Hogwarts and Horrendous Weather

Thursday was a mixture of Awesome Nerdy times and seriously insane rain. To my extreme joy we went to Universal's Island of Adventure which if you don't know is the home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!! Last time I'd been to Florida the park was still being built so I've been dying to visit it for *aaages*!

The day started off looking bright enough although it still took a beastie-sized cup of coffee to de-zombiefy my lazy ass. When we got to Universal it was batshit-crazy busy in Hogsmeade, seriously there was a line that looked nearly an hour long just to get into Ollivanders! That's not even mentioning the 75 minute line to get into the Hogwarts Castle ride.

We first hit up the Triwizard Dragon Challenge ride (formally the Duelling Dragons ride) which is a fab way to make yourself light-headed early in the morning. Strangely the queue for this ride was tiny in comparison to the Hippogriff ride which was nothing more than a glorified runaway train, being the adrenaline junkie that I am I found that odd since who'd pass up the chance to get flung around upside down and instead sit and go round and round in speedy circles with a bit of steep banking?

After retrieving our bags from the teeny-tiny-omg-why-are-they-so-small? lockers we wandered towards the castle, shuffled our way through the *extremely* packed shop by the exit to the ride, drooled enviously over purdy scarves, ties and $50 Marauder's maps (yipes that was crazy), before escaping to freedom in the baking sunshine. That's when we noticed the cart selling wands.

Spot my Mommy in Hogsmeade!

Now before this trip I knew that what I wanted most from TWWoHP was a wand, so that I could finally stop messing about like a pathetic muggle with the crappy wand I made from K'nex donkey's years ago (no, really). So my sister and I had a nosy at the different character's wands and decided that we both really liked Ginny's and Luna's wands so we batted our eyelashes like suck-ups and the rentals agreed to let us have them *happy dance*. We also got Hermione's wand for a very special Twin of mine - Jess m'dear we are gonna Accio nerdytimes like nobody's business! I think we should mock-duel in the middle of the cinema when we meet oui?

Ahem, moving on. Thus wandified we then had to decide what to do next and with a choice of humungous queue for Hippogriff ride or humungous queue for the Hogwarts Castle ride... Hogwarts won out. Once again we had to stuff our bags into lockers I swear someone had hexed to be that tiny and useless, and join the endless queue which snaked *outside* of the normal park area into hidden, special staff only areas because it was *SO FREAKING LONG*.

For an hour we shuffled round all the queue lanes, getting baked by the sun (which later became sunburn),  and fanning ourselves frantically with maps so our entire faces didn't melt off. It was actually kinda cool being in the queue as you end up in the Herbology greenhouses just before you enter the actual castle, there were mandrakes behind a little cage thing and what I think might have been a Venomous Tentacula but alas there were no staff around to ask and I'd hate to reveal my extreme nerdiness by asking the general queue-folk.

The House Points system

This is my sister and I just as we get to the castle entrance (praise be to sweet, sweet air conditioning), please ignore how hideous I look as I am not suited to hot climates :S

Inside was super-cool and chock-full of awesome Hogwarty stuff as we continued queueing to the actual ride. Check out ze pics.

Entrance to Dumbledore's Office

 The ride itself was an awesome amalgam of a simulator ride with a big-ass projector screen (like Soaring at Epcot) and a crazy coaster. You have to run down one of those conveyor belts and jump into the four-seat box thing and chuck your harness down as everything keeps moving the whole time so you gotta be quick!

Then you get lifted off the ground and away you go! There's an awesome bar on the front of your harness which you hold like you're on a broom and it seriously feels like your flying round Hogwarts. Occasionally the scene changes and bam! You're in the Forbidden Forest and there's fecking SPIDERS EVERYWHERE! Then everything goes back to nice and normal for a while... wait no NOW THE DEMENTORS ARE COMING FOR YOU!!! *Freaks the frick out*

Sorting Hat!

