{ Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce }

Do you know what yesterday was? Well, it was Ron Weasley's 36th Birthday! In honor of him, I decided to whip up a treat. What could be more fitting of Ron than for me to post it a day late?

Ron is one of my favorite characters. I mean, I have a LOT of favorites, but Ron ranks right up there in the top, top. He's probably my 2nd favorite right after Luna. The thing I love about Ron is how fabulously flawed he is. Jo can really write her some fantastic true to life people. Ron is a good friend, but he's also very jealous, he's a slacker, but he can do amazing things when he puts his mind to it, Ron needs attention, Ron pouts, Ron is caring, Ron is a good son, Ron can be a brat. I love him.

Rupert Grint is perfection as Ron.

My favorite movie is quite controversial: Half Blood Prince. HBP is famously panned as being the least accurate movie. I can't help that I love it. It has great humor, it's a lot of fun but with very serious moments, and I enjoy it tremendously. My favorite scene in all the Potter movies is this one- starring, you guessed it- Ron.

He eats a box full of candy with a very strong love potion in them. I love the way Rupert Grint plays this scene. I've seen it 100 times, but I still laugh every time.

In HBP Hermione, Harry, Neville, and Ginny are all invited to go to the Slug Club dinner party with Professor Slughorn. Ron is not invited. Not only is Ron not invited, Slughorn can never even get his name right. At the party, Slughorn serves a lovely dessert: Profiteroles.

Since my buddy Ron didn't get to have any- and let's be honest, he'd of loved to, I made him some for his birthday. Mine have a Butterbeer sauce. I win, Slughorn. I win.

Profiterole is just a fancy name for your basic cream puff. They are made from a Pâte à Choux pastry. I know that sound intimidating, but Pâte à Choux is easy. SO easy. Fancy names are scary, but this stuff is easy peasy.

You can fill your profiteroles with a variety of things like your basic whipped cream, a pastry cream, custard, ice cream etc. You can even fill them with jam. For these, I filled them with vanilla pudding. Yes, from a box mix.  You can make your own if you'd like though!

The Butterbeer sauce is also very easy to make. You basically just cook and stir. Anyone can do that, right?

When you are finished you will have a most impressive looking dessert that really wasn't hard at all! Your friends and family don't need to know that (cue the 80's Rice Krispy Treat commercial).

Happy Birthday, Ron! Have a profiterole tower or two!

Tina

See all my Harry Potter posts here, including crafts, recipes, travel tips for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and two massive parties.

Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1 recipe Pâte à Choux- prepared and baked as instructed here

2 boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding prepared as stated on boxes, cooled and thickened

1 recipe Butterbeer Sauce (below)

After your cream puff pastry has fully cooled, use a spare icing tip (or a knife) and carefully poke a hole in the bottom of each puff.

Using a pastry bag fitting with an injector tip and filled with your pudding, inject each puff with pudding until full.

Drizzle with slightly warm Butterbeer Sauce and serve. Great with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Fill only puffs you intend to eat at that time. Save the rest of the shells in an airtight container. They will keep for a few days. You can re-crisp these if they become soft by baking for about 5 minutes on 350 F. 

Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add in milk, brown sugar and corn syrup. Cook until thickened, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Allow to cool until warm. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator for  up to one week.

{ Harry Potter Roundup Post }

Hello, my lovelies!

This year, instead of just watching, I am playing along in Raegun Rambling's awesome Harry Potter Weeks celebration!

She has SO much fun planned from now until Harry's Birthday on the 31st. You have to check it out! She also has an amazing giveaways! Stay tuned for more info on those later in my post here.

I've opted to do a Harry Potter post roundup since I already have so many (that doesn't mean there won't be more in the future, because, my friends, there WILL be more), but this time we are going with these.

I  tried to get a good variety of posts for this. I've got travel, party, craft, and food. Sound good?

Ready? Here we go!

Travel:

Our Holiday to Hogsmeade- a full guide to your visit to the Hogsmeade portion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure Park.

Diagon Alley Guide: a full guide to your visit to the Diagon Alley portion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.

Crafts:

Harry Potter Wand Tutorial: Make your own authentic looking wizarding wands. You can make a bunch for only a few bucks!

