One week of my rather dreary summer was spent in the exciting city of Orlando. The week was spent going to various theme parks with both my own family, and my uncle's. The one theme park I was dying to go to was Islands of Adventure, and this was for one reason: Hogwarts.
I've always been a Harry Potter fanatic upon reading the entire collection of books, as well as the movies. When I saw the commercial advertising this attraction, I knew I just had to go. I spent the long pause between now and the trip date fantasizing over what it would be like in "Hogsmeade".
Once we got our map of Islands of Adventure, I anxiously scanned for the picture of Hogwarts and informed my family that we absolutely must go there first. As soon as we reached the threshold, an overwhelming feeling of blissfulness entered my body upon seeing the stark outline of Hogsmeade right before me.
With it came a sweet smell that I automatically assumed to be the ever famous, butter beer. Without further ado, my sisters and I immediately entered the long line for the infamous drink in the Wizarding World. For a keepsake, we all went with the souvenir mug for an additional price. Something I came to realize after buying the beverage was that it was a lot more sweet than anticipated.
My little sister and I share a same dislike for extremely-sweetened food/drinks, so this was definitely not the amazing drink for which we had hoped. I managed to force the drink down to avoid my mom's acute glare while my sister could not do the same, earning herself an almost eternal, intense glare.
Next, we decided to go on the Hogwarts tour as my sister claimed, "We have to visit my future school!" And what a sight it was. Seeing as how we were overexcited, we completely skipped over the hidden meaning describing the tour, and went into the long line. So we continued on this huge, walking line inside the castle itself, going through various hallways and corridors, being sprayed with bubbles in the process.
I kept walking wondering, "Why is the line for the tour, showing the castle itself?" When we reached the end of the line itself, I got my answer. The "tour" was in reality a fun line to the ride we were never expecting. After that little surprise, I definitely understood the brochure went it said, "Go flying with Harry Potter."
The end of the ride brought us to a large gift shop which proved to be just as pricey as the rest of the theme park. This brought down all hopes of a probable Firebolt or robe. We did however get matching Gryffindor Quidditch team t-shirts, which was a bonus.
With this purchase came the end of my visit to Hogwarts, leaving me a little sad, but also brought me a determination to come again as soon as possible!
Author's Note: For those wondering, I did not do the Dragon Challenge because I refuse to go on anything that contains loops. I know it ruined the complete Harry Potter experience, but I just don't do loops.
All pictures were taken either by my little sister or I.
