Universal - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Florida Day 2)

One of the things that was definitely on our "to do" list while we were in Florida was going to Universal Studios to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We had been wanting to go since it opened, and this trip seemed like the perfect time to go. We spent our second day at Universal Studios.



The park was pretty incredible. It really did feel like we were walking into Hogsmeade.



All of the buildings are "snow" capped to give it a feeling of winter. It helped that it was overcast all day...it probably would've been a little hard to believe it had it been super sunny and/or hot. But the weather was quite lovely.



The whole place looked just like the movies, and it was just a lot of fun to feel like we were actually visiting Hogwarts. Yeah, we're nerds, and proud of it!



The castle houses a very cool ride that is unlike anything I've ever been on before. It's hard to describe, so I won't even attempt to do it on here, but suffice to say, it was pretty incredible.



Inside the castle there were so many little touches from the books/movies that made it so much fun to just look around.



They also had a lot of the shops from the books/movies that you could visit. We bought some candy from Honeydukes, ate at the Three Broomsticks, and Justin got a wand from Ollivander's (actually, I think we purchased it in Dervish and Banges).



We spent a lot of our time in the Wizarding World, even though it isn't very big. In fact, you've just seen pretty much all of it... We rode the Dragon roller coaster several times, drank Butterbeer (so delicious!), had some Pumpkin Juice - which Boston loved, and spent time wandering through the shops.

The Wizarding World is definitely not the only site at the Islands of Adventures. There are several different areas. Most of the rest of the park is geared towards the older crowd with a lot of coasters and other rides. Definitely not kid-friendly (which is completely fine). We enjoyed the roller coasters (The Hulk was AMAZING!) but found that we weren't as interested in the rest of the park.

There was one area of Islands of Adventures that was a little more geared toward kids, and that was a Dr. Seuss world. It had a few different kids rides including a "Caroseussal". I really wanted Boston to have a chance to ride it, and I am glad I did!



He LOVED it! I could not believe how excited he was about getting on the carousel. Then, once we got on, he just sat there, kind of stunned. He didn't let me know he was particularly enoying himself in any way. He just sat, very quietly on his animal and just watched everything around us. It wasn't until the ride was over, and I was taking him off that he started to really protest. It was obvious at that point that he WAS having a good time, and he didn't want it to end. So, I did what any good, first-time parent would do, I got right back in line and let him ride it again :)

And thus ends the second day. We were so happy that we were able to visit the Wizarding World as well as the rest of the Islands of Adventures. Onto day three!