Parties:

My Big, Fat, Harry Potter Party: A full blown Harry Potter party on a budget. Tons of fun that won't cost you tons of money.

Harry Potter Party the Second: My second Harry Potter party. New ideas, new fun.

Food:

This is where it gets really fun!


Sorting Cupcakes

Hogwarts Acceptance Letter Cookie

Weasley is our King Cupcakes

All Hail Butterbeer!

While I have my own Butterbeer recipe here on my site, I actually recommend my friend Darla's (of Bakingdom) over my own. I made mine prior to visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and she made her's after. Her's is definitely super simple and tastes so similar to WWoHP!

Bakingdom's Butterbeer

photo property of bakingdom.com

 Of course I have a few Butterbeer treats of my own...

Easy Butterbeer Cupcakes

Butterbeer Ice Cream

and... a Butterbeer Shake!

I have several other Harry Potter inspired posts, you can see all of them here. You can see all of my geekery here.


Now, about that giveaway...

Look..at..all..this..awesomeness...! I want it ALL.

The photos aren't all necessarily the prizes that will be awarded, but represent some items you could purchase with a store credit prize.

The winner will receive the following awesome Harry Potter and bookish prizes! 

• The September Bookish Box from Appraising Pages (includes a shirt by Appraising Pages Shop and 3-5 feminine home, beauty, and fashion items)
• I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good Necklace from Bookish Sphere
• Marauders Map Stacking Mugs from A Bird in the Hand Crafts
• 25$ Shop Credit (for in stock items) from Tiny Book Town (super cute bookish jewelry pictured Narnia book necklace and Mystery and Adventure necklace)
• Deathly Hallows Necklace, Personalized Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, and Golden Snitch Ornament (any house colors) from Pieces by Polly
• 40$ Shop Credit from Rae Gun (pictured above House Elf Apron, Hogwart's House Tie Necklace, Make Love Not Horcruxes Bag but anything in the shop is available)
• The August Owl Crate from Owl Crate (this will include an upbeat mystery novel, as well as a bunch of items paying homage to literature's most-loved detectives)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have fun! P.S. If you haven’t already, you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on instagram here.

x, Tina

{ Harry Potter Sorting Cupcakes }

Did you know that Feb. 5, 2015 is Worldwide Harry Potter Book Night?

Well, it is. You know what that means? It's time to pick up a book and dive back in. Go on, you know you want to. When is the last time you re-read your Potters? For me, it was 2 years ago. So, it is HIGH TIME I read them again.

One of the first and most exciting things that we experience at Hogwarts is the House Sorting. In my parties, I've done it two different ways. You can read about those here and here. For this idea though, I went a little sweeter. The idea came from my Zombie Party cupcakes.

It's just a cupcake of any flavor filled with a tinted cream filling. Tint your cream filling in the house colors: red for Gryffindor, blue for Ravenclaw, yellow for Hufflepuff, and green for Slytherin.

Squeeze a bit into your cupcakes, then top with a delicious buttercream. No one will be able to tell from the outside which is which. When you bite into them though...

It's a simple, but fun, and delicious way to get sorted into your House. Fun for a night of reading, watching, or a great way to sort into houses at a Harry Potter party!

If you are a seasoned Harry Potter fan, isn't it time you read them again? If you've never read them before: A. WHY NOT? and B. See what all the hype is about, pick up a book today!

It's been almost 18 years since the first Potter hit the shelves. Yet the  magic is still fresh no matter how many times we've read or seen them.

As Jo said herself:

“Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

Thanks, Jo. <3

Tina


See these cupcakes featured at the world's largest Harry Potter site: Mugglenet.


Harry Potter Sorting Cupcakes
By Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Needed:

24 cupcakes (any flavor/recipe)
1 recipe buttercream (below)
1 recipe cream filling (below)
red, blue, green, and yellow food coloring
4 piping bags and large tip

While your cupcakes are baking, make the following:

Cream Filling:

1/2 Cup Whole (Vitamin D) Milk (not 2%, 1%, or fat free)

3 Tablespoons Flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 Cup Butter (not margarine) barely room temp

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar (NOT powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into the milk until smooth. Heat, stirring constantly, until very thick, thicker than pudding. Remove and allow to cool fully. You can sit the pan in an icebath if you don’t want to wait.

