Day 1 - Harry Potter Land

After not sleeping, I was up in plenty of time to get to gate opening for early entry to Harryworld. There must have been only 60 of us at most but we were all going to the same place!

oh - and it was pouring rain - but doen't that just add to the atmosphere?

First stop was Olivander's wand shop. I got into the first group of about 20 (no queuing for me!). Ollie picked a delightful young woman of about 12 and she went through the motions of waving twigs around until (insert angelic music) she found her wand ! Very quick and nicely done with everyone in role.

 Then I was first customer of the day in the store with a wand for my niece according to her birthday. She scored an ivy wand. And none of the characters in the book used ivy (I suppose we can't all be holly like Harry!). Don't worry - she's 16 - she couldn't be bothered reading this.

brussellus sproutus extinctium!

Then it was straight to Forbidden Journey , which was fantastic from the gates all the waythrough. A showstopper of a ride, so technically wonderful and exhilarating! Again - no queue, the ride was a walk on. This ride would have to be one of the most advanced available. It looks great, has incredible range of movement  - think of it like a moving simulator - and of course the theming from the Hogworts Castle through the 'flying a broom' effects were excellent.

Next up was brekkie at the 3 Broomsticks. I had the Trad English bfast - which wasn't completely trad - wrong beans and potatoes?? A nod in the right direction though with blood pudding and english bacon (a strange thing, of which Disney has no experience)

What??? just tilt the screen. Geez you people are demanding.

"Trad English Breakfast"contains: sauteed potatoes, sauceless baked beans and a croissant. The English have obviously been holding out on the rest of us.

 BTW: I had a 'Darth Vader in the Deathstar canteen' moment

I like it so much. I had to use it again.

"This tray is wet, this tray is wet, this tray is wet - what is this? a traditional english canteen breakfast experience?"

Honeydukes sweet shop and Zonko's joke shop contained lots of referred items, like every flavour beans, fanged frisbee,  exploding bon bons and chocolate frogs. The butterbeer is good fun somewhat reminiscent of a creaming soda float without the scoop of icecream.

Continuous Puking Pastilles - replicate the emotional experience of a life in middle management

Honeydukes amazing supply

More Disney than Hogsmead

Shelves and shelves of sugary goodness

Ahhh - the miracle of modern chemical engineering

Oak brewed for precision baterial develoment and fine beading

Ill thought through games that actually cannot be played - and questionable aerodynamics

Embiggen to look at all the fireworks! YEAH! EXPLOSIONS! (Unlike Canberra where we've had fireworks available forever)

After that thre was lots of wandering around enjoying the space and shopping. The fake snow works in photos but looks very fake in real life. The shops and the whole design look fantastic. easily one of the most well done pieces of theme parkery I've seen.

Given the very low crowds I did WWoHP in only a couple of hours, and the whole park by 1pm! I don't think many others have the same luck.

Many of the shop fronts had animatronic displays in them - this one had moving and squeeling plants

The famous castle - and location of the Forbidden Journey ride

Embiggen to see the owls in the owlery - with real fake owl poo and everything