Clearskies photographic Journey to the World and Beyond - 8 theme parks & much more

[IheartDDuck]

I remember your last TR! I'm joining, your pictures are amazing! I'm so pitiful with my point and shoot!

 

[clearskies]

Great underwater photos.
We visited Aquatica for the first time in August 2010 - I loved Roa's Rapids !
I have just purchased a Sony TX5 to attempt some underwater photography in August at Discovery Cove.
I like the detail in the last water shot

Thank you very much DISWolves
I have seen good reviews on the Sony TX5. Discovery Cover will be awesome with your underwater camera. I have never been there but would love to make it there some day.

I was not sure which underwater camera to get and ended up buying the canon because I am a canon shooter for the rest of my gear but that was a bit silly since it really did not matter what gear I had. I am pleased with the camera though except I would like more control over settings such as the aperture and shutter speed. The shutter lag is also painfully slow compared to my SLR but that is to be expected.

We plan on visiting Aquatica on our trip so always good to see pics from there, and l have to say they've come out pretty well. Much better than the ones you get with an underwater disposable camera that l would normally take. Would love to get into photography so may have to add one fo those to my list of wants!

Thank you Antigua09. I may have a return trip this year and we will definitely plan for more time in Aquatica if we make it down. I hope you have a great time there. You must give Roa's Rapids a try but be warned that you may spend a lot of time there since it is a lot of fun.

Photography can be a dangerous hobby to get into. If you are like me your list of wants will grow faster than you can afford to reduce it

I remember your last TR! I'm joining, your pictures are amazing! I'm so pitiful with my point and shoot!

Great to see you again IheartDDuck and thank you
This is a little different from the last trip since there is a lot of non-Disney content. It is good to have new experiences and different subjects to photograph. Don't give up on your point and shoot. They can take great pictures as well.

 

[clearskies]

When we got back to our duck pad, my wife and I unpacked while my daughter wrote some notes in her daily journal. You can't see it too well but in the reflection is my daughter writing notes.

It was a lot of fun reading her journal entries throughout the trip. Unfortunately it is hiding on us at the moment and I can't seem to locate it.

My son asked me to take a picture of the light fixture. The popcorn box obviously fits the Movies theme.

It was about 10:30 PM and wanted to get the kids to bed pronto since we planned drag them out of bed up early the next day. We were headed to Universal Islands of Adventure in the AM and based on horror stories of lines in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (henceforth referred to as WWoHP) we decided it would be best to get there before the park opened so that we could try to get a little bit ahead of the hoardes of people descending upon the area. Getting to sleep early is a losing proposition for me though and besides, I had more exploring in front of me. Thus I bid adeiu to the rest of the family and headed out for a night tour of the grounds. I just love the larger than life icons that are constructed throughout the resort. Here is some of what I came across:

I never quite understand why they put this creepy villian as one of the main icons on the Fantasia building. He is not the most comforting character to come home to at night.

By the time I got to the this point it was only about 11:30PM. I usually stay up later but I was getting a little tired an decided not to make my way over to the Toy story area that night. I have plenty more days/nights ahead of me to head over there. Thus ends Day 2. Coming up next the park action really kicks in.

 

[eugeniuss]

looking forward to Potter World pics and review....

 

[clearskies]

looking forward to Potter World pics and review....

Well, since you are looking forward to it I'll bring us there right now

 

[clearskies]

