A Muggle in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was magical. End of post. The end.

I’m kidding, but it’s hard for me to sum it up any better than that. It really felt like I was in that world for the day. The castle was beautiful, the dragon was spectacular and every last details was exactly what it would have been in that magical wizarding world. I’ll break down the two sections for you.

Hogsmeade

I wanted to go to Hogsmeade first because I thought it would have less of a ‘wow’ factor than Diagon Alley, but I was wrong. They’re both amazing. If you want to save the best for last, as I attempted to, the best you can do is flip a coin. Everything in Hogsmeade is snow-capped, so you feel like you’re on the set of The Prisoner of Azkaban, except it’s 85 degrees outside. You can see the Hogwarts castle in the background, and it is just absolutely spectacular. They have it set up in such a way that it’s kind of an optical illusion. It looks like it’s enormous and far off in the distance, when really it’s closer and about the size of a regular building.

Hogsmeade is where we tried our Butterbeer. When you go to a Butterbeer stand, you can get regular or frozen. They’re both good, but the regular is amazing. And my mom had her mind set on trying Butterbeer ice cream, which is not sold at those stands, but only in an ice cream shop in Diagon Alley. She ended up getting that without me, so I can’t speak to it, but she raved about it.

Now, I want to tell you about the biggest ride in Hogsmeade. I had heard a lot about the Escape from Gringotts in Diagon Alley, because it’s newer, so I didn’t know much about Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It was a “virtual ride” like I described in my other Universal Studios post, except in was on a track, so there were some screens with effects, and there were some real props as you rode through this ride. And before we got on, there was a warning, like on all the rides, that said don’t get on this if you’re pregnant or have a heart condition etc. etc. What they should have added was: don’t get on this ride if you have severe arachnophobia. That is my sincere advice to you. Advice that no one gave me. You’re welcome. I was literally sobbing as huge prop-spiders dropped from the ceiling two feet in front of me. I can barely watch that scene in Chamber of Secrets let alone live it. I guess that’s also when they took the “fun” souvenir photo, because when I got off the ride and saw it, the photo showed my hands covering most of my face so all you could see was my mouth hanging open in a crying-frown like a child. Because apparently I am one. No, I do not have a copy of that photo.

There was another small ride in Hogsmeade called The Flight of the Hippogriff. This seemed like more of a kids’ ride, because it was very small and low to the ground. But it definitely wasn’t just kids riding it. When I was there, the line was very short, so we rode it, and I liked it. It’s not a thrill ride, or anything, but it’s part of the experience. Although I wouldn’t have waited in a long line for it.

Diagon Alley

I thought you would only be able to get your $50 interactive wands at Ollivanders in Diagon Alley, but I guess that would cause an even longer line than any of the rides, so you can pretty much get one anywhere, Hogsmeade included. I went into it knowing that I was not going to spend that much on a toy wand, even if it did cool things around the park. In all my research, there were two “secrets” to the park that everyone said you had to do, and one of them was buy and use these fancy interactive wands. And man, am I glad I didn’t. Not only are they crazy expensive for a piece of plastic (I think. Maybe some of them really are wood.), but every little stop where you can do some “magic” with your wand had a line of children waiting their turn to swish their wand at it. And it took several tries per child to get it to work. On a few occasions, I would be shocked to see that a line to get into a shop was out the door, then I would realize, no, that’s not the line for the door, that’s the line for the shop window, where everybody wants to make the toad hiccup (or something). Then I would walk right inside, line-free. Usually I didn’t even have the patience to watch what it was the wand was supposed to do to each thing, because it was just a show of frustrated children not swishing their wands effectively. I wasn’t about it.

The other thing that all the blogs said I had to do was ride the Hogwarts Express both ways, because each way was different. I thought this meant it would take a different route, and we would actually be looking out a real window. Oh, naive me. There weren’t windows; there were screens. And the line to get on the train at times seems a little excessive for what it was. I would say, yes, ride the Hogwarts Express, but the way from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade is better. Just do that one. Although we never actually did walk from park to park, so maybe the train does save you enough steps to make it worth it, but it didn’t seem that way given the length of the ride.

Once we got off the Hogwarts Express and set foot into Diagon Alley, it was spectacular. You see right up the Alley to Gringotts, where the dragon from Deathly Hallows sits on top and every once in a while breaths real fire. It’s pretty impressive.

And of course we went into Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, which was almost as amazing as it is in the movies. I say almost because the upper floor is just for show; you can’t actually go up there. But they still made it look just like the movies. Everything was bright and just a little chaotic.

Knockturn Alley was also in this section of the park, and let me tell you, it’s a great place to go to cool down. When we went, it seemed like there was a crowd everywhere (as to be expected), so if you wanted to go into a shop to cool down in the air conditioning, there wasn’t really a place to relax. Knockturn Alley was a lot more open, and it was shaded everywhere to contribute to the overall dark vibe. It’s also where you can buy your death eater temporary tattoos, which I had been saying earlier “they should sell those!” They do. They’re in Knockturn Alley.

Escape from Gringotts was amazing. This was probably the longest line we waited in, but it still wasn’t too bad. While I’m on the topic of lines, even the queues in the Wizarding World were fun. If you were in the Hogwarts Castle, you were in the Hogwarts Castle, passing talking portraits and the Mirror of Erised. If you were in Gringotts, you were in the bank, passing goblins and vaults. It made waiting in line not so horrible. The ride was another part-virtual/part-ride, and it didn’t disappoint.

I also want to throw in that just outside Diagon Alley, in the London part of Universal Studios is the Knight Bus and 12 Grimmauld Place, and if you knock on the door, Kreacher will stick his head out from behind the curtains in a window above you. Then when you do, other people will go running up and knocking and trying to get him to do it again, but he won’t. (My guess is because they do it too soon after someone). It’s hilarious.
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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was the primary reason we went to Universal Studios at all. And it was worth it. Universal Studios was great, but even if it weren’t, the Wizarding World still would have been worth it. If you love Harry Potter (and who doesn’t) I highly recommend you visit this park.