughter was happy again. Yahoo!
When we finally got in the door my daughter was chosen by Ollivanders’ assistant to participate in the demonstration. He handed her a wand and told her to summon the ladder propped against the wall. “Accio ladder.” She said. A bunch of boxes of wands on the shelves went haywire popping in and out, but the ladder stayed put. He handed her a second wand then told her to simply swish her wrist and ring a single bell on the wall above us. She flicked her wrist and all the bells started ringing. “That’s no good.” He said. Then he asked her, “When is your birthday?” After her reply he thought out loud, “I have one more wand for you to try it’s a 12-inch, made of holly, with a unicorn core. It’s very unique, but it might be …” he trailed off looking for the wand on the shelves. He found the box he was looking for, opened it and handed her the wand. As soon as she touched it it was clear the wand had chosen her – as if a light from the heavens shown down upon her. The grin on her face showed more excitement than I’ve ever seen before. My daughter was happy again. Yahoo!
Behind the scenes: after the wand chose my daughter one of the shop helpers, he might have been a muggle, whisked her away into another wand shop next door; that’s where everyone is herded to view wands they can purchase, thus vacating the room for the next 36. I ran to catch up, not wanting to lose sight of her. As they crossed through the doorway he leaned over and asked her, “So, do you wanna buy that wand?” Her head bounced up and down, “Yes!”
Now, I don’t mean to complain, but come on, like she’s gonna say no, after all that. The going rate for wands these days is $30 whether it chooses you or you choose it. Well played Ollivander, it was worth every penny. I actually ended up getting myself a wand too, I just couldn’t resist – if you herd me, I will buy. I should print that on a t-shirt. There were so many wands to choose from it was hard to decide on just one. I liked Sirius Black’s and Neville Longbottom’s, but how could I resist Dumbledore’s wand – the lure of the Elder Wand was too compelling. I’m admiring it right now as I write this. Thanks JK Rowling, for all the memories.
Nothing could top our experience at Ollivanders – it was the highlight of the whole trip. I think we rode the Dragon Challenge a couple more times then on the way out we rode the Hulk and Spider-Man. But all we could think about was the wand that chose my daughter. And the best part? She only attempted two killing curses on the way back to our hotel. Daddy's little girl is growing up, way too fast.
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