One the best things about moving your life across the country, is being able to explore and see new things. Now, I went to Universal Studios when I was younger, but I had never been to Harry Potter World. To be quite honest, I wouldn’t really say that I’m even that big of a fan. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to be a fan to think that this place is magical.
On New Years Eve, Universal Studios has all different kinds of activities, they have live music, free New Years attire that they hand out, they close part of Citywalk, and they have fireworks and shows. At the time that we are visiting, they still have Christmas lights up, they’re still doing they’re Christmas parade and they are still having their Christmas shows. Okay, so this may not seem like much to you, except when you walk in it all makes you feel like you’ve walked into Diagon Alley at Christmas time.
As we entered Universal Studios, to Harry Potter World (to those of you that have never been, please find a map, or use the GPS enabled one that you can download on your phone), we had to go through a bunch of different places first, we saw old Hollywood with all of the most lavish stores and hotels, and then right as we were about to walk down a road, they start blocking it off. We had no idea what they where doing, until my sister and I look to the left and we see Marilyn Monroe, and two dancers heading right for that area. Marilyn Monroe put on a show with her two dancers and a ‘director’, it was part of the act, right in the middle of Universal. The show was amazing, although I think Sam could have gone without watching it, and I was now excited and ready to head to Harry Potter World.
Upon entering Harry Potter World, you can see the platform 9 3/4 that will take you to Hogwarts, old telephone booths and even the magical bus. While this was all amazing, even for someone who is not a Harry Potter fan, the best part was heading to Hogwarts after the sun set, and watching the Christmas display at Hogwarts. Hogwarts was lit with a lights show, but not the kind of lights that you string on trees (although those could be seen changing colors all around you), this was a show that told a story, I mean a full blown Harry Potter Christmas story. The show even ended with a fireworks show, it was a spectacular New Years Eve experience. Oh, and if you decided to go to Universal around Christmas time, they show the light show ever 15 minutes starting at 6:15 p.m.
I would like to tell you that we stayed up until midnight and partied our way into the New Year, but I would be lying. After our very eventful weekend at Universal Studios we where exhausted. However, before we left, we did go to the Chocolate Emporium. If you haven’t been there before, the Chocolate Emporium has, well, all kinds of homemade chocolate, but they also had mudslides that you could choose any flavor of ice cream for, and freshly homemade Alfredo (which was heavenly). Once we ate our weight in pasta and ice cream, we decided to head to the hotel, cuddle our dog and ring in the New Year while watching the ball drop on TV. It was a great weekend and a perfect end to the night, or a perfect start to the New Year.
If you have any interest in Harry Potter, or theme parks, I would highly suggest experiencing Universal Studios. The effects are spectacular and the atmosphere makes you feel like you are in the movie.
The best part about the trip was realizing that we live here, we live in Florida, and because we decided to leave everything behind and move, we have been able to see and experience new things (we may not be in other countries, yet, but we’re on the way there). We took a chance on ourselves and the best advice that I can give is for you to do it, too. Truly, what’s the worst that could happen?
-Victoria
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P.S. Sam and I have talked and we have decided to post-pone the vlog. We have a lot of projects going on right now and we don’t want to put out sub-par videos for you. They will come eventually, but right now we are going to focus on finishing the projects at hand. Hope to see you all soon!
