My encounter with the Grinch, or in other words, our trip to Universal Studios this Christmas

We are the about the biggest Disney fans you could ever meet.  We even have a Disney tree and get annual passes every year.  But this Christmas we decided, in addition to Disneyland, we would try Universal Studios.  Afterall, it has Harry Potter, which is almost better than Disney, right?

So why am I not blogging about Disneyland?  I really have no idea!  We could teach you so much.  But truth be told, there are so many Disney bloggers that it really doesn't seem worth the trouble to have one more.  Besides, Disneyland is always changing, so we are always discovering new things.  

Well our family had celebrated with a lovely Grinchmas Christmas, so we were excited to see the Grinchmas decorations.  We woke up early the day after Christmas and got to Universal Studios the minute it opened.  We headed straight to the Hogwarts Harry Potter ride.

I have to say that it was more than we expected.  Just that ride made everything worth it. Even the decorations in line were amazing.   

After that we headed over the the Flight of the Hippogryph.  It was ok.  It would be a great starter roller coaster for children.  The best part was seeing Hagrid's hut and motorcycle while waiting in line.

We shopped a little bit then got in line at Ollivander's Wand Shop.  By this time the lines were starting to form, so we had about a 25 minute wait.  It was well worth it.  

Here they picked out someone from the audience to be fitted for the wand.  It was very realistic and entertaining.  The girl took it so seriously, which made it even better.  I'm glad that we didn't pass this experience up.

That's when we headed down to the lower level.  They have three rides.  Jurassic Park was good, but with a little effort it could have been great.  Transformers, which was surprisingly good. And the Revenge of the Mummy, which started out good, but then turned into just ok.

We then headed back up to the upper level, and that's when the lines all started getting really long.  We got in a two hour line for the Hollywood Tours.  This was when I encountered the Grinch.

It all started when I took his picture as we passed by him in the line.  He was not too pleased with me.

I then tried to take a selfie with him, which really made him mad.

Here is where he tried to take away my phone.  By this time he was very upset with me.

Over the course of our two hour wait in line he continued to harass us and other people.  At one point he snuck up on my son and about scared him to death.

That's when he acted like he was in love with the trash can, as you can see here.

At this point we were about to get on the ride.  The tour was surprisingly good.  It even went through WhoVille where the people danced a little number for us.

When we got off we were ready for dinner.  We headed over to the Three Broomsticks where we had about a half hour wait to get in.  

We got the Feast meal and two hot butterbeers.  It was delicious and fed all of us.  The soup was very good, but the butterbeer was amazing!

After dinner we watched the triwizard Tournament.  Here are the Beauxbaton girls dancing.

And then the Durmstrang boys performed.  I was a little disappointed that we did not see the Hogwarts school perform.  It did say TRI wizard tournament.

By this time it was time for the WhoVille tree lighting ceremony. 

 I have to say that the costumes were amazing and the show was cute, but very short.  I really wish that there had been a little more to it.
After that we headed over to the walking dead attraction.  It was pretty creepy!


We took this opportunity to take some disgusting photos.

If you love the Grinch,  Harry Potter or Alice in Wonderland as much as we do you will have to check out my links where I share a TON of ideas