Wizarding World Photos

Wizarding World of Harry Potter, November, 2011

DISCLAIMER: If you are not fully cognizant of the HP franchise, you will not get a lot out of this.  Just look at the photos and move on….

            Hank and I motored over to Orlando with Valerie Jensen for a special celebration deal at Universal Studios.  The occasion was the release of the last HP film on DVD for the public, and Universal had prepared a series of special events.  They offered two packages for the weekend, a premium and a regular; the premium sold out within a half hour!  Even though we weren’t in the most favored group, we still managed a very good stay, as I shall relate.

            The trip was relatively uneventful; we played tag with a cold front all the way from Texas, so we were in and out of rain both days of driving, and our first day at HP World was definitely jacket weather.  The rest of the time it was in the 80s.  Same thing happened on the way home; we hit a good bit of rain, particularly at Mobile, but once in Texas, things were dry again.

            Arriving in Orlando was a breeze; couldn’t believe how light the traffic was.  We popped off the interstate, made three right turns, and were at our hotel.  The Doubletree was across the street from the entrance to the Universal Complex, and even though it was a 20 minute stroll from door to actual door, it was a lovely walk through gardens and water features.  We checked in, dumped the Hankster for a nap, and Valerie and I headed over to case the joint.  We picked up our package set of tickets, but couldn’t enter HP World until the next day, so we wandered around “City Walk” which is a complex of restaurants, clubs, and shops lining the path into the actual park.  We headed back eventually to the hotel, grabbed Mr. G for a light meal at the bar downstairs, and headed up for an early night.

            Two of us had trouble sleeping (adrenaline was almost tangible) so we were up in the wee hours, ready to go.  Mr. Gupton was, of course, confused as to why we had to be there in the first place, but managed to cope and walk over with us.  As we moved through City Walk, we stopped long enough for a photo op of Hank surfing. We entered the complex at about 8:30. (Our special passes allowed all Potter nuts to get in before the park actually opened.  Park personnel blocked all the entrances to every other section, funneling us directly to the back and to HP World – as if we would have gone anywhere else…)

            First sight through the trees (well, the jungle – HP World is separated from Jurassic Park by a change in vegetation from tropical to Scottish firs) was the castle.  It’s enough to stop you in your tracks, and did a good job, judging from the bottleneck of cameras.  The bridge crossing over into Hogsmeade (the village) and Hogwarts (the castle/school) was a perfect photo op, and all day, everyday, people were clogging the bridge to take advantage of it.  The photos here don’t do it justice; it’s colossal, and looks absolutely authentic, not to mention true to the films. 

            But we already had a plan, and the castle was #2 on the list.  We dashed into Hogsmeade to line up for Ollivander’s Wand Shop.  Thanks be to Adrienne, who told us about this!  After a short wait, about 20 of us were ushered into the dark interior, and greeted by the wand master himself.  He selected a darling 10 year old boy in Hogwarts vest and tie to become the chosen one.  Ollivander, using his skill from centuries of trying wands on young wizards, then attempted to discern the right wand for this boy (The wand always chooses its owner, of course, but Ollivander is pretty prescient by now).  The lad’s first try broke a bookcase; the second rang all the bells all over the room.  But the third caused a rush of air, light broke through on him from above, and he stood in awe with just the right wand in his hand.  We were then escorted through the door to Dervish and Banges, where we could all get our own wands or move on out.

            We chose to hustle to the castle, for the Forbidden Journey ride.  This was our first indication that the Hankster might not have the best weekend.  They have set up seats for the ride outside to try out, and if you don’t get the arms down on the seat, you can’t ride.  Mr. G didn’t have a chance – it didn’t even click once, and it had to click three times.  However, because he wasn’t riding, we got to go through an alternate path on the castle tour.  Before we did that, though, we faced the Locker Challenge.  Every loose item has to be stowed during the ride, and interactive computers with touch screens and finger i.d. open and close the lockers for you.  (Note to everyone: it will help to remember your locker number…).  After that, we were whisked on an elevator to the alternate route through the tour.  We watched the Hogwarts school creators (Godric Griffyndor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin) needle each other as they sat in their portrait frames. We visited Headmaster Dumbledore in his office and he told us about doing the right thing while he looked for a book that kept floating around.  We stopped at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where Harry, Hermione, and Ron snuck in using the Invisible Cloak, and worked out a deal to meet them to ride broomsticks.  Ron made it snow (he’s getting better at his spells, but still a bit dodgy, you know).

