Of Mice and Muggles

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy

This past week, my husband and I went on vacation with my parents to Orlando, Florida. Ever since the rumors started about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, my parents have said they'd take me as soon as it opened. Well, it took about 3 years, but we all finally were able to coordinate our schedules and plan a trip! We spent two days at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and two days at Epcot and Hollywood Studios at Disney World.

I was a little nervous to go on vacation with my parents, considering the last time we traveled together I was still in high school. However, our trip was really great! Highlights included:

• drinking Butterbeer in Hogsmeade (yum!)
• getting soaked on all the water rides at Universal - Jurassic Park, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, & Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges
• all-you-can-eat German buffet at the Biergarten in Epcot
• meeting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, & Goofy
• my two favorite rides: Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster!

The best part of the trip was when we went on Living with the Land in Epcot, a boat ride through the greenhouses in Disney World where not only some of the produce that is served in the restaurants is grown but also where agricultural research is conducted. This was one of our first rides that day, and we had already had a game plan as to what rides to wait for vs. what rides to Fast Pass, all based on the assumption we'd have no hiccups in our day. Fast Passes are a basically special tickets that allow you to skip the lines to the most popular rides by assigning you a one hour window for you to ride. They are free and every Disney guest is able to obtain them, but you can only get another Fast Pass once your ride time has passed.

As our boat approached the end of the ride, all of the boats lost power. We were stuck in the greenhouse for close to a half hour, waiting for power to be restored. Of all the rides in Disney World, this is probably the best one to get stuck on - after all, you are surrounded by lots of food! We were finally rescued by some lovely college intern who was doing botany research at Disney for the summer, and all the passengers on the boat were escorted onto dry land through the greenhouse. The best part: as compensation, Disney staff members gave us Fast Passes that were good on a number of rides in Epcot to be used at any point in the next 3 days. Somehow, my mom, dad, and husband snagged 13(!!!!), so needless to say, we did not wait for any other rides the rest of the day.

The view once we got off our broken down boat

Disney World and Universal Studios are a lot of fun, but also very tiring! On our last day, we just sat by the pool and relaxed and read. A much needed vacation from vacation.