Universal Studios Hollywood
Woman in the Middle | March 20, 2017When it became obvious that a trip to Walt Disney World was not going to happen this spring, mainly due to everything being up in the air about the health of elderly pets and how difficult it seemed to try to coordinate the schedules of four adults, I decided the family should still do something to get away for a few days. I suggested we go down to Los Angeles and visit Universal Studios Hollywood and their new “Wizarding World of Harry Potter.” This idea went over well, as my family are all Harry Potter nerds from way back. Reservations were made, tickets were bought, and all we had to do was wait for March 12th for the fun to begin.
On a good day with smooth traffic, Disneyland is less than an hour from our home. Given all the freeway construction, good traffic is rare, but, still, it seems like an easy drive to get there and back. Universal Studios is more like an hour and 20 minutes in ideal circumstances, but, with LA traffic being what it is, even without freeway construction, it took two hours to get there. This is why I decided we should get a place to stay so we could have a more relaxing time.
We arrived Sunday afternoon, checked into our hotel (which I will not be naming due to some issues….no free publicity from me, but, also no blog shaming, either, as I have a feeling the problems we had were isolated.) We used the free shuttle to go to Universal City Walk where we enjoyed looking at stores and having dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant.
Our package allowed us to get into Harry Potter World (which I will call HPW from now on) an hour early. As all travel sites recommended, we got there a little early, and were towards the front when the ropes went down and we all hurried to HPW. Unfortunately, the whole reason we were hurrying was to get on the big HPW ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but it was down for repairs. Being the good travelers we are, we did an immediate pivot and went on Flight of the Hippogriff. It is a cute roller coaster but the ride is less than 30 seconds long. One of the shortest roller coaster rides I have ever been on. On the plus side, we got to see Hagrid’s house, his motorcycle, and an anamatronic hippogriff, Buckbeak, who figured significantly in one of the Harry Potter books. Unless you really want to go on the ride as you have small children and/or have hit all the rest of the highlights of HPW, try to get on it when the line is on the short side, say under 30 minutes.
We were still in our magic early hour so we went over and got in line at Olivander’s wand shop, to see the wand ceremony. You can go in the shop and look at all kinds of wands without being in line, but you do have to wait to see the ceremony. We waited somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes, but the family all thought it was worth it. It truly felt like a scene right from the book as a child was plucked from the audience, handed a couple of wands that didn’t seem to suit, before being offered a wand that was the “right one.” The person selected (usually a child) gets the wand for free. This could cause some jealousy, if you have another child in your party. But, buy them a $45 wand and much will be forgiven, I am sure. FYI, we loved looking a the wands, but we resisted the temptation to buy one.
Olivander’s shop has LOTS of wands!
Speaking of wands, I have to say, having children of all ages, including those still in strollers, waving around strong, skinny, blunt sticks of wood that could do quite a bit of damage should something go horribly wrong, added a bit of danger to our visit I had never felt at a theme park before. But that is just me and my Mom-sense talking. We experienced no incidents or even near misses involving wands.
After all of that, our morning snack we had eaten back in the room was long gone so we went to the Three Broomsticks for breakfast. It is the only restaurant in HPW, although there are lots of food carts set up though out. There were several breakfast choices on the menu for breakfast, all costing $12.99 and all coming with our choice of beverage. We all got cold butterbeer, of course! Not to worry, there is no alcohol in butterbeer, a favorite drink at the real Three Broomsticks in the Potter books. My daughters thought it was to die for. I thought it was very sweet and tasty, but not so wonderful I had to go to HPW just to have butterbeer.
I had the eggy bread, which was thick French toast with bacon and syrup. Youngest Daughter had the American breakfast, which included eggs, bacon and sausage, and potatoes. Hubby and Eldest had the continental breakfast which came with a plateful of fruit, a scone, a croissant, and jam and butter. The food was good, the portions were good sized and filling, and we enjoyed sitting in the Three Broomsticks, soaking up the atmosphere.
Eggy Bread
American Breakfast
Continental breakfast with butterbeer
The girls with Hogwart’s castle in the background
Next Time: The rest of Universal Studios Hollywood and lunch at the Three Broomsticks
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