Now we are now getting into some real action in this TR. Today begins our first day of our 8 day assault on the Parks and this day was allocated for us to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I am not the best at sleeping in unfamiliar places. Throw me into new surroundings and add into the equation that I am amped up in anticipation of seeing Wizarding World and the rest of the IOA worlds for the first time and you have a recipe for a lack of sleep for clearskies. I woke up at about 5:30 AM and tried to get back to sleep but after a bit I realized it was futile trying to fight the good fight to get some more shut eye, so I got up and took my friend for a walk. My accomplice (camera) was not quite so happy though about getting rudely woken up so early at an ungodly hour and quickly let me know that it needed more rest by instantly fogging up on me once we got out the door. That Fla humidity in late August can be brutal and it hits you smack in the face as soon as you leave the confines of the chilled air conditioned surroundings. So, I acknowledged that it will take time for my camera to get itself ready for the day and I headed to the food court in hopes of getting some coffee in my system. I went to the Movies food court and not the closer Music food court since I hoped at some point my camera would cooperate with me and I would be able to get some pictures in. I was not sure what time the food court opened and as it turns out once I got there I found that the food court would not be open for about another hour (7am). I took a couple pics of the inside as the crew was getting ready for the masses that would descend upon them as they fuel up for the day.

Fortunately the bev station was open so I got some coffee and sat outside by he pool for a while waiting for my camera behave. It had rained earlier and most of the seats were wet so I had to wipe one off. It seemed to take a long time with me sitting there sipping my second rate food court coffee before I could use my camera. I had some lens cloths and I tried to hurry it along by wipe the lens off but it would quickly tell me "not yet" and fog back up. Eventually I was able to fire off just a few pictures before I figured it was time for me to head back to the room to get ready for the big day.

Our room

In the past, I have not had too much success in getting family up early but since we were headed to the Wizarding World and we had heard the horror stories of huge lines we had some extra incentive to get ourselves moving along early. Additionally, we had to travel further to get to the park than the Disney Parks and we did not have any floo powder or portkeys (Potter references) to aid us. Additionally, we were meeting up with friends from back home but they were staying on Universal Property so they had early access to the park and they would be in the Park having fun before us. We wanted to be there for opening though so that we could catch up as soon as we could.

Since we are leaving the confines of Disney now, I will continue in the next post coming up shortly....

 

[clearskies]

After a mishap with our GPS we eventually got there. The first thing that became evident is that you have a bit of walking to do before you get to the actual park. You park in a common parking deck that is used for US, IOA and Citiwalk. Citiwalk is Universal's version of DTD with restaurants and shops. Once you get out of the parking area, there are some moving sidewalks between the Parking deck and Citiwalk to give your legs a bit of a rest. Once you get past the moving sidewalks, you are in Citiwalk and you need to walk through this area to the park entrances on the other side. IOA is straight ahead and US is off to the right. Note that I was not stopping for any pictures along the way. We were on a mission that did not include stopping for Photo Ops. Well, once we got close to IOA, I did snap off one quick pic of the IOA icon before we headed to the turnstiles.

I said to my wife, doesn't that look like a giant...er.. never mind.


It was a little past 8:30 and the park opened at 9AM that day but we were surprised to see that they had already started to let people in. We got on a short line at the Turnstiles with our tickets. It was amusing watching someone in front of me at the turnstile who appeared to be from another country trying to get in to the park using a Disney Ticket. The TM (they use Team Members instead of Cast Members) kept telling this person that they were not using a correct ticket but the person saying kept shaking them off and saying no, no it's ok and kept trying. The amusement on my part subsided when I realized that this person was not giving up and was in the way of me and Hogwarts. Eventually the person walked off. When I got to the turnstile I asked the TM if I should use my Universal Ticket or Disney ticket. She just smiled and said that I would not believe how often that happens.

Though we had never been here it was pretty easy to tell where we should go. 99% of the people entering were all headed to the same place first so we just got into lemming mode and followed the flow of people in front of us figuring they knew the best way to get to Hogsmeade. Since Wizarding World is in the back of the park you need to walk through other lands before you get there. it was tough to constrain myself from stopping to take pics along the way but we had a collective mission that could not be delayed. "No stopping at Go", "No collecting "200 dollars". We passed through Seuss landing first and I loved the themeing of the land. Though we were not stopping it added to the excitement of what we would see today. When we got into lost continent area I realized my son and I got a bit ahead of daughter and wife so we stopped for a few seconds and I did snap off a picture but then it was back to our single minded objective.

