My Trip to Universal Studios: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

by Jessica

This past July I had the opportunity to visit the incredible Wizarding World of Harry Potter, located in Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida.  I've been a longtime fan of the ever-popular Harry Potter book and movie series (a noted Potterhead) and couldn't wait to have the city of Hogsmeade become reality right before my very eyes.

In this article, I'm going to tell you all about my personal experience at the park - what I bought, what there is to do, what I did, etc.  I've included some pictures from my trip that I think are pretty great to give some perspective to how grand and magical this place really is.  So if you're interested in that, let's begin, shall we?

 

After the long trek into the park, the purchase of the tickets, and the walk past some other attractions, we finally made it to the entrance of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Immediately you are greeted by the train conductor of the Hogwarts Express, and you can stop and take a photo with this seemingly British man if you so desire.  The train itself smokes behind him and makes for an awesome photo op, as you can see here.

From here, there are multiple shops, rides, and places to visit, including the restaurant from the Harry Potter series, The Three Broomsticks, and, connected to it, the Hog's Head Pub, for those muggles over the age of twenty-one.  But more on the restaurant later.  My dad and I (it was just the two of us) decided to start the day off with a bang by braving the coaster of doom, as I've dubbed it, the Dragon Challenge.

This incredibly fast and ferocious rollercoaster may not appear intimidating to those daring souls who enjoy the breakneck speeds and feeling of uncontrollable motion.  But to me, coaster novice, this was not what I signed up for.  Read no further on this anecdote if you love super fast roller coasters.

This was literally a terrifying experience for me.  I initially thought it was no big deal, but as we snaked around and up the crazy long path to get to the ride, I was beginning to have doubts, ones I probably should've listened to.  But at least now I can say I've done it...right?  Well, I wanted to get off the second our blue Hungarian Horntail dragon zoomed off and started loop-the-loops and spirals and all kinds of wild things.  Bad news was: I couldn't.  I was near tears by the end of it, but, like I said, if you're used to this kind of thing, it might not be too bad, and you may actually enjoy yourself.  It was pretty nifty how you passed Hagrid's Hut on the way up through the line and saw propaganda for the annual Triwizard Tournament, supporting Harry Potter, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum.

(Side note: If you have any sort of luggage, cameras, or bags of any kind, be sure to store them in the little lockers they've got before you get all the way up to the end of the line, and they tell you to go all the way back down.  Trust me.)

After this life-changing endeavor of mine, we decided to go ahead and do the other ride while the line was fairly short (granted, the wait was still an hour and a half, but that's not bad for such a popular theme park as this).  So instead of the other coaster (which we were going to save for later), we opted for the third and last ride available to us, and by far, my favorite of all:  Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

This is the signature amusement ride of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and it rightly earned that esteemed title.  This ride took you on a little walking tour throughout the castle once you made it through the ridiculous outside lines, showing you places like Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the Gryffindor common room, and the Room of Requirement, with holograms of Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, and Hermione showing you the way.  You'll also see a lot of moving pictures whose inhabitants squabble with one another, which is quite incredibly amusing.

After this little tour, Harry, Ron, and Hermione send you off to the "quidditch field," which is where the ride begins.  This was probably the single best four minutes of my entire life.  If you've ever ridden "Soarin'" in Disney World, this reminded me a lot of that, minus the projected smells.  You felt the wind beneath your feet as you followed Harry on your "broom," had the breath of a dragon blown onto your face, and the scary (but not really) experience of dementors thrust in front of you.  I cannot gush enough about how realistic and magical this ride is.  As long as you're taller than four feet, this ride is suitable to anyone who doesn't mind being tilted up (but never fully upside down) and spun around a bit (but not to the point that it's dizzying).

My dad and I walked out of this ride quite exhilarated and excited to see what the rest of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter had to offer.  By this time, it was around ten in the morning, and we'd had an early breakfast, so we figured we'd eat an early lunch at the Three Broomsticks and beat the rush that was sure to come later on in the afternoon.  This turned out to be a very nice choice on our part, for there was virtually no line as we ordered a British lunch of fish and chips.

The inside of the restaurant definitely stuck to its image in the books and movies, as did everything else in the park.  It was dark, yet inviting, and it even had the infamous wall of antlers everyone knows!

 

The best part of the Three Broomsticks for me was easily the Butterbeer.  I'd been anxious to try this drink coined by J. K. Rowling, and it was quite good!  It was very sweet and tasted just like butterscotch, with some whipped cream-like topping on it.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend drinking it with a meal like we did, but maybe as more of like an afternoon pick-me-up or refresher.  Definitely tasty though.  You could refill your mug outside at this Butterbeer barrel with more of the same drink, or you could switch it up and try some Pumpkin Juice.

