Orlando
I have a few other trip posts to write soon, but let’s get on with the one you all care about - after years of talking about it, missile_envy and I finally went together to Universal in Orlando and the two Harry Potter parks. She’d been to Hogsmeade before, but not Diagon Alley, and I hadn’t been to either park before.
First up, I did a bit of work. Which wasn’t that bad, and it gave me an extra evening in Florida because I could justify flying down early enough in the day to have meetings (which means in time for dinner after the meetings).
We had a lovely dinner at Portofino. Having an unhealthy love for the Liguria region of Italy, I have always wanted to stay at the Portofino hotel when I went to Universal. I couldn’t afford it this time (because of a subsequent trip to Turkey, immediately after Orlando, but more on that later). Through the course of figuring out what to do for dinner and lamenting that we weren’t staying there, missile_envy had the brilliant idea that we could go over there for dinner and still enjoy the scenery. I have no idea why I hadn’t thought of that! So we went over, and after a drink at Bar American, we went to Mama Della's Ristorante. I had the Pasta e Fagioli (always one of my favorites), and the Branzino del Mediterraneo (also always one of my favorites). Mama Della's Ristorante was fantastic! It was exactly what we wanted! A great atmosphere, and delicious food.
And then the next morning it was off to Universal. Not being observant, we did not know that one park opened before the other, so after much planning, we reversed our plan, and started out at Diagon Alley. It was spectacular! As we were approaching through Springfield (Simpsons), all of a sudden there was a view across the water of The Knight Bus and London. And then…. through the portal to Diagon Alley we went! It was so amazing. I love, love, love these type of themed areas, where every single millimeter is decked out to the theme ---- and having that theme be Harry Potter ---- it was just more than I could have ever expected!
Due to our early arrival, we went on the Escape from Gringott’s ride, which later had about a two hour wait, but we had about 15 minutes. The ride itself I could do without, but that’s typical for me - I’m not much of a ride person - but the entry to it was unexpectedly awesome! It was Gringotts - and so spectacularly realistic! After tackling that, the other park, which we had planned to go to first, was open. So we took the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade. What an amazing experience! Again, we got lucky on the timing, because later this trip was prohibitively long of a wait time, but you enter from “London” and then go through the portal between platform 9 and 10 and come out…. On Platform 9 3/4! Amazing! The train ride is different in each direction, and pretty cool.
Hogsmeade was amazing - walking up to the castle! I mean!!! I can’t even *squee* enough to do that justice. We took the “castle tour” - i.e. walk through Hogwarts without going on the ride (which saved us the 90 minute wait), before deciding to venture down to explore every shop and area in town. We did the wand selection, and I didn’t buy a wand, but would have bought Victor’s - we tried out every one. Surprisingly Hermione’s did not feel right in my hands! We had Butterbeer! We looked at every nook and cranny!
And then we walked through the rest of that park - Universal Islands of Adventure. The Doctor Soos area was pretty awesome, I must say. And we did a few of the other rides. The other area I geeked out about was the Marvel superheroes area. I’m not a super huge fan, and didn’t grow up reading the comics, but even I got a little bit tingly when walking into Gotham!
And then back to Hogsmeade for lunch at the Three Broomsticks! missile_envy and I both had gotten the meal passes, and I was a bit worried because I’m rarely ready for a big meal when going to parks like this - I like to munch and snack my way through. So somewhere while walking around we had finally come to the brilliant conclusion that we could each get a meal at different places and split both of them, thus experiencing both major HP eateries, and more conducive to my eating pace. So, we split the shepherd's pie at the Three Broomsticks, which really was quite tasty. And tried the Pumpkin Juice (I didn’t love that, but wasn’t expecting to either). Then also did one of the unique themed beers at the Hog's Head pub!
And then we went back to Diagon Alley via the Hogwarts Express! This time we looked around more, finding Knockturn Alley, which was super cool! And just took our time wandering around the stores in Diagon Alley. They were amazing. I really don’t even know how to describe it other than use of a lot of superlatives. Every best thing from the movies and books combined and realized in a way you can walk around.
After a second lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, consisting of a Ploughman’s plate (cheese, bread, salad) and more unique beer, Gilly Water, and firewhiskey, we ventured out again to see the rest of the park. Universal Studios… I didn’t understand much of it - it seems to just be movie set like, with not much to do. But Springfield (the Simpsons) was super cool. We had some Duff beer at Moe’s Tavern, and explored much of Springfield, before they were closing the park early for a special Halloween evening. So we went back to Island of Adventure, and Hogsmeade, to buy some items at Honeydukes that we didn’t want to drag around all day. And then that was it - one last look around. It was delightful!
The next day we went to Epcot, where they were having a food and wine festival. We hadn’t planned that - but were super excited about it once we figured it out. So we ate and drank our way around the world! Plus got a bonus Pointer Sisters concert!
What I had from the food and wine festival:
After that, missile_envy and I knew we would want to lay low for the weekend (when the kids would be at the park in even greater numbers), so we got a hotel with a lazy river, and ventured out to watch some football each day. It was exactly what we wanted/needed. (We may have each read some fanfiction at night while falling asleep also....)
A great vacation with a great friend!
First up, I did a bit of work. Which wasn’t that bad, and it gave me an extra evening in Florida because I could justify flying down early enough in the day to have meetings (which means in time for dinner after the meetings).