We were soon were heading into Hogsmeade. Our mission was to first go straight to the forbidden Journey ride and hope the line was not too bad yet. I just had to snap off a couple of pictures on the way. The theming was incredible. They really did an superlative job transforming you into a visitor of a magical village.

When we got to Hogwarts castle, which houses the Forbidden Journey ride, the wait time posted was 25 min. Yee ha, not as bad as feared. My wife was unable to get through to our friend's cell so we decided to get in line since they most likely went on already.

We did make a tactical mistake though. There is a line to the right to go to the locker area and you stay on the left if you are not using lockers and you are going directly on the queue. Note that you can NOT carry any bags or loose items at all with you (well except for an exception that I will get to in a sec). We had bags so we waited the locker line first. When we got to the lockers we found that they were not large enough to fit my camera knapsack. Ugh, Now what do we do? I figured I would be sitting this out and we would take turns. My wife asked a TM and they said we could do a bag swap which is comparable to a child swap but for bags. How awesome is that? We would have to ride separately but we did not have to wait on line twice and my son actually could ride again with me when it was my turn. While in the line I had to tell a couple TMs along the way that we were doing the bag swap since they will invariably ask when they see you carrying anything. This bag swap is something I had no knowledge of but it turned out to be a great accommodation. It also enabled me to take pictures of the queue. The queue of the ride is an attraction in and of itself and it is without a doubt the most amazing ride queue I have experienced. I'll warn you that most of the queue is brutally difficult to photograph because it is so dark and there are moving components. Note that I did not use a flash but in retrospect I should have tried some flash pictures in addition to the non-flash pictures I took. Since I ended up going through the line four times during my trip, rather than showing pics from each go around separately I am going to show you the best from the multiple times we went through. Note I took a lot of pictures that were trash but I am pleased with some of what I was able to come out with. Get read for a calvacade of pictures. I'll start in the next post coming in a sec...

 

[clearskies]

I am now going to take you through the queue of the Forbidden Journey Ride


First the line passes this pleasant looking statue.

I actually had no idea who this was but he/she/it could use a plastic surgeon for sure. I had to do some research after we got back to figure out that this one eyed witch statue that is in Hogwarts at the opening of the secret tunnel to Honeydukes.


Next you hit the greenhouse section and depending on the size of the line you can spend a lot of time here winding though the queue. Unfortunately this is the least interesting section of the queue unless you get your kicks from botany.

if you wind into the back section of the greenhouse though there is a caged display of potted plants and when you look closer you see that they are mandrakes there. These do not move around though like the one you will see later in the village.

Next you enter the castle again. First you pass a few more status which again I had scour the internet to find out who they were. The first status is the architect of Hogwarts.

The next is the first headmaster of Hogwarts.

There also is a house Point counter but I never took a picture of it.


Then you see a griffin statue (I didn't have to look that one up).

After you pass the statues you come to the first of many moving paintings. These ranked as the most amazing components on the line in my book. They did an incredible job on these because they truly look like paintings where the subjects are moving. I expected it to be like an LCD with a frame around it but it does not look like that at all. The paintings had cracks and chips and were so realistically created that you think they are exactly what the books described them to be.


The first painting is of this man.

I never really got that good a picture of him. I am not sure if he is anyone of significance from the books. If there is a someone in the know, please let me know who this is.


Then there is a crowd of people watching a quiddich match. Again, I am not sure who any of these people are and if they are supposed to be characters from the book.

continued in the next post....

 

[clearskies]

Next you enter a room with more paintings but most noteworthy is the 4 founders of Hogwarts who have a conversation with themselves. You see

Salazar Slytherin

Helga Hufflepuff

Rowena Ravenclaw

Godric Gryffindor

Next you come to Dumbledores office. Here you reach the next amazing piece of technology that they incorporated into the queue. You will be greated by a holographic dumbledore that is amazingly realistic He tells you to go to the Defence Against the Dark arts class to attend a class taught by professor Binns.

