Morning all, Tuesday here and we are about to checkout of our hotel and go do some shopping before we catch our next flights.

Yesterday we spent the day at Universal Studios Orlando.  In other words, we spent the day in Harry Potter world.

We arrived at the Theme Park at 9am (along with thousands of other people) and made it into the carpark, through security and into the Theme Park within 20 minutes!  The speed in which everything happens and how well everything works is incredible.

Our first ride was Jimmy Fallon – race through New York city which was a good warm up and lots of fun.  Then we headed for Harry Potter world.

Warning. The following is a fully crazy Harry Potter experience from a HUGE fan.  If you do not like Harry Potter, skip to the end…

Out on the main street we found the Knight Bus, and conductor, complete with talking head.  Sounded just like Stan too! They were talking to the kids crowding around the bus, with the head talking back to them! Further down the street, we found No.12 Grimmauld Place.  There was someone up on the second floor peering through the curtains at all those knocking on the door (can you figure out who??)

Kings Cross station was there on the main street and a little way down (which I completely missed) was the very plain and un-noticeable entrance to Diagon Alley.  I must be a muggle as “my eyes shifted from on building to the next without even seeing it”.  Very cleaver.

Inside Diagon Alley… there was everything!! First, we tried some butterbeer (cold not hot) which was very tasty.  I can see why Harry, Ron & Hermione like it.  I then left Chris with his butterbeer as I wandered around and took photos of everything! Gringotts (complete with fire breathing dragon on top), Flourish & Blotts (Monster Books moving), the Leaky Cauldron, Weasley Wizard Wheezes (moving just like the movie), Quality Quidditch Supplies and of course all the other shops mentioning everything else (potions, quills, Hermione’s dress from book 4, cauldron, pets etc) Even Knockturn Alley and Borgin and Burkes.  After wondering around gazing at everything I found Chris again and we decided to try the Gringotts ride (escape Gringotts).  The ride itself was exciting and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Bill came along for the ride.  However, the walk to the ride was also really interesting as all the corridors contained bits and pieces you would expect to see at Gringotts, including the lift used in movie 7 for the bank.

Once the ride was over and we exited through the gift shop, we decided to make our way over to Universal’s Island of Adventure (another theme park within the same complex). The reason for doing this – you travelled by Hogwarts Express!  Over to Kings Cross station we go where you walk between platforms 9 & 10 to get onto the platform.  There on the platform sits the Hogwarts Express! Aboard the Hogwarts express (in small compartments) the window becomes a screen and as we travel between the two parks a movie is shown travelling from the middle of London to Scotland including a Dementor attack.  Thankfully we arrived at Hogsmede Station (to be welcomed by Hagrid) without losing our soul.

Funny fact to add to the experience, when we left King Cross Station in London it was nice and sunny, when we arrived at Hogsmede Station in Scotland – it was drizzling and started pouring 5 minutes later! How?? We can’t figure it out!

This will have to be part 1 of 2 of Day 8 as we need to check out of our hotel.  We do have long flights today so will put part 2 together then.

My results!! They came out sometime yesterday (thanks for letting me know Charlotte!).  A+ for me, which bring all my results for my Legal Executive course to 5 A+ and 1 A!  Pretty happy with that, and pretty happy to be qualified.  A big thank you to everyone who supported me over the last 4 years and an even bigger thank you to Chris who put up with 6am alarms for 4 years.  Happy to be qualified and getting to sleep in.

Until later…

Chris & Dan

more photos later – Dan