Skip to main content

Universal Studios

By

We've all been looking forward to having some time off to enjoy sunny CA and what better way to start off the trip with a visit to Harry Potter World? 

We got to Universal Studios when it opened at 10am but the place was already as zoo. I felt a bit better that mask mandates were in place and it is required to be fully vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID test before you get in. The lines to go through security and show your COVID status were long but moved fairly quickly, which was a precursor for the rest of the day.

I haven't been to Universal in at least 15 years (since we moved to Seattle) and know that there's lotsto do but of course, first up was we HAD to go to Harry Potter World and go to Olivander's! This was Evie's only request for the trip so we made a beeline for the shop. The line to get to the "show" was already 40 minutes long so while Nora and I jumped into the line, Scott and Evie grabbed butterbeer - one frozen and one cold. If you haven't read the HP series, butterbeer is the drink of choice that all the wizards drinks. It's basically like a butterscotch soda and way too sweet for my tastes! It was still fun to try though just to say we've had it.

Olivander's ended up being a highlight of our day because guess what? Evie got selected to be the young wizard to try out a wand! She was part of the "show" they put on and had to test 2 different wands with different spells until a wand "chose" her. Evie was absolutely giddy with joy after the show. It was pretty fun  to watch and an ingenious way for Universal to sell parents on a $65 wand toy because what parent would say no to their kid when they finally get a wand that "chooses" them? Of course, Nora couldn't be outdone so had to also find a wand in the store.

For the rest of the day, there was a LOT of taking the wand in and out of the box to ooh and ah at them, and to practice spells a various interactive spots throughout the Harry Potter land. Evie, especially, wanted to keep practicing spells all day.

We bribed Nora to get on the first ride (the Flight of the Hippogriff mini roller coaster) and once she had her first taste of that, there was no going back. The girls LOVED going on the rides, but we didn't actually have a lot of time to go becaues the lines were so long. Other than that one, we only went on the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride (ugh, so motion sick after but the girls loved it), the Studio Tour (always fun!), Kung Fu Panda (lame) and watched the Animal Actor show and the Waterworld Stunt show (really spectacular!). We also grabbed dinner at the 3 Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, so that was neat.

We explored a bit of the other areas of the park like Springfield (Simpsons), the Minions area, Whoville (from Grinch) but the kids kept wanting to just go back to Harry Potter. In fact, we didn't even make it down to the lower lot to try the other rides like Jurassic World! I guess that just means we'll have new things to see the next time we go!


The park was all decked out in holiday decorations
Butter beer at 10:30am was a bit much.


More than 14 thousand wands in the room!

Hogswarts castle in the day


Evie doing spells

Another view of the castle

The castle at night. There is a holiday light show that was eh.

Inside the castle

Dinner at 3 Broomsticks

Hogsmeade at night

Family selfie


The big tree at Citywalk as we were walking back to the parking lot

 

Comments

  1. WDecember 26, 2021 at 7:10 PM

    Looks so fun! I can't wait to see the wands in person. I have a feeling Ian and Owen will want one after they see their cousin's wands.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family time

By
I had to do a quick trip to LA towards the end of July to say goodbye to my Uncle Pang, who passed away a few weeks earlier. I have fond memories of fun cousin time at his house in Palos Verdes and Uncle Pang taking us to the beach when we were younger. I remember how he delighted in making us kids squeal with laughter by pretending the car ride was a rolleroaster - we'd take sharp turns and all of us kids would slide to one side of his Volvo station wagon or he'd slow the car down to a roll and we'd all chant that we couldn't let the car stop and it would inch slowly forward at a stoplight.  Although it was a sad reason to get together, I think he would be happy to know that the weekend was also a wonderful get together with family. Because it was fairly last minute, none of the kids flew over which meant us "adult cousins" were able to have long talks and linger over food. Kin and Meredith were able to host a summertime bbq at their house and we had a nice t...
1 comment
Read more

Happy new year!!

By
Goodness, it's already 2025! It's been a really long time since we posted!  We had a very lazy new year. We flew back from LA on the evening of the 31st so spent the last remaining hours of 2024 cozying up on the couch and then fell asleep before it even hit midnight! On New Years day, we slept in, cleaned up the house and then did a quick hike the next day. All in all, a good start to the year! Nora's new blanket hoodie. Cold and muddy trails. We're not in LA anymore! We hiked the Primrose trail that follows Coal Creek.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Cousins trip: Banff!

By
Just 2 weeks ago I was in the beautiful town of Banff enjoying girl time with my cousins and taking in the picturesque landscape and now I'm holed up in front of my computer doing work. Oh how I wish I could go back! This was my second trip to Banff (first time was back in 2019 on a roadtrip with the family ) and I got to check out other parts of this beautiful National Park while laughing it up with these girls to celebrate Frances' big birthday..  We all met up at Calgary airport on Friday morning and after a quick lunch at Calan Noodles for hand-made beef noodle soup (yum!), we hopped in our rental car and drove the 90 minutes to Banff. I was surprised and impressed at how easy the drive was - even easier than driving to Whistler because of the wide and well maintained freeway.  That first afternoon in Banff we walked around town and did some shopping before making our way to Brazen, a bistro serving "Modern Canadian" fare. What's Modern Canadian you ask? We di...
1 comment
Read more