Marni, Rachel and Sohan Party in the USA: Days 15 and 16: Travel and Harry Potter World!

Day 15: Travel Day

Yesterday was a pretty nothing day, just travel to Orlando. We checked out of the hostel, went shopping for a bit, then picked up our bags and waited in the hostel lobby for the shuttle to the airport, we came 40 minutes late, not a great start to our travels to the east coast.

Once we finally got the airport, we quickly realised that United Airlines IS STUPID. We only had one reservation between us, so assumed it would find the booking for us all, but no, just for Rachel's ticket. Plus it was a self-serve kiosk so if one of the attendants had been busy with someone else, we would have been in trouble!

When we each had our boarding passes, we went through security, and apparently United is much stricter on liquids, so we all lost our water bottles, and Sohan lost her brand new shampoo and conditioner. WE WERE NOT HAPPY!

We had to settle on Burger King for lunch, then went the gate for our plane, but then it wasn't on the screen! The plane was delayed, so we really had no idea what was going on. The flight eventually got called for boarding, and it wasn't until then that we all realised we were in completely different seats. 5 hours by ourself! And with no on-flight entertainment or food, it proved to be a very long fight.

At the end of our ordeal we arrived at Orlando Airport at 12am and were at our hotel around 12:30, much quicker than we expected. The hotel is so nice! Comfy beds, and lots of space :)

Day 16: Harry Potter World!

When we woke up this morning, it was HOT and HUMID. We knew we were in for a stinker. We went down to Downtown Disney for brekkie, then got a taxi to Universal Studios.

We made our way through the Island of Adventure theme park until we reached what we came here for, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! We were all sooo excited to be here, and with the snow-covered rooftops of the Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts Castle visible, we felt like we were actual in the Wizarding World.

We rode the Triwizard dragon coaster twice, and visited Honeyduke's and Zonko's for lollies and jokes. There was an amazing simulator ride that took you through a quidditch game with Harry, including dementors and giant spiders. We actually got to go straight to the front of the line the second time all because we gave up our seats for a larger group at lunch! The lady working was overly apologetic about moving us and offered to take us to the front of the (60 minute wait) line as well as letting us sample some free pumpkin juice!! We of course tried the butter beer, which was sooo good! Lunch was at the Three Broomsticks, with traditional pub style food include apple and pear cider.

After a little explore through the rest of the theme park (including the Hulk rollercoaster and the Spiderman simulator) we headed back for more butterbeer. By this time the sun was getting to us and we were all pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest, then headed out again for dinner, again at Downtown Disney.

Marni and Rachel took a quick dip in the pool, and now we're all just chilling in the room.

We leave for Washington tomorrow!