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!

London | Travel

It's safe to say I really enjoy Harry Potter, I don't know how much I've spoken about that on my blog. This time last year myself and Jasmine went to Harry Potter Studios in Watford, London to celebrate my 21st birthday and the end of uni and it just so happened that Molly and I also went again this May.

I have only been to London a handful of times as it's just so expensive to travel from Newcastle but I have always wanted to see The Vamps perform in the O2. You're probably reading this thinking "wow is Jess not over that band yet" the answer is yes, yes I am but I enjoy seeing my friends and I just have to see it through until the end.

Molly and I decided we were going to spend a couple of days in London see The Vamps and then go to Harry Potter the next day, so that's exactly what we did.

The Vamps was great, accidently spent like £50 on drink in the 02 - London prices man... that and I accidently ordered 4 cocktails instead of 2.
I finally got to meet Maria who I have known for gosh maybe 4 years?! But she lives in USA and I didn't do London this time so that was cute. I would of met Becca who I have known for as long as I can remember but she decided not to attend and it broke my heart but she's currently in Orlando working as a cast member in Disney world so it must be nice to be here. im not jealous. 

Here's some images from that night:

The next day Molly and I woke up a little worse for wear and ventured to Watford. Gringotts had recently opened and holy it was insane. Although I loved the weekend trip I went on in 2018 with Jas it was amazing that Mol and I had no time restraints we could go at our own pace and spend all day there. We walked around taking pictures, watching bts videos and just having the best time.

If you have no idea what i'm talking about Harry Potter studios is a big sound stage in Watford where the majority of the Harry Potter films were filmed and it is now a studio tour that has a tonne of original props, costumes, sets and special effect make up.

It's so amazing walking around learning about things like they built an entire animatronic Hagrid head for body double Martin Bayfield for certain scenes and it is so well done I wouldn't of even known. The wizarding world is so immersive from the books to the online community.

I loved it, here's some pictures from that: