Orlando, Florida - Part 4

This is the fourth post from our family reunion in Orlando, Florida.  You can see the previous post here:

Today was a really special day.  One of the big reasons that we chose Orlando, was more than just for DisneyWorld.  Several members of our family are HUGE fans of Harry Potter.  At the Universal Studios Orlando park, they now have a large attraction called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It's as amazing as it sounds ; )

Basically, they built a replica of a village in the Harry Potter books - Hogsmeade, to be exact.  I have to say that the Universal people did an amazing job.  I could go on and on, but perhaps the pictures will tell a better story:

One of the coolest things we found, was...Butter Beer.  It tasted even better than it sounds.  The Butter Beer stand was jam-packed.

It tasted like a beautiful marriage between creme soda and ginger ale - with a creamy foam-topping made of butterscotch and vanilla.  Serious.  It was a huge hit with our family:

Harry Potter World had a couple of fun attractions, including a vigorous ride at Hogwart's (Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey), and a family roller-coaster called Flight of the Hippogriff:



The village was beautifully constructed, with little shops throughout - live Ollivanders Wand Shop.  The creative team at Universal paid a lot of attention to detail.  My favorite store was Honeydukes, a truly unique candy shop:

Fizzing Whizzbees - chocolate with pop rocks inside ; )

Love, love the creative packaging...

We spent a LOT of time in that store ; )  Later, we decided to have lunch in Harry Potter World, so we made our way to the Three Broomsticks Restaurant for a delicious lunch:

As I pointed out, one of the heart-warming parts of the reunion, was cousins spending time together.  Every once-in-a-while, you capture something awesome like this:

After doing everything we could in Harry Potter World, we decided to take the kids to the Dr. Seuss area, where they had rides that were a little more tame:

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We found a little corner of the park that was empty, so we kind of took it over.  It gave the kids an area to run around, without bumping into other people.  L had been stuck in a stroller all day, so this was really good for her:

The last part of the park was dedicated to Marvel superheroes (who knows how long this will last, because Disney bought Marvel).  G-Man is really, really into superheroes right now, so this was an absolute treat for him.  He was able to meet the Green Goblin:

All of the cousins wanted to ride on a tea cup-like attraction called Storm Force Accelatron.  They had a blast!

Then, a dream-come-true for G-Man, as the cousins were able to meet Spiderman! They all stood in front of a green-screen and have a conversation before taking a picture:

There were several shops in this area that had some pretty cool stuff. There was a comic book store that had ME entertained for a while ; )

The kids even had the opportunity to watch a short parade of heroes come down the street:



The big surprise was that G-Man also met one of his favorite heroes - Captain America.  You have to understand that G-Man has dressed-up like Captain America for the last year:

What a day!!  We finished a little early, so we headed back to the rental home and went swimming.  This is one of the huge benefits of renting a vacation home - the pool was ready and waiting for just our family:

Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of Day 4.  Stay tuned for Day 5, as we head back to DisneyWorld for Epcot Center.