I'm Sorry Mickey!

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a Walt Disney World junkie. I love it there. There is just so much to experience for everyone at any age. I like the different parks, the attractions, the hotels, pools, and great restaurants. This one time, I allowed myself to be seduced into going to Universal with the promise of the Harry Potter attractions. I'm sorry Mickey. I tried not to spend much (although the $121/per person fee for both sides of Universal and Islands of Adventure for one day was gasp-worthy), I tried not to enjoy it. Really. I. Did. But, Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey is just the most incredible ride I have ever been on. Ever. I'm sorry Mickey, really I am!

We arrived bright and early and Matt graciously sprang for the valet parking. Hey anything that helped save my knees even a little was most welcome. We started on the Universal side with a few pictures with some characters.

Although I'm not much of a Simpsons fan, this ride was very cool and definitely began the technology that would be used in the Forbidden Journey. Definitely worth doing this one.

ET wasn't open yet when we started, so we did Jaws and Twister. They're okay, a little dated perhaps, but hey, we walked onto every ride in these parks except for the Forbidden Journey. That definitely works for me. Since Jaws is one of Brent's favorite movies we couldn't resist this pic.

Over in Islands of Adventure you find the water rides, the roller coasters (okay, the Hulk was really a great coaster), and the kiddie stuff.

At Matt's suggestion, we had a wonderful lunch at Mithros. It was like eating in a cave. Very cool! Then it was on to Harry Potter. While I absolutely loved the Forbidden Journey, it seems to me that this area wasn't thought out very well. Although I loved Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms, they didn't take into account the high powered hand dryers that would drown out everything in that cavernous echo chamber and poor Myrtle's moaning sounded like just another kid screeching. Many of the "shops" are just store fronts, not real shops and the real shops are waaaay waaaaay too small for the crowd. Olivanders had a huge line and even the main gift shop was tiny. What were they thinking? You can see from one of the pics below that this area was quite crowded.

We couldn't resist a butter beer even though it wasn't really beer. It had a head, and it tasted like a butterscotchy birch beer. Very sweet.

Regardless, when Kera asked what was the one highlight of our trip, I would have to say it was most definitely Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey. I'm soooo sorry Mickey!