More Harry Potter Land!

More random photos from HP land!

More Harry Potter Land!

Harry Potter Land is a cross between Hogsmead and Hogwarts. Some HP purists say things like, "there's no Olivanders wand shop in Hogsmead!!!", but I didn't care. I don't really pay attending to many minor details when I'm reading.

It was really fun just to wander around and look in all the shop windows.

Here you can see an overview of the 'land'. HoneyDukes is the sweet shop (chocolate frogs, etc ...) and one of the outdoor Butterbeer carts.

And, it's snowing in Florida!!!! (nah, it's all fake)

Butterbeer!

Hog's Head - home of the Butterbeer! (and other alcoholic drinks, but who cares about those)

One of the attractions at Harry Potter land is the food! They serve butterbeer, pumpkin juice, chocolate frogs and more! The main attraction is the butterbeer. It tasted like a sweeter cream soda, and we LOVED IT!

We had 4 through out the day. It comes in 'frozen', which is a slushie consistency and 'regular'. Frozen was by far the best!

Pumpkin juice was NASTY!!! Normally if I order something, and it's gross, I'll choke it down just b/c I paid for it. This crap I couldn't even choke down. It was downright disgusting.

Butterbeer #1 (frozen). There is some delightful foam on the top that makes a fantastic mustache!

Butterbeer #2 (regular)

Butterbeer #3 (frozen again!)

Butterbeer #4 (one more for the road in the souvenir mug!)

Harry Potter land

Jonathan had a free ticket to Universal Studios that expires at the end of this 2010. We calculated the perfect day to go would be 12/5/10. The Christmas decorations would be up, and it's the perfect time in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas so the parks would be dead.

Were our calculations correct?

Heck yes they were!

Did you hear news stories about people waiting for hours and hours and hours to ride the new ride? (That's not an exaggeration - when "Harry Potter land" first opened this summer you had to wait multiple hours just to GET IN to the land, much less do anything.

We walked right on the ride. No waiting, no nothing ... walked right on.

The ride is inside the giant Hogwarts castle. The queue line is fully decorated like the inside of the castle, so I honestly wanted to wait a little tiny bit so I could look at all the details.

Later on in the day we walked thru the queue line again. This time the line was a whopping 15 minutes (ha!). When we got to the front we said, "we don't want to ride please", and went thru the chicken exit.

The ride is pretty cool, but it's 1/2 looking at stuff and 1/2 virtual reality. My inner ear can't handle that virtual stuff. Even Jonathan was a little queazy afterwards.

The ride was kind-of scary. A dragon and a bunch of dementors are in your face (I mean, inches away!).

More on HP land (better known as "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter") later!

Top 5 Horror Movies

I'm a horror movie fan.  They scare the bejesus out of me, and I typically have nightmares, but I love them anyway.  I try to watch them every chance I get, which isn't too often because Jonathan is not a fan.

In no particular order, here are 5 horror movies I highly recommend:

1.  Saw (the original) - It's not super scary or your typical "horror" movie.  It's more suspenseful and it's a fantastic story.  Seriously, there is a genuine plot and everything!  And I guaranteed you won't be able to guess the ending.

2.  The Hills Have Eyes - I think this was a remake, which is normally grounds for "booooo!".  Although, I never saw the original, so I didn't care.  This movie is boarderline lame and boarderlione awesome!  For me, I thought it was awesome!  Typically the people dying in horror movies are lame people you don't care about, but this movie did a great job on getting to know the characters.  I actually felt really sad when certain people were killed.

3.  High Tension - I haven't met anybody else who has seen this movie, and I can't believe it.  It's another movie where the ending was a total shock.  I ALWAYS recommend this movie.  It's pretty gory, but it's a great horror flick.

4.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the remake) - I'm not sure why, but this movie scares the pants off me.  There's not much of a story (crazy guy with a chainsaw is after a bunch of teens), but I still thought it was a great!

5.  Vacancy - This was also more "triller" than horror, but it's still giving me nightmares, and I saw it about 2 months ago.  Again, you get to meet the characters and feel for them.  And the situation seems to real, that made it extra scary!

Honorable Mention:

Final Destination (1) - I love this movie.  I think it's so scary because people are dying by every day objects (like a bathroom floor or a bus).  After I watch it, I'm afraid to get off the couch, because I know anything can kill you.  It's a creepy feeling.  And this is the only movie that made me scream out-loud in theaters.  Watch out for that bus!

Hostel - Seriously, I saw this movie about 3 years ago, and it's still burned in my brain.  It should've been rated XXX (for various reasons).  It was so disturbing.  But I've got to hand it to the writers, it was a creative idea.  I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'm terrified to see Hostel 2.  I don't think I'll ever see it, even though I'm curious (because the kid who survives the first movie is back for the sequel)

Ike Eisenmann

A couple weeks ago Jonathan and I went to see Race to Witch Mountain. But this was no ordinary movie experience ... well, it was pretty ordinary, until the end. Ike Eisenmann was in the theater with us!


Ike (who, I'm guessing is about mid 40) was the child star who played the boy alien in the original 2 Witch Mountain movies. He also has a part in the new Race to Witch Mountain Movie. When his name came up on screen (during the opening credits) we all cheered! And when he part came (he had about 10 minutes of screen time), we all cheered again.