            We were almost to the ride when we were stopped by the Pink Lady, the portrait who guards the entrance to Griffyndor House.  She went on a bit, then sent us off with a roaring, “Go Griffyndor!).  Finally, the ride, but not before we tucked Mr. G into the Child Swap room to wait for us.  Valerie and I locked in, Hermione sprinkled a flying charm on us, and we were off!  Harry and Ron met us on their brooms and we started over the castle roof, but Hagrid told us to look out for one of the dragons who had broken his chain.  Sure enough, the dragon showed up, and sent us on a merry chase.  We ducked inside the roof, and could hear him scraping the tiles off and see the flames as he was passing.  We wove in and out of the castle, ending up at the Quidditch Pitch in the middle of a match.  Harry and Draco got into it, and we followed them through the inside walls, missing the beams by inches.  Then we hit a mess of Dementors, Aragog the Spider and his minions, and finally arrived back at the castle to be greeted by the students and Dumbledore.  We retrieved Gupton and headed on out, through the locker rooms into another gift shop (Filch’s Emporium).  We had to sit for a bit; Valerie was woozie, even though she had kept her eyes closed.  I had held onto my glasses with both hands, but believe me, everything moves so fast, and at such a precipitous angle, that you get disoriented very rapidly.

            Now I have to relate some of the goings on for our special weekend. The Today Show was filming at one end of the Village, effectively blocking off several special spots. Several hundred fans were roaring the whole day around that area, hoping to be on tv.  The show also usurped a lot of the usual programming that went on elsewhere, so we didn’t catch that till the next day.  There was another temporary platform set up near The Three Broomsticks restaurant in the middle of the village, and interviews were held there all day.  A third temporary platform was near the castle, with similar activity.  (I saved this bit for now)  As we came from the wand event and headed to the castle, I looked at the stage and said, “That’s a Weasley!”  Valerie came up and just then, the Weasley stepped down into the crowd, surrounded by about 20 sunglass-wearing guards.  It was RON! (aka Rupert Grint) and we just managed to be in photo shooting distance hardly more than 5 feet away.  He was obviously delighted at his reception…and after that, we became star spotters.

            After that bit of a high, we headed over to the Ride of the Hippogriff.  The lines were starting to get longer, of course; all the early special event ticket holders were by now joined with regular Potter fanatics.  I decided that there must be something to the Weasley factor; there were a larger than average number of red-heads all weekend, of all ages and color ranges.  And the clothes – tons of school robes, ties, house scarves, vests, socks and hats.  Then there were the folks that did the tee shirts.  More neat sayings than you had time to read.  It eventually got warm enough for me to whip off my jacket, and I got a lot of thumbs ups when people started reading my hand-made tee: “Chuck Norris’ Patronus is Neville Longbottom.”

            The line for the Hippogriff winds you past Hagrid’s Hut, with lots of appropriate hooty sounds and rustlings in the bushes of unknown species. Small children in line were peering into the woods, trying to get a good look at bowtruckles and such.  Getting to the ride itself, you pass by Buckbeak’s huge nest, with Buckbeak perched on it, nodding back and forth as the cars pass. The ride is a smaller roller coaster (no upside down stuff) and looks as if it’s made of wicker, with a hippogriff head stylized on the front.  Second downer for Mr. G: Valerie and I squeezed our hippy butts into one car, and Hank got his own.  Getting out after the 60 second ride took longer than the ride; Hank had me pulling him on one side and another guest pulled on t’other, heaving him out of the little cars.  You not only had to get up out of the car, you had to step up to the platform.  The Gup was not amused.

            We wandered back through the village.  Stopped for over a half hour in front of an archway guarded by security in those ways that let you know that VIPs are hiding behind.  So we waited.  We were eventually rewarded by seeing one of the directors and a producer, but unfortunately, no actors in evidence.

            We were right next door to The Three Broomsticks, and it was just about time for lunch (a very early lunch) so we headed in.  The place was mammoth, but accommodated us quite well.  Food was sort of old school British, but edible!  Got a photo op of the broomsticks inside as well as out.  They had a bar near where we sat to eat, and they had real beer on tap (as well as butterbeer – they sold that everywhere) but Hank said he didn’t want to sit and drink while we played, so we moved on.

