Namaste Y'all!

Its Ess. This past weekend I went to Orlando, Florida for my sisters Harry Potter themed bachelorette party. We are the generation that grew up reading the books and were completely obsessed with the entire series so I was super excited to be visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Our trip was super short and we only spent one day at the park but I feel like I got the complete experience and wanted to share that with all of you and give you some tips based on my experience. 

Make sure to stop by the Knight Train and talk to Stan!

So we started the day by grabbing a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich at the coffee shop of our hotel (the Hilton Orlando). Our hotel wasn't affiliated with Universal Studios and didn't provide free shuttles to the park so we decided to take an Uber. We bought our park-to-park passes online and printed them out before we got to the park. I highly recommend that because it saves a lot of time and its cheaper that way too! We got to the park around 9:15 on Saturday morning and entered the Universal Studios entrance so we could start at Diagon Alley. Our sole purpose of this trip was to experience all things Harry Potter so we completely skipped the rest of Universal Studios. 

The Goblin in Gringotts bank actually talks to you!

Butter beer 3 ways: cold, iced, and hot!

We entered Diagon Alley through the brick entrance and it was SO realistic and I felt like I was in the book. I was feeling ALL of the emotions at this point. We started exploring all of the little shops which was super fun. The park wasn't too crowded this day so we lucked out.

The dragon blew fire every 10 minutes!

All of the staff was so friendly!

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

 After exploring Diagon Alley and doing the Escape from Gringotts ride we got a bite to eat at the Leaky Cauldron. Eating at the themed dining options was a great experience and I highly recommend it!

The Leaky Cauldron!

Getting the park-to-park pass allows you to take the Hogwarts Express train to Hogsmeade which is in the Islands of Adventure park. So after we had explored all of Diagon Alley, we went took the train to Hogsmeade and continued exploring. We did two of the three rides in Hogsmeade: The Hippogriff and the Forbidden Journey. The rides in These theme parks are awesome and they're mostly 4D rides so I would recommend it even if you're usually afraid of "roller coasters". 







Hogsmeade was much smaller than I expected so we finished with some time to spare and decided to take the Hogwarts Express back to Diagon Alley and explored a little more before heading home. We got a late dinner outside of the park. 

Some Miscellaneous tips:

1. We waited until the very end to do some souvenir shopping so we wouldn't have to lug everything around all day. 

2. Try ALL things butter beer: We tried butter beer Ice cream, Fudge, hot, iced, and normal butter beer.

3. Wear comfortable shoes and just take the bare necessities (ie. phone, wallet) with you. 

4. Put all of your things in the lockers before getting in line for a ride because they will make you go back and do it and stand at the back again!

5. Have someone record you passing through platform 9 3/4. Its so fun to watch back

6. Take a TON of photos- I was so caught up in the moment and experience that I barely took any photos and am now regretting it. Its good to soak everything in but having a photo will make that experience last forever. 

7. Stores to visit: Honeydukes, Ollivanders Wand shop, Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. (basically all of them but these were my favorite.)

Disclaimer: Sorry about the low quality photos, I only had my iPhone. 

I hope you found this post helpful, I was just so excited about the trip I HAD to share :D

Signing off
- Ess :)