Our plan was to hit Wizarding World early again and then move over to Universal Studios at opening time of 9am. So we caught the first boat to Citywalk, grabbed coffee and bagels for breakfast and lined up at Islands of Adventure ready for the 7.30am hotel guest opening.
Sam didn't want to ride Forbidden Journey again, so he and Alex lined up for Ollivander's while the rest of us went back to the Castle. This time I smuggled my small camera in but it was hard to capture a lot of the details.
The Mirror of Erised
Herbology class
Inside the castle
Dumbledore's office
Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom
Harry, Ron and Hermione
Gryffindor common room
The Sorting Hat
The ride was great the second time around as I picked up on different things that I hadn't noticed the day before. After the ride we joined Alex and Sam in the Ollivander's line. They were pretty close to the front so we only waited a few minutes.
When we were let in we went right to the front and stood at the counter.
The Wizard pottered around a bit until everyone was inside
and then he came around behind the counter and chose Emily to get a wand! He measured her first
and then she tried a few different wands
until the right one finally chose her
From there we filed into Dervish and Banges which was so crowded that we could barely move. The boys chose wands and we picked up a few postcards. Luckily the monster book wasn't for sale!
We visited Honeydukes and bought Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and then headed out via The Lost Continent exit, admiring Hermione's Ball dress
and checking out Hogsmeade train station on the way.
We left Islands of Adventure and walked next door to Universal Studios, passing through the gates just after 9am. We went directly to the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit as that was the only ride where we couldn't use our Universal Express. The line was around 15 minutes at that stage, but when we got off the kids wanted to ride again but it was already up to 60 minutes! We weren't lining up for that long, so we walked through Hollywood, checking out the old movie cars on the way.
We met Bart Simpson outside The Simpsons ride.
Even though our Universal Express passes got us to the front of the line, we still waited around 30 minutes for The Simpsons Ride as it kept breaking down. I would have skipped but the kids were keen to ride, so we waited. From there we walked around to World Expo and rode Men in Black and then it was on to San Francisco/Amity and JAWS.
We all did Disaster! and then Alex and Sam sat out while I took the others on Revenge of The Mummy and then we all experienced Twister. We were ready for our afternoon break by that stage so we went back out to CityWalk and had lunch at NBA City
before walking back to the hotel for an afternoon at the pool.
That evening we walked back down to Hogsmeade for dinner at The Three Broomsticks. The wait was 20 minutes so Alex took the kids for a spin on Flight of the Hippogriff while I waited in the line.
After a dinner of fish and chips and butterbeer
we checked out the Hogs Head
and had a last look around
We still hadn't caught the Frog Choir or Triwizard Spirit Rally, so Sammy and I sat down to wait for the next show while Alex took the others on Dragon Challenge.
The Frog Choir were awesome! The others had finished Dragon Challenge when they came out and the woman that introduced them spotted Harry and his red hair in the crowd and she was all "oh we have a Weasley here, how are things at The Burrow?". He was all embarrassed!
After the Frog Choir it was time for the Triwizard Spirit Rally who also put on a really good show.
The boys from Durmstrang
and the Beaux Batons ladies
It was then time to leave Hogsmeade. We'd really enjoyed our time there.
One last shot of the castle
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