Jen & Angel in Europe: Orlando Day 3 - Universal Studios and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

11/18/2014

Ooooh, I'm besides myself with excitement! I've been looking forward to this day for a while now! When I first booked our Orlando trip, I had no idea I'd even get the opportunity to come here, so I'm jumping up and down with joy! Angel doesn't like Harry Potter, so I was very surprised when she said she'd be up for coming here with me. I hadn't mentioned it to her at all because I thought she'd shoot me down. But nope. Out of the blue one day, she said if I wanted to go, she'd come along. Yay!

Entrance to Diagon Alley

I can't believe I'm here!

Gringott's Bank - "The most secure place on Earth"

Diagon Alley and everything on this side of the park (including the Hogswart Express train) is newly opened. They opened on July 8, 2014, in time for the summer rush. So I'm doubly grateful that Angel's sabbatical timed up with this, as I had no idea it would take such a long time to open up the attractions here. I think Hogsmeade Village and Hogswart opened in 2010.

Hagrid's motorcycle

Scabbers!

Inside Borgin & Burkes

The gift shops in the Wizarding World are crazy expensive. A Hogswart cloak will set you back $110+tax and we saw a lot of people--adults too!--wearing the black capes around. The shops also sell Tom Marvolo Riddle's diary (blank to commit what mischief you will) for $40:

The chest actually rattles, like a boggart's hiding inside:

The hand moves too!

One of the new rides that opened summer of this year is Escape from Gringotts:

The ride broke down as we were waiting in line, so we got to chatting with the employee who directs people which line to go in. She said in the summertime, the lines were 5 hours long. Crazy! We waited 20 minutes in line, and only because the ride broke down. Otherwise, you just waltz on through.

So the lesson to be learned?

Come on a weekday. Better yet, on a stormy weekday. This week (the week before Thanksgiving) is one of the slowest weeks of the year for Universal and Disney World—there’s a website called TouringPlans.com that actually analyzes foot traffic in each park for every. Single. Day. Of the year. Yeah. It’s serious business!

While we were waiting in line for the Escape from Gringotts ride to be fixed, the people next to us in line were talking about One Direction. One Direction is actually printed on our Universal maps--I guess they're opening up some new attractions in Universal that are One Direction themed? I'm not sure. All I know is the daughter next to us was super excited. As it turns out, One Direction is here at Universal today. I think they're here for a limited 3-day engagement with shows at night.

The employee who we chatted with earlier was in full wizarding mode. She asked the daughter who One Direction was: "Are they Muggles? Are they bigger than the Weird Sisters?"

Lol gotta love that!

Then the employee turns to us and asks us if we like this One Direction. "Which direction?" she queried. "North? South?"

We shrugged and said we've never heard their songs before and I'm not sure which direction is the One. I've never had a teeny-bopper phase in my life and I'm not about to start with One Direction.

Love Kenneth Branagh!

The Marauder's Map

Fred and George's shop

...where they sell Chocolate Frogs!

...and Every Flavour Beans!

No, seriously, they do mean every flavor. Have a look yourself at their flavor list:

There's a Quidditch shop where you can buy your very own Nimbus 2000 (or whatever model's the newest):

And Ollivander's, where you can buy your very own wand ($38+tax for basic, $42+tax if you want the interactive version).

The interactive version allows you to go around the park at designated areas and wave your wand (you'd probably want to say the spells aloud too), and something magical will happen. Like moving dueling chess pieces:

...or opening the box of a Chocolate Frog:

The Owlery

We rode Escape from Gringotts at least 2-3 times today. When designing the rides, they knew the lines would be long, so they put a lot of effort into making the lines as fun as possible. Along the way, you can see the goblins hard at work counting their money:

And the door to the vault that held the Sorcerer's Stone:

The pictures in the newspapers even move!

The employees are super enthusiastic. Every time your cart comes back into dock when the ride ends, they're all clapping for you (as if you escaped Gringott's teehee). All the riders are super pumped up about Harry Potter and they're all clapping too. Love the atmosphere here.

Outside of King's Cross, there's the Knight Bus with Stan Shunpike!

And the Talking Head:

We bought the park hopper so I could ride the Hogswart Express. Universal split up the Harry Potter lands into two different parks and you're only allowed to ride the train if you buy the park hopper, which is more expensive. Evil of them. Pure evil. Brilliant, but evil.

As you walk thru the line to go to the Hogswart Express, you can "disappear" between platforms 9 and 10. I'll see if I get a better shot the next day:

Hedwig!

The train ride mimics the ride the students would take on their way to Hogswart. There's no videorecording allowed. Geesh.

You start out in London and quickly zooms to the stormy English countryside. Harry, Hermione, and Ron walk down the train corridors (you see their shadows thru the frosted glass) chatting. Chocolate frogs leap on the windows. The dementors even make an appearance.

I will agree with other online reviewers that it's kinda distracting that it's not Emma Watson's voice. For some reason, they couldn't get her to voice Hermione for the rides and attractions, so the whole time you're thinking: That's not Hermione!

And then we arrive at Hogsmeade Village:

With Honeydukes Sweet Shop and Zonko's Joke Shop:

Hog's Head Tavern

First sight of Hogswart:

Housed inside Hogswart is the very fun, very thrilling ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. You soar thru the sky with Harry and Ron on their brooms, facing dragons and a Quidditch match and countless other heart-pounding, motion-sickness-inducing action sequences.

The line to get on the Forbidden Journey snakes thru Dumbledore's office:

and the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom:

The Sorting Hat!

I loved the ride, though if you're prone to motion sickness, you'll have serious problems. Even I was a bit queasy at the end of it. As the ride came to an end, the employee asked our row of 4 (each ride holds 4 people) if we wanted to go again, as the day was going slow and there weren't that many people in line. The couple next to us looked at us and we grinned at each other. Hell yeah! We didn’t have to exit and walk through the whole winding line; the ride just started up again for us. Awesome!

Baby didn’t think so, though. The ride is very jolting and she got motion sickness.

I did ask her if she wanted to get off, as she has a tendency to get sick in everything. Car, plane, boat, anything that moves, she gets sick. She said she was fine, so off we went on another round.

...afterwards, she was so sick, she could barely walk the rest of the day. Poor baby.

Hogswart

So we went to Dr. Seuss Land and all the tame, kiddie rides so Baby could get her bearing back:

Seriously, she was so sick from the Forbidden Journey ride, she's still complaining about an ache in her tummy 3 days after the ride. THREE days. I wasn't allowed to go back on the ride after that. :T

When she could actually walk (after the Dr. Seuss respite), we went back to Hogsmeade so we could ride the tame, smooth Hogswart Express again. I think it's Angel's favorite ride here because it's just a slow-moving train haha.