I will hands-up confess to being genuinely scared when the Dementors appeared because damn... that's one thing the movies did perfectly *shudders*. I will also own up to being a major spaz and yelling "Expecto Patronum" like it would bloody do something, oy vay I'm an idiot.

Overall the ride was absolutely amazing and dang if you didn't feel like you were really flying (I know I was leaning forward to go faster), it was a total rush and *so* worth the hour's queue time. If we could have I would have ran back round and rejoined the line as I wanted to live in that castle!

By the time we got finished in Hogwarts we were starved so we went and sat at the back of the Three Broomsticks and ate our sandwiches whilst cooing over our wands (Beth and me that is, our parents just thought we were mental :P). We still had a few more places we wanted to go in Hogsmeade, like Honeydukes so after lunch we joined the crush in the sweet shop. There were so many awesome looking sweets in there (although jeepers they were pricey) but we eventually got a chocolate frog and some Bertie Bott's beans for my sister and I to share. Later however when my sister butchered the poor frog we realised that the chocolate wasn't all that great so we still haven't finished it *oops*. On the bright side we got Rowena Ravenclaw as our Wizarding Card.

Beth  & Me outside the Post Office

As the day was getting on we had to finally try and do some other rides cos we'd done only two so far and we'd been in the park for 3 hours or more. So we started walking round toward the Hulk ride but as we got into the Jurassic Park area it started. The Rain. The Torrential Monsoon Season Rain. The OMG Will It Ever Stop Rain.

We were stuck inside a restaurant for probably getting on for an hour waiting for the downpour to ease off, in the end we just manned up and got out there in our super-cool yellow ponchos (I was lucky enough to have my special pink mac instead :P). With how shit the weather was the two rides that we'd wanted to go on (Hulk and Dr Doom's Fearfall) were now closed cos of the lightning risk so we decided to schlep our way to the exit and went for an early dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (the food was really nice btw).

So that was our Epic-turned-Epicly-Wet day at Universal's Island of Adventure where we managed an amazing TWO rides due to the horrific turn in the weather. But in my eyes it was totally worth it because we got to go to HOGWARTS for crying out loud! I kinda wish that the other shops in Hogsmeade were actually accessible instead of just being cool shopfronts with "just popped out" signs on the doors cos that would have been super-awesome. I also think that it would rock if they built a full-size Hogwarts Express that you could travel round the outside of the park on cos then you could sit with other Harry Potter nerds in the compartments and revel in the awesomeness! (Alas I realise that Universal has like no space for expansion unlike Disney who have practically a county to themselves).

But yea, it was a fab day and I gots to say thanks very muchly to my parentals for tolerating my nerdiness enough to take us to the park (not that they'll read this but at least the thought is there).

Has anyone else been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? If so what bit did you like best? Do you think that it could have been even more awesome? What HP goodies did you buy? Let me know!

Witchily Yours
LadyV

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In My Mailbox #53 ze magical one!

Hola mis chicas! (or chicos I dunno what the female:male ratio is for ze blog). Tis the end of the first full week of my stay in Florida and it's kinda scary that in just a week I'll be going home again, gawd knows how I'm gonna adjust to having to go back to work *sad face*. Just as I've got into a routine of responsible adultness this holiday has set me back at least three years on the maturity ladder, so although I'm inching ever closer to my 21st birthday right now I'm feeling rather like a sixteen year old on her summer vacation. Ugh, why can't I just stay here and work at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? I would *kill* to be able to spend all day dressed in Hogwarts robes and to buggery if I'm sweltering in the heat-  I'd have the best job EVER!

But anyways digressions are the bane of my life. To business!
In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie



Books Acquired this week
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway


**AND**
Luna Lovegood's Wand *squee* (I did want to maybe get a Ravenclaw scarf but the shops were so crazy-cakes busy that it was a challenge to move around in there so escaping was the sensible option)
Hermione Granger's Wand  - for the Darling Jess of Jess Hearts Books (So we can be nerdy witchy nutters when we go see HP7 Pt2 later this month)


My post detailing the awesomeness of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter avec pictures will hopefully be up later today so keep your peepers peeled for that!