In your mixer, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add vanilla.

Once cool,  add the flour/milk/vanilla mix to the butter and sugar and beat until fluffy.

When finished, it will look like whipped cream, but be much thicker.

*Note- you can also shortcut this by just squeezing a bit of tinted Buttercream into the middle instead of the actual cream filling. 

Portion out into 4 bowls and tint one blue, one red, one green, and one yellow for the House colors.

Set aside.

After your cupcakes are cool, add your first color to a piping bag fitted with tip. Stick your tip down into your cupcake and squeeze. You will see the cupcake puff up a bit, that is how you know you have enough. If you add too much, your cupcake will crack open.

Repeat with the other colors. Scrap off any excess cream so the color will not show outside of the icing.

Whip up a batch of 

Vanilla Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 lb. confectioners’ sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes. Beat in the sugar and salt. Add 2 tablespoons heavy cream and whisk on high for 4 minutes, until fluffy. If frosting is too thick, add more cream, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency.

Stir in the vanilla.

Recipe by Bakingdom

Swirl on top of cupcakes taking care to cover any hints of the color below.

Add sprinkles if desired.

{ Florean Fortescue’s Butterbeer Ice Cream }

I've been talking about it for months and months, I instaspammed you on instagram, and I even wrote up a long post about it. However, it may have skipped your notice that I was at THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER two weeks ago. Two weeks ago? It feels like FOREVER ago. Fo-evah. Sad panda.

While there, as I mentioned in my post, we went to Florean Fortesuce's Ice Cream Parlour.

It. was. delish. So, so good. The signature ice cream, of course, is Butterbeer. Of the four of us, do you know how many got Butterbeer flavor? Um. Zero. Perhaps because we'd already had Butterbeer to drink? I'm not sure, but we all opted for more unique (and ah-maze-ing) flavors. I had Stick Toffee Pudding, Darla had Salted Caramel Blondie, Bean got what Florean gave Harry- Strawberry Peanut Butter, and the girl got Chocolate Raspberry.

The HUGE hard packed scoops are 4.99 served in a cup or $5.99 in a waffle cone.

Other hard packed flavors include: Chocolate Chili, Apple Crumble, Vanilla, Chocolate, Clotted Cream, and Earl Gray and Lavender. They also have soft serves, which none of of tried, but the flavors are: banana, chocolate, granny smith, mint, pistachio, vanilla, orange marmalade, toffee, toffee apple, and strawberries and cream. You can also get the Eton Mess, which is a huge sundae in a souvenir glass!

Every one of us loved our ice cream. So, so good. I wish I had some now.

So, I made some. And so did Darla (more info below).

I, of course, made butterbeer.

To make it, I started with a custard based ice cream. I find them much creamier than recipes made without eggs.

I used a bottle of Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer (made by Reed's) for flavoring. If you can't locate this, use Darla's recipe to achieve a very similar taste.

I then reduced the butterscotch beer by 1/2. Reducing basically means cooking the water out. So, just add the soda (I'm from Ohio, man that word is hard to type. We call it POP here) to a pan. Over medium heat cook it, stirring often, until it's about 1/2 of what it started as.

After making the custard, I added this cooled (but not cold) syrup to it.

You know what else you can make?

Butterbeer Floats!

Can't you almost see Ron and Hermione sipping on one of these in The Three Broomsticks? Two straws, please!

I like to sprinkle my Butterbeer ice cream with a tiny bit of turbinado sugar for a pop of crunch! I'm sure it would be great with chocolate too, or many other toppings (although I think it stands great on it's own). It's still a very vanilla flavor with a hint of butterscotch. Apparently, unmistakably Butterbeer flavored too. I made Bean taste it and tell me what flavor it was. It took him a minute, but he got it right!

Making homemade ice cream is easy, and the bonus is that you know every ingredient that went into it. None of that weird xanthan gum or anything.

And the taste of homemade ice cream? Magical!

