Ascendio: Wednesday
I am really sad that this is the last HPEF convention, but I figured I would go for broke and do everything. Like read fanfic. And be in the fashion show. And stuff and things.
No one’s ever going to believe me on this one, but the best thing happened.
The ride was broken!
I got to the park early (7:30? Something like that?) The Wizarding World opens at 7 am if you are staying in one of the park resorts, and it is worth it. After that, the lines are unbelievable. At 7:30, though, it was just fine. I lucked out about the weather, too. It was overcast and it rained a few times, so it wasn’t that hot or humid. It rained some in the middle of the day, and that was it. It was actually really pleasant.
They’ve changed a few things on the Forbidden Journey ride. From what I remember, last time it was the Sorting Hat who warned you about not getting on the ride if you were pregnant. I guess I wasn’t the only person who thought that was weird. They’ve replaced it with some dialogue between different portraits explaining who should bail right now and why.
I’ve never found the ride THAT scary, and it’s probably because I know I can’t possibly really be soaring high over Hogwarts or racing past Harry and Draco on the Quidditch pitch. You do feel some swooping and dipping around, and I’d probably really be terrified if I could actually see how high I am. The Dementors are scary, though. I do not like having them Dement at me.
This time I took the attitude that you only live once and that chances were good I might never come back, so I might as well really enjoy myself. I went everywhere and tried just about everything. Half of the fun is just looking at things and seeing what a good job they’ve done in replicating the feel of the books.
My favorite thing in the whole park is the window in front of Gladrags. There is a dressmaker’s form with Hermione’s Yule Ball dress on it, with pincushions and things. The measuring tape has curled itself into the shape of a cat, and it’s waving its paw. So cute! Come to think of it, that’s the “hello money cat,” a spell that seems to work, because God knows I shed money like crazy when I am there. This is a lousy video, but I adore this little cat.
Click to viewI also love the bookstore with all the complete works of Gilderoy Lockhart in the front window. I’m just sorry that you can’t really buy and read Year With A Yeti, Gadding With Ghouls, etc. I take it back. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen Wanderings With Werewolves. The first bit reads “Lorem ipsum. . .” This time I also remembered to buy some postcards and get them stamped with the special Hogsmeade Owl Post stamp. I ate at the Three Broomsticks. I could handle eating fish and chips if it wasn’t too hot, although shepherd’s pie? Are you crazy?
Helpful tip: the only place you can get the distinctively Hogsmeade food is in Hogsmeade itself, so if you want Butterbeer or Cauldron Cakes, that’s where you have to go. The swag, on the other hand, is also sold at the Trading Post near the park entry, which is nice. They even have more of it there. If you stay at one of the resorts, you can also have the stuff put on your room bill and delivered to your room.
Stuff I tried:
Pumpkin juice. This is something I didn’t try the last time I was here, figuring that it would taste like apple cider with pumpkin pie spices. Verdict: it tastes like apple cider with pumpkin pie spices. The bottle with the little pumpkin is cute.
Three Broomsticks: mostly Brit pub food. Perfectly fine, although they should figure out a system where you can pay for your food and get it and not have to walk across the whole place to the Hog’s Head and buy your drinks. You can do that if it’s draft beer, but not if it’s draft cider. Who knows why?
Butterbeer: tried the plain, not the frozen kind this time. Still yummy!
Cauldron Cake: this is something you have to get at Honeyduke’s. I had no idea what to expect. You can’t get them shipped or anything, and I didn’t know why. Turns out they are almost like cupcakes in reverse. The “pot” part is chocolate cake, which is filled with some kind of chocolate mousse. It tastes as though it’s got some brandy or whisky or something in the mix. The cauldron handle is hard dark chocolate. Verdict: MMmmmm.
Strawberry-peanut butter ice cream: I was not going to pass this up, even though I’m not much for strawberry ice cream. It tastes . . . like strawberry ice cream with peanut butter striped through it. If you’ve ever had chocolate and/or caramel with a good dose of salt, it was similar to that. Verdict: Not bad, not the bestest thing ever, but now I can say I had it.
