Anyway, on with Awesome Summer of Awesome, Part 4!
After the Night of Frivolity Ball, we dropped Kelly off at her apartment since that was the last we would see of her for the rest of the trip (saaaad T_T) and Amy drove us back to the hotel. We got in about 12:30, and I crawled in bed at about 1.
Day 4: Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I kid you not, we woke up at 6am. I didn't even get 5 hours of sleep that night, but as horrendously drowsy as I was, I forced myself out of bed and into the car.
We arrived at Universal Studios, parked in the Spiderman lot ("I know, he's like my second favorite superhero!" "SECOND??" Name that musical!) and walked into the park. I've never been to Universal before, so it was really cool to find out what was there. Honestly, though, I wasn't really interested in most of the lands aside from the Superhero one and Jurassic Park (of which I took some pictures for my dinosaur obsessed friend, Sarah-Jean).
We came to the first stop, the entrance to Universal as a whole and started our own line so that we were first in it. The lady at the gate was super nice and told us before she let us in which way we would have to go to get into the park since we weren't resort people using the early hours. She was super cool.
Anyway, we sunblocked up and then headed into the park, literally almost racing the completely deserted walkways to make our way around to Wizarding World. There was no one, I repeat, NO ONE in the park. It was the strangest thing to see a theme park entirely empty. We arrived at the back entrance to the park and, like we had hoped, we were the first ones there. One of the cast members offered to take us down to the bridge to have our picture taken with the castle in the background, so we took advantage of her kindness.
Afterward, we sat down behind the masking tape line they had laid down on the asphalt and secured our spot in line. I did a bit of filming, but after about 50 minutes of waiting, they opened the line and we literally sprinted into the park.
First thing we did was get in line for the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts ride, which is the ride that's in Hogwarts. You have to get a locker for your bags for this ride, which is kind of lame, but oh well. Anyways, the wait said it was about 50 minutes, but it really wasn't. It was more like 25, which considering how amazing the ride is, was fabulous. There was so much to look at on the inside of the castle, like the moving pictures and Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and just so much more. The ride itself was unlike anything I've ever experienced, and we all agreed that it is by far the best ride we've ever been on. I'm not going to wreck it for anyone because I truly believe that it's something that everyone should experience and not have spoiled for them. Honestly though, it's levels of awesome are so high that I wouldn't really know where to start describing it. Let's just say it was so great we had to go on it twice xD
After the first time we went on it, we got in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, which isn't as extreme as the Forbidden Journey or Dragon Challenge rides, but it is pretty fun and even thrilling at times, even if it was designed with little kids in mind.
It was then that we headed into Hogsmeade to look around at all the architecture and such. We took tons of pictures, but then headed onto the Dragon Challenge ride. The walk up to the ride is super cool because it's themed after the Triwizard Tournament, so there are all these banners supporting the four champions and then they take you into the Champion's tent from the first task, and they show you ghe Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. There are two sides to this ride, the Hungarian Horntail (blue) and the Chinese Fireball (red). We took the blue side first, and the ride was pretty fun, but then we got on the red side. That one was... infinitely better. I don't know, it was just more extreme somehow. There's a moment on the red ride where you literally pass over the blue ride as they're going upside down and you think you're going to crash into them, but you don't. It was just soooo cool.
After that ride we checked out the front of the park (since we came in the back way) and got a picture in front of the Hogwarts Express. I think it was then that we got back in line for the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts. I called my mom during the wait, which was significantly longer than the first time, but it was still worth it.
It was then that we actually fell into a bit of a crisis. My mom asked us when we were leaving and I told her that we'd go back to the hotel to pack up our stuff at around 4, so she asked us when check out time was, and we told her 10. That's when she started yelling because Jennie had been convinced that the check out time on the website meant any time after 10, not before, which had seemed right to me and Amy, but Jennie had been so certain that it was after 10 that we didn't argue. So since it was 10:30am then, we'd already missed check out, and my mom told us that if we didn't check out soon they'd charge us for an extra day in the hotel, which was problematic because we'd already booked a night in a hotel in Valdosta to cut our travel time back to Atlanta in half between two days. So since it was Jennie's mistake, after we got off the ride, she called the hotel, we gave her our room keys and she left the park to go pack up all of our stuff. I felt kind of bad that she had to leave, but I had thought that hotels make you check out earlier rather than later, and I still had things that I needed to do in the park.
