Debbie & Clay's Road Trips with Bob: On the road to Hogsmeade!

Our hotel, Four Points by Sheraton

We purchased this 2-night mini-vacation package back in July when they finally opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Hogsmead in Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando. It was to be my 52nd birthday present. We're back now and my 52nd birthday was my best ever! It was just a great day! Thanks Clay and Universal Studios and Hogsmead and Harry Potter! I wish I had a Butterbeer to raise a toast to you right now! Traffic was pretty light on I-95, we didn't get rained on after we got out of NC and crowds were relatively light at Universal. A cold front came through while we were in Orlando. All good!

Our package was $441.28 total for the 2 of us. It included: 2 nights accommodations at Four Points by Sheraton (within 1 mile of the park, easy walking distance for us, also the hotel included a $20+pp breakfast buffet each morning but we only ate there on checkout day since we ate 3 Broomsticks breakfast on the first day), 1-day base ticket to Islands of Adventure per person, Three Broomsticks breakfast at a reserved time (9:30am for us on my birthday!), schedule park transportation (didn't use), Commemorative Tickets for each (inexplicably we got numbers 192951 and 192101!), CityWalk Party Pass (didn't use), Early Admission to Islands of Adventure (1 hour early, I was first at my turnstile! This extra early hour made all the difference in our enjoyment! The crowds really pick up after that first golden hour.)

Since the park hours at Universal Orlando had been shortened since the time we purchased our Wizarding World of Harry Potter package with will call tickets, Clay decided to take an extra vacation day. We headed out early in the morning for the 9 hour drive. This way we were able to go to the ticket kiosks at Islands of Adventure and pick up all our tickets and vouchers, etc. before the park closed the night before. In the morning, we were able to go directly to the entrance turnstiles before the early entry began. We were in the first group to open Ollivander's Wand Shop. We saw a little girl of about 9 or 10 years old get chosen by a wand. It was fun to watch but the line was very long most of the day after that first hour and it would have been crazy to wait a long time for a little 5 minute, single audience member participation show!

After we stood in a very short line for a very long time to pick up our tickets, we walked back to CityWalk for dinner. (I had printed 20% discount coupons at home for the restaurants. I forgot to use them! Grrr!)

We wandered around and read menus and did a little shopping at the Universal Store in CityWalk and then ate at Latin Quarter. Clay had a Negra Modelo, we shared Queso Fundido, I had 4 cheese chicken pasta with chorizo and Clay had carne frita. We were too stuffed to order dessert! Not a great meal. The queso fundido is served with not great corn tortilla chips, not the traditional tortillas. Likewise, Clay's carne frita was not served with the traditional tortillas, but with fried plantains, which were huge and heavily breaded and tasteless. A disappointment. My 4 cheese chicken and chorizo pasta was the best dish of our choices and was very nicely flavorful. It was a lot of food and very rich and heavy. We couldn't finish it and we'd have felt happier about the meal if I had remembered to use the 20% discount coupon!

Bob with Clay's beer (sorry don't know the price)

Bob with our Queso Fundido ($7.99)

Bob with my 4 cheese pasta with chicken and chorizo ($15.99)

Bob with Clay's Carne Frita ($14.99)

We wandered some more around CityWalk after dinner. We pondered having a bag of beignets at Pat O'Briens for dessert and decided we were just still too stuffed. Clay thought about having some ice cream but it was cooling off by then and he was still too stuffed. He wound up just buying a $2.75 bottle of Diet Coke and we headed back to the Four Points Sheraton and an early bedtime.