            One of the other special programs was a series of Q&A events with some of the actors.  You never knew which ones were there at HP World until you saw them on the temp stages or at the Q&A sessions. We had tickets for the first session, and headed out of Hogsmeade over to a huge ampitheater in another section of the park.  We had to cross through Jurassic Park and the Cartoon Land areas to get there, and Hank started having trouble motivating.  We’d move 30 feet, sit 10 minutes.  Rest, repeat. Told him we’d do the session, where he could sit for an hour, then we’d take him to the hotel, since the session was on the way.  He missed some of this; we finally got him to the session, where we lined up for nearly 45 minutes before we moved into the ampitheater.  He couldn’t believe we had to line up just to leave….

            Okay, everyone sitting.  Huge screen, director chairs lined up on stage.  Preliminary video about the last day of shooting, cast and crew all crying, making speeches, hugging, very emotional stuff.  Then we find out who’s there.  The actors playing Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Cho Chang, Lavender Brown, and Bill Weasley were in our group.  So interesting to see them as grown ups, out of character, talking about their lives.  One of the most interesting stories; the actors that became Seamus and Neville went to the audition and it took a while to decide who would be Seamus and who Neville.  Cannot imagine them being switched!

Questions were asked by audience members and by people from Facebook, who were watching. The actors talked about their auditions, their fav moments in the films, their best lines, and which character they would like to be if not their own. It was grand.

            Then we left, and Hank could go no farther.  He and Valerie sat while I trucked up to the front of the park, rented a wheelchair, rolled it to the incapacitated hubby, and then pushed him up and down over bridges, in and out of weaving paths, till we got him to the front of the park.  Then we stopped to pick up our commemoratives: a set of all 8 HP films in blu-ray, and wearable pins commemorating the weekend.  Then we crossed back through City Walk, returned the wheelchair, and hailed a cab.  Got the boy ensconced in the room (by now it was almost 3:00 p.m.!) and he took a nap.  We, of course, went right back!

            Oh yes, butterbeer.  Time for that most infamous subject.  In the morning, I had purchased my first. The young woman in front of me told me the frozen one (kind of a slushee) was the best, so I got it. Mind you, temp is in the 50s, wind blowing, I’m in a jacket.  I think my throat froze for half an hour.  But oh, that first sip…  It’s a butterscotch sort of flavor, and they said it had shortbread in it as well.  And there’s this sort of whipped cream stuff on top, also flavored.  Diabetic shock material, but probably worth it.  I bought my second one in the afternoon, and Val got her first; we chose the non-frozen just to check it out.  I downed mine as if I were dying of thirst in the desert; Valerie did about a third of hers, then I valiantly offered to finish it for her.  I literally couldn’t do it.  It was SO sweet, and SO filling.  Had to toss some away (now, I can sob about it…then, not so much).

            I think around now we headed for the line to get into Dervish and Banges.  And here, I need to do my grousing.  The HP books are absolutely full of neat stuff.  Stuff that could be used to great effect at HP World.  Universal has done a bang-up job of what they have, but they needed to go further.  What they have done is have, in effect, 3 rides, a couple of very brief floor shows, lots of photo ops, and TONS of shopping.  Nearly everything you watch or ride leads you directly into a shopping opportunity.  That’s fine, I get it, but oh, it could be so much more…still, judging from all the shop workers marching back and forth from their shops to the warehouses, I imagine the special celebration weekend people racked up an easy $100 grand in gross on the first day.  When school robes go for $95, and wands are in the $30 range, and all tees are $25-50, and everyone has to have one of everything, you know it’s gonna be a good day for credit cards. 

            Second grouse: the clueless people.  My husband is a great example.  He was along for the ride, but piffled out quite early, really.  HP fanatics come in all sizes, and sometimes it was the parents who were crazy for it, sometimes the kids, sometimes one of each.  Ya just need to leave the clueless at home.  We heard more people trying to figure out what the deal was, and the people they were with were trying so hard to keep positive without having to take an hour to explain, that they were losing the joy.  Like my tee shirt: having to explain a patronus to a non-fan is complicated.  Then they have to get the joke, which means they have to know Chuck Norris lore (which they usually do) and then they have to “get” Neville Longbottom.  If you are a clueless person, and have read this far, I DO apologize, and will gladly expound to you, loan you my books, share my dvds, but please don’t do it at HP World while I’m leading you around… okay, back to my blather.