After Jennie left it was down to me, Caitlin and Amy. We got off the ride and decided to get lunch in the Three Broomsticks. Since this was the one meal I was going to get in the park, I figured I'd order something that you couldn't just get anywhere else, so I decided on Cornish Pasties and a garden salad. The Cornish Pasties are basically just pastry filled with ground beef and potatos, and it was really good. I ordered it with a glass of Pumpkin juice just to try it, since they talk about it in the books so much. I actually really liked the taste of pumpkin juice (it's really, really sweet), but I know a lot of reviewers haven't had the best opinion of it. The butterbeer, though, was amazing. Jennie ordered some frozen before she left and it was literally the best thing I've ever tasted. It was like butterscotch and caramel swirled together in frozen goodness. (Don't get it on tap, though. If you're going to get it, get it frozen.)
After the Three Broomsticks, we started going around to the shops in Hogsmeade. We started in Honeydukes, and the line was kind of long, but not nearly as long as it was for Ollivander's. So we walk in and the first thing you see is this huge display for Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans on top of a shelf to your left, and a display for Exploding Bon Bons to your right. They literally had every candy there that's in the books except for Licorice Wands (they had Chocolate Wands instead, which I would be more inclined to eat since I'm not a fan of licorice). I was planning on buying a Chocolate Frog, but after learning that they're $10, I decided against it. I ended up just buying a bottle of Pumpkin Juice for my parents to try.
Zonko's Joke Shop is attached to Honeydukes, and they had a bunch of the old tricks that are in the books, like Sneak-o-scopes, Boxing Telescopes, Fanged Flyers and Screaming Yo-yo's. I didn't buy anything because I was saving my money for a wand, which I was determined to get at the Owl Post (you can't actually buy wands at Ollivander's. The only thing there is the "Experience" where they perform a wand choosing for every 25 people).
Anyway, we left Zonko's and got in line for Dervish and Banges. This was probably the second longest line we had to wait in all day after our second time through Forbidden Journey. It was so hot as we waited in line, since it was early afternoon and there was no cover for the line, but ultimately it was super cool to go in. Dervish and Banges had a whole bunch of Quidditch stuff in it, as well as school robes and t-shirts. They had Rememberall's too! But in the front of the shop is the Owl Post where the wands are. It was soooo packed in there (kind of like it is in the movies) so I had to shove my way into the wand room, and no sooner had I looked at the first shelf than I found exactly what I was looking for.
It's not a secret that Neville Longbottom is my favorite character in Harry Potter, as well as the love of my life =P. Before leaving on the trip, I'd gone onto the Universal website for the Harry Potter merchandise page, and had not found anywhere on the site that they sold Neville's wand, so I hadn't been expecting to find it when I walked into the Owl post, but literally the first one I saw was his shelf. I got so freaking excited that I didn't even bother looking around the rest of the room! I snatched the first wand that was in reach, shoved my way to the register and paid for it before anyone could try to convince me to buy another wand.
I kind of love it. Can you tell?
Caitlin, who had also wanted to buy a wand, succeeded in procuring Harry's wand, and we all left the shop. By this time, our feet were in so much pain that all we really wanted to do was find somewhere to sit down. It was only like, 2, but we were so ready to leave since we'd been there for a good solid 5 hours and hadn't slept much the night before.
The last thing we did in the park was buy ourselves some Butterbeer. We said goodbye to the lovely park and Hogwarts, and limped over to Jurassic Park.
We only wanted to do one thing there, and that was the Jurassic Park ride or something. It's been there a really long time, and it was a water ride, which we really needed after the extreme heat of the day (I swear it was the hottest day out of the 4 we were in Orlando). It was actually really fun, and the drop at the end was far better than I'd anticipated.
We then called Jennie to tell her that we were ready to leave, and made the excruciating trip back through all the parks to the front. My feet and my hips were just about dead when we finally collapsed in the car.
We drove for about 3 hours, and the whole time Amy and Caitlin were in the back sleeping, whereas I read the last chapter of the Order of the Phoenix, and then dozed. We stopped at a Wendy's for dinner, and then half an hour later we arrived in Valdosta. Our hotel room was pretty cool, and we were all so exhausted and silly that we just laughed for about 15 minutes over absolutely nothing. It was ridiculous.
