Grindylows & Celestina Warbeck: A Hogwarts Professor Visits Universal, Day 4.

Date: 10 July 2019

T-shirt choice:  Generic Witch Festival (for water park) and Queen City Mischief and Magic 2018 (for Wizarding World).

Status of Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure: Didn’t check much, open at least some in the afternoon; “at capacity” by 6 PM.

Much of today was spent cavorting with merpeople and harnassing kelpies at the Volcano Bay Water Park, the third park in our three-park package. No Wizarding World stuff there, but some Nargles apparently snatched our hotel key cards from my son’s velcroed pocket on one of the slides. This was a great park as far as water parks go; the virtual lines were much appreciated after the 3.25 hour event at Hagrid’s Motorbike yesterday.

Having started bright and early, we were finished with the water park by 4 and headed back to the hotel for showers and dinner. Afterwards, we elected to go back to the theme parks for the evening hours, when the park is much cooler and the lines much shorter. I was most interested in going back to the Wizarding World, specifically to see the shows and do some shopping. My daughter went with me; my son and husband were more interested in doing some of the rides they had not yet been on, and re-visiting a few favorites. You can read more about that experience after the jump. The Hogwarts Frog Choir was scheduled to perform in Hogsmeade at 6:30, followed by the Triwizard Pep Rally at 7, so we headed there first, armed with my son’s wand. Unfortunately, after only one song, they were forced to stop the outdoor show for impending weather, and a torrential downpour started soon thereafter. We initially took shelter at Honeydukes, where I bought some Peppermint Toads and Fizzing Whizbees to share with colleagues at work, then, assuming the 7 PM show was also cancelled, we decided to make a dash for the Hogwarts Express trip to Diagon Alley to shop there—  I had decided on a particular Hogwarts T-shirt from Madame Malkins that I had not seen elsewhere— and hope the rain cleared before Celestina Warbeck’s scheduled performance in Diagon Alley at 8:30. Unfortunately, we forgot that the nearby entrance was only for express pass riders, and had to take a circuitous route around the side of the building to enter. Even though there was no outdoor line, we were drenched by the time we got inside.

After we did our shopping (T-shirt and Ravenclaw Head Girl pin for me, a Butterbeer shirt for my daughter after she failed to find any Hufflepuff gear that appealed to her) I saw that the Gringott’s ride was down to a reasonable 35 minute wait, so, since there was a full hour before Celestina, I decided to have another run on that. My daughter,  who had felt a little queasy after the last Gringott’s escape, decided to go to the Leaky Cauldron for a lemon squash. Once I had been in the line for 20 minutes and was only at the end of the lobby, it was clear to me that it was going to be far longer than 35 minutes, so I left to re-join my daughter. That turned out to be a good move, since we were able to catch most of the “Tales of Beadle the Bard” puppet show that was showing prior to Celestina. I had not seen that on the schedule, but it was an impressive puppet version of “The Fountain of Fair Fortune.”

To my surprise, my husband and son turned up in time to catch Celestina’s performance.  Madame Warbeck, aka the “Delectable Diva” and the “Singing Sorceress” gave a cheesy but entertaining nightclub style show, with her back-up singers, the Banshees. ostensibly to raise funds for St. Mungo’s hospital. Fully immersed in her persona, complete with sequinned gown and feather boa, the singer belted out Hits such as “Hot Strong Cauldron of Love”, “Beat Back the Bludgers, Boys and Toss that Quaffle Here” (with the Banshees performing a dance with Beater Bats) and “You Stole my Cauldron But You Can’t Have My Heart.” A muggle man was called up to dance with her during “You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me.” Though sappy, the show was well-done and quite entertaining. You can see why Mrs. Weasley loves her, and Fleur Delacour does not.

Once the brief concert was over, the Gringotts ride was allegedly down to 20 minutes, so my husband, son and I left our bags with my daughter and rode it again. Once again, the wait time was underestimated, and we emerged some 45 minutes later. My daughter was fortunate enough to view the Tale of the Three Brothers puppet show while we were in the ride. I remember that show from 5 years ago as quite elaborate, with puppet versions of the animated Brothers of the movie. By the time we grouped up again, the park was closing, so we headed back.

Next post:  our final day!