02-02-2022
I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and excited about finally getting to the parks, mainly I was excited about the Wizarding World. During my trip IOA was the park with early admission, which spoiler alert I never took advantage of simply because I didn’t want to deal with the rush of people heading into the park at the same time, I gives me flashback to my retail days during Black Friday! I hopped on the free bus service to the parks at around 8:30 AM, during the drive I found myself getting emotional as I looked at the palm trees and the glimpses I was getting of the parks, it felt so surreal that I was finally here after 10 years of dreaming about a trip like this and here I was. After a surprisingly quick trip through security, and my first ever experience with a moving walkway, I got my first look at City Walk, I had to pause and take a moment to soak up the atmosphere, I finally made it! I made my way through CW towards US to pick up my AP before heading into the parks. Finally, I made my way through the gate and into Us for the first time, I found myself admiring New York, and I had to stop and just look at the Transformers attraction before making my way towards London. Once the night bust came into view my pace started to quicken as I knew Diagon Alley was close. I was about to fulfill a dream I had since I was 11 years old and read Harry Potter for the first time, I was going to go into DA! As I wandered into the dark lit brick building, I heard the soft chimes of moving bricks, the same sounds I grew up hearing in the movies and finally I saw it for the first time! Diagon Alley is better than anything I ever hoped for, the colors, the cobbled road, Gringotts, and the Dragon, it was all overwhelming to my little Harry Potter obsessed heart! I really just wandered around DA for the next 30 minutes and took in the sights and the ambiance, finally I decided to make my way to the Leaky Cauldron for breakfast. Even the restaurant was like something right out of my dreams, I decided since I was here, I would go full stop so I ordered myself the full English breakfast which came with eggs, sausage, English bacon, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, and black pudding. Of course, I had to order pumpkin juice to go along my breakfast. The food itself was ok, not the best but not bad, the highlight was definitely the pumpkin juice; which was almost like a pumpkin cider, a unique flavor for sure but one I absolutely enjoyed. Having finished breakfast, I made my way back into DA still amazed at where I was. Even though I just finished breakfast I stopped to try a butterbeer because I saw there was no line for it, It was so good but I definitely find myself preferring the frozen, although I didn’t get to try the hot yet. I spent basically the next 3 hours in DA just exploring. Finally, I decided to hop onto the Hogwarts Express and head over to Hogwarts! From the que to the train itself The Hogwarts express blew all of my expectations out of the water. The storyline was an absolute delight and well executed. My only complaint about the attraction is the actor they got to voice Hermione sounded absolutely nothing like her, to the point it almost took me out of the experience entirely. After stepping of HE I got my first look at Hogwarts, I couldn’t believe it, I was actually standing in front of Hogwarts! If you hadn’t picked up on it already, I couldn’t believe I was in the Wizarding World. For the next few hours, I spent exploring Hogsmeade, shopping and taking countless pictures, the crowds were starting to get unbearable, so I decided to head back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the night at the hotel pool and bar and just enjoyed the night relaxing.
). So, most of the morning I found myself at the resort relaxing poolside. Around noon I decided to uber to some shops to pick up some sunscreen and swim trunks since I was not able to find any back home since it was the off season. After shopping for a couple hours, I finally made my way back to the hotel to store my purchases before heading out into the parks, this time I decided to explore IOA. First of all, the ambience of IOA is truly incredible with Poseidon really leaving me speechless with how beautiful it was. As I was exploring the Jurassic Park area, I happened to notice the short wait time for meeting Blue. The animatronics at this meet and greet were so life like and amazing to see in person. Blue was absolutely amazing the interactions were great, she tried to steal my backpack! Leaving the Blue encounter, I leisurely made my way around the park just getting the lay of the land. While in Seuss Land I stopped off at Green Eggs and Ham and tried the pizza tots which were delicious. After eating it was about 2 before closing, so I decided to beat the crowds and head back to the hotel so I wouldn’t have to stand during the trip back to Dockside.
While stepping out of the store with my new mask, I could see down by New York where the majority of booths were located, that it was already busy I decided to take a look at some of the other booths in the rest of the park. I found myself at the booth just across from the Horror Makeup Show, where I decided to take advantage of my AP and purchased a Food and Beverage gift card, I went with the 120$ option that was loaded with 150$ in credit. I also ordered the seafood boil and a Hurricane. The boil came with shrimp, sausage, and corn on the cob, which was delicious. Before leaving I got a refill on my Hurricane and decided to head back to DA and pick up some souvenirs for my nieces and nephew. I stopped to listen to some of the live musicians along the way, which were all really talented. While I was in DA, I stumbled across a photo shop and proceeded to get my picture taken as if I was an Azkaban escapee, which is still one of my favorite photos from my trip. I spent a few hours exploring the rest of the park and eating and drinking, however the park just kept getting busier until finally around 3 I called it quits and went back to the hotel for the rest of the night. 