So do let me know what Y'all got in Your Mailboxes this week!

Magically Yours
LadyV

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Book Review - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I should have got this done for yesterday but since I fell behind earlier this week with my Favs Fortnight posts I'm now trying to play catch-up even though my capacity to write coherent reviews is probably a bit dented after the two behemoth reviews of *last* Friday and Saturday :P. The next two should be much shorter since I've not got time today to write loads.

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J.K. Rowling
Date: 26/9/2010 PM (re-read)
Source: Bought
Description: Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's always a relief after summer with the Dursleys, however, Harry doesn't realise that this year will be just as eventful as the last two! The atmosphere at Hogwarts is tense. There's an escaped mass murderer on the loose, even the Muggles have been warned. The sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school and Harry, Ron and Hermione rapidly discover why all witches and wizards live in fear of being sent to Azkaban. Lessons, however, must go on and there are lots of new subjects in third year - Care of Magical Creatures and Divination among others. Plus the delights of Hogsmeade, the only village in the UK entirely populated by the magical community. (Description taken from Amazon.co.uk)


Review:
Well since there is very little that I can actually say about this series that you won't already know or have thought yourselves I shall keep this very brief and merely outline why this particular book in the series was the one I chose to include in my Favs Fortnight.


Ok first off I have to mention the slightly pragmatic reason that was because this was a lot smaller than Goblet of Fire (another of my favs) and so easier and quicker to re-read. I could have probably re-read GoF if I wanted but as this comes before it I thought it more appropriate to read my original favourite out of the series.


After Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets the third book was just so brilliant (sheesh do I overuse that word). There's finally a little ray of hope for Harry that his family life might not be so hellish in the future and I just loved the new subjects that Harry, Ron and Hermione got to study in their third year, although I would have liked it more if we could have got to see some of Hermione's Ancient Runes & Arithmancy classes cos they sounded so awesome (but alas since the books are always from Harry's POV that was never going to happen).

This book was also a good deal darker and more complex than the previous two and bugger me if the Dementors are not some of the most chilling monsters I've ever come across in children's fiction - heck knows how my 8 year self dealt with this potential nightmares this book could cause to someone that young (I have no memories of my immediate feelings after finishing it for the first time). We also learned some very interesting things about Harry's father when he was at school. Sirius and Lupin became two of my favourite characters *why Jo why?!?* although for years until I saw the actual third film (which at the time I hated) I always read Sirius as Sirus without the "i". No idea why but I did.

Prisoner of Azkaban was my overall favourite of the first three books and it's still one of my top 3 books out of the whole series (the other two being Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix). It's sort of the last book where things are going reasonable well for Harry and there's still a smidgen of good in the world before everything gets progressively darker from the start of Goblet of Fire. I find it impossible to call either of the last two books my favourites even though I do love them, I just can't entirely forgive J.K. Rowling for Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Hedwig and Colin Creevey (pain in the arse that he always was to Harry he was still only 16).

So there you go, my rather spare thoughts on the 3rd in a series I'm sure I'll never tire of re-reading even long after I've finally given up hope of receiving my letter to Hogwarts :P (oh come on you can't fool me, I know you're all still waiting too)

My Rating: 5 out 5 Stars


So which Potter book is *your* favourite? Tell me in the comments or link to your own review :)
Well gotta dash now as dinner is calling my name *om nom nom*
LadyV

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Guest Post from Jess Hearts Books on Harry Potter!

Since I was re-reading one of my favourite Harry Potter books for my Favs Fortnight I thought it would be a smashing time to ask the lovely Jess (whom I'm sure you know by know is one of my best friends) to write a guest post about *her* favourite Harry Potter book. Of course she happily obliged and I now bring to you her thoughts on one of her favourite series of all-time.

Welcome to the Library - Jess Hearts Books!