After our tasty lunch, we decided to go peruse the shops a bit, something I was very anxious to do.  We'd briefly looked around Filch's Emporium after we rode the Forbidden Journey ride because it was there where you can go and see about purchasing the photo the camera took of your faces during the ride (we didn't buy them - they were too expensive for us), so we had looked at the other items in the store (stuffed animals, T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, pillows, messenger bags, etc. of all your favorite Harry Potter things).

But now we were headed to the Owl Post, which is in the same room as Ollivander's Wand Shop, both of which are connected to Dervish and Banges.  You can either wait in line by Ollivander's for the chance to win a replica of Harry's wand, which they give one of out each hour I believe, or you can just enter the shop through the entrance to the Owl Post.  It was here that you can send postcards and mail out seemingly from the real Owl Post to friends and relatives, but they also have Hogwarts robes, more T-shirts, brooms, owl stuffed animals, journals, stationery, and, of course, wands, among other things.

I purchased a navy Ravenclaw shirt that says "Wise" on it with a raven on the front and a journal with the Hogwarts crest on it.  As of yet, I was opting to not purchase a wand, but (spoiler!) I did purchase one later on at the kiosk outside the Forbidden Journey ride (I got Hermione Granger's wand!).

As far as how much money you might want to bring if you're considering going here (solely to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), I would suggest about $100-$150, if you're interested in buying nice souvenirs, less if you only want one or two things, and more if you want larger ticket items, such as a Hogwarts robe (which is $100) or the Hogwart's Houses chess set ($300).  How much you bring is really dependent upon how much you want and how much you're willing to spend to get it.  If you have questions regarding prices for items, leave them in comments, and I'll let you know.

So next we ventured off to the final ride, the Flight of the Hippogriff, a roller coaster that is much more family and kid-friendly, as well as Jessica-friendly.  Haha.  This coaster houses Hagrid's hut in its entirety, as well as the nest of Buckbeak the hippogriff.  It's still a fairly fast ride, but definitely more doable and more enjoyable (for those of us who aren't born Gryffindors).

Plus, there's an amazing view you don't want to miss up at the apex of the coaster, when the sun is shining, and all you see is the Hogwarts castle in your view.  I cherish that memory.  It truly felt like I was in Hogsmeade and just a witch in school in that moment.  Very awesome for avid fans of Harry Potter.  I really recommend you ride this even if you opt out of conquering (or attempting to conquer) the Dragon Challenge.

Next we went to see the mini show that is put on near the Forbidden Journey ride and other small kiosk (where we bought some personalized Hogwarts keychains and my Deathly Hallows keychain).  There are two shows performed here, each with showtimes about every half hour.  The first one we saw was the Triwizard Spirit Rally, where the girls of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic dance and twirl their ribbons, and the boys of the Durmstrang Institute march and dance with their staffs.  It's quite awesome to see this bit of the fourth movie (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) here, as it correlates with the aforementioned propaganda for the Tournament you saw on the way up to the Dragon Challenge.

After the performance, they gave the first however many people in line the opportunity for a group photo with the dancers.  Here's me with them.  I thought this was especially awesome.

As we waited for the next showing of the Frog Choir, we headed down to visit Zonko's Joke Shop and Honeydukes sweet shop.  Zonko's is full of toys, jokes, and pranks for all ages.  Though we didn't buy anything from there, they had T-shirts, little adorable pink and purple Pygmy Puffs, and every funny thing from the Harry Potter series that you could ever want, including Extendable Ears and Sneakoscopes.

Zonko's is another store that has an adjacent friend, this one being Honeydukes.  When we were there, the building was filled to over the capacity, so it was very packed.  It was a bit of a tight fit, but the place was still incredible.  Honeydukes is a candy shop that has loads of regular candy and all the great things from Harry Potter in it, like Fudge Flies, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and the wondrous Chocolate Frogs, one of which we bought (it even included a 3D collectible wizard trading card - I got Dumbledore!) for $10.  It was well worth the price; the frog was some of the best solid milk chocolate I've ever had, and there's a lot of it to go around too.

The last stop of our Wizarding World of Harry Potter adventure was to head back to see the Frog Choir perform.  This was really awesome.  There was a conductor and four singers, a soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, who sang all a capella songs (some old and traditional, some new and resembling Pitch Perfect) with the little frog friends, who added a very deep bass line to the songs.  It was a very fun show, and they let us take a photo with them after the performance as well!

My day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was very hot (it was the middle of summer in Florida, so that's to be expected), inspiring (it really brought back the magic and splendor of the Harry Potter series for me), hectic (so many people!), but overall, a most wonderful experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  This is a trip I would recommend to absolutely anyone, young or old, fan of Harry Potter or not.  The scenery is gorgeous, the rides are stellar, and the quality of the souvenirs and park as a whole is really just something you have to see for yourself.

(If you have any queries about anything to do with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, just let me know in the comments!)