Welcome, Foolish Muggles! IoA/US/MK/SW *July 2013 Trip Report Link*

[mkoerner]

Love the pics of Harry Potter! I took two of my sons to the Harry Potter exhibition in Times Square today and it was very cool. Lots of authentic things from all of the movies. After Timmy and I looked at your pictures, we are even more excited to see WWOHP!! Thanks for the great report. Very helpful

 

[natebenma]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! We just bought Part 1 on BluRay and plan on watching it this weekend, hopefully catching 2 in the theater next week.

And Dee, of COURSE we're sticking around for the rest of the reports - your TRs are great fun!

Thank you!!!

I did not get to go to the world premiere of the final Harry Potter movie. My brother went and sent me emails. He said the after-party was "sick." I think that meant totally crazy!
I'm dying to go to WWoHP. It pains me to wait but wait I will.

Amanda

Did you see the movie yet, though? Tough watching it with commoners, eh?

It will be a lot more fun and meaningful when you can share it with the kids!

Love the pics of Harry Potter! I took two of my sons to the Harry Potter exhibition in Times Square today and it was very cool. Lots of authentic things from all of the movies. After Timmy and I looked at your pictures, we are even more excited to see WWOHP!! Thanks for the great report. Very helpful

Nate and I saw the exhibit when it was at the Museum of Science in Boston. I have the souvenir photo book because they wouldn't let us take pictures!

 

[natebenma]

Finally- O.W.L. answer key is up, post on page 7.

Sorry for the delay!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Well I only got about 45 pts. b/c I forgot Charlie, not Percy.
I only knew of Filch as a squib.
I knew I had the BB beans ques. wrong
As for the potions- I quessed wrong on pixie livers and rat spleen
I couldn't think of all the qualities of the houses.
It was fun to do with DS though Thanks!!! Not much he wants to do with mom ya know? But I know you feel my pain. I have to change his age to 14 on my sig. one of these days

 

[AprilRenee]

DH and I got 75 (without doing the Bertie Bots or Potions questions)...I got lazy and didn't want to do those.

If you saw my post before...I retract my statement....I just checked my facts and I was wrong.

 

[Marlton Mom]

Quote from NateBenMa "Why is Mr. Weasley’s flying Ford Angila here?"

Because it's his car!

~MM

 

[natebenma]

Well I only got about 45 pts. b/c I forgot Charlie, not Percy.
I only knew of Filch as a squib.
I knew I had the BB beans ques. wrong
As for the potions- I quessed wrong on pixie livers and rat spleen
I couldn't think of all the qualities of the houses.
It was fun to do with DS though Thanks!!! Not much he wants to do with mom ya know? But I know you feel my pain. I have to change his age to 14 on my sig. one of these days

Nice job!

I had to look up the house qualities yesterday to do my answer sheet.

I'm glad you were able to work on the owl with your son. I totally hear you on that one! Although one of the things Nate and I do together is pub trivia. My brother runs a trivia company and once and awhile we will go out and be part of a team.

I see you changed your signature!

DH and I got 75 (without doing the Bertie Bots or Potions questions)...I got lazy and didn't want to do those.

If you saw my post before...I retract my statement....I just checked my facts and I was wrong.

Excellent!

I didn't see your post, but now I'm curious...

Quote from NateBenMa "Why is Mr. Weasley’s flying Ford Angila here?"

Because it's his car!

~MM

No, but why is it here, at the Dragon Challenge from the Triwizard Tournament, instead of the Forbidden Forest (Flight of the Hippogriff). I remember the car in Chamber of Secrets and Half Blood Prince, but not Goblet of Fire. Totally threw me off!

 

[mkoerner]

Sorry, just one more question. So are we allowed to take cameras onto the Forbiden Journey ride and just not bags?

 

[natebenma]

Sorry, just one more question. So are we allowed to take cameras onto the Forbiden Journey ride and just not bags?

You can't be holding onto a camera while one the ride. It needs to go into a pocket (preferably one that zips or snaps closed) or in a fanny pack.

