We reached Wednesday night and we had just one day before all festivities start.
The choice was between Universal Studio and Disney land.
I thought I can do Disneyland in Florida but LA seems to be hub for Sci-Fi movies let me do Universal Studios first.
Until last day I wasn't sure what to expect but then I happened to see a video of Universal Studio tour posted on you tube sometime ago and I was super excited to go there. So much I drove some of my close friends crazy by sharing my excitement.
Well we decided to go on Thursday, hoping the crowd would be less and I am still wondering if the crowd was less on Thursday being a Weekday, I just can't imagine how much would it have been had we had visited Universal studio on a weekend.
Anyway we reached Universal studio and before you enter the Theme Park there is this Shopping Complex "City Loft" it was amazing the kind of stores it had was just too good, especially there were stores which sold only socks of all type and stores that had beautiful gift items and stores with amazing candies and chocolates and then one which sold around 8 types of Pop Corns. Trust me I was awed beyond words can describe, to see all that. ( I did buy a small pack of Chicago style Pop corn, it was yummy :):):)).
Finally we bought tickets and entered the theme park. The Journey Begins with Light Camera Action --->
After the action starts it kind of takes you to Texan Cow Boy style Ranch restaurant and European streets and stores. There were also many stores that sold Harry Potter stuff starting from Wands it had almost everything Cloaks, Owls, cauldrons, brooms, Quidditch stuff and sweaters and uniforms of all houses and list is endless. Well I thought, okay it seems all business.
We went ahead and found ourselves among Minions where Gru and girls were recruiting us to be Minions. Here started our 3D experience and after that I have no words to describe the fun rides, you feel like you are part of one of the scenes of the movie, though it still felt like it was a little bit made up, but little did I know that best is yet to come. ;)We came out of minion theme and we entered "The Hogsmeade"!!!!. It was Magical.
We had everything there, we had snow in summer, we could see Hogwarts in distance, there were wizards helping kids perform magic, no-melt ice-creams, Olivander's wand store, Book store, Martha's butter beer was sold every where in wooden barrels (which I must say tasted awesome, I haven't tasted any drink like that before, and it's not real beer so even kids can enjoy), there was a Zonko's candies store with chocolate frog that had Dumbledore cards to collect. You can also see the Veela Witches from Beauxbaton's Academy of magic and students from Durmstrang Institute perform along with our Hogwarts student performing their song with singing frogs.
They had Hogwarts train with a ticket collector standing outside, The Whooping willow and the blue car stuck in whooping willow, spiders, Diagon Alley, Moving talking picture frames of all of the Hogwarts Headmasters etc etc etc. One has to go there to feel the magic. Someone put lot of thought and effort in the whole concept, that if there weren't too many muggles roaming around I would have thought it was all real and I was in Hogsmeade myself. What added to the magic was that theme park staff were all in their uniforms as per the roles they were playing and they played their roles aptly. It definitely made the whole experience much more real.
Then comes Hogwarts and the 3D ride of forbidden journey with Harry Potter, this one seriously makes you feel as if you are inside the movie with Harry flying on a broom. This is the most amazing experience I have had in my life and I have been to plenty of Amusement parks in my life so far.
There is another ride "Buckbeak's flight" which is not that great but good for kids and the Buckbeak they created looked very very real. Everytime you start the ride you bow to the mighty Buckbeak and it bows back that is when the ride starts.
Then we went for "The Mummy returns with revenge" theme park and the ride was amazing however it did not have complete 3D experience but they built the scary caves and at the end you do feel like the insects actually touch your feet. (It was scariest for me as I am super afraid of insects, especially the ones in Mummy movie which eat you alive in seconds.)
Harry Potter theme park is the total magical experience one can experience for real. It was definitely worth the money, time and effort. It was so nice that I was under the spell of the magic even after returning home, until sadly someone poked my magic bubble by commenting on my obsession with whole Harry Potter and magic :(. Well as much as it broke my bubble and brought me to reality I feel I will never forget this experience where I had a lot of fun and I must conclude it with writing a blog, which will keep the memory live for me longer than usual. :)
Kudos to the team who designed and executed Harry Potter theme, only thing I can say that it all felt real and "Magical". :)
There are other attractions as well like Jurassic park theme boat ride, Shrek, Simpsons, Water World and Transformers. We missed out on Shrek, Simpsons and Transformers due to lack of time but we had fun. However many people like the live Water World show I was not that thrilled but I cant deny the effort and energy that those actors put in there.
PS: As I said there were lot of muggles around me, I am borrowing some pictures from google and adding some of my own here, but I can assure you it looks exactly as it is visible in the pictures, and it is fun and magical. It is a must visit place and I would love to go there again. :)
Have all the fun and magic in life while you can.
Cheers.!! :):)
