Welcome to episode.

Welcome to episode 22 of the Charles C.W. Cook podcast.

This one released on a Thursday, as my contract stipulated that it must be.

I'm back from Universal Studios, where we went for the weekend for my eldest son's birthday.

And it was absolutely terrific.

We stayed on site in one of their hotels, which I haven't done before, and that was good.

But the biggest change since I was there 14 years ago, other than the two small people who kept following me around

and calling me daddy, was that both of the parks now have Harry Potter sections.

In Islands of Adventure, that's one of the parks.

They have Hogwarts and Hogsmead.

And in Universal Studios, they have Diagon Alley.

And goodness me, are they superb?

On the way home, after we'd left, we chatted about what we'd liked the most, and my answer was all the Harry Potter stuff.

The train that runs between the two parks is fabulous.

The escape from Gringott's roller coaster is brilliant, and the

theming on that is as good as anything Disney's ever done. The Harry Potter and the

Forbidden Journey Ride is stellar. It's Soren meets Haunted Mansion meets Tyrannadon Flyers.

And then there's Hagrid's magical creatures, motorbike, adventure, roller coaster,

which frankly was a revelation. At the risk of sounding saccharin, I had a real moment when I was in the line with my

seven-year-old waiting for Hagrid's magical creatures' motorbike adventure.

He looks like me, my son, that is not Hagrid.

And in the coat that he was wearing, he especially looked like me when I was his age.

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