So if your camera is too large to be stowed away, you need to put it into a locker.

My camera is a point and shoot, and went into the fanny pack after the castle part and before the ride.

 

[HockeyMomR]

Dee - thanks for the WW insight & pics. Glad to hear this is truly as impressive as your pics appear. DS19 is our household true Harry Potter fan as he started reading the books in elementary school. Think this is something he would enjoy.

Also, love the "eye roll" pics, been there seen that....this too will pass.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[ARmom30]

Loved the WWoHP update. Thanks for sharing!

 

[bellebookworm9]

Got an 80 on the O.W.L. Only guessed 245 beans, and got half of the potions ingredients (don't think you listed point values for those though!).

 

[natebenma]

Dee - thanks for the WW insight & pics. Glad to hear this is truly as impressive as your pics appear. DS19 is our household true Harry Potter fan as he started reading the books in elementary school. Think this is something he would enjoy.

Also, love the "eye roll" pics, been there seen that....this too will pass.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Thanks! This is definitely a park to be enjoyed when the kids are older and into a little thrill-seeking. Nate was all in, but Ben (10) is still not so sure about a lot of the rides.

Loved the WWoHP update. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you!!!

Got an 80 on the O.W.L. Only guessed 245 beans, and got half of the potions ingredients (don't think you listed point values for those though!).

Sorry about that!!!

Forgot to add the points awarded. Let's say 5 points for each correctly identified disgusting substance.

Add 15 points to your score for the potions lab responses.

 

[natebenma]

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth!

Next to WWoHP (and conveniently next to WWoHP), the attraction we were most looking forward to was Jurassic Park.

Michael Crichton’s tale of a theme park where prehistoric creatures are brought back from extinction and then things start to go terribly wrong is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s an exciting story full of action, wit and science.

Mark and I are not frequent movie goers, but we did attend Jurassic Park on its opening weekend. The movie is excellent, even though it did not include two of my favorite parts from the book (when they discovered the dinosaurs were reproducing by changing the way they programmed the animal count “Add one”, and the lysine contingency)

Ben has been a dino lover his whole life, and the Jurassic park movies are one of his favorite series. He draws dinosaurs, owns countless books and as my dad says “Ben has more dinosaurs (toys) than existed in the time of dinosaurs!”

So this was destined to be his favorite destination.

Our first planned stop:

Jurassic Park River Adventure- Escape the jaws of a T-rex on a river raft.
(Note, you are the ones on the river raft. Not the dinosaur. Although that would be cool to see!)
Think AK's Dinosaur meets Splash Mountain

As we approached the ride, we noticed there was no line. ROAR! The TMs were shooing people away. No ETA on when the ride would reopen.

We changed course and went to Camp Jurassic (think AK’s Boneyard)- Run, climb and explore in this prehistoric playground. It is a huge play area/jungle gym area, thoughtfully shaded, and although this area is “too juvenile” for our kids, there are a couple of things to do here:

Pteranodon Flyers- Soar through the air on a gliding roller coaster for kids.
Since Disney doesn’t have any skyrides anymore, the closest comparison would be a very very very low-rent Soarin’.

This is a very quick ride and since the load capacity is very small, one can only ride it if accompanied by a guest under 54 inches tall. (ETA: sorry, 56 inches) An adult couple can’t ride this ride without borrowing a young child. Fortunately, we have one of those

“Kids”-Ellie Satler
“What are those?”-Dr. Grant
“Like adults, only smaller”-Ellie
Above dialogue from Jurassic Park

Mark and Ben took off, while Nate and I waited.

When they came back, we decided it was time to get wet!

We were off to Toon Lagoon (Toon Town?)

You’re gonna get wet, eh?

First up: Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls- Fun and hilarious flume ride.
This is essentially Splash Mountain in the setting of O! Canada, with corny visual jokes a la Jungle Boat.

