HP World Entry Part 3: FOOD

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series post! This one will be about the delicious food. Post #1 can be found here! And post 2 can be found here!

Now Justin's favorite part of the park was the food. Particularly The Three Broomsticks. It was absolutely a close 2nd for me, just after The Forbidden Journey. We went to The Three Broomsticks 3 of the 4 days we were in the parks, so you can imagine how much we loved eating there. But I'll get to that last, because it is the best!

The first thing we did once we were in the HP part of the park on the first day was head to a place to get some Butterbeer. I've ALWAYS always wanted to try the real thing. In fact, my friend Rocky and I have tried multiple times to make it ourselves using recipes from Mugglenet, etc. (Ours were never very good, no matter how hard we tried.) So we headed to the Hogshead, which is actually the bar part of The Three Broomsticks. Since The Wizarding World is a compact area, they connected the two restaurants from the books into one, but they didn't sacrifice anything from either, so don't worry. At the Hogshead you can order all kinds of drinks from non-alcoholic ciders like pear and apple, to a special Hogshead brew that you can only get at the Hogshead! If you order the Hogshead brew you also have the choice to buy a souvenir cup with the Hogshead face on it. Justin did this out last night, so we got this cup. He also said the beer was really good, and it tasted like Cillian's.

When you order Butterbeer, you have a choice between a soda form or a frozen form. I always chose the frozen form because it's like a cross between a frappe and a slurpie, and it's SO creamy and delicious! And it especially helps in a hot summer day when you're crowded around hundreds of people. Justin always liked the soda form of it. Either way it was always GREAT. And the best part is that they have a froth machine, so no matter how you order it, they top it off with genuine Butterbeer froth. You also have the choice to order it in a souvenir glass, and Justin and I both did that... so we have two.

Butterbeer tastes like you always imagined it would.. now I know that might mean something a little different to everyone, but it really is PERFECT. It's got butterscotch taste to it, but it's not too sweet, it's smooth... it's just the best thing ever... and I wish there had been a way to bring it home so I could let all my friends taste it. The best part is if you ask any of the workers for a straw, they give you a hard time about it, because the rule is if you don't have a froth mustache, you aren't drinking it correctly. In fact, they playfully hassled Justin and I both times we asked and only gave in when we told them it was because mine was frozen. Once, the conductor of the Hogwarts Express came over to me and said I needed a mustache because I was being too careful, hah!

Justin and his soda Butterbeer, and me and my mustache.

Another interesting drink they had that you could buy at a vendor while walking around was Pumkin Juice. It's in a cute little bottle and the lid is shaped like a pumpkin, and as confused as we were about what it might taste like, we were intrigued as well. So we bought one to try it out (also to keep the bottle), and it was surprisingly awesome! It was strange to me to imagine that pumpkin juice could be refreshing and good, while at the same time, actually tasting like pumpkins... but somehow they pulled it off. It was sort of like pumpkin pie smooshed down into juice and then bottled... if you can imagine that. You could smell the spices, like cinnamon, in the drink, and it was a really great balance. To be honest, Pumpkin Juice was the biggest surprise of the trip! I would have never thought I would like to try pumpkin juice, let alone enjoy an entire bottle, and yet, Potter World found a way to do it and do it well.


Now for the finale. The Three Broomsticks was certainly a trip! The same man I met who helped to develop The Forbidden Journey ride also knew some trivia about The Three Broomsticks. Apparently, the restaurant at the theme park was built before they started shooting the 6th movie, The Half-Blood Prince, and so the movie based their Three Broomsticks off of the theme park one. The one we got to eat at is actually the ORIGINAL. That was really neat to find out. AND we got to sit, 2 of the 3 times we went there, right in about the same location as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sit in the 6th movie when Ron catches Ginny kissing her boyfriend from across the room. I checked to see it the same booth Ginny was sitting in was across from where we were sitting because I was interested how close the movie got it, and it was there! It was exactly the same!


When you walk in, you have to wait in line, but they have a GREAT menu. The food is all very good. I did get a different thing each time I went there, so I tried 3 different entrees. It was easy to see which I would like because they have an actual display of all their dishes as you wait in line, so you can see what you'd be interested in! I ordered the roasted chicken the first time, fish and chips the second time, and sheapard's pie the last time. All of the meals were delicious! My favorite was the roasted chicken... namely because it comes with a whole husk of corn and looks very wizardy... for some reason... hah!

But to be completely honest, the reason Justin and I loved The Three Broomsticks the most was not because of the food, or even the Butterbeer. It was the atmosphere and the experience of the place! It really FELT, the most out of anywhere in the entire park, like we were in Hogsmeade, and this was really the world of Harry Potter. The first time we ate there, and the adorable people behind the counter dressed as Hogsmeade employees handed me my tray, I teared up. NO LIE. I know that seems like I am a complete and utter nerd with no grasp on reality... but it was so special to me. This is a world I love so much and I never imagined that I could ever experience, but in that place, I really felt like I was. And it was so awesome! Not only is the architecture fantastic, but the attitude of the workers and everything brings it all together.

At night, we found, was the best time to be at The Three Broomsticks. Most everyone starts to clear out so we were some of the last people to be there, and it all looks much more like a wizard's pub. Plus, it's at night that the little hallways above you (because it's also an Inn, apparently) have projections on the walls to make it look like the windows are opening and owls are flying in and delivering mail!

Bahah, we got a little photo-bombed in this picture. But we're HAPPY!!

Needless to say the entire trip was one of the best of my entire life. And the fact I got to share it with my husband who loves Harry Potter as much as I do was completely priceless. This is a littl3 blurb I wrote in the summer 2007 after seeing the 5th movie, Order of the Phoenix, with Justin:

"It was fun going out tonight with Justin and seeing this movie. While we were watching it and holding hands in the theater, I couldn't help but look over at him and feel that we wouldn't be where we are if it hadn't been for Harry Potter. It sounds funny, but if the 6th book hadn't come out the summer that we had met, and if we hadn't sped through it and found that we were the only people in the entire store (being the first two to finish) who could talk to each other about it, we would have never become friends or fallen in love. Yeah, I know we would have found common ground elsewhere, more than likely, but the fact is we didn't. Harry has a lot to do with how we began, and so he's really special to us both. It's just really neat how things like that can play a part in the larger story."

Harry Potter has continued to bring me joy and memories, and I know it won't end here, especially because we're already trying to plan our return trip to this theme park! I highly suggest it to all of you guys as well! Thanks for reading.