Our friends Dave, Cheryl & Josh who had been stuck in Denver were able to get on standby flight yesterday and were able to make it in time to go with us to Universal Studios Island of Adventure. Our first ride we went on was the Incredible Hulk Coaster.
We took advantage of some photo opportunities on our way back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of the park.
We rode the dragon challenge when we got there and then saw that there was a 200 minute wait to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, so we decided we better get something to eat before getting in line. We ate at Three Broomsticks. Like everything here you had to wait in line to even get in. It had a wonderful atmosphere inside.
Josh and Amanda had to get their Butterbeer in the souvenir cup. The food was good, between us we had the shepherds pie, fish-n-chips & chicken & ribs.
After we finished lunch and waited in a very long line for the restroom (yes Moaning Myrtle was there) we were able to meet up with Charleen, Ben, Heather, Jarred and Cameron before we got in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. They did a wonderful job on Hogwarts.
The inside surpassed my expectations. Loved the living pictures and how real they looked.
We then rode Flight of the Hippogriff. It was a good thing it was a short ride because it was a very tight fit.
Dave, Cheryl & Roger were very supportive of letting us spend almost all day in Hogmeade. They would wait in the sun for us to go and see and do things that they were not as interested in. We probably spent 6 hours in Hogmeade because we were afraid to leave because we knew once we left it would be very hard to get back in.
Had to wait and get pictures with students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. When we finally decided to leave we could not have guessed how crowded it was. They were only allowing a few people in to Hogmeade and there was a very large crowd of people waiting to get in. It took us quite a while and almost a panic attack to get through the crowd. They actually were letting people leave through a back lot, which probably saved us a lot of time.
We walked back to the hotel which was not far but there was no sidewalk.
We had already decided to go to a Mexican food restaurant for dinner that Roger had found good reviews about. So after Cheryl and I got Christie and Wesley checked in for their flight tomorrow we headed out for the restaurant. When we got there we found that they had closed for the holiday and would reopen tomorrow. So we went to the Ale House for dinner which turned out to be good. Then we hit up Walgreen's for the after Christmas candy sale and we lucked out and found some bags of Cadburry chocolate which the whole store could probably hear our excitement as we all let out a squeal of delight when we found them hidden behind other stuff. So we happily walked back to the hotel and look forward to some rest before we head to Miami tomorrow.
We headed to Miami today. The Beldens followed us down and I am sure they thought we were leading them on a wild goose chase. It got a little tense in our car because the gps took us a way that was different than what we thought it should but it actually worked out just fine. We also lucked out and didn't hit traffic until we hit Ft. Lauderdale.