Immediately after you leave Dumbledore you find yourself in the Defense of the Dark Arts classroom and you will meet Harry, Ron and Hermoine. Like Dumbledore they are holographic images and they did an outstanding job with them as well. They tell you the class is boring and they should skip class for a quiddich match.

continued in next post....

 

[clearskies]

When you get out of this room you find yourself in front of another moving portrait. This is the "Fat Lady" Portrait from the book. For non-Potter fans please note that I mean no disrespect using the term "Fat Lady". That is how the books refer to her.

You are now in the Gryffindor Common Room and one of the things you will see is the Daily Prophet which has a moving picture on the front page. This was more like what I expected with the Moving Portraits and was less realistic but still was fun to see.

Next you enter another room with more paintings and they are describing the ride mechanisms to you. You will probably find that you are so enthralled with the paintings and the excitement of the upcoming ride that you don't capture most of what they are saying. Well, at least that was my issue. Again, I don't think they are anyone in particular from the books but I could be mistaken.

This is the point where I had to exit the line with my bag and camera and go into the child/bag swap waiting room. There is one final thing to see on the line and that is the sorting hat but I could only catch it from a distance before I had to leave the line. I could not get a very good a picture of it since I was a fair distance away from it but here it is from a distance.

If you do a bag swap or child swap, once the rest of your party finish the ride instead of exiting they go to the waiting room to get you and then you can go on the ride and bring another person as well. The others don't need to wait for you there but they could and in our case they did.

I am going to hold back on the details on the actual ride in case anyone reading this wants to be surprised by it but I will say that it is an awesome ride. You can PM me if you want specifics. However, be warned that they are not kidding with the motion sickness warning on this one. I have been on many rides where there is a warning and the effect to me is minimal. This ride got to me as well as most people in our group. It was not horrible but we could definitely feel the effects afterwards. So if you are prone to motion sickness you may want to avoid eating beforehand and/or take a dramamine or bonnie before you start your day. I would also say that I expected the scarier elements they throw at you to be more frightening than they actually were however my 10 year old daughter was frightened by it and was not ready to ride it more than once that first day.

Oh, once last thing before I move from this ride. There are 4 ride seats per vehicle. I recommend you try to sit in one of the middle two seats to have a better experience with the effects.

I am going to stop here and we'll continue to explore the Wizarding World next in our journey.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Your pictures are making me so excited! I'm going to be there next week, and I can't wait.

 

[clearskies]

Your pictures are making me so excited! I'm going to be there next week, and I can't wait.

Oh, I am jealous. I hope you have an awesome trip Danielle!!!
I just saw in your sig that you have a PTR for your trip. I'll have to head over there to check it out.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Have just found your TR and I have to say your pictures are amazing! Love the Harry Potter pics - we are debating whether to leave Disney for a day to visit.

Also love the photos of the resort and Aquatica - we used to attend a swimming pool with the current lazy pool and it is great!

 

[clearskies]

Have just found your TR and I have to say your pictures are amazing! Love the Harry Potter pics - we are debating whether to leave Disney for a day to visit.

Also love the photos of the resort and Aquatica - we used to attend a swimming pool with the current lazy pool and it is great!

Thank you for stopping by TanzUnited99!! I appreciate the feedback on the pics.

If you can make your way over to Universal IOA, I think it is definitely worth the trip. The Wizarding World is amazingly themed. We had a great time there and we are already planning another side excursion in the future when we next visit Disney. We were fortunate though to be able to visit when the crowds were not unbearable.

We have a great time with the lazy rivers as well as the supercharged lazy river type attraction that Aquatica offers. I wish we had time to experience more of the park though but it provide us opportunities for new experiences on our next visit.

 

[jake&samsmom]

Beautiful photos!!! Thanks for sharing. Would love to read more!