We had a lovely dinner at Portofino. Having an unhealthy love for the Liguria region of Italy, I have always wanted to stay at the Portofino hotel when I went to Universal. I couldn’t afford it this time (because of a subsequent trip to Turkey, immediately after Orlando, but more on that later). Through the course of figuring out what to do for dinner and lamenting that we weren’t staying there, missile_envy had the brilliant idea that we could go over there for dinner and still enjoy the scenery. I have no idea why I hadn’t thought of that! So we went over, and after a drink at Bar American, we went to Mama Della's Ristorante. I had the Pasta e Fagioli (always one of my favorites), and the Branzino del Mediterraneo (also always one of my favorites). Mama Della's Ristorante was fantastic! It was exactly what we wanted! A great atmosphere, and delicious food.
And then the next morning it was off to Universal. Not being observant, we did not know that one park opened before the other, so after much planning, we reversed our plan, and started out at Diagon Alley. It was spectacular! As we were approaching through Springfield (Simpsons), all of a sudden there was a view across the water of The Knight Bus and London. And then…. through the portal to Diagon Alley we went! It was so amazing. I love, love, love these type of themed areas, where every single millimeter is decked out to the theme ---- and having that theme be Harry Potter ---- it was just more than I could have ever expected!
Due to our early arrival, we went on the Escape from Gringott’s ride, which later had about a two hour wait, but we had about 15 minutes. The ride itself I could do without, but that’s typical for me - I’m not much of a ride person - but the entry to it was unexpectedly awesome! It was Gringotts - and so spectacularly realistic! After tackling that, the other park, which we had planned to go to first, was open. So we took the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade. What an amazing experience! Again, we got lucky on the timing, because later this trip was prohibitively long of a wait time, but you enter from “London” and then go through the portal between platform 9 and 10 and come out…. On Platform 9 3/4! Amazing! The train ride is different in each direction, and pretty cool.
Hogsmeade was amazing - walking up to the castle! I mean!!! I can’t even *squee* enough to do that justice. We took the “castle tour” - i.e. walk through Hogwarts without going on the ride (which saved us the 90 minute wait), before deciding to venture down to explore every shop and area in town. We did the wand selection, and I didn’t buy a wand, but would have bought Victor’s - we tried out every one. Surprisingly Hermione’s did not feel right in my hands! We had Butterbeer! We looked at every nook and cranny!
And then we walked through the rest of that park - Universal Islands of Adventure. The Doctor Soos area was pretty awesome, I must say. And we did a few of the other rides. The other area I geeked out about was the Marvel superheroes area. I’m not a super huge fan, and didn’t grow up reading the comics, but even I got a little bit tingly when walking into Gotham!
And then back to Hogsmeade for lunch at the Three Broomsticks! missile_envy and I both had gotten the meal passes, and I was a bit worried because I’m rarely ready for a big meal when going to parks like this - I like to munch and snack my way through. So somewhere while walking around we had finally come to the brilliant conclusion that we could each get a meal at different places and split both of them, thus experiencing both major HP eateries, and more conducive to my eating pace. So, we split the shepherd's pie at the Three Broomsticks, which really was quite tasty. And tried the Pumpkin Juice (I didn’t love that, but wasn’t expecting to either). Then also did one of the unique themed beers at the Hog's Head pub!
And then we went back to Diagon Alley via the Hogwarts Express! This time we looked around more, finding Knockturn Alley, which was super cool! And just took our time wandering around the stores in Diagon Alley. They were amazing. I really don’t even know how to describe it other than use of a lot of superlatives. Every best thing from the movies and books combined and realized in a way you can walk around.
After a second lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, consisting of a Ploughman’s plate (cheese, bread, salad) and more unique beer, Gilly Water, and firewhiskey, we ventured out again to see the rest of the park. Universal Studios… I didn’t understand much of it - it seems to just be movie set like, with not much to do. But Springfield (the Simpsons) was super cool. We had some Duff beer at Moe’s Tavern, and explored much of Springfield, before they were closing the park early for a special Halloween evening. So we went back to Island of Adventure, and Hogsmeade, to buy some items at Honeydukes that we didn’t want to drag around all day. And then that was it - one last look around. It was delightful!
The next day we went to Epcot, where they were having a food and wine festival. We hadn’t planned that - but were super excited about it once we figured it out. So we ate and drank our way around the world! Plus got a bonus Pointer Sisters concert!
What I had from the food and wine festival:
- (cheese studio) Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc
- (wine studio) Trio of Cheeses: Karst Cave-aged cheese with honey, La Bonne Vie Goat Cheese with Craisin Bread, Rogue Creamery Oregon Blue Cheese with Berry-Port Compote
- (New Zealand) Seared Venison Loin with Wild Mushroom Marsala Sauce and Kumara Dumpling
- (New Zealand) Nobilo Icon Pinot Nior
- (China) Chicken Pot Stickers
- (China) Francis Ford Coppola Su Yuen Riesling
- (Poland) Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi with Caramalized Onions and Sour Cream
- (Poland) Donausonne Blaufraenkisch
- (Japan) Spicy Hand Roll: Tuna and Salmon with Kazan Volcano Sauce
- (Canada) Inniskillin Vidal Icewine
After that, missile_envy and I knew we would want to lay low for the weekend (when the kids would be at the park in even greater numbers), so we got a hotel with a lazy river, and ventured out to watch some football each day. It was exactly what we wanted/needed. (We may have each read some fanfiction at night while falling asleep also....)
A great vacation with a great friend!