{universal studios at christmastime}

I'm gonna be honest here and say that I liked Universal Studios more than Disney this trip...all because of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The last 3 or 4 years, Nate and I have made it a tradition of watching all the Harry Potter movies in/around November.  So just getting done with those and visiting this place made it all that better.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, this is a MUST-SEE!  To truly appreciate it all, you have to see all the movies.  So if you've loved all the books, but not seen the movies...do it!  The attention to detail to match the movies is unreal, the rides, the shops, the cast members.  So. Stinking. Cool.  Anyhow, when you get there, the outside just looks like London, buses, house fronts, and a "secret" wall takes you to Diagon Alley.  

 Our first stop was Escape from Gringotts.  That was such a neat rollercoaster/virtual ride!  Just walking through Gringotts while in line was amazing :)

 We also bought the kids an interactive wand to share.  There were a bunch of places around that you could do spells and make things happen if you moved your wands in certain ways.  Tucker loved this.  They chose the Harry Potter wand, but there was literally a wand for every character in the books/movies you could think of to choose from.

 Hogsmeade

 And we got a chocolate frog :)

 And walked through Hogwarts

 And bought lots of butterbeer and a bottle of pumpkin juice

 Walked through the Platform of 9 3/4 to get to the Hogwarts Express, which we got to ride.

Butterbeer and frozen butterbeer...YUMMO!

Other rides we/the kids enjoyed were Men in Black, Dualing Dragons, Jurrasic Park, Blutos Barges, Jurrasic Park, Rip Roarin' Roller Coaster, the Mummy, E.T, Transformers, Minions, and a few in the Dr. Seuss section.

We got to watch a fun Grinch show as well as see Who-ville all decked out for Christmas!

Great Vacation!