Harry Potter World - Universal Studios, Orlando

What a fun packed trip.  We had a great visit with Blake Drader in Orlando before checking into our Universal Surfside Hotel.  Got to see his place and walked around the area then headed out for a very authentic Turkish lunch.  Blake kindly drove us to our hotel in his new toy, a Tesla 3 - great car!  Upon arrival at the hotel we were given the option of going to the park right away, so why not!?

What can I say, it was magic!  There was so much attention to detail, and so true to the books - you were immersed in the story.  What an experience.  I even did some of the rides a couple of times - Dale and Joel did more.  Our favourites were Gringott's Bank - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0giobHwLRE and Hogwarts Castle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0giobHwLRE
Another highlight was getting an interactive wand.  It came with a map showing all the sites where you could 'perform' magic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MI8AfBKFMQ - such fun!

We did visit other rides and sites besides Harry Potter, but Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade were definitely the highlights - and Dawn was a fount of knowledge and experience and fun.

Did I mention the food?  We ate at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade and the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley.  Both were superb.

After three jam packed days we drove to Ft. Lauderdale with Greg, Dawn and Dick.  George and Johanne's kids, Jennifer and Christian came over for a visit so we had a yummy lunch at a very (again) authentic Greek restaurant and the next day we spent some time on the beach with them before they took us to the ship.  It was so great to see them - lots to catch up on.