(I'm not even sorry for the pun.)

Want more? You know you do! Zip on over to Bakingdom to see Darla's recipe for Florean's Chocolate Chili ice cream. Spicy chocolate? Want.

Tina

See all of my Harry Potter posts here. Food, crafts, and 2 massive parties.




Butterbeer Ice Cream
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
⅔ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
6 large egg yolks
6 ounces of Butterbeer syrup (see above)- cooled to room temp
1 teaspoon imitation butter flavoring

In a small pan, simmer cream, milk, sugar and salt until sugar completely dissolves, approx 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks together. While whisking constantly, slowly add about a third of the hot cream into the yolks. Whisk the yolk mixture back into the pan with the cream. Return pan to medium-low heat and cook, stirring often, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees).

Remove from heat, and carefully strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Whisk in the butterbeer syrup & butter flavoring. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Directly from the machine will give you a soft serve consistency, or store in freezer until needed.

Yield: About 1 1/2 pints


Adapted from this recipe found in the New York Times

{ Your Ultimate Guide to Diagon Alley }

I am back from my travels to Wizarding London.

Ok, fine, it was Universal Orlando, whatever, you dream crusher!

If you are a regular reader, you know I posted about my Hogsmeade trip a couple years ago. Follow this link to read more... Our Holiday to Hogsmeade.

See all of my Harry Potter posts here. Food, crafts, and 2 massive parties.

I was very, very excited to go back and explore the newly opened (July 2014) Diagon Alley! This post is what we (my son, his girlfriend, and my fabby friend, Darla (Bakingdom) thought.

First, let me say, finally getting to meet one of my best friends on planet earth was amazing! Getting to spend a whole week with her spoiled me for life. The fact that she's 1/2 a world away is even more evident now :(

Please note, this year I decided to go without my big girl camera and actually enjoy myself. The big, bulky cameras are a total buzzkill at times. All of these photos are taken with my iPhone 4s.

The Muggle London waterfront is super pretty, but, it's just a facade. You can go in King's Cross of course. That is where you will board the Hogwart's Express after walking through the barrier at Platform 9 3/4.

In front of Muggle London you will see the purple triple decker Knight Bus. Stop by and see Stan and banter with the shrunken head.

Diagon Alley is a LOT bigger when compared to Hogsmeade, but it still isn't a huge part of the park
You can see no part of Diagon Alley from London. Very cool. You'll see Hagrid has already been by to magic the bricks down for you.

As soon as you walk through, bam! You see the whole alley with Gringott's at the end.

Just to the left you'll find The Leaky Cauldron

We lunched in there and it was well done, but I definitely prefer the vibe at The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. For lunch I got the fish and chips. The fish was really excellent. The chips were ok. Darla got the Banger Sandwich and said it was delicious. We both had Lemon Squash (lemonade) to drink. It was good. Entrees are $9 to $15 per. There is a Ploughman's Platter for $19.99, but it serves two. Remember this is all traditional English fare. My picky Bean had to go over to The Three Broomsticks for lunch.

Entrees to choose from at The Leaky Cauldron are: Fish & Chips (13.99), Ploughman's- serves two (19.99), Bangers and Mash (11.99), Toad in the Hole (8.99), Beef, Lamb, and Guiness Stew (12.99), Cottage Pie ( 11.99), Fisherman's Pie (14.99), Mini Pie Combo (12.99), Soup and Salad (8.99), Banger Pub Style Sandwich (11.99), Specialty Chicken Sandwich (10.99). Kid's Menu includes Mac and Cheese, Fish & Chips, or Mini Pie (all 6.99). Desserts are Sticky Toffee Pudding (6.99), Cranachan (5.99), and Potted Chocolate Cream (4.49).

Across the way you'll see Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and Quality Quidditch Supplies.

Photo by Darla

WWW is full of quirky fun items. Most of it seems to be recycled Zonko's products with some Honeydukes thrown in. (Zonko's is now closed at Hogsmeade with Honeydukes being expanded. This is a GREAT thing. Honeydukes was far too crowded before) products. There are fun new things like WWW shirts and skiving snackboxes though.

Be sure to look up and watch for Umbridge. Every once in a while she will shout out "I will have order!".

