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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley, Wizarding Wands and more Part 1/2
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The dragon is above the Gringotts bank, and every now and again, blows out fire!
The
Wizarding World of Harry Potter is found in two Universal Studios parks in
Orlando. One is Islands of Adventure and the other is Universal Studios. There
is a Harry Potter train (Hogwarts Express) ride that connects the two Harry
Potter Worlds - but you can only get on this ride if you have a valid ‘Park
Hopper ticket'. We spent one entire day exploring the world of Harry Potter in
both parks. On our second 'Universal Studios' day, we did the rest of the parks
rides- which are recommended also! We went after Spring Break in the U.S –
towards the end of April. It was still incredibly busy.
Our
strategy for the Harry Potter day was to go to Universal Studios first (home of
Diagon Alley and Kings Cross Station), buy an interactive wand at Ollivanders, and
then catch the Hogwarts Express train to ‘Islands of Adventure’ park (Hogsmeade
and Hogwarts Castle). We chose to start with Universal Studios first as that
had the better ‘train experience’ for the first timer apparently.
There is a lot to see around the
entry point to Kings Cross Station - you can see the Night Bus – together with
the talking shrunken head whom talks back to you! and you can have photo
opportunities with!
The red phone box hotline to the Ministry of Magic
The Night Bus with the Shrunken Head
12 Grimmauld Place
Nearby is also 12 Grimmauld Place
where you can spot Kreacher, the House elf, who is periodically looking out of
an upstairs window at Grimmauld Place. I was unfortunately too slow to capture him on camera. Maybe he’s shy. A lot of people can be seen
knocking on the door at Grimmauld Place as photo opportunities. There is also a
red phone too that can connect you to the Ministry of Magic!
We then went through a brick ‘maze’,
to Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley was amazing and like another world. So many shops
to look in, people dressed up in black cloaks, kids (and adults) with
interactive wands etc. The streets certainly feel like you are in England
somewhere with the streets being quite narrow, ‘cobblestoned’ in appearance and
crowded.
Firstly, the shops were amazing ‘The
Magical Menagerie animal shop’had enormous toads the size of soccer balls that moved and
croaked in the shop front window. Similarly, there were also phoenixes in bird
cages - and more animals to be seen. Of course, a large selection of plush toy items
could be purchased.
There are shows periodically around both Diagon Alley (such as the Tale of the
Three brothers) and Hogsmeade, but you really need to know the books or movies
to get the most out of this experience (I think husband DH and daughter A.J
were a bit baffled but I loved hearing the tale again).
Gringotts bank was a lot of fun! The
animatronics of the goblins are very lifelike and very creepy “I prefer it if
you just take a photo rather than just stare as it lasts longer” the goblin says
to us!
The Goblins bank
‘Escape
from Gringotts Ride’
Our first stop however was for the
Gringotts ride as the ‘must do’ ride in this park. Queues at Universal don’t
seem to get to Disney World wait time lengths. We went to this ride first and
only had about a 40 minute wait (good). I noticed later in the day with the
Universal Studios App, that this wait time could be over an hour. This ride is
pretty easy to spot – as its directly underneath the Dragon! The ‘Escape from
Gringotts’ ride totally banned backpacks and bags of any type. I did notice
some people did hold on to their mobile phones during the pre-ride– but you
were told to put all loose items in a storage locker (free to access, using your finger
print).
Inside the ride 'Escape from Gringotts' (actually this is just the pre-ride)
Once in line you went inside the
Gringotts bank. There were about 7 animatronic goblins that ‘observed’ you as
you entered, and continued to work with their gold bullion. The enormous
chandeliers were a highlight of the room! It was quite a fantastic sight. You
then went through a series of rooms with different things to look at until you
got to the main ride entry point.
The ‘Escape from Gringotts’ ride
was really good. There is a very steep drop at the beginning of the ride (very
steep like your stomach and head have separated), but after that, the ride is
akin to the Transformers/Spiderman ride as you go from room to room – with fire
breathing dragons and more! It’s a great ride with heat and water included!
