Peter's Very Merry 10th Birthday Vacay About This Page:

[chezp]

Great photos of the castle! I'm glad the early start worked out for you.

[KMB733]

Great start to your TR!!!! Looking forward to more WWoHP!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of WWoHP!

[disney_duke]

Oooh, what a great start!! Can't wait to hear more about Hogsmeade. Thanks for posting the info about the times, I've been curious about that. We're staying off-site too (in May) so I wondered about how long the wait time will be. 30-45 isn't bad at all. Especially considering most of that time will be spent with my eyes wide open and jaw dropped as I take in all the details of the castle!

[stardust190]

Glad you started! What a nice way to start off your trip! WWoHP always looks fun whenever I read about it. Maybe we'll make it there someday.

[Cam22]

You all did a great job of starting early! your pictures of Hogwarts!

[kingfamily1129]

Great pics of the castle at WWoHP!! I'm glad you still got your early morning start even with the ticket mishap! What were the boys reactions when they first saw the castle?

[valegirl5292]

Great pictures of the castle, pretty good timing getting to IOA by 7. My kids have asked several times if we could go to US and IOA while we are at Disney, will have to keep in mind Quicksilver for transportation.

[Dlandmom2]

Great start, and great photos! My daughter insists that our next trip to WDW include a trip to WWoHP, and I'm completely fine with that...but still I worry about the crowds. It doesn't sound like the holiday crowds impacted you a lot for your ride on Forbidden Journey.

[shnewell]

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Great start! I love the view from your room!

Thanks! It was somehow comforting to always be able to see Spaceship Earth!

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Great photos of the castle!

Thank you! I took a bunch more, but tried to narrow them down for my post!

Originally Posted by chezp

Great photos of the castle! I'm glad the early start worked out for you.

Thanks, Cheryl. It was painfully early, but it worked out for the best.

Originally Posted by KMB733

Great start to your TR!!!! Looking forward to more WWoHP!!!

More to come shortly!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great pictures of WWoHP!

Thanks. It truly is amazing how much it looks like you were just dropped into the movie set!

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Oooh, what a great start!! Can't wait to hear more about Hogsmeade. Thanks for posting the info about the times, I've been curious about that. We're staying off-site too (in May) so I wondered about how long the wait time will be. 30-45 isn't bad at all. Especially considering most of that time will be spent with my eyes wide open and jaw dropped as I take in all the details of the castle!

I too was pleasantly surprised about being able to get on so quickly. Later in the day, the wait went up to 120 min.

Originally Posted by stardust190

Glad you started! What a nice way to start off your trip! WWoHP always looks fun whenever I read about it. Maybe we'll make it there someday.

WWOHP was really great. As reluctant as I was to leave the Disney bubble, we had a good time at WWOHP.

Originally Posted by Cam22

You all did a great job of starting early! your pictures of Hogwarts!

I give David all the credit for the early start. It would NOT have been my choice to get up that early!

Originally Posted by kingfamily1129

Great pics of the castle at WWoHP!! I'm glad you still got your early morning start even with the ticket mishap! What were the boys reactions when they first saw the castle?

It's funny, I don't remember an immediate reaction. We had been so focused on speedwalking over to that part of the park, and I'm not kidding when I say you pretty much just got dumped into the line for Forbidden Journey (which is inside the castle), that I think it took us all by surprise that we were suddenly there! But as we went through the queue and through Hogwarts (and later through Hogsmeade), we were all tickled about the level of detail.

Originally Posted by valegirl5292

Great pictures of the castle, pretty good timing getting to IOA by 7. My kids have asked several times if we could go to US and IOA while we are at Disney, will have to keep in mind Quicksilver for transportation.

We had used Quicksilver once before for town car transportation and we were very impressed. So when I found such a reasonable rate on the van, I was happy. If we had not had prior experience with them, I think I would have been a little worried that it was cheaper than the other guys because the quality of service or of the vehicles was sub-par. That was not the case at all -- we were VERY pleased!

Originally Posted by Dlandmom2

Great start, and great photos! My daughter insists that our next trip to WDW include a trip to WWoHP, and I'm completely fine with that...but still I worry about the crowds. It doesn't sound like the holiday crowds impacted you a lot for your ride on Forbidden Journey.

We had heard that the morning crowds were bad and that if we waited until mid-afternoon or so, everything would thin out. But we didn't want to take a chance that if we waited and it filled to capacity then we wouldn't be able to get in (plus we had a dinner ADR back at Disney!). Ultimately, I think we played our cards right by going first thing in the morning. I also think getting there 1 hour before park opening was a good call on David's part. Even though it just meant more waiting, it also meant that we were literally at the front of the throng at rope drop.

[shnewell]

After our thrilling ride on Forbidden Journey, we had to exit through a gift shop (of course). The boys saw some items they liked, but ultimately decided they wanted to look around Hogsmeade some more before making any purchasing decisions.

We went to Honeydukes and Zonkos. I bought a chocolate frog and the boys got chocolate wands. Peter also got a Cauldron Cake (chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse) and it was REALLY yummy. It was basically a chocolate cake, shaped like a cauldron, with chocolate mousse inside and a chocolate handle.



