Wizarding World Of Harry Potter With The Squiggle
June 26, 2010
The Squiggle FLAN (that's the Florida Local Area Network branch of the Squiggle - my romantic network) went to the new opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure in Orlando Florida. It was amazing! The section of the park is not very large, but it's completely immersive. The detail in the buildings along the street was just fantastic, the ride was great, and the butterbeer! Oh the butterbeer! It comes in frozen and "on tap", and is a non-alcoholic sweet drink based on the slightly-alcoholic drink the kids have in the books when they visit the town of Hogsmeade on school breaks.
Basically, the WWOHP section is made up to look like you have entered Hogsmeade Village, which sits at the base of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the main characters attend school. Within the village of Hogsmeade, we find the most memorable buildings from the book, such as The Three Broomsticks Inn, Zonko's Joke Shop, Honedukes candy store, Olivander's Wand Shop, Hogsmeade Owl Post Office, and Hogsmeade Station with the Hogwarts Express. It was designed by the same guy who designed the movie sets, and he said this was his chance to put his vision into 3D reality, instead of separate pieces that movie sets are. He is an actual architect too, not just a set designer, so he was also excited to build fully functioning buildings, not just movie flats. I had such a good time, and I was so impressed with the detail, that I went back again later with my good camera and did nothing but take pictures all day. Those are on another page. These pictures, however, are a mix of pictures I took and that Jessie took with Datan0de's camera.
Click on the thumbnails below to see larger images. Please do not steal these images. If you wish to copy these images, show these images on your own website or link to mine, please ask permission first.
Please let me know if your name is incorrect and/or you want a link to your website at your name, and I will fix it.
The entrance to the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, with Datan0de in front
Unfortunately, my camera's microphone died several months ago, so no audio, but you can see the Sorting Hat's mouth move. This is the last thing you see before boarding the ride
Across from The Sorting Hat is a bulletin board with a magic Newspaper