Another trip report on Universal/IOA went last week

[murphy1]

I think alot of people have given great reports, I don't have too much to add. WWoHP exceeded my expectations. I knew it would be great, but it was just so much fun to be in the whole atmosphere of HP, the music piped in and the shoppes and the shows were all incredible. We did a two night partner hotel package, which I highly recommend. We got in at 8 am, commemorative tix, free breakfast , discounts to some of places in the parks. We hit the wand shop first (I can't stress to hit this first if you want to see the show they do inside--we were in the second group to get in that morning) then FJ. FJ was awesome, my stomach flipped a few times, like some have said, there isn't any other ride ike this, it is nowhere near Mission Space, but definitely more active than Soarin, my 9 yo was kind of scared to go on it and then loved it after we got off. If you are looking for a great hotel, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Suites (NOT Express, but I stayed there a couple years ago and it was nice, too, they are all on Major Blvd) across the street from Universal/IOA. We had a wonderful 1 bedroom, size of an apartment almost with a kitchen and TGIFridays on the property, where my daughter got a free meal. The staff was nice and it was recently remodeled. We did both parks in one day (we did not have Express pass, but didn't need it as we did not go on all the rides), only spent a couple of hours at Universal. She and I both loved walking around WWoHP and seeing all the details in everything. Bring lots of money for souvenirs if you are a HP fan. There was a guy who looked just like a Weasley working in the joke shop and a girl who worked FJ who looked like Ginny Weasley, I kept taking pics of my daughter with cast members. Also, we did one night at MVMCP and I was able to drive from the Universal property to Disney property in about 15 minutes. The weather was perfect too this time of year, not hot at all, which I know being from Florida and I don't really go in July/August if I can help it. Definitely prefer frozen Butterbeer, the regular cold one tasted like cream soda with a whole cup of sugar in it. I'm glad we had fun on the first part of our trip, b/c two days later, I took my daughter to an urgent care clinic near my hometown near the beach and found out she had strep.

Shari

[NJGIRL]

Shari, Thanks for the report and I hope your daughter is feeling better. We love Universal and HP land is out of this world. I'm glad you enjoyed it! When we were there in Oct it was still so crowded that we didn't get to go into most of the shops because our major concern was getting on the rides, but they did a great job at recreating the village.

[faline]

We haven't yet been to the Harry Potter section of the park so enjoy reading others' experiences! Thanks for sharing!

Hope your daughter is feeling better! Strep is NOT fun!

[2MuchWDFun]

Thanks for the detailed report---My DH and DS are really looking forward to seeing and experiencing WWOHP. Sounds like we're going to have a lot of fun!