Merlyn's Musings~: A magickal trip to Hogwarts and The Lost Continent....

Our magic started early today....
Ravyn, Harry and I set off on an adventure!

and it was spent going to Mecca. Yah.

Harry Potter's Hogwarts Theme Park at Universal Studios.

Like I said.

Mecca.

And in the words of the Genie Johmbie, "Mecca lecca high, mecca hinney ho!" This turned into our chant as we set off to Orlando to arrive at opening at 9am. Of COURSE the first character we saw welcoming us into the gates was a GENIE. (no shite).

As I said, "Mecca Lecca Hi, Mecca Hinney Ho!" :)

The whole place was awesome! There was Dr. Seuss Land and a bunch of kooky trees....

As Horton says...
"We are Here! We are Here! We are Here!"
and lots of fun stuff for us to play with :)

and we sorta kept on our path, because we wanted...nay, NEEDED to get to Hogwarts.

And then?

THERE it was!

It was PHENOMENAL.

We went straight to Olivander's Wand Shop

and then to Hogwarts for the ride.

I was concerned, because I'm not a big ride person (long story) so I was pretty hesitant with all the disclaimers along the way to the ride.

We wandered through the castle on the way....

(BTW~ an aside...I never saw this Unicorn tapestry. It is the magick of this place. I see I was right BY it...never saw it till now when I'm adding pics!! )

But, after getting buckled in and a few moments of disorientation, it was great! I was almost fried by a dragon! I narrowly escaped having my life force sucked away by a Death Eater!

I also know now how awesome it would be to fly in a Quidditch match! You have to be fast when being chased by dragons in flight! There were enchanted pictures on the wall,

and Dumbledor himself welcomed us to the school!

Looks like I was even under the "Sorting Hat" at one point!!

Slytherin wants me bad. :)

I told Harry that I will make him a robe, because he does look very similiar to him and he would look SO GOOD! So we got Harry a Dumbledor's hat...

and well...

Scabbers the ratty HAD to come home with me.
(and YES....he is missing a toe :)

We had just finished our fabulous ride, when Merlyn said, "I need a pint after being so brave on that ride!" and we ducked into Hogsmeade Tavern

for a drink and some fish & chips.

Even Scabbers got a nosh and a drink :)

Harry saw a Hogwarts "student" sitting next to us, and asked to have his pic taken with her (it's only fair after all the pics we get asked of us at ren faires :) and she obliged. She also ended up asking us if we wanted to pal around with her, and go on a rollercoaster ride with her. Her name was "Aria" because...she liked to sing :)
She showed us the ins and outs of the park, turned us on to Butter Beer (YUM!) AND (BONUS!) gave us her employee discount on a few purchases (which included Dumbledor's wand for Harry!)

We traveled to Jurassic Park....I had made mention that IF we were to see Jeff Goldblum that "he was MINE". But we didn't....damn. I would've run after him like a velociraptor :)
Speaking of velociraptors, I saw the birth of a baby raptor! And well, then we had to run for our lives like crazy when a pack of Velociraptors saw us...we managed to get away with our lives.
Thank god there were others behind us that couldn't run as fast :)

Then we went to The Lost Continent

and sat in on the "Eighth Voyage of Sindbad" stunt show and then we almost were trapped forever in Poseidon's Temple by a demon. Thankfully it all turned into a pretty great pyrotechnics and water works show as "Poseidon's Fury". (whew :)

The last bit for us this day was our visit to Super Hero Island. Ravyn went on "The Incredible Hulk Coaster" and we all went on the "Amazing Adventures of Spider Man" ride. This ride was fun and crazy and wild and a 3-D adventure where I was nearly killed by several Marvel comics nemesis! All while dropping thousands of feet (in my head) or topping skyscrapers!

Then it was HAPPY HOUR and time for Marguaritas in Marguaritaville!

Scabbers was even hoping for a sip...

We thought about it....but Harry said NO SALTY RATTIES :)

All in all a VERY magickal day! I am SO tired! It's hard walking the pavement, being chased by toothy dinosaurs, being on the Quidditch team, and fighting crime and scaling buildings with Spiderman.

And all in a single day.