Orlando, Florida | Universal Studios

Over our Christmas break we went to dinner with our friend Daniel.

Daniel had standing tickets to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and somehow we ending up joking about about going. Then we went on with dinner and didn’t bring it up anymore. A few days later Tyler and I were on a walk a he brought it up again. Tyler is normally the practical one who says no to day trips. But he was actually open to this one so we called Daniel up and made our plans.

Within a day we booked a three star hotel and bought our tickets.

I had a personal goal of the trip to try butter beer and find a new coffee mug. We accomplished both. I got a frozen butter beer that was delicious and we ate at the three broomsticks which for theme park food was great too.

What really blew my mind about about Harry Potter World was the attention to detail. Small things that I would have never been expected to be included were there like the knitting needles that knit all on their own and the shops filled with products from the books and movies.

I am chicken when it comes to rides but I made myself get on the Escape from Gringotts and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I could be being dramatic but they were best rides I’ve ever been on. Both had “thrilling” moments but overall were more of storybook rides that just had roller coaster feels to them. Tyler did get nauseated on the Forbidden Journey because it was just nuts so if you are prone to motion sickness be prepared.

If you do decide you want to go I would not go at peak season like we did. It was really our only option but the result was a full day only allowed 2 rides because lines were SO long. I did download the app which tells you the wait times to help you plan a little better. We probably won’t make it back to Universal Studios anytime soon but when we do I will first in line for Escape from Gringotts, also I will go to the Minion ride because I was disappointed to miss it this time.