Then, after the movie, we asked him to sign our ticket stubs and got a photo taken with him. He was so nice!


Last, and least, I made a digital scrapbook page with our photo.

Free TV!

About twice a year, Direct TV gives us 4 days off free Starz channel (a movie channel).  Actually, there are about 5 different Starz channels, and until Monday they are all mine!

Free Direct TV giveaways are my own personal Netflicks.  I record everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) and then Jonathan and I watch it through out the year. 

I can guaranteed that I have something recorded on my DVR from the last freebie time that we haven't watched yet.

I'm most excited about P2 and Prom Night (both horror movies).

Bring on the popcorn and the Move Yaking!

Coming Soon!

Check out what is coming soon to Universal Studios.  Harry Potter Land (or what ever it's called).  I hope it's going to be super cool.

It's Jason! (or is it Jason's mom?)

This is why you should carry a camera everywhere.

You never know when a super awesome photo opportunity will arise.

We snapped this beauty at the AMC movie theater at Downtown Disney.

For more movie news, check out my other blog:  Movie Yak

Movie Yak

Wow - there are 4 new movie posts on movie yak TODAY!  And none of them are mine.

Yeah Movie Yak contributers - thank you, thank you, thank you!

www.movieyak.blogspot.com

Luigi's Garage

Disney's Hollywood Studios finally took Lighting McQueen and Mater off the streets, and into their own meet 'n greet location.

It's back behind the Muppet 4D movie, back where Andy's Toy Barn used to be (Buzz and Woody are now over by Toy Story Mania).

It's a cool little meet and greet area.  Although it's awkward to meet and greet with a car.   Uhhhhhh ... Hi Mater!

I with they made more Cars characters.  Especially Guido.  He's a cutie.

YouTube Tuesdays

A month ago Jonathan and I went to see Nick Swardson at the Hard Rock in Orlando.  Somebody managed to get a camera/video camera in the arena and took this video.  I honestly haven't watched it, and it is kind-of long, but maybe you'll enjoy it!

You may recognize Nick Swardson from the movie Grandma's Boy, Click, Blades of Glory, Reno 911 (TV show & movie) and more.  He had a slight potty mouth, but he was still hilarious.

And, seriously, if Hard Rock paid everybody $100 to sit in their seats and not get up and buy drinks every 5 minutes, I think Jonathan and I would've been the only ones to walk out of the joint with $100.

Movie Soundtracks

You can argue all you want, but I have to say that Back to the Future is the best movie soundtrack EVER. 

Star Wars Celebrities

Jonathan and I have been going to Star Wars weekends together since the week we first met.  Our 2nd "date" was working at Studios doing Star Wars weekends surveys.

Since we've been going for so long, we've met pretty much every Star Wars celebrity (ones that would actually come to Disney that is - no Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher).

This year there was 1 new person - the guy inside Darth Vader's suit.  Not James Earl Jones, not the face you see at the end of episode 6, just the guy in the suit that you never see.  I guess back in the 70's-80's (when episodes 4-6 were being filmed) he was a body builder and a big guy.

Warrick Davis was the host of Star Wars weekends, so we got to meet him (for the 3rd time).  He's always very polite and fun to chat with.

Star Wars Weekends

Two quick photos from Disney's Hollywood Studios.  Last year for Star Wars weekends they made 4 collectable big figs - Jedi Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  Then this year they made walk around characters just like the big figs.  How cool!

The first weekend we met Princess Leia (sp?) Minnie.  Then we went back 3 more weekends trying to met Donald and Goofy.  FINALLY, week 4, we were successful.  How cute are they?!?

Like to yak about movies?

Check out my new movie blog: http://www.movieyak.blogspot.com/.

This time it's not just me blabbing on and on about nothing. It's a bunch of my friends writing movie reviews!

If you would to join in, you can write comments about the various movies. Or, better yet, if you would like to be a Movie Yak contributer - let me know!

Hawaii - Turtle Bay & Waikiki

Ok - the rest of the random Hawaii photos.

We took the bus out to Turtle Bay resort to see where the movie FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL was filmed.

Then we had to pose with Diamond Head!  It's just the most popular landmark in Oahu.

Up next - flying to Kwajalein!  And sharks!!!  ARG - no spacing again!!!

For more movie talk, visit Movie Yak!

"Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart ...

... I dooooooo!"

We are so freaking lucky that one of the 11 7-11s around the country that have turned into Kwik-E-Marts is near Disney World!

If you know what episode this quote is from, then you are a true Simpson's fan.

We bought 2 boxes of Krusty O's, a 6-pack of Buzz cola, some Radioactive Man comic books and a Squishee!

To quote Comic Book Guy, "Greatest day ever!"

Rat-a-too-y!

Jonathan and I attended a mini Ratatouie (sp?) party at the Boardwalk a couple weekends ago.

Our goal was to get some free stuff (of course!). Jonathan won a movie poster!

I think this will be the next big summer movie on our roster.

Mmmmmmm ... movie

Jonathan and I enjoy walking around inside the AMC 24 at Downtown Disney looking at all the movie posters. Since it's a huge theater, they always have big cardboard popups of movies.

I was pleasantly surprized to find this display!

It's huge!