*     *     *     *     *

For Rachel’s favourite fortnight I’m going to be talking about my ultimate favourite series which is probably a lot of people’s favourite - Harry Potter. When Rachel first approached me to do this post asking me what my favourite Harry Potter book was I couldn’t possibly decide because they all hold such a special place in my heart. Before reading the first Harry Potter book I did enjoy reading but Harry Potter was the first book that made me fall in love with reading, that had me obsessed, that made me want to spend every free moment I had devouring a book. I always felt that way about it right from the very first book. 

I can still remember to this day how I first found out about Harry Potter and his world of magic. In junior school we were required to do a half hours reading in the morning during registration and the girl sitting next to me was utterly engrossed in what she was reading I noticed over the following few days that she was reading this particular book at every moment she got, sometimes even sneakily reading it under the table during a lesson.  I remember thinking what kind of book would be so good that you’d risk missing playtime by getting a detention for not paying attention? 

So intrigued I asked her what she was reading and that book of course was Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. I saved up my lunch money that week and went hungry so I could buy my own copy of the book to read (it was fairly new back then and they didn’t have it in the library) and that was it, I was hooked. Every year after that I would eagerly await the release of the latest Harry Potter book. Right from my last summer before high school up until me working and sneaking out to get my pre ordered copy of the last book. 

I grew up with those books, I grew up with the characters as if they were friends, and now I get to relive it all a little bit every year when the new film comes out. It’s played such a huge role in my life and in my love for books as I’m sure it has for many other people. Only a short while ago I bought a brand new box set of the books because my others are that battered from countless re-reading sessions over the years, especially my poor paperback copies of the first 3 books that are hanging in there for dear life!

It’s so hard for me to choose a favourite Harry Potter book. I love The Philosopher’s Stone for introducing this world to me.  I love The Chamber of Secrets for making me start keeping a diary so if I ever died a piece of my soul would live on ( Hey, I was only 13 at the time!) which made me love writing. I love The Prisoner of Azkaban for being the scariest book that I read at that age and feeling really grown up for reading it late into the night and not having nightmares.  I love The Goblet of Fire for making me believe that the hardest of challenges are possible to win. I love The Order of the Phoenix for making me feel like I’m not alone in feeling like an outcast sometimes. I love The Half-Blood Prince for showing me that true friends will always stand by you no matter what, and lastly The Deathly Hallows for showing me that even though the battle may be hard and bloody if you do the right thing you’ll always get the right outcome. 

I learnt so much from these books and learn something new every time I read them. They hold the most special of places in my heart and for that reason no matter how many books I read or how many I fall in love with the Harry Potter series will always remain my most favourite and most cherished books.

Thank you so much Jess for agreeing to do a guest post and I hope it won't be too long until you're here again (both in blog form and real life :P).

I'll be hopefully having my (rather short) review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban up later today along with an equally brief review of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. So stick around for those.

Anyway I must dash, I have much to do and not a whole of time to do it in.

LadyV & Jess :D

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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Bet that got your attention eh?

Well today I had an epiphany of sorts, this morning while perusing the new posts on my google reader (as one does when one follows a lot of blogs) I came across Carla of The Crooked Shelf's post on Harry Potter which got me thinking about how much I love the books and what an impact they've had on my life since I basically grew up with the series.

As any self-respecting Potter nerd knows Harry was born on 31st July 1980 which means that if he was actually a real person (god knows I wished he was cos then I may have actually been able to go to Hogwarts when I turned 11 - that was a sad year :P) this July would be his 30th birthday. And I thought that since we may not get any new books, or at least not for a while, why not have a big birthday bash for Harry?

Now follows my vlog explaining the idea for the "Potter Party" and my request of the Potter-loving bloggers.




Should anyone want to get involved please leave me a comment, shoot me an email, send a carrier pigeon, whatever please let me know as I would *love* it if we could make this a big event on the blogosphere.


Muchos thanks
LadyV

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