A Celebration of Harry Potter: Part 2

"After All This Time?....."

After a delayed start to my morning, due to work complications the night before, day two of A Celebration of Harry Potter was in full swing by the time I got there. As I waited for my friends to meet up with me, I decided to go back into the exhibits to take some pictures for a better description of what the expo looked like:

The stage where the demonstrations and Q&A took place

A guest testing out the virtual reality Fantastic Beasts game with a screen for others to watch what they are experiencing

The exhibit for the Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery game, coming 

out this spring, where guests got to test a sneak preview on iPads

Eventually, my friends and I met up and we swung by the Hogsmeade village in Islands of Adventure to snap some pictures in front of the awe-inspiring Hogwarts castle. After a mini photoshoot, we headed back to the expo to explore further for a couple hours but, due to illness, my friends had to leave. Thankfully though, I was joined shortly after by another friend who had been released early from work. He joined up with me just after the Q&A session with the film talent and we decided to take a brief break from Harry Potter to watch the afternoon parade and grab some dinner.

Raising my wand to salute all those lost at the battle of Hogwarts 💛

After dinner, we headed back to the stage for The Evening Tribute (the closing ceremonies for the day) where fans were surprised with videos from the cast of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them as they shot for their upcoming film and The Cursed Child actors gave us a shout out from the set of their play that is premiering its first U.S. show in New York this year.

Day two was nothing short of amazing and I immensely enjoyed being surrounded by so many people who share the same interests as me. While I had a blast all weekend, the two highlights that I had fun with the most definitely had to be the Q&A with the film cast and also getting so many photo ops with all the cos-players. Natalia Tena (Nymphadora Tonks), Stanislav Yanevski (Viktor Krum), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) were all in attendance at this year's celebration weekend. The Q&A lasted 45 minutes where guests were able to ask the panel questions pertaining to anything from the movies to their personal lives. A highlight included Bonnie's response to "If you had to give your character an ultimate ending what ending would you give your character in the movies?" as "I wouldn't change anything, Ginny got to marry Harry Potter, play Quidditch at the professional level and worked as a reporter, her life was pretty perfect." Likewise, Stanislav's joking (I think?) response that if he were to be sent to Azkaban for anything it would be that he killed Ron and took Hermione back because Krum and Hermione belonged together, got a huge laugh from everyone in the audience... okay it was me.. I was laughing loudest as EVERYONE knows Viktor is more of a physical being and Ron is just so much more of a well-rounded character. Please tell me at least one of you got that GOB reference?!?!

Some of the panel onstage getting ready to answer questions

As I conclude this post, I will leave you with pictures of the fantastic cosplayers I ran into while walking around. The time and dedication people put into these costumes is just unbelievable and the cleverness of some of the ideas for costumes would just about make you question your own fandom dedication. I witnessed things such as a man dressed as a bowtruckle, a group of girls dressed as the marauders, a golden snitch, a stag patronus, the ministry entrance toilet, a cornish pixie and so many more including all the characters. I am hoping to make it back for next year's celebration and look forward to all the exciting things happening in the Harry Potter universe in 2018. For now, however, I will reminisce on all the photos I captured this year.  

The founders of Hogwarts out for a stroll together. Helga Hufflepuff LOVED my shirt!

Top Left: Dobby the house elf with Tom Riddle's diary and his sock; R.I.P. 

Top Right: Hermione, Harry, and Neville at the battle of Hogwarts

Bottom: Durmstrang students 

...Always"

To anyone reading this, all positive and constructive opinions are welcome! Disclaimer: I am by no means a professional at writing or vacation planning so if you read my blogs or take my advice do so with a grain of salt.