We slept really well that night, I'll just say that.
Day 5: ROFLCOPTOUR. We woke up at 9ish, packed up all our stuff and headed out of Valdosta at 10. We got to Jennie's house in Atlanta at about 1, and made a couple random errands before eating dinner at like, 3. We left for Decatur at 3:45, and ended up getting to the Presbyterian church there at 4:30, a whole hour before the Wizard rock concert was to start. We waited outside the Fellowship hall's back entrance from the parking lot, and a lot of people started to show up in line behind us.
When the doors opened just after 5, we made our way into the building and immediately Jennie and I secured our spots at the very front of the makeshift stage they'd made in the corner of the room. All the bands were at their merch tables, where the majority of the attendees were to buy shirts and CDs and posters. I was kind of sad because I used literally all of my cash up in Wizarding World the day before, because I really wanted an ALL CAPS poster or a ROFLCOPTOUR poster, but Jennie and I were totally broke so we couldn't. It was ok, though, because I was going to try to get pictures with them after the show.
Amy and Caitlin went to sit at the tables along the back wall, and eventually the show started. The first set was the Parselmouths, the wrock band from the point of view from two Slytherin girls, Kristina and Eia. I knew the vast majority of their songs, with the exception of the ones from their newest CD, which I don't have, but one of them involved a special appearance from Harry himself! (Harry was played by Justin from the wrock band Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills.) That set was super fun and ended with their favorite, "Voldemort Fangirl."
The second set was Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills, Justin and Eia. I did not know any of their music, but their set ended up being really, really cool. I'm determined to buy a CD or two once I have money.
Next was The Moaning Myrtles, or rather one half of them, Lauren Fairweather. Nina wasn't on tour this summer because she has a lot of other things going on this summer, so that was a little disappointing because I love Nina, but I was so excited that Lauren ended up playing a whole bunch of her own music for the set. I knew all of her songs, too, because she's a big Youtuber, so I've listened to the majority of her stuff.
Then came the Armoured Bearcub section, which is Lauren's band with her fiance, Matt. They are literally the cutest thing in the world, and I've also heard most of their music as well, so it was very enjoyable =]
The Whomping Willows was next, and Matt totally ripped it up on stage. His set was so awesome, and I have a new-found appreciation for his music. He played his song about Neville and I got really excited because that's one of my favorite of his songs.
Since Kristina Parselmouth and Lauren Myrtle are both in the Youtube channel fiveawesomegirls, they had a segment for that where they asked us to do stuff for their videos. After the trip was over, I found myself in two of Lauren's videos. I was very happy =]
Last but certainly not least, the moment we'd all been waiting for, the headlining band, ALL CAPS!!! I wore my ALL CAPS shirt just for the occasion =]
ALL CAPS is a Youtube band comprised of Kristina Horner from the Parselmouths and 5AG, and Luke Conard from Ministry of Magic and The Oceanix Six. I loveee their music, and I was so excited when I learned that they were headlining a tour this summer, so I had to go. They opened with Summer of '09, which is one of Kelly's and my favorite songs of theirs, then performed my favorite World of Warcraft Ruined My Life. They sang a song from their first CD, then Lumos Flies, Delete You, and closed with Don't Unplug Me, which is by far their most famous song.
The whole night was so awesome, and after the show was over, Jennie and I went around and got pictures with all the bands. I even got Lauren to say something for my Youtube channel, and that was so cool!
We got Kelly a present, which I will not describe in any capacity since she reads this blog, but I'm so excited to give it to her, because she will die. <3
We went back to Jennie's house, I made my Monday video and Amy showed Caitlin Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, since she'd never seen it before. We then went to bed, and got up the next morning to take Amy and Caitlin to the airport, which was sad, and then Jennie took me home, which was also sad.
So, I've been home for almost two weeks now, and that just seems really weird, because I feel like it was simultaneously yesterday and months and months ago. Time is such a strange thing.
Anyway, thus concludes my Awesome Summer of Awesome posts. It's been so great to revel in the memories and remind myself of all the awesome things that happened. I hope you guys got as much out of it as I did.
HPRT: I am fairly certain that I will succeed in reading all the Harry Potter books before the end of the summer =]
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (barely, I have less than 20 pages left)
Current Song: Battle of Hogwarts by Ministry of Magic
Soo....I'm still dying to know what you got for me!!!!
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