 

[clearskies]

Beautiful photos!!! Thanks for sharing. Would love to read more!

Hi Jake&samsmom. and Thank you very much for stopping by and commenting!!

Here comes my next installment...

 

[clearskies]

When we got out we met up with our friends. They had indeed experienced the forbidden Journey already. We decided to go to the Flight of the Hippogriff (FOH) next since it is right outside the castle and was enticing us with only a 10 minute wait. This as a fairly mild rollercoaster. It has been years since I have been on Goofy's Barnstormer coaster in Toontown but I imagine FOH is probably comparable to that experience as far as the intensity (or lack thereof).

As you walk in you are first greeted by this welcoming committee representative.

I am not sure if the scarecrow in the books. I'm getting more forgetful in my old age. Hagrid had a pumpkin motif going on though in his decorating scheme at his vacation home in Fla so the scarecrow fit right in. As you walk a little further along the queue line you will pass by Hagrids Hut on the right. It would have been nice if the queue led you through the hut so you could experience the inside. Now that I am spoiled by the queue from forbidden journey I am a bit demanding aren't I? Where's the holographic Hagrid and Fang and other amazing elements

I don't think there much more to see on the queue between Hagrids Hut and the loading area. Well, you can get a peek at Buckbeak, the star of the ride. You will pass by the hippogriff much closer at the beginning of the ride though in a minute.

Here is the front of the ride vehicle

Once you board and coaster and you're set off on your way, the coaster starts the ascent and you pass next to Buckbeak on your left. Do the right thing and remember to bow to him, ok?

Once you really start going, don't blink because the ride is over pretty quickly. There are not any other visuals that are part of the ride but you can get a good view of the castle while you are zipping around.

Perhaps this is not a ride for those who are seeking big thrills but we enjoyed it.


After FOH we made our way over from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade

Our first priority was to try some butterbeer. We opted for the frozen butterbeer. I can not drink it myself but the verdict from the rest of the family is that it is a winner.

I took a few more pictures while the family was enjoying there beverage

The windows of the storefronts were great. There were so many things to look at.

this is the larger mandrake that I referred to previously that moves. The glare in the windows made him difficult to capture.

We'll head here later.

We then made our way to explore Honeydukes. Honeydukes is a candy store that is as much a feast to the eyes as it is to the stomach. Actually since I limit my own sugar intake I am more interested in the visual aspects of the store.

I love the humongous jar of candy

After a while in Honeydukes the family we were with said they were ready to move on. Not just from the store but from the land. Huh?...what?...already?...but... I was just getting started. I had a lot more I wanted to see and we just scratched the surface. However, they were not really into the HP experience as much and they were primarily interested in getting in rides and shows. I guess I can understand that if you are not an HP fan that walking around the area is not AS exciting. It is so well done though that I think even people who are not Potter fans can appreciate the incredible theming that they incorporated into this land. I knew I would be back in a few days though so I did not put up resistance to moving the troops. The day we are coming back we will be with my sister's family and they have read all the books so I know we will spend a lot of time in the area. At least I will have more new experiences saved for our next visit. I have a lot of good pictures to share from the next day we came so stay tuned. Oh yes, we actually will be back here later for lunch at the 3 broomsticks this day. so, well catch a bit more later.

I am stopping here on our departure from WWoHP..oh, ok one more pic of the castle before we leave

We next we will explore some other lands of IOA.

 

[aprilisis]

I LOVE your photos!!! I'm subbing & can't wait to see more!!

 

[IheartDDuck]

They wanted to move on already?!

I totally get what you're saying though. I think that the way that they themed the area there is really great, and it looks like it can keep anyone entertained for a while.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Wow, it didn't seem like you were there for that long, and they wanted to move on already?!

I totally get that about the theming there. It looks so great that it could keep even non-Potter fans entertained for quite some time. I'm a huge Potter fan though, so I'm sure I'll be entertained for quite a while.