This ride has been said to be the best ride ever in any theme park. Did I think
so? No, it is probably in my top 3 though (My favourite and best ride ever is
Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom (more in another blog sometime).
Wand
choosing Ceremony at Ollivanders
After this ride we went to
Ollivanders to see the Wand Choosing ceremony. The Cast Members told us even Sir Paul McCartney had been once! About 10-15 people are allowed
to enter the tiny store at one time as you meet a wizard and you view the wand choosing
ceremony. It seemed to me the shiest kid in the room was picked for the wand
choosing – not the child who was the most enthusiastic, in the front row, or
wearing the most elaborate costume. I had heard this a few times in a number of
Facebook groups too. I am not sure if this is general policy as only one child
is ever picked at each ceremony.
During the wand choosing ceremony,
the wizard puts the chosen child through a few tests to see what his compatibility
with the wand is like, with some unexpectant results around the room (special
effects). The room is quite dark and crowded. In the end a wand is chosen and that’s
the end of the show and everyone is then herded to the wand buying part of the shop.
The Wand buying shop at
Ollivanders (Diagon Alley), is the most crowded shop ever. There are literally
1000’s of wands to choose from and its probably a good idea to research at home
what possible wand you would like before entering this store as the choice is
mind blowing! And they are all in nicely packaged boxes – so to view them you
need to take them out. You can buy an interactive wand for about $50 or a non-interactive
wand for about $35. It is much better value in my opinion to buy the
interactive wand though – although to get the best use out of it you need a few
hours to play with your new toy. My daughter A.J bought the Hermoine wand (a
popular choice).
Ollivanders - a very tiny shop where you can choose your wand - or it chooses you!
When you get your interactive
wand you are given instructions and a map on where to find all the ‘magic spots’
to use the wand. I found the map a bit confusing – and found it easier to just
look at the ground (there are bronze plaque markings) or where crowds of people
were gathered or lined up to do a magic trick. The bronze plaque tells you how
to do the spell with the wand and what to say!
These plaques tell you how to do the wizarding moves with the wand
Should
you get an Interactive wand?
If you choose to buy the interactive
wand there are over 24 places in Diagon Alley alone that you can do magic tricks in shop windows, fountains, statues etc.
The interactive wand also works over in Hogsmeade with more areas there to
perform magic tricks. The interactive wand also works in Universal Studios, Los
Angeles and Osaka, Japan! And – if the wand ever stops working or is broken –
Universal Studios will ‘repair’ it for you for free! Try not to drop the wand
though as that’s when they are most likely to break. There is a black bit at
the end of the wand that makes it interactive.
The magic wand does not work ‘easily’.
There is a bit of a trick to it. Often we would stand for a good 5 minutes to
get a magic trick to work, give up, and then a young wiz kid would come along,
wave the wand and the magic would work in their first go. Argh. There were
often cast members around to help you with the magic tricks – or you could ask
them and they were only too happy to help. After a bit of coaching from them,
we seemed to get the wand magic right. It seemed after spending about 2-3 hours
on the magic wands (in both parks), that you needed small and slow movements to
get things to work. It was at times frustrating – however it was a lot of fun
when it would work so totally recommend getting an interactive wand! It is
probably only worthwhile money wise if you are spending the entire day at Harry
Potter World (a good 2-3 hours of just fun playing with the wands and exploring
the shops).
This was the wand we bought - Hermione's wand. The wand comes in a nice box with map.
The map you get with the wand. On the reverse side is a map of Hogsmeade.
Knockturn
Alley
Don’t miss Knockturn Alley –
there is only a dark cobbled alleyway as the entrance so the first time we
walked straight past and I had to go specifically hunting for the entrance. It is
noticeably colder inside Knockturn Alley and it is dark. But on the inside of this
alleyway is a shop (for the Dark Arts), more shop window displays and more tricks for
your interactive wand.
Next week I will cover the Hogwarts
Express Train ride, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Journey ride, Souvenirs and
Butterbeer (in all its forms!) click here to read more about Harry Potter in Universal Studios - Islands of Adventure
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