The question is where do I start? Probably at the beginning, that seems best. On Thursday morning at the absolutely ass-crack of dawn (there really is no polite way of putting it, seriously it was 3AM) we got up, got ready and headed to the airport. You know it's an early flight when there is no one even at the desk yet to check your bags. So anyway, we're up super early and waiting for our plane at the gate, it's about a half hour until we are scheduled to depart, so I took a Xanax, yeah, I'm a nervous flier. I'm telling you this because it didn't kick in until about a half an hour into the flight, which was a half an hour too long for me because we experienced some turbulence. After nearly breaking Andy's hand I couldn't take it anymore and decide another pill was needed, which means I don't remember too much from Atlanta to Orlando, but it's probably better that way.
We arrived in Orlando about 10:30 and we hit the ground running. I am telling you what, the pills wore off and I was ready to go. We caught a taxi to Universal Islands of Adventure to go check out Harry Potter Land leaving our luggage to be safely delivered to our room at Disney thanks to some very convenient tags. We got to Universal and I was nearly dragging Andy to the back of the park where the Harry Potter portion was located, I had to remember that he had never been there before and we had the time to slow down and take a look at everything.
Fresh off a flight at Suess-Landing
Finally, oh, finally, we were in Hogsmead and it blew my mind. I felt like I was walking into the pages of my favorite story, like someone had taken images from my own mind and created them in reality. I must say, if you are a fan of the movies or books this is just a must see. It was fabulous. We walked the stores and streets just admiring everything, which was really all that I desired to do. I only wanted to ride the ride in Hogwarts which is the only ride we did, thankfully because that was nausea inducing, worth it but we were both very sick afterward. After the ride, we hit up Ollivander's to get my wand, because I am that much of a nerd. That experience was really cool. However, I think that the design engineers behind that idea could have expanded the shop a wee bit and had more than one person handle the wand choosing. As it is right now, you wait (depends on the time of day, we waited about 30 minutes) go into Ollivander's with a group and only one of you gets the wand choosing experience. I think they could have had about 10 stations to do the same thing and let a few more kids have that special experience. (If you are reading this Universal Design Engineer people, please find a way to expand that shop) After Ollivander's we hit up the Three Broomsticks for some yummy lunch, I had roasted chicken and Andy had a Shepard's pie, he sampled the Hog's brew and I had a frozen butterbeer, which was tasty. After that we bought any other little trinkets that we wanted and walked through the rest of the park. We ended up spending probably about 4 hours there total.
(from top to bottom: Gates of Hogsmead, Hogsmead, Gates of Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Me in a Ravenclaw Robe, Ollivander's Wand Choosing, Zonko's, Three Broomsticks, Me with a tasty butterbeer)
We then hopped in a taxi and took our exhausted selves to our hotel Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Once we got there all Andy had to do was flash his I.D. and we got our welcome packet and keys and headed to our room, where our suitcases had already been delivered. We then headed to the food court to see my parents for a minute and grab a drink then we decided to take an hour nap and try to catch dinner with them. I'm so glad we had dinner with my parents that night because it was fabulous. They had reservations at Le Cellier Steakhouse in Canada at EPCOT. It was fabulous. I ended up having a fillet (only the second steak I have ever eaten in my entire life, but it was to die for) with cream cheese mashed potatoes, for dessert a s'mores brownie sundae. Uh-maz-ing!!! Best part, it was basically free because we were on the Disney Dining Plan which was free with our stay at Port Orleans. We scored a major deal with that, and honestly, highly recommend adding and paying for the plan to anyone going to Disney, it's really easy and more than enough food. After that meal, Andy and I were basically ready to pass out, so we headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.
Gosh, writing it all out makes me tired, I have no idea how we did all that. Anywho, I have pictures for all of this but I need to format them into blogger, which always takes time. I'll let you know when I add pictures in, promise.
In other news, I got a job at the library!!! Isn't that fantastic? Now I just need another job and I'll be set, but I'll fill you in on all that later.
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