Mike and I decided to get a hotel room for one night. We stayed at the Royal Pacific Hotel. Because we did this, we were able to get Fast Passes for our entire family for two days. The fast passes are around $100 a piece depending on the day. Staying at the hotel was cheaper than buying the passes for two days. We figured that we drove across the entire country for this, we don't want to spend it in lines. I wasn't sure if this was going to be a good idea or not, because many of the Harry Potter rides don't accept fast passes. Turns out, these things were amazing! We were so glad we had them. We went on many rides that we would have not even attempted. It made the day a lot less stressful. Anyways, we started the morning by checking into the hotel and getting our picture taken for our passes. Our rooms weren't ready, but we didn't need them! We were ready to play!
Stephanie with Hello Kitty (for Abby)
Maysen and Preston rode Pteranodon Flyers first. Preston was the only one who met the height requirement and he was only allowed to take one other person. He chose Maysen. Next we went to Jurassic Park River Adventure. That was a lot of fun. Maysen really liked it. She has read the book and loved how she could see things pulled straight from the book. It was pretty fun and you didn't get extremely wet.
Preston & Mike
Man! Preston sure has an amazing scared face!
I was so excited when we finally made it to Hogsmeade! That place was amazing! So beautiful. I loved it.
Stephanie
Stephanie, Preston & Maysen
Jorja taking a picture of Mike taking our picture
Stephanie, Preston, Maysen & Stockton's head
Hogwarts!
Mike bought two frozen butterbeers for us to share. DELICIOUS!!!
Stockton, Preston, Jorja, Maysen
Next we headed to wait in line for a Harry Potter ride. We thought we were waiting in line for Flight of the Hippogriffs, which is a little kid roller coaster, but we were actually in line for the Forbidden Journey. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I loved it! The line went pretty fast and we were entertained by walking through Dumbledoor's office, watching the portraits talk to each other, seeing the Fat Lady and all sorts of cool things. When we got to the ride it was on a conveyer belt, kind of like Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. The seats were in seats of four and they hung like the Bat. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt like you were flying following Harry Potter on his broomstick. It was cool because it wasn't on a typical roller coaster track. You had no idea where you would go next. I could have ridden that ride all day. It was so much fun!
We rode the Dueling Dragons ride next. Preston was too little for that, so I stayed in the candy shop with him while the others rode it. Then Stockton and Jorja stayed with Preston while Mike, Maysen and I rode the other side. We then ate at the Three Broomsticks. We got the family feast and we ate our hearts out. Our next stop was the Hogwarts Express. I was so excited to ride this! It did not disappoint.
Stephanie, Stockton, Conductor, Preston, Maysen, Jorja
Because there were six of us in our group we got our own compartment. It was pretty cool. As you were driving, shadows of Harry, Ron and Hermione came and you could hear them talking. They would look in and say things like, "This compartment is full." It was fun.
Mike, Stephanie, Preston
Stockton & Jorja
Maysen
Hagrid photobombing
Hogwarts!
We took the Hogwarts Express to London. When we came out, it looked like Universal Studios. We were confused. We could see the Night Bus, but we thought there would be more to Harry Potter than this! Soon after we found the passageway to Diagon Alley. It was so cool back there! I can't believe this entire place is hidden. Even the Dragon on Gringotts bank! That ride was a lot of fun as well!
Diagon Alley
We made our way out of the park and headed to the hotel to get settled. We stopped by Simpsons Land and watched a pet show on our way out.
It was nice to have somewhere to escape from the heat! We had two rooms. The kids were in one, we were in another. They were connecting rooms. I was quite happy with this. We had no idea how far the kids would be from us. We unpacked and rested until we were ready to go again. We went back to the parks and stayed until everything closed. We noticed there wasn't a huge line by Olivander's wand shop. We were the only ones in our group. It was great! Maysen was the one picked to have a wand chosen. I was really happy about that. Harry Potter was more a part of Maysen's life than the others, so it was cool she got to do this. I was so excited to buy the wand that was specifically picked out for her. Until the casher told us it was $53. I was willing to pay $25, but this seems crazy! Instead we took some pictures. I wonder if Olivander ever chooses the cheeper wands when he does his demonstrations?
Maysen
There were not a lot of people in the park at the end of the day. We enjoyed that! Today was so much fun. We are all really quite tired tonight, but we are hoping to get up bright and early tomorrow and start over again!
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