Hogsmeade Tour

It's finally here! :D Our tour of the most magical place on earth: Hogsmeade Village!

We first had to walk through a good portion of the Islands of Adventure park, with all of it's different themes and attractions to get there, but we payed no attention that first day. We headed straight towards Hogsmeade. It was the whole reason we went! We were so darn excited with our first view of everything! We could see the Hogwarts Express, Zonko's, Honeyduke's, Dervish and Bange's, Ollivander's, The Three Broomsticks, and off in the distance- Hogwarts! :D

And this is where our tour begins.


Awww, excited Yeti! :D

 We stopped quickly at a few of the shops, bought some chocolate frogs and Every Flavor Beans from Honeydukes,  

An extendable ear and a pygmy puff from Zonkos, before going back out to fight the crowd and heat on our journey to Hogwarts.

Once we finally got to the entrance, and stood in line for an eternity or five- this was it, we were about to be in freaking Hogwarts! :D 

This was us as we were walking inside for the first time:

SO stoked!! :D

First walking in, we saw some awesome statues and the staircase to Dumbledore's office (tear!). The designers did such an amazing job making everything look real! It genuinely felt just like you were there.

Then, after a series of winding hallways and corridors, you get to Dumbledore's office. All of the rooms were just stuffed with the coolest, most realistic looking HP memorabilia ever, as well as hollographic projections of some of the characters, and of course- the famous music playing!

Don't pretend you're not humming it in your head right now :P

I can't actually remember the order of the rest of the castle, heh, so here are the other pics:

Those pictures really moved and talked! :D

After the big tour through Hogwarts, you get to the actual ride! It was genuinely the funnest thing I think I've ever done, haha. It goes on a big virtual adventure with Harry, featuring dementors, the womping willow, long terrifying broom dives, a room full of massive spiders and all of their babies- one even spits on you (ack!) and tons more. Every time the screen dove down towards the ground, we really felt like we were falling and raised our feet up and everything, haha. It was a crazy blast. After we got off, we bought some things at Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods, bought full matching Gryffindor robes and scarf sets from Dervish and Banges, as well as wands from Ollivanders :P I got Luna Lovegood's, and Calvin the elderwand. After all of this, our stomach's were a' rumblin, so we got lunch atttttt

The Three Broomsticks!

:D 

At all of the different shops and eating establishments, the employees were dressed in full costume, and the Three Broomsticks was no different. We got fish 'n chips, roasted chicken and corn, and of course, butterbeer! If you're wondering what butterbeer tastes like, it was like a butterscotch flavored cream soda- or icee- whichever you prefered. Totally delicious for the first and second drinks- totally overpoweringly sweet after that. But still, its cool to say we got to try it :P

Honestly, it makes me a little sad to recount all of this to you guys, because it was seriously one of the funnest, most romantic, genuinely carefree times I've ever had. I miss it. The weather, albeit cloudy, was very warm and wet and lovely. I'm so used to this dry Colorado wind. Everything went just almost perfectly, and we couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon. Thank you Mom for helping get everything booked, and Mom and Dad for our wonderful wedding present- the plane tickets and money that allowed us to do this! We are eternally greatful. 

And thank you readers, for going on this tour with us today :P 

Next I'll be featuring the other side of Universal Studios- 

until then, have a beautiful day.

:)