LeakyCon was easily by far the best five days of my life. And that includes YouthWrite. YouthWrite doesn't even compare to the awesome that was LeakyCon 2011. Yes, YouthWrite saved me in a lot of ways but...this was freaking Hogwarts.
Leaky Con: Day 1
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
I got to the Orlando Airport (FREAKING HUGE OH MY GOD) and I'm sure I would've gotten lost if it hadn't been for my Chicago friend and her mom. I waited for Heather and Audrey, who couldn't find where I was. (The airport was HUGE after all) My god it was hot there. I have honestly never experienced that kind of heat. (Strange enough, I miss the Orlando weather now that I'm home.)
The first time I saw Hogwarts on the way to Universal was...amazing. I screamed. Actually. Like...it was Hogwarts. In real life. Not on TV, or in my imagination or in pictures. IN REAL LIFE. And then we got to the hotel. HOGWARTS WAS OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW. AGHADF. It was the best ever.
I met Eileen then. She came up to see us. It's so weird thinking that I'd barely spoken to her, and now I love her SO much. Seriously. Audrey, Eileen and I went down to the Lobby so that Audrey and I could register. We managed to find a lull in both the registration line AND the conflict resolution lines. Somehow. Apparently the lines had been ridiculous earlier, but we didn't have to wait at all. I feel very lucky hearing that people had to wait like, 5 hours. O_O
We went to the Opening Ceremonies in the Great Hall after that. The Great Hall was...beautiful. Breath taking. They had projections everywhere. The ceiling had the sky projected on it so that it echoed the sky outside (that was my favourite part, by far), the sides had the movie posters projected onto it, and clips from the movies (I don't remember if they were projected at the Opening Ceremonies or not, but it was the rest of the week). And the stage! It looked like Hogwarts. There were banners and crests and torches and suits of armour. All on flats painted to look like stone. It was beautiful.
And then there were the ceremonies themselves. It was basically a history of the fandom and it was amazing. Harry and the Potters played (my first live wizard rock experience! And it was "The Weapon" - well...they played another song too, I think, but I don't remember what it was.), Hank Green played, Potter Puppet Pals came out, someone got proposed to (agh so romantic.). There were interviews from key people in the fandom. It was beautiful. The theme of the week was "Hogwarts Graduating Class of 2011" and LeakyCon was our graduation shindig. Amazing, right?
We all trouped to the WWoHP after that. Eileen and I found Taekia, Jennifer, Kelly, Sarah and Elizabeth (Audrey didn't get tickets for Open at the Close) and we went with them. We sang and laughed and oh my goodness just the walk was beautiful. So much vegetation and nature - who knew so much loveliness could be in the middle of a metropolis?
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is at the very back of Universal, so we had to walk through everything to get there. But oh my god it was worth it. When I first saw Hogsmeade, I stopped dead. Literally, stopped dead. It was like my dreams had fallen into being. It was the absolutely most amazing thing. And then we kept going. And there was the Hogwarts Express. And Honeydukes. And Ollivanders. And Dervish and Banges. And Zonko's. And Hogwarts. Hogwarts castle was right freaking in front of me.
Photo courtesy of Delana
Eileen and I wandered - the others had gone to ride on other stuff throughout the park - looking at shops and things. We ran into Katie Twyman, who then joined us because she lost Catitude. (That sounds so weird.) HolycrapIlovethatgirlsomuch. We had the most amazing time going through the shops. Heather found us outside of Honeydukes and we decided it was time for Butterbeer. They had three different kinds - frozen, cold and hot. I tried frozen first and holycrapitwassogood. Tasted like a creamcicle. Mmmm. Later I tried the cold one, and it was decent, but not nearly as good as the frozen one. I also had a sip of Pumpkin Juice, which tastes a bit like apple cider. I think I probably would have even liked it if I had had a whole one to myself. (I have been drinking out of nothing but my Butterbeer cup since I got back.)
We saw Andrew Sims by the Hogwarts Express. I think the look of surprise and fangirly-ness scared him. XD
We ran into a bunch of HPA Staffers and got a whole HPA table outside of the Three Broomsticks with Karen, Kate, Andrew and Lauren. I remember Karen saying "Okay, who is who?" And I went "Jodi!" immediately. The look on Andrew's face when he realized who I was will stay with me for a while. He was so shocked and happy. He was all "Jodi? Jodi Butler?" and then came and hugged me. It was such an amazing moment in my life. And then Heather, Katie and I spotted David Levithan. We, of course, got a picture.
See? Proof!
A bunch of us went to the Forbidden Journey next. Or, we tried to. We kept getting sidetracked along the way. Or rather, Andrew did. He introduced Katie to Evanna Lynch, who was gearing up to do a Pottercast. I met Frak (he is so awesome! So so nice!). When we finally made it to The Forbidden Journey...oh my goodness it was so cool inside. Legit Hogwarts. Dumbledore's office, the unicorn portrait Harry and Ginny kiss in front of, the hourglasses with house points, the Gryffindor common room, a whole room full of portraits, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Sherbot Lemon didn't work. :(
And then the ride. We were IN HOGWARTS. I don't remember a lot of it in detail, just being completely amazed. We flew, flipped upside own, swung through the Forbidden Forrest (where spiders tried to get us. Shudder.) Water sprayed us in the fast. We flew through Hogwarts and the grounds with Harry as our guide, being chased by the Horntail (who followed us into the castle and tore bits of the roof apart and then proceeded to nearly cook us.), evading the Whomping Willow. I left the ride breathless, laughing and wanting more. I bought some stuff from the shop - a Hogwarts picture frame and a Fawkes keychain. I nearly bought a picture frame that was Sirius' mugshot. I kind of wish I had, to be honest. Because it's Sirius.
Heather and I went on The Flight of the Hippogriff, which was actually really good. I didn't get sick or anything! To get there, you walked through bits of the Forrest, not heeding Dumbledore or Hagrid as they told you not to go further, and then walked past the Ford Anglia and Hagrid's Hut. It started out in Hagrid's hut and then we flew around, up past Hogwarts (we had an AMAZING view) and then zoomed around back down to the hut. It was awesome.
We went into the other ride, but didn't go on it. There was a Goblet of Fire (Eileen, Heather and I all put our names in the Goblet), Triwizard Cup lots of Triwizard stuff.
I support a Hogwarts victory. But seriously, Diggory FTW!
We ate at The Three Broomsticks (free fooood!) and went into The Hogs Head. We also tried some Florean Fortescue icecream - peanut butter and strawberry, I think? I don't remember for sure. It was tasty, but I didn't eat all of it. I hadn't eaten all day and just to have the little bit of food I had from The Three Broomsticks was enough. It was that "so-hungry-you-feel-sick" thing.
I met Mikey in front of Hogwarts. Wow. I never thought I would be able to say that. But yeah, we met for the first time in front of Hogwarts. Epic? Epic.
We stayed until the very bitter end and grabbed another Butterbeer on the way out. Not gonna lie, I just wanted the cup. We took a water taxi back to the hotel, which I was too worn out, yet excited at the same time, to enjoy. We got back to the hotel, all exhausted, with Audrey already asleep. We basically just fell into bed without much thought of hygiene or anything of that sort.
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