Here's Darla in the very cool rounded doorway

Quality Quidditch Supplies is just as it sounds, quidditch related merch.

Down the alley a bit you'll find the Magical Menagerie which is full of stuffed animals and such.

It was a fun shop with lots of details around.

We got Butterbeer at Fountain of Fair Fortune

The souvenir mug is different there, so you might want to check it out for that alone! I didn't get one, but wish I had now.

Photo by Darla

Butterbeer staches!

Butterbeer is $3.99 (on tap) – $4.99 (frozen). $12.99 for the filled souvenir mug.

Close by is Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

Photo by  Darla

The ice cream is really delicious and I'm not even a huge ice cream fan. I got Sticky Toffee Pudding, Darla got Salted Caramel Brownie, Bean got Strawberry and Peanut Butter, and the girl got Chocolate and Raspberry. We ALL loved ours. It's $4.99 served in a cup or $5.99 in a waffle cone. The scoops are HUGE though.

I tried to share with Gilderoy. He wanted it all. I said no. He's so salty.

For more info on food pricing, check out Orlando Informer. He is great!

They do sell something I would avoid. It seems like SO much fun, but the price is crazy! Elixirs from Eternelle’s Elixir of Refreshment. While, like I said, this seems fun, it is flavoring for water that costs over $4. Add that to your $4 Gillywater and you are looking at over $8 for flavored water. What? No.

There were a few stores/shops I didn't photograph, sadly. I think I was just overwhelmed by it all.

Those were:

Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions: Robes, of course

Scribbulus: parchement, journals, quills, postcards, and other writing supplies

Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment: Misc wizarding equipment

Speaking of Ollivander's, when we were in Hogsmeade 2 years ago, Bean got chosen at the show, which was super fun. I was hoping his girl would get chosen this time, but she didn't. There were only about 6 other people in with us, and no line behind. As we went to leave, Mr. Ollivander stopped her and started talking to her. He asked if she had a wand already, she did. He asked to examine it, chatting with her the whole time. She is very shy, so this was even better than being chosen for her! She said she did NOT want to be chosen, but very much enjoyed talking to him. He also examined Bean's wand. Here is a very grainy photo (it's very dark in Ollivander's). I loved that he did this. It was something not at all required of him and I thought it was awesome.

Photo by Darla

Speaking of wands, we bought the interactive wands. There are several spots among the two parks where you can make 'magic' happen. I had read these were amazing and a lot of fun. I shelled out the cash for them, and ... whomp whomp whomp... Total disappointment, a $50 (!!!) disappointment. They were very tricky to work and after a while we just gave up. The wands are very beautiful, but are $10 less for the exact same wand without the interactive element. I very much wish we'd gone that way now. Universal has a lot of work to do in this department. Don't think it was just me either. there were four of us, and none of us (or the people we saw) could make much happen without trying over and over and over.

In the Carkitt Market portion of Diagon Alley there was The Hopping Pot, which is a drink stand. In front of The Hopping Pot is some of the very few places to sit in Diagon Alley. There are a few picnic tables scattered there. People were also sitting on the stage, when it was not in use of course. There were many, many places where benches would have been great, but there were so few of them around. There were some in front of the restrooms as well. Also in Carkitt Market is the Gringott's Money Exchange. You can go in, see an audio animatronic goblin and have money exchanged for what is basically Universal Orlando/Islands of Adventure gift certificates that you can use around the park. Shutterbutton's Photography Studio  is a little store where you can have your photo taken on a flying broomstick or purchase a moving photo (DVD).  Wands by Gregorovitch sells a lot of the same wands that Ollivander's does, but it's just a little stall, not as busy and no show.

There are 2 shows on the Carkitt Market Stage. Celestina Warbeck who sings and the Tale of Three Brothers puppet show/play. Celestina sounded good, but we didn't actually watch her. The Tale of Three Brothers was so very beautiful and I recommend taking time out to watch it.

This is the end of the Tale of Three Brothers, when the third brother comes to Death. The big, blurry object is Death. ;) I wish we'd gotten better photos of it, but we were both entranced by it.