Here is where Universal Studios started to turn me into a rule breaker. They tried to separate me from my camera. Uh-Uh. Not gonna happen. Had my camera out, and I heard over the loudspeaker from the control room. “You have to put your camera away”

I think I mentioned earlier that I understand and respect the whole “No Flash Photography” dogma, but what is the harm in snapping away, flashless?

Oh, no, they didn’t stop me, but they did make me feel dirty!

That was fun!!! You get wetter than you do on Splash.

We decided to go right back on again.

This time I kept my camera stowed away.

Until after we had passed the control booth.

Continued in Next Post

 

[natebenma]

You’re going to get wetter, "A-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah!" (Popeye's laugh)

The next wet ride is conveniently also located in Toon Lagoon.

Unfortunately, when we went by, it wasn’t open yet, another 15 minutes.

We decide to go back once again, to see if JP River Adventure had opened yet. It hadn’t.

So we returned to Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges- Brave white-water rapids in this churning raft ride.

If I have to tell you which ride this is like…

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right

Nobody was in line for this ride when we finished up, so we asked the operators if we could go again, without going back to the start of the line, and they said fine, so we immediately boarded and rode again. When we finished, a couple of our fellow passengers asked us if we had been allowed to stay on the ride, and we told them yes and they should ask. They did, but DENIED!



Olive My Love (apologies to Led Zeppelin)

The next place we went was a place I would have skipped if I hadn’t read about in my guidebook:

Me Ship, The Olive- Multi-level ship playground is an ocean of fun.
Closest to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area, on the surface this attraction would seem too juvenile for my family.

But here are two excellent reasons to climb aboard:

Amazing views from the top level!


Mythos restaurant

Dragon Challenge

Seuss Landing

Rip Ride Rocket

The Hulk

And fun!

On the second level, you will find water cannons you can use to shoot water on the passengers of the Bilge Rat Barges. There is no charge for this!

Let’s check Jurassic Park River Adventure again, shall we?

Nope. Still closed.

This reminded me of the scene in Jurassic Park when Ian Malcolm leans to face the camera in his electric tour car when the T-Rex doesn't appear- “Now eventually you might have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello?”



Next up: Stuck at the barrier to Station 9 ¾ (where I learn I am the victim of a time-turner) and some much needed magic

.

 

[kate_wdw]

[/B]

What a great picture! I also wish I had known about the great views from above the Me Ship, The Olive.

 

[natebenma]

What a great picture! I also wish I had known about the great views from above the Me Ship, The Olive.

Don't tell anyone I have this! They told me to put down the camera here, too!!!


I definitely wanted to share the tip about the views from Me Ship, the Olive.

Did you find the picture spot as you first walk into IoA? Great view of WWoHP, Jurassic Park and the Lost Continent from another viewpoint. I'll be posting those when I get to Thursday. I totally missed the spot in the rush to WWoHP our first day.

 

[AprilRenee]

Nice job!
I didn't see your post, but now I'm curious...

Oh...my DH claimed that Harry wasn't a half blood as both parents were magical. We had Tonks down for our 3rd half blood instead of Harry. However, then I went to go check it and apparently if one of your parents was muggle born or a half blood...even if they were both magical, you are still a half blood. So we were wrong about Harry but still had the answer right (just different than the one you gave).

 

[natebenma]

Oh...my DH claimed that Harry wasn't a half blood as both parents were magical. We had Tonks down for our 3rd half blood instead of Harry. However, then I went to go check it and apparently if one of your parents was muggle born or a half blood...even if they were both magical, you are still a half blood. So we were wrong about Harry but still had the answer right (just different than the one you gave).

Originally, I though Dumbledore's sister was a squib, but then my research showed she just chose not to use her magical powers.

I still have not seen DHP2, does the movie go into that storyline at all?

I think we are going Tuesday since the weather is supposed to be not so great here.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I saw the movie but don't think they go into detail about Dumbledore's sister.
It was really good though! Have fun.

Did you say you have to have a kid less than 54" w/ you on the pteronodon flyers ride?
Ben looks taller than 54"?
We didn't do that ride last year b/c line was too long and I was the only one who wanted to go on it.