David bought a butterbeer and we all gave it a try.



David thought it wasn't too bad. I didn't care for it at all -- it was very sweet. Jacob wanted his own, so Tom got in line to get him one. Linda had bought some chocolate frogs for the boys, so they munched on those while David and I rode the Dragon Challenge (Chinese Fireball side). There was only a 5 minute posted wait time and we basically walked right on.

Jacob begins on his chocolate frog. Can I just say that I didn't expect the chocolate frogs to be so huge and SOLID chocolate?? Jacob, of course, saw this as a challenge rather than a hindrance...

We took a photo with the Hogwarts Express (sadly, the conductor wasn't there at the time) and some other photos around Hogsmeade.



continues....

[shnewell]

The boys wanted to ride Flight of the Hippogriff, so we stood in line for that for about 30 minutes. Peter and I ended up in the front car with David and Jacob right behind us. It was more fun that I first thought it would be and the kids enjoyed it. It was a lot like BTMRR in terms of thrill level.


Hagrid's Hut from the queue line of Flight of the Hippogriff


This was the best shot I could get of Buckbeak from the queue. The rollercoaster track to the right of the photo is the very beginning of the ride.

We wanted to go to Owl Post, but there was a 30 minute wait just to get into the store. The line for Ollivander's was far worse. We had expected this and so decided to bypass both.

By now, it was 10:00 a.m. and we had experienced pretty much everything we wanted to do in WWoHP. The wait time for Forbidden Journey was up to 120 minutes, so we definitely knew we wouldn't be riding that again. :

It was getting really crowded, so we gave the boys a choice: eat a super-early lunch at Three Broomsticks (after all, we had eaten breakfast an hour earlier than usual at 6:00 a.m.) and then go see the rest of IOA or leave Hogsmeade and ride some other things at IOA and eat lunch elsewhere. The crowds were pretty thick and we knew that if we exited the WWOHP area, we wouldn't want to return.

Here is a photo of Hogsmeade showing the crowd:



The kids chose Three Broomsticks. For some reason I had it in my head that this was a TS restaurant, but it was CS, so that bewildered us a little bit as we tried to quickly decide what we wanted to eat so we could place our order. The thing I found strangest was that they did not offer regular sodas. Your choices for non-alcoholic beverages were basically butterbeer and water (that didn't go over too well with my milk-loving kids or my diet soda drinking husband!). Linda and I had fish & chips, Tom had rotisserie chicken, David had rotisserie chicken and ribs, Peter had chicken nuggets and Jacob had mac & cheese. It was decent, and it was enjoyable to sit inside Three Broomsticks, which looked so much like the place in the movie.



After lunch, we headed toward Marvel Island. The boys weren’t tall enough for The Hulk, so David and I rode it (50 min. wait time). In the meantime, Tom and the boys had gotten in line for Spider Man. David and I got into the single rider line for that ride, but it ultimately didn’t save us much time because the ride broke down for about 20 minutes and nobody moved in either the SRL or the standby line. We eventually got on and I have to say it was pretty cool.

It was getting warm, so David and the boys got some Dippin’Dots and we sat in the shade while they ate. In the meantime, Linda had headed back to Owl Post to buy an owl (Hedwig) for Peter for his birthday. She met us in our shady spot, and we headed for Jurassic Park.

The boys wanted to ride the Pteradon Flyers ride, but the posted wait time was 75 min. It was 1:30 and we were scheduled to be picked up by our van at 2:30, so we didn’t have time. As an aside, the sign outside the ride specifically says that the ride lasts 80 seconds. Why anyone would stand in line for 75 minutes for an 80 second ride is beyond me!

The boys played in the Camp Jurassic play area until 2:00 and we headed for the exit. On the way out, we stopped at the gift shop to purchase the magic photo they had taken of the boys and me on the way in, which was the 3 of us with Woody Woodpecker in our hands. We got back to the van pick-up spot right at 2:30 and the van was waiting.

While I enjoyed WWoHP and the rides at Universal were fun, both David and I found ourselves constantly checking our watches wondering how much more time we had to kill until the van would come to take us back to Disney.

We collapsed on to the couch in our villa and put in the Deathly Hallows Part 2 DVD -- hey, it seemed like the obvious choice! I got sleepy, so I laid down for a nap while the boys finished watching the movie.


Up next: Finally, a Disney park!

[Dlandmom2]

Glad you were able to enjoy WWoHP. That does seem odd that more "regular" drinks weren't offered at the Three Broomsticks. I think that would be difficult for my milk/juice loving kids.

Having to kill time before the van pickup...hmm, doesn't sound like the park had much else to offer to your family. I'm still trying to decide if it will be worth it to spend a night or two at a US hotel so we can get all the extras that come with it...or if we should stay in the Disney bubble!

Glad you're finally getting to a Disney park! Oh, was there much holiday decoration at Universal? We just went to Universal Studios Hollywood a few weeks ago, and they did have some nice holiday decorations up. Just wondering if there's a lot of holiday "magic" to be seen in their Florida counterpart.

[chezp]

Sounds like a great time at Universal!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pics from IoA! Glad you had a great time there!