I also took a picture of Pinkie Pie with Hogwarts Castle in the background. Don’t judge, man. It's for a context on Equestria Daily: Ponies Around The World. Take a picture of a pony while you're on vacation; bonus points if you include a castle. It was a no-brainer.
Before you turn your nose up at ponies, I should point out that the show's creators are clearly huge Harry Potter fans. There are all kinds of influences and parallels. For example, Pinkie Pie's song "Giggle At The Ghostie" is a stripped down and simplified version of the Boggart Lesson. If that makes you think of Remus Lupin as a pink pony, he's werewolf enough to take it.
EDIT: Holy mom of the Creator, I just looked over at EQD and there were so many ponies they had to split it into two posts. AND there were ponies at the freaking South Pole. I need to lie down.
I walked through the rest of the park. There is a section on comic strips, with a Popeye ride and a picture opportunity with Howland Owl and Churchy La Femme from Pogo. That’s almost certainly not going to mean a lot to most people, but I just adored Churchy La Femme when I was about seven. I announced to my Mom that I was going to marry him when I grew up, so it was unbelievably cool to see a Pogo thing with them there. I always forget to have people take my picture, but this time I was jumping up and down “you gotta take my picture!” I knew my Dad would love it, too, and of course he did.
There’s also a Marvel comic book section, and Seuss Landing, which is probably my favorite. It was just nice to be able to wander around and not feel in a hurry.
I went back to my room for a while, took a bath, and decided to go back. I was going to try going on the Forbidden Journey again, figuring that the crowds might have eased off. I spent some time in Seuss Landing. They have Truffula Trees, and a One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ride, which is so cute. The fish are like little planes or cars that go around and up and down, and you can even control whether and when you want to go up or down. I’ve never seen that before. Jets of water come out from the fish mouths around the ring. It’s just adorable. It’s also about as scary as I can handle, honestly. I went on the Seuss Carousel, too.
When I got back to Hogsmeade, it was around six pm. This time it was just neat to see how happy everyone was, although probably they were just grumpy and irritable. I went up to the castle, because I could not believe how short the line was, and:
“We’re sorry, the ride is broken. We’re just doing castle tours right now.”
!!!!
This was the best thing on earth, because I got to wander all over Hogwarts castle and linger as much as I liked looking at things. I could even hear the portraits talking. There’s a little portrait with a Potions Professor talking about Billywigs and you never, ever hear that normally. There were many “oh, wow!” moments, and I never would have seen all that if the ride had been working.
This is the second time that I’ve leaned again the gate in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and almost fallen through. Either they never lock it, or it’s some kind of message.
I decided to eat at Universal City Walk, and wanted to try something different, so I went to Emeril’s. It’s very expensive, but I wasn’t very hungry. I figured I’d get something from the small plates menu and have a glass of wine, and that would be plenty. Since I was sitting at the bar, this guy was sitting next to me and struck up a conversation.
Now, one thing about strongly identifying with a character is that you get the negatives too, and in my case, it’s the passive-aggressive “don’t rock the boat” attitude. So I listened very nicely about all kinds of things like his politics, which are the polar opposite of mine, and why North Carolina is the best place in the universe, and I could tell he was feeling me out to see if I dated men or women, and I wish to God I’d said women, or even better, Amy Sedaris’s “I’m just really not into white guys right now.” Or “I look extremely good in drag. Still sorta female, but with a mustache. It’s going to be the highlight of my week.” Then he got into the ways in which he was improving the egg business, and of course I approve of food, so that was OK. Then he talked about how he planned to get into the film business, which if you live in Southern California, is LOLarious. Then he got into wondering if personality was innate-um-like a black race/white race thing. Wanted out so freaking bad. It was too late to prevent him from paying for the small plate and the glass of wine, which came to $12, but I made an excuse and fled without stopping, even though I really, really had to pee.
So sorry, Egg Dude, but you were the low point of my vacation. I made sure the doors and locks were all thrown, and hit the hay because Thursday was going to be really busy.
More later!