It’s going to be a lengthy post including lots of pictures so click-through to read all about it! 
I ended up with Luna Lovegood’s wand, for obvious reasons. I actually now have two of her wands – I decided to buy her wand a few years ago when Wizarding World first opened, but that was before they had the interactive spells, so I have the old wand and the new interactive one! My Ravenclaw robe is a tad too short for me, but I didn’t want to be swimming in the next size up, so I rocked the cropped length. Once everyone was finished, we were ready to head to school (Hogwarts), but we had to eat before getting on the Hogwarts Express.We ate at The Leaky Cauldron, and I had a Traditional Breakfast, which is a London staple. The food was really good and the hot butterbeer was even better! The restaurant looks exactly how it does in the movie, so the lighting was pretty dim and my pictures didn’t turn out that great. We also got some Gilly Water so we wouldn’t get dehydrated on our wizarding journey.
After breakfast, we went on Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, which is probably my favorite ride of all time. Soon after, we departed on the Hogwarts Express, which always leaves me in awe. It’s so realistic, you truly believe you’re on your way to Hogwarts! When we got over to Hogsmeade, my guess was that we were going to go on The Forbidden Journey (aka the castle ride), but we were told we had to attend a wand lesson first.When we got to the location of our lesson, we met Paul Harris, who choreographed the wand fight sequences in Order of the Phoenix. He taught us some basic moves, which were pretty hard to do with a wand in your hand. I thought it would be easy for me, since I have a background in dance, but I spent most of my energy trying to make my wand hand look graceful. In the middle of the struggle, some visitors arrived…
(Picture property of NBC/Universal)We were joined by Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood)! Just minutes before the lesson started, I was talking about how I’ve had a crush on Rupert since I was 9, so you can imagine what my reaction was when they walked in. They were all thoroughly amused by our wand technique (or lack thereof), and I was thoroughly amused by Matt’s blazer and facial hair. #noshame.
Once our wand lesson was over, we went on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey – a ride that’s always full of memories for me. We ended the Social Media Meet-Up by taking group pictures in front of the castle while enjoying some Butterbeer and a Chocolate Frog, which was literally a sweet way to end a pretty sweet day!
Here are some extra shots I took!
All pictures are mine, unless otherwise stated. If you would like to use any, please leave me a comment letting me know what you’d like to use it for, and link back to this post! Thank you!Check out Universal Orlando’s blog post here.
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