Photo by Darla

Something to note:
Diagon Alley is a good 10 degrees cooler than Hogsmeade. This is due to the tall buildings that shade the entire area. However, if it's still BAKING HOT like it was when we were there last week, sneak off to Knockturn Alley.

It's very, very cool, and very dark. You can tell the difference in the alley alone by my photo of the sign, the bright to the dark.

The photo of Borgin and Burke's was taken in the middle of the afternoon.

While I'm definitely no Death Eater and purchased nothing, I did enjoy browsing Borgin and Burke's. They had more unique items than most of Diagon Alley. If you are a Death Eater or Slytherin, you will probably love this shop.

It was so cool, we found a set of steps to sit and eat our ice cream on. This is another area where Universal should have thought to install some benches or tables. There were wide open areas that would be perfect.

Now to the main show. Gringott's Bank and The Escape From Gringott's ride.

Gringott's is beautiful. Very impressive.

The dragon does breathe real fire. I didn't get a photo on my phone, only with my instax camera.

The kiddos queuing for the ride.

Bogrog at the front desk. Very fun animatronic goblins!

Awkward selfie with Darla


We only had to wait 40 minutes for the ride and it was excellent! Part coaster, part 4D ride. Loved it a lot! The 3D was great, and there were many unexpected happenings! Wee! I'd heard mixed reviews, but it was amazing. I still love The Forbidden Journey more, but it was really great.

Now, what I was looking MOST forward to at Diagon Alley was this... Riding the Hogwarts Express!! We were actually in Orlando on Sept 1st and seriously considered going there, but decided it might be super packed because it was Labor Day. We were there Sept 2nd, just one day late for start of term ;)

Photo by Darla

Photo by Darla

We decided to go from King's Cross to Hogsmeade first. Be sure to ride both ways, the journey is different. I prefer the ride from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley, but both are great!

Remember though, this is where you change parks, you MUST have your ticket to ride either way. I couldn't find mine for about 5 minutes and was panicked. It never occurred to us that we'd need them. I'd love to see this changed to a wrist band or something in the future. I finally found my ticket and got to ride, obviously. Keep your tickets HANDY but SAFE. Don't want to lose them for sure!

Remember you need a park to park ticket to ride The Hogwarts Express.

Overall, I very much loved Diagon Alley, but.. .yes, there is a but... It's mostly shopping.  Not only is it mostly shopping, but a lot of the stores carry the same items. There are only two new rides, the Hogwarts Express, which you need the park to park for, and Gringott's. I enjoyed my day immensely and definitely do NOT regret going... However, I don't see a need to visit until they expand again (which there are already whisperings of a Ministry of Magic coming). Of course you get full access to both Universal parks, but I was only interested in Harry. It is a very expensive set of parks to get in to at $136 to visit both in one day.

Oh, and I need to mention this. Universal employees often get a bad wrap when compared to Disney. Now, I've only bothered spending time in the Harry Potter parts of the Universals, but the workers there were AWESOME. Super, super friendly. At least as friend as Disney and in many cases more so.

A couple notes:

I ordered off the kid's menu with no issue. They run $4.99-6.99.  It is a very small portion, you'll get WAY more with an adult entree, but I wasn't that hungry. Florida water is kind of horrible. If you want to save money by filling a bottle at the drinking fountains, I recommend buying a Brita filtered bottle. I bought the kid's size because it is small and fits in a backpack well. There are no 'normal' drinks in the two pubs, so don't expect to buy a Coke. The drinks are all quite expensive too. You'll have to choose from Lemon Squash (4.79), Butterbeer (4.49), Frozen Butterbeer (4.99), Pumpkin Juice (3.99), Otter's Fizzy Orange Juice (4.79), Fishy Green Ale (4.99), Peachtree Fizzing Tea (4.79), Gillywater (4.00), or Draught Beers (8.25-8.50).

The day was good and the memories are magical.

Darla and I just before our 3rd time on Forbidden Journey!


If you have any questions about either Harry Potter section of Universal Orlando, don't hesitate to ask.

See all of my Harry Potter posts here. Food, crafts, and 2 massive parties.

Tina



*All prices accurate September 2014