Our Fall Fantasia - Day 6, WWoHP and MNSSHP

**Noah's Helper** · 11-17-2011, 11:50 PM

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

DAY 6 – Thursday, October 20

One of our main draws for this trip was to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We drove the rental car, and with printed directions and a GPS we had no trouble finding Universal and Islands of Adventure. We arrived before the park opened and waited with a small crowd for the turnstiles to open. Once in the park, we followed everyone to Hogsmeade and on to Hogwarts, where after getting a locker we practically walked on to the Forbidden Journey ride. This was really an impressive ride, but it made me feel a little queasy. It affected Tina even more. It was a bit too frightening for Noah – he said he’d prefer it if the full ride were video based. The ride stopped once, and fortunately we were in a relatively comfortable position. Because of the stop, we were offered a second ride, but none of us wanted to do so.

Next we got in line for the wand shop. This might have been the longest wait of our trip, but it was still not bad, maybe 30 minutes. And we could enjoy the atmosphere of Hogsmeade while we waited. I was very impressed by Mr. Ollivander. A little girl standing next to Noah was selected to have a wand choose her.

We browsed in the shops a while, and Julianna and I rode the Dragon Challenge. This is probably the wildest coaster I have ridden. While it is pretty intense, it did not unsettle my stomach as badly as the Tower of Terror.

We saw an acrobatic performance by “students” competing in the Triwizard Tournament. Lunch was at the Three Broomsticks. We wanted to sample each of the drinks, so we bought a regular butterbeer, a frozen butterbeer, and a pumpkin juice, and shared them all.

Tina was hoping to see the frog choir, but she was away shopping with Noah when Julianna and I stumbled upon a performance. This show was fun, and more enjoyable than the acrobats.

Since we changed our plans to attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party to this night, we decided to leave Islands of Adventure early and rest for the afternoon. On the way out, the kids and I stopped to ride the Cat in the Hat ride. I was hoping to ride Spiderman as well, but the wait time was listed as 40 minutes, and I was not sure whether my stomach could take it either.

I dropped off the family at Caribbean Beach and returned the rental car to the car care center, where a shuttle was waiting to take me back to the resort. He dropped me off at Martinique, which I appreciated. I encouraged everyone to rest up so we could stay late at the Halloween party.

We eventually put on our costumes and took some photos on the resort grounds, much to Noah’s embarrassment. Then we took a bus to the Magic Kingdom, arriving around 6 pm. We stopped in the Main Street Bakery to check out their mealtime offerings, but the kids said they were not ready to eat yet. Noah wanted to ride Buzz, so we headed to Tomorrowland. The standby time for Buzz was posted as 20 minutes, and I (wrongly) thought the line would be shorter later. The kids decided they’d like to go ahead and eat, so I led everyone to Cosmic Ray’s. Once we got there, they said no, they wanted eat at the bakery – so we headed back to Main Street.

The cast member who took our order at the bakery commented on our costumes. She was just about the only one to say anything about our theme. The kids had thought that might be the case, but I believed surely some cast members would pick up on it.

Splash Mountain was next. Noah still would not ride it, so he waited while the rest of us rode. There was no line. Afterwards I took Noah through Brer Rabbit’s trick-or-treat trail while Julianna and Tina rode Big Thunder Mountain. We saw the seven dwarfs, but the line was too long for us.

I was hoping to get a twilight photo taken from the rose garden area, but on the way Julianna spotted some characters around the hub that we had never seen before, with very short lines. We got in line for Julianna to get a photo with Cinderella’s stepsisters and Lady Tremaine. They did their best ballet pose with her, then insisted we all pose together. They were such a hoot! They loved our costumes, and went on and on about them. (They were doing this for everyone, but it still felt good to be recognized.) As we were leaving, one of them told me I needed to go catch the zebra (a kid who had been in line ahead of us)!

We had our picture made at the rose garden, although by now the sky was darker than I had hoped. Julianna wanted to meet more of the villains, so she and Tina returned to meet Lotso and Gaston, while Noah and I rode Buzz and the Astro Orbiter. We met back together just to split up again; I rode Space Mountain with Julianna, and Tina and Noah checked out the dance party. Once together again, Noah wanted to see the Laugh Floor show. He was hoping our costumes would get us on screen, but it didn’t happen.

After the Laugh Floor it was almost time for the fireworks. We decided not to fight the crowd to get to the hub, and watched the show from the Tomorrowland bridge. While the fireworks did not appear directly behind the castle from this angle, we still had a great view of the perimeter fireworks – better than from Main Street. Wow!

We still had a couple of “must-dos” on our list – Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Noah started complaining of being tired, although I think maybe he wanted to avoid the Haunted Mansion. Tina offered to take him back to the resort, and Julianna and I stayed for the rest of the evening.

The line for Haunted Mansion looked pretty long, and people were starting to claim spots for the parade, so Julianna and I found a spot at Liberty Square by the stocks. We were both ready for a snack, so I let Julianna go off by herself to find something while I held our spot. It took her a while, and I was starting to worry if I had done the right thing in letting her out of my sight, but she eventually returned with two churros.

We enjoyed the parade, including the headless horseman. This was our first time to see the grave diggers, so that was fun too. When the parade ended we were in a good spot to get to the Haunted Mansion before the crowd built back up. Our wait was short, and we enjoyed the interactive queue. After the ride we had our photo made at the hearse.

We hurried over to Pirates and were able to ride with no wait. Our time was starting to run short, and Julianna decided to ride Peter Pan in our last few minutes. She had not collected any candy, but there was a candy station at the Peter Pan exit. We walked off the ride just as they were cleaning out the barrel. Julianna got the last few pieces of candy – and I got none.

We made one last stop at the hub to soak in the atmosphere, then headed out of the park. There were cast members handing out candy at the exit. We did not have to wait long for a bus, and soon we were back in our room.

**MississippiDisneyFreak** · 11-18-2011, 08:25 AM

Great report, love the HM picture

**faline** · 11-19-2011, 12:15 PM

Fun times at both parks!

You got a great shot of the headless horseman which is hard to do! Also loved your picture in front of the Haunted Mansion Hearse!