Swish and flick

[bironic]

synn and I went to Universal Studios in Orlando to celebrate our twentieth friendiversary! The main purpose, besides seeing each other, was to wander around Harry Potter World.

We got matched with our wands at Ollivander's, drank butterbeer and pumpkin juice, shopped in Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and Hogsmeade, posed for wizarding pictures at Shutterbutton's studio, dined in the Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks, rode the hippogriff and Gringott's rides, fought dementors on the Hogwarts Express, etc. etc. I confess to being jaded from having lived in London and visited the film sets at Leavesden with deelaundry, but it was still a silly good time.

Diagon Alley is lovely at night <3 pic.twitter.com/JbTMVOVo51

— bironic (@bironicwastaken) September 18, 2017

Funny thing was, HP wasn't even our (only) favorite part. We also visited Jurassic Park, Krustyland, Dr. Seuss-land, a history of Universal horror movie makeup exhibit, and other themed neighborhoods, and rode many roller coasters and log flumes and motion simulators, which are usually not my bag but with synn's encouragement turned out to be a (sometimes terrifying) blast. Protip: Definitely go in the off-season and in the mornings; we had almost no lines before lunchtime. After two full days in the blazing sun, we enjoyed The Island of Cultural Appropriation their new water park, including a hybrid flume/roller coaster, until the afternoon, when the crowds swelled and the rides started breaking down.




(See that tube in the middle of the volcano? That is a 125-foot water slide that drops you through a trap door at the top. synn went on it because she is the bravest.)

Granted, I got sun sick nearly every evening despite hat/sunglasses/sunscreen/copious water drinking, but we muddled through with siestas, ibuprofen, interesting air-conditioned restaurants (e.g. a steampunk "toothsome chocolate emporium and savory feast kitchen") and sci fi- and horror-themed mini golf once the sun went down.

Sci fi mini golf! One hole "abducted" the golf ball, one had a pneumatic airlock & the last ended with a moving "wormhole" pic.twitter.com/t9doDWbYw4

— bironic (@bironicwastaken) September 17, 2017

Somehow synn convinced me to go to Halloween Horror Nights, where they turn the park streets into "scare zones" like The Purge and invading aliens and clowns with chainsaws and they transform a half dozen soundstages into haunted houses modeled after Universal properties, such as, this year, American Horror Story, Saw, The Shining, and The Hive. Eli Roth was somehow involved. (Hey, drglam, who knew our auction vid source watching would prepare me for a haunted house?) It turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. "Real-life" vampires with glowy eyes and scrabbling motions! Skull lords of the afterlife! Hip hop troupe with a contortionist skeleton soloist! However, it is 90% loud noise and strobe lights and people jumping out at you and/or following you at close quarters until you notice, so I would very much NOT recommend it for anyone with sensory issues or past assault trauma.



I am glad to be out of the land of $20 sandwiches and ubiquitous soundtracks, though. Whew.

Obviously this hurricane season is a nightmare and a lot of people fall somewhere between inconvenienced and in dire straits, and I'm doing what I can do help, but at the same time I was selfishly glad that our timing worked out so that we made it there and back between storms. I met some people on the flight down who were hoping to find their houses relatively undamaged and some families at the hotel who were waiting for power to be restored from Orlando and Tampa all the way down to Miami. Good luck to everyone.