Orlando Trip, Day 1

Benji and I took a mother-son trip to Universal Studios last week and took in all of the Harry Potter magic. The parks are set up so that Hogsmeade Village is in Universal Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley is in Universal Studios, and you can take the Hogwarts Express between the parks, which Benji loved. We spent most of the first day just looking at the Harry Potter stuff. Benji really loved the interactive wands which allowed you to cast spells at the various shop windows (they had sensors and if you move your wand in the right way, things move in the windows or around the village):

Abby wrote these sweet notes for Benji and slipped them into his bag

Ready to go

Hogsmeade Village

Casting his first spell at Dervish and Banges

Going to the train station to catch the Hogwarts Express (this is what he was most excited about on Day 1)

First glimpse of the Hogwarts Express pulling into the station (to go to Diagon Alley)

Knight Bus

Phone booth in London (if you dial MAGIC to enter to Ministry of Magic, you get a message about the atrium being out of order)

Entrance to Diagon Alley (behind the Leaky Cauldron)

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Inside the Weasley's store

More spells

We exchanged our muggle money for wizard money at Gringotts

Knockturn Alley had blacklights to reveal more stuff on our map

Dragon on Gringotts (he breathes real fire every 15 minutes)

We definitely ate our way through the park:

Butterbeer

After Diagon Alley, we rode one ride in the muggle part of Universal Studios (Despicable Me), and Benji let me take his picture with a minion:

We made our way back (by Hogwarts Express) to Hogsmeade, took the castle tour and rode the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster 9 times before calling it a night: