Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

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Welcome to Diagon Alley

Calling all Harry Potter fans! Chris and I spent our long Columbus Day weekend on a quick jaunt to Florida to visit Universal Studios, and I can now confirm that the newest additions are awesome. Ever since Diagon Alley opened in July, I’ve been dying to see the new section of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I had such a great time last year with Casey when we geeked out in Hogsmeade, and I couldn’t wait to see what else was added to the park.

We arrived at Universal Studios first thing on Sunday morning, and went straight to the Wizarding World. Up until this weekend, I managed to avoid most articles and photos of the new stuff so that I’d be thoroughly surprised. I was actually so in-the-dark about everything that I didn’t even know how to get to Diagon Alley from the London area! (The entrance is tucked into the red building in the photo below and you come out through an opening in a brick wall, of course.)

We made a beeline straight for the Escape from Gringotts ride, but sadly it was (temporarily) nonoperational and they had closed the ride. Not even an alohomora spell could get us into the bank. Womp womp. So the next thing on my must-do list was to drink a frozen Butterbeer and to see how Chris liked it (he loved it, too). It’s totally fine to drink it for breakfast, right? Especially on such a hot day – the day’s high promised to be over 90 and it felt like we were already there by 10am!

After recovering from our Butterbeer brain-freezes, we wandered around a bit to see the amazing details of the buildings. And of course Diagon Alley has all of the shops that you would expect to see – some of them are functional and some of the storefronts are just for decoration, but they’re all fun to inspect and explore. Lots of spots around Diagon Alley also interact with the new wands from Ollivanders! (I didn’t purchase a wand only because I didn’t want to carry it around all day and stow it in lockers when we went on the rides, but we enjoyed watching other people perform spells at the marked locations. Here’s a great review of the interactive wands.) I especially loved wandering down the dark and mysterious Knockturn Alley. Once your eyes adjust, you’ll get to see all kinds of wonderfully creepy things including Borgin and Burkes.

We checked one more time to see if Escape from Gringotts was up-and-running yet, but it was not, so we left Diagon Alley to ride the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure. Wouldn’t you know it, the train was also on the fritz! Had someone put a hex on all of the new rides?! Argh! I was bummed, but not defeated – we decided to just wait for another ride nearby. After we waited in the queue for The Mummy and finished the ride, we heard that Gringotts was ready! And it was worth the wait – I think walking through the elaborately designed bank was just as fun as the ride itself. One of the goblins looked up and glared right at me.

Our wait for Gringotts was over an hour – have I not mentioned yet how super incredibly crowded it was at the park that day?! Universal does such a good job though of making sure your time in queue is interesting (and air-conditioned) and therefore not too painful if you are in a lengthy line. We had a long wait for the Hogwarts Express as well, which was functioning again shortly after we ate lunch. Note: make sure you purchase park-to-park admission between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure or else you won’t be able to ride the train! If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’ll want to see both parks anyway (smart on Universal’s part, eh?) so go ahead and get a park-to-park ticket. And while we’re talking about tickets, I’ll mention that both this time and last time I was at Universal Studios, we bought two-day passes so that we’d have plenty of time to see and do everything with some flexibility for bad weather. It really depends on the crowd levels and your own interests as to whether or not you can cover both parks in one day.

You really do walk through the brick wall between platforms 9 and 10! I meant to have Chris take a photo of me walking through, but I forgot! Not that I wanted ~~many~~ any pictures of myself that day – I was a hot, sweaty mess so there is literally not one photo of us at the park. Oops!

The journey on the train was really cute and authentic. Once we arrived in Hogsmeade, Chris and I rode the Dragon Challenge and the Forbidden Journey (a favorite), and we actually lucked out with short lines on those two. On the Forbidden Journey, we decided to go through the single-rider line and figured we could just meet at the ride exit afterwards, but we ended up being put on the same car anyway, so we saved 40 minutes and we rode together – bonus!

Despite the crazy hot temperature, massive crowds, and broken rides, we had a fun time and I’m really glad I had the chance to see the new parts of the park. If I had a do-over of the trip though, I’d pick a cooler month weather-wise and not a holiday weekend. For more photos of the Hogsmeade side of the Wizarding World, check out my post from last year’s visit. I just wish we could have brought home one last Butterbeer!

October 20, 2014
Photo Friday – Balmy and Palmy

Last weekend, Chris and I took a quick trip to Florida so that I could see the new additions to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter within the Universal Studios theme park. I feel like we picked the hottest weekend of the year, and I was surprised that it was so warm in October! I thought it would be a little milder, but we had very sunny days all weekend with temperatures over 90 degrees. This photo was taken on our walk from the hotel to the park on a cloudless Sunday morning. (That’s not a dust speck toward the bottom – that’s the moon!) More photos from our Universal adventure soon!

October 17, 2014
Iceland Hotels Round-Up

In case anyone else out there is planning a Ring Road trip around Iceland, I thought it might be helpful to talk about where we caught some zzz’s along the route. We stayed in two different hotels in Reykjavik, and one night each in Hella, Höfn, Husavik, and Borgarnes. The areas worked out well, although the distance between Höfn and Husavik resulted in a long day of driving so if I had a do-over, I might put a stop in the Eastern Fjords in between. We definitely enjoyed a few of our hotels more than others, but all of them were quite lovely. I’ll point out my top three choices.

The warm, rustic vibe of Hotel Ranga had us at hello when we checked in after a very chilly, rainy day outdoors. Just on the outskirts of Hella, the hotel has a middle-of-nowhere feel that we were sort of expecting in an Iceland accommodation, and it would be a perfect spot for viewing and photographing the Northern Lights if you’re there at the right time. (The night we stayed the sky was thick with cloud cover.) The location also made for a quiet night and I slept so great. Our room felt like a cozy cabin but with plenty of amenities including a large flat-screen TV, a towel-warmer rack, big fuzzy robes, and a huge Jacuzzi tub. I used my point-and-shoot for the photos and they just don’t do the room justice, nor do they illustrate the size of the giant bathroom.

Next up, Icelandair Hotel Hamar was a nice choice in Borgarnes and wins my vote for hospitality. From the looks of the outside, it reminded me of a motel – a long, one story building (though modern designed) with entrances outside. Once we checked in though, we were charmed by the warmth of the sweet concierge at the front desk, and I was extra appreciative of their offer to put me on the Northern Lights wake-up call list. The comfy room was large by European standards and the door to our own patio meant that I had quick and easy access to run out and photograph the Aurora!

And lastly, my favorite hotel for design was the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina, hands-down. Our room was the tiniest I’ve ever seen or stayed in (if I had to guess I’d say the square footage was less than 200 ft.), but the quirky details, fun maritime decor, and humorous signage instantly won me over. A sign in our teeny bathroom even admitted to the miniscule size of the space! It made us laugh for sure. It’s also worth noting that this hotel had the most outlets out of any of the hotels including multiple outlets on each side of the bed and in-wall USB ports by the desk, and since we are some gadget-loving folk we certainly appreciated this detail!

Oh, and something that all the hotels had in common was a really nice breakfast buffet spread in the morning. We really enjoyed it and got used to expecting that at each place, so I wonder if it’s just a common thing in Iceland. Let me know if you have any questions about any of these hotels – we’d definitely be happy to stay at any of them again if we’re lucky enough to return someday!

October 13, 2014
Photo Friday – Good Gourds

Although my favorite season is definitely fall, the downside is that this time of year traditionally means the start of cold and flu season for most people. I’ve been very lucky to avoid the flu most years (I can’t remember having it since I was little – knock on wood), but I do tend to catch a bit of a cold once the school year starts. This year was one of those years and I was a bit under the weather the past few days, hence no post this past Monday. Oh, and in case it isn’t obvious, today’s found photo has to do with fall and not my germs. Happy fall!

October 10, 2014
Photo Friday – Passport Photos

One of the handiest things about being a photographer is being able to photograph your own passport photo. Well, okay – that doesn’t come up all that often, but I needed a new passport a few years ago so I set up a backdrop and took the photo myself. In the image below, I utilized a photobooth prop for a practice shot. Obviously I couldn’t submit this as a passport photo because it doesn’t meet the criteria – passport photos must be in full color!

October 3, 2014