Universal Orlando Trip - Day 2, Part 1: Harry Potter and Jurassic Park

Today we set off for Islands of Adventure.  The park opened at 9am, but guests staying on-site get one hour early access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section - another perk of staying with Universal.

Fun with mirrors

Good morning Orlando

We didn't rush and made it over to the park around 8:30am.  The sky was overcast with rain in the forecast - perfect.  The weather or threat of weather kept the temperature and crowds down the whole time we were there; we couldn't have asked for better.

Park Map

Map map

Park guide

We got to the park, had our tickets and fingerprints scanned, and headed to the right toward Hogsmeade.  As we made our way around to the Dr. Seuss area, they had a checkpoint where you had to show your room key to go further.  We did, then followed the roped off path on to our destination.

And what a destination!  As I said in the previous post, this area and its counterpart in the other park are nothing short of incredible.  The overcast sky helped set the mood.

Welcome to Hogsmeade

Hogwarts Castle.  Pictures can't do it justice.

There's danger ahead at Hogwarts.  The view from the Flight of the Hippogriff queue.

The entrance to Hogwarts and the queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

The queue for the ride takes you through Hogwarts Castle's passageways, a lecture room, Dumbledore's office, and a conservatory.  The passageways are sometimes lined with moving, talking portraits just like in the films, in a simple but amazing effect causing them to look exactly like paintings come to life.  A projected Dumbledore spoke to us in his office, and Harry, Hermione and Ron were projected in the lecture hall.  As we wound through the queue in the hall, Hermione miscast a spell and physical snow started to fall in the room!

Outside Dumbledore's office

The line was incredibly short - only 10 minutes and half of that was just walking through the queue - and the last set piece before the station was an excellently-done animatronic sorting hat...sorting us out I guess.  Then we boarded our levitating benches (yes) and were off on our adventure.  On the way we were assaulted by a dragon, giant spiders, a whomping willow tree, and dementors as we flew this way and that through a mix of filmed projections and live sets and props.  At the end we were happily exhausted (and just a little bit queasy - take something for motion sickness if you're prone).

 

It really is incredible in person

After our fantastic Forbidden Journey we rode the kiddie coaster Flight of the Hippogriff where we waited 15 minutes while they added a train and repeatedly heard a recording of Hagrid exclaim "Hippogriffs!  Beautiful aren't they?"  I would continuously say this to Todd for the rest of the trip:

Me:  I was just thinking...

Todd:  About what?

Me:  Hippogriffs.  They're so beautiful aren't they?

And it continued on Snapchat (spelled wrong at the time, I know)

Next we rode the blue side of the dual Dragon Challenge definitely-not-kiddie coasters ("Each dragon's 2-minute and 25-second flight includes several inversions, including a zero-g roll, a Cobra roll, two corkscrews, and two vertical loops"), and that did Todd in for a while.  So we slowly walked toward the Jurassic Park section as it started to sprinkle.

"Welcome, to Jurassic Park"

We stopped for a quick bio break and it was lightly but steadily raining when we exited the bathroom.  Since we were already getting wet it was a perfect time to ride the Jurassic Park River Adventure and get splashed.  Of course the rain stopped as soon as the boat left the station.

Todd, soaked, after the Jurassic Park River Adventure.  He was on the side, I was in the middle.  I stayed pretty dry. :)

A huge splash, but not too bad inside the boat.

Afterward we tried to ride the suspended coaster-thingy Pteranodon Flyers...

...but were told we couldn't because it was just for kids.  Who knew?  Look, there it goes.

Coming up in the next post: Skull Island - Reign of Kong!