            So, we’re in line to get into Dervish and Banges to shop.  That’s how big the crowds are; you line up to buy tee shirts.  The door was guarded by a very pleasant woman holding one of the Monster Book of Monsters, which growled and snapped at people as they walked by her.  She warned us there was a bigger one caged in the store, and trust me, it made people jump when it started banging on the wires of the cage.  We had a fairly short wait, and headed in.

Buying a wand is not as easy as pulling one off a shelf and heading for a cash register.  You have to test wands, see, and get the feel in your hand.  And there are a lot of helpful clerks who can guide you to the right wands for birthdays, anniversary dates, or something special, if you’ve a mind.  Valerie struck gold on her wand with her birthday.  Ash, very lovely.  I tried my birthday; wand with skull.  Tried my anniversary; different wand with skull.  Decided I’d check out Neville’s wand, and fell in love (not with Neville, I’m already a goner there).  Mine’s cherry, lovely twisted handgrip, 14”.  I’ve been “flicking and swishing” ever since.

Now let me tell you about Hogsmeade itself.  The scene is Scotland, and the setting is winter, with snow all over the roofs and crooked chimneys.  The fir trees help, but other than the cool wind the first day, you do have to realize you’re in Florida, where the temp is less than Scottish.  But the village is great, pretty much as Diagon Alley looks (although they don’t have the dark magic back alleys – yet).  Stores that are open include Ollivander’s Wand Shop, Dervish and Banges, and an open-air Owlery with a huge working (creaking) gear moving clock and lots of owls roosting on the beams (including very realistic owl poop!)  Then there are the Three Broomsticks restaurant and pub, Honeydukes Candy Shop, and Zonko’s Joke Shop.  Filch’s Emporium is up at the castle, and that’s all the open shops.  There are a bunch of shops that have window dressing, with notes on the doors about “back soon” and “out chasing bludgers” and such.  Those windows are great to look at.  The Quidditch window has the box of balls and equipment, and the balls bounce inside their chains; Gilderoy Lockhart beams in moving photo frames surrounded by his books at the book store.  A second-story music shop window has a cello that plays scales and theme music.  A mandrake screams in the window of the plant store next to one of those bulbous poisonous cacti.  The dress shop has apparel that moves and the sewing machine works itself.  Zonko’s has a great display of someone doing the Puking Pastilles. And of course, there are the Butterbeer Barrels everywhere, and street vendors selling fruit, pretzels, and other appropriate food items.

Then we have the costumed staff.  There are a variety of costumes, depending on where in the park you work, but most relate to vaguely pseudo-medieval peasant garb or Hogwarts School garb.  The train conductors look just the part of vintage Edwardian steam train gents, since they leave from London, and aren’t really part of the wizard experience. And the performers, who shall be noted later, are dressed like their roles in the movies. When you combine these folks with all the Hogwarts wannabees, you have a real atmosphere.

All of this wandering and viewing included stopping at the temporary stages to see who was on hand.  We caught Mr. Weasley and Luna doing a series of discussions at one, and the director talking at another. 

Somewhere in the early evening, Valerie and I headed back to the hotel.  She crashed and I went downstairs with my laptop and snacked.  Thus endeth the first day.

Day 2 began nearly as early, but it being Saturday in football season, I was fairly sanguine that the Gupton could manage to keep occupied with the tv and the beer and snacks we had brought with us.  So Valerie and I headed back to the alternate universe.  The media frenzy of Day 1 had disappeared, fortunately, so with the temporary stages removed, folks moved around a little better, and the space was available for the performers to do their usual shifts.  We parked ourselves at the area near the castle to watch the first show of the day, the Frog Chorus.  In one of the movies, you have an opening scene where the school’s glee club is singing “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”  The difference with other glee clubs is that the bass line is sung by 20 pound frogs, who sit on pillows that are held by the human singers.  We had a group of 4 singers and a director, with 2 frogs.  Although they were miked, I was thrilled to discover they were going to sing a capella.  They did a 15 minute show, singing some of the music from the films and breaking form to deliver a really cute rockapella number.  They perform on the half hour, and alternate with the Triwizard Pep Rally.  This program is done on the hour, and consists of the ladies from the Beaux Batons school and the Durmstrang Academy.  The ladies, in their French blue uniforms and spectator shoes, do a ribbon dance, punctuated by floaty little “ahhhhs” which was most amusing.  The Durmstrang students, in Slavic garb, performed leaps and jabs using 6 foot cudgels, and did a lot of grunting.  Part of the act consisted of them glaring at the girls while the girls simpered.  With all of these groups, there were opportunities for the audience to have photos made with them.

