The Closest I Have Ever Got To the World of Harry Potter part 1

            Four years ago as I was searching Mugglenet, my favorite Harry Potter news site, I found out Universal Orlando had plans to create a Harry Potter Theme park.  The moment I saw that joyous news I called up my best-friend Alaina.  We vowed that we would go to the grand opening no matter what.

            For three years we waited for news and updates that could contain clues to the opening day.  Then finally one day, Universal released that the opening weekend would take place on June 18, 2010.  We saved all of our money and booked the trip.  Our plan was to go to Florida for the week and during the weekend be in the glorious Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

             We booked through a hotel that had packages with Universal.  It gave us early access to both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida.  The first day that we went to the Islands of Adventure we walked over to the Harry Potter area for a sneak-peak.  However, they had it blocked off for the media.  The only thing we could see was the front of the bright red Hogwarts Express.

            We gave up the torture and finally went to enjoy the park.  The next day I got one of the best surprises of my life.  As we were walking into the park for our special early hours, a lady was telling people that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is open for the next two hour.  Our jaws almost dropped to the ground and we started to walk as quickly as possible to that special area.  It seemed like the longest walk of my life, but then…… there it was. 

            I had my video camera ready as we walked under the arch into the ‘real’ world of Harry Potter.  It was as fantastic as I could have ever imagined.  The actual set director from the Harry Potter movies, Stuart Craig, designed the entire place.  The theme park is structured to look like the town of Hogsmeade with Hogwarts being a dominating presence in the backdrop.

            The first thing we came into contact with was the front car of the Hogwarts Express.  There is a conductor who you can take pictures in front of the train.  There are five stores, three rides, two restaurant and butter beer carts.  I will talk about the stores and butter beer in my next blog.

            Hogwarts castle was perfection.  There is no other way to describe it. It was extremely detailed and looked exactly like in the movies.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  I was actually standing in front of Hogwarts castle.  Hogwarts is where their main ride, The Forbidden Journey, is located.  We rode it three times that day because the line was so short!  It was incredible, the most unique ride I have ever been on. 

             Just being in line is an adventure because you journey from the dungeons to the greenhouses, to the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom and to Dumbledore’s office.  Tons of props from the movie, like the mirror of Erised, talking picture frames and everything cool from Dumbledore’s office as well as the DADA classroom are showcased.   There are holograms of the actual stars as Dumbledore, Hermione, Ron and Harry who talk to you as you waited in the rooms.  Ron, Hermione and Harry were in the DADA classroom and Dumbledore was in his office. 

            The actual ride is interesting.  You sit in a four-person seat that is attached to a robotic arm that turns and moves as the ride progresses.  There is a mixture of video and animatronic objects.  When you experience the video part, it is like you are flying all around Hogwarts.  The animatronics objects are creatures like dementors, dragons and acromantulas (giant spiders).  It is just an awesome ride that pulls together everything Harry Potter. 

            The shops are set up the way they are in Harry Potter, but that is a problem because the shops are so tiny.  There is Zonko’s joke shop, Honeyduke’s candy shop, Ollivander’s wand shop, and Dervish and Banges.  We didn’t go to any of the shops except Ollivander’s due to time.  I will talk more about the other shops in part two. 

            Ollivander’s is absolutely amazing.  Before you enter the actual store, you must go through the Ollivander experience.  A group of about 20-30 people are put into a room with an 'Ollivander.'  Then 'Ollivander' chooses one to get the wand shopping experience.   'Ollivander' chooses three wands for the person.  For every wand, they ask the person to say a spell.  For the first two wands, something goes wrong in the store, which 'Ollivander' will then fix.  For the third wand, the person will grab it and then a glowing light and the music from the Harry Potter movie will play.  'Ollivander' tells the person the wand has chosen them.  Afterwards, you are shuffled into the store to look at all the different character wands and unique wands you could buy.  I bought Ginny Weasley’s wand. 

            If you love Harry Potter and are chosen, it is like a dream come true.  I unfortunately was not chosen, but Alaina was.  I was happy for her and got the whole thing on tape.  It was epic; her face was priceless.  We tried to do it again so I could be picked, but we ran out of time in.  This was the best day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter because it was not busy in the slightest.  The actual opening day was ridiculous, but I will tell you about that encounter in my next blog.    

Yates is Tyring to Recover the Sunken S.S. Harmony

               This weekend when I was channel surfing, I switched to ABC family and to my extreme delight realized it was HARRY POTTER WEEKEND!  Not only was I excited for hours of Harry Potter movies for three straight days, but they were also showing sneak peeks for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2.  These small two minute previews are very scarce throughout the weekend, so when I happened to catch one I was giddy as a school-girl.  However, while watching the clip my excitement slowly began to disappear. 

                Watching this clip made me realize how much I can hate what this director does at times and how many liberties he takes.  The whole video was explaining a scene that occurred in the last movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.  It was actually a scene that didn’t happen in the book, but David Yates, the director, wanted to add it in for some reason.  Maybe he thought it would add to the story…but it didn’t.

 

                The newly added scene happened shortly after Ron left Harry and Hermione because of an argument.  Hermione was devastated that Ron had left them because there was no way for them to find Ron and no way for Ron to find them. The new scene started with Hermione sitting in the tent fidgeting with the radio they had.  You could tell she was obviously distraught over Ron being away.  As she was fidgeting a song came in over the radio, so Harry went over to her and started to dance with her.  The scene wasn’t horrible by any means; it was sort of cute because they looked so funny dancing.

                The part that made me mad was that at the end they get really close together making it look like they are more than friends.  If they would have just stayed dancing in a fun way it would be different, but they just had to get close.  THAT IS COMPLETELY WRONG!  Hermione and Harry have only ever been friends through the whole series.  Hermione has always liked Ron and Ron has always like Hermione.  J.K Rowling has always put it so that Hermione and Ron liked each other.  She never wrote Harry and Hermione together; plus in the last book Harry likes Ginny. 

Rowling even said, “Yes, we do now know that it is Ron and Hermione. I do feel that I have dropped heavy hints. ANVIL-sized, actually, hints, prior to this point. I certainly think even if subtle clues hadn't been picked up by the end of “Azkaban,” that by the time we hit Krum in Goblet..." Its not rocket science, but Yates was commenting on the clip about how he thinks there relationship is fascinating because there is the close friendship aspect, but at the end you see there could be something more.  I was just sitting there thinking, “WOW….Did he even read the books?”  That being added into the movie just gives the Hermione/Harry shippers more ammunition for their disproved belief that they are still clinging onto.   

In an interview with MTV, Yates talks about a deleted scene that in part of the DVD version. "There are a couple of things that we've lost that just didn't quite survive," he said. "I did this wonderful scene between Hermione and Ron. I wanted to explore their relationship a little bit more, so when Ron leaves it really breaks your heart."  WHY would you delete that scene and keep in this dancing one.   The scene between Hermione and Ron relationship is at least real.  They have few moments where Ron and Hermione flirt in the movies, so why not show that they are going to be together.  Not a scene that shows how Harry and Hermione's relationship could be more!  

He went on to say that they only kept things they felt were really important.  I am still confused on how the dance scene is more important than one that involves Hermione and Ron's relationship.  However, I have gone on enough about this and there is nothing I can do about it.  Tell me you thoughts on this matter.