Harry Potter Studios 2.0 | Pandemic

As I write this I should be living it up in Disneyland Paris with my best friend but due to COVID-19 that has not happened, yes I am very sad.

Last year myself and Molly planned this trip to celebrate her birthday at one of our favourite places but just days before we were meant to set off all 6 Disney Parks closed. I accept that it's for the best but it still sucks. I am trying to keep a positive mindset throughout this entire lockdown situation.

We were determined to make the most out of this trip so we decided to go back to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford. We went last May for my birthday (post) and weren't planning on going back until the summer as they are showcasing the Slyherin common room and we need to show our house pride. Both Molly and I are big Harry Potter fans so it might not be Disneyland but there's still plently of magic.
We also decided to extend our trip an extra night and go and see the West End show Jamie. I personally have never seen it but Molly loves it so I was excited.

My trip started on Saturday, I jumped on the train down to Derby to meet Molly and her family for her birthday meal at Pizza Hut and starting off the trip well I had to pay £110 on the train as my railcard had expired (who knew they had to be renewed thought after I was 25 I couldn't use it anymore apparently not). As you can imagine I was thrilled.

Once I arrived in Derby we went for a lovely meal and then I got to hang out with Molly's dogs Paddy & Seamus who I love very dearly and miss so very much.

The next day Molly and I travelled down to London where we followed our tradition of having a Nando's every time we see each other. Nandos baby I miss you. We then went back to our hotel chilled and watched Tik Toks and chatted all night.

Althought we had been to the Harry Potter Studios only last year it is still so interesting and fun to be there. We got extremely lucky as the studios was closing at 8pm that day, so although Disney let us down Harry Potter did not! 

We spent the day going around the studios being idiots and getting our fake passports stamped (low key so fun & free highly reccommend) which was something we didn't do last time.

I have so much love for Harry Potter so going to the studios is one of my favourite things in the world and one of my favourite places to visit! I can not wait until we get to go back and celebrate Slytherin in all it's glory.

I didn't know what to expect walking into the studios but it was relatively busy. No where near what I have experienced before, we got the first avaliable slot of 10am to make the most out of the day, I highly reccomend this as you can stay at the studios until it closes if you wished. Jumping on the train from Euston to Watford Junction at 9am and waited for the hogwarts express! 

The shuttle bus from the train station to the studios is a £3 return which I dont think is bad. It's always exciting seeing Warwick Davis talking to you about the studios as you drive through Watford.

After a day at the studios we headed back to our hotel to collect our belongings and move to our second hotel in covent garden. We decided to move hotels to be closer to the theatre and it was cheaper.

We sanitised every inch of our souls before getting on the tube (Corona tings you get it) and ventured to Covent Garden. 

We checked in to our hotel and went out to meet Becca who I have known for years and years but never met (Vamps friends who lives at the opposite end of the country problems) before we were going to go to see Jamie on the West End.

We had a lovley Bella Italia, it was so nice to finally meet Becca! Make sure to check out her Youtube Channel - Link
Then 40 minutes before the show was meant to start the tories started acting up and the show was cancelled. That was fun. 

Mol & I really went through it this trip all we have ever wanted was to go to Disney together but we can go next year and we will go Florida together. I still had a lovely time even if I did complain the whole time about how much I hate Corona. 

I hope everyone is staying safe, regularly washing their hands and self isolating where possible we can get through this! Can't wait to be in a GCSE text book. 

Here is a collection of images from my few days off work before I was furloughed: 

love ya mol cya after Corona

Universal & Islands of Adventure | Travel

There is simply no words to describe how much I was looking forward to visiting Universal (I was excited for Disney too obviously but I love Harry Potter). As a big rollarcoaster fan I have always dreamed of  going back to Universal as when I was 8 years old I was too short and couldn’t ride anything. I have a vivid memory of crying about being too small to ride the Hulk so at the ripe age of 22 I rode it twice and almost cried of joy - yeah I'm that type of person.

We decided to take two days out of our trip to go to Universal we stayed in the beautiful Loews hotel for one night. The main reason we did this was so we could get free express passes for the rides. Although the park was relatively uiet it was nice to be able to walk on to the rides and not have to worry about waiting in long lines. Due to Hagrids magical adventure being the newest ride we weren't able to use our express pass for this so we didn't get to ride as we had limited time but when I eventually go back I will ride it, I just wanna see a blas-ended skrewt in real life. The hotel was really nice, a bit posh for me but I would 100% reccomend.

I was looking forward to Universal for months, all I wanted was a wand. I had watched hundreds of vlogs online of people buying wands I was so excited to get my own. I ended up chosing the Interactive Ash Wand from Olivanders and I love it. Performing the spells was so much fun I truly felt magical. Just walking in Hogsmede or exploring Diagon Alley was something I had always dreamed of and I have never felt so happy as I have when I was there. Getting the Hogwarts express between the two parks was a highlight of the trip for me, yes I shed a little tear but I do not know how the Hogwarts students sat in those compartments all day they were a little uncomfortable.

Another thing I am a big fan of is Jurassic Park so the ride and area around the park was so cool I loved it all.  I loved Universal so much I often just sit at my desk wishing and dreaming about going back.

Just like my Disney post I am going to included my favourite images from our time at Universal, we ate amazing food, saw the Macy's christmas parade, went on lots of rides - a lot of the rides in the two parks are 4D rides which often makes me feel a little sick after a while but I still had a good time. We met the grinch and Claire got a candyfloss as big as her head!