After that, we meandered down to the Hogwarts Express to get our photo made with the conductor.  Thrilling moment: he looked at me and said, “ah, one of the Weasleys?”  I told him I was distantly related.  And we posed and got one of the best shots of the trip. We went back to the castle, because Valerie decided that she wanted to try the ride with her eyes open.  Not such a good idea – she got off, and while I was shopping in Fitch’s, she quietly ducked behind a “staff only” sign outside and lost her breakfast.  A staff person had intended to stop her from going back there, but his kind heart allowed him to hand her a rag!

We tried to go on the Pterodactyl ride in Jurassic Park, because it was a cross between a zip line and a chair swing kind of thing.  When we got there, we were informed that adults could only ride it if they were accompanied by a child.  I told them Valerie was my daughter, but she missed the height requirement….

Then we went over to Looney Tunes again, because I needed to get something Betty Boop-ish for Elizabeth, who was home guarding dad.  That’s when I got woozie, but other than the sweats and dizziness, that was the worst of it.  We tottered on past the big auditorium and grabbed a couple of stand-by tickets for the next Q&A. From there we headed over to Dr. Seuss country.  This spot is one pastel colored fantasy, and it looks like every Seuss book you have ever read.  It was totally charming, and we patiently waited so we could ride one of its rides, a little trolley that was about 30 feet in the air.  It went in and out of the Seuss venues, talking to itself the whole time. 

Then we went back to the auditorium, and made it in time to walk straight in.  This time we had Dean, Seamus, Cho, and LUNA!  Dean said they had gone out to karaoke the previous night.  I can imagine have the crowd spent their Saturday haunting karaoke spots in the hopes the actors might show again.  Luna’s voice was just like her movie persona, and she frequently said things that made you thing she hadn’t needed to do much acting!

We went through Hogsmeade again to get to The Lost World section, and did the Poseidon’s Fury show.  Pretty cheesy – very 1970s video game kind of thing.  Headed back to Hogsmeade, where they do it right.  And just as we entered by the train, we saw another guy “do it right.”  He and his girl were posing in front of the engine, and he popped down on a knee, popped open a ring box, and the girl burst into tears, with everyone cheering and doing the photo shoot.  I told him it was brilliant!

Somewhere along here, they started setting up the red carpets for the big night event. We went into Honeydukes and Zonko’s Joke Shop, which were close by, and gazed in astonishment at the prices for the famous stuff from the movies.  A Chocolate Frog, with accompanying moving picture, went for $10, as did a very small box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Jelly Beans. (for you Muggle-types, the jelly beans can have “normal” flavors, but may also be ear wax, booger, etc.) The joke shop had the usual rubber chickens and all, as well as the little puffball pets and some other items specific to the movies.

All through the day I had been spending money at the shops.  I had fingered everything on Friday, so I knew what I needed (hah!) on Saturday.  My backpack was loaded, and I had pulled my folding cane out mid-day so I was ready to move back through City Walk.  We got as far as Bubba Gump’s, and Valerie and I ambled in for some shrimp quesadillas and some beer (well, I got the beer of course).  Then we got back to the hotel, Valerie relaxed and I took Hank downstairs for supper.  I had a bowl of soup; he had a set of mini pulled pork sandwiches followed by a plate of ribs.  It hurt just to watch!

Sunday am, Valerie and I took another stroll over to the park.  We went to the castle but just did the walk through and didn’t try the ride.  Gave us a chance to stop and take good looks at all the rooms.  Moved out of there and shopped again.

Stopped by the Hippogriff ride, and Valerie decided she wanted to try it again, so we went on, in separate cars this time, so we got our asses out  of the cars like normal people.  No motion sickness, either, which was a relief. Got better shots of Buckbeak this time, too.

This was kind of a bittersweet walk.  We didn’t want to leave, but we had pretty much done everything you could possible do.  They had a great article in the Orlando paper about the weekend and the actors, and I’m attaching it because they had some fabulous ideas for additional stuff to add to the experience.  We didn’t get to see all the actors, but it was neat to know we were in the same breathing space, and that they were just as excited to see the full-size castle as we were.  They kept mentioning it during the Q&A sessions, that it was so great to see something real, and not a blue screen to act in front of.  Anyway, we waved goodbye, checked out of the hotel, and headed on home.  Mission accomplished!