Wish I'd Known: Visiting Harry Potter

In front of the Hogwarts castle in Hogsmeade

Twenty years ago, Josh and I showed up at a Borders bookstore at midnight to buy the latest release in the Harry Potter series. This week, we finally made it to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'm hoping it won't take another 20 years before our next visit, and these notes will come in handy...

What's it like?

Wandwork in Hogsmeade

Transporting. The Wizarding World is an immersion experience, which I love. I much prefer strolling through Diagon Alley and drinking butterbeer to lots of 5-minute rides. The effect was so good that my brain couldn't quite believe we were still in Orlando. The only thing to make it more believable would be if they'd actually built the castle in such a way you could tour it like a great house or museum rather than on a pre-determined route in line for a ride. But that's being picky -- we all loved it as is.

Details in the castle...
Top L: Mandrakes in the Hogwarts
greenhouse.
Top R: The pictures moved & talked.
Low L: Noah getting pensive.😉
Low R: House pts!

The creativity and attention to detail is impressive. The unlabeled entrance looks like a regular London street. You can hear Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms. It looks like you're walking through a wall when you step onto Platform 9 3/4. The Hogwarts Express has real cabins with screens in the place of windows that show the scenery en route to Hogwarts. Even the shops are charming and old-world. It all feels exactly as it should.

Until you encounter it with a thousand other t-shirted tourists wearing backpacks.😜 I'm guessing Rowling wanted it to feel pokey and cluttered, but that's just not as fun when you're shoulder-to-shoulder with loads of modern muggles. I suddenly understood why Disney has lots of wide-open spaces, tall ceilings, and shops that connect inside.

Diagon Alley (w/dragon) at night

Nothing was clearly labeled from street names to shop titles to food prices to wand spots. Some of this was probably because signage/instructions would interrupt the magic of the atmosphere, but it made our first visit rather...confunding.😏

That said, even during the peak hours (11am-4pm) and with no fastpasses, our boys were able to buy their wands quickly, and we never waited more than an hour for a ride--all during Florida's spring break (March 20). #impressive Plus, the crowds thinned after we ate (4-5pm) so we were able to move about more easily 5-9pm (and the kids' wands worked much better). We were only at Universal for the Wizarding World, and we were able to do all we wanted in one day -- one we will not soon forget.

What do they have there?

Gringotts in Diagon Alley by day

DIAGON ALLEY

- Half under cover 

- Narrow lanes and small (real) shops

- Dragon breathes fire every 15-20min (cool, tho terrified our 2yrold)

Shops: Our first stop was Olivander's, where our boys quickly picked out interactive wands ($52/ea, they'd been saving up for this). Each shop has different merch, so later I went store to store with a stroller checking out mugs, scarfs, and shirts. We forgot to stop by the pet shop for an owl until after it was closed. Note: Kids' robes are $115 so bring your own if they want to dress up.

Butterbeer in Diagon Alley

Food: Leaky Cauldron had a long line for sit-down service (2pm) so we skipped it.

Snacks: I never saw a name, but we got 12 bite-sized pasties and 3 butterbeers (2 cold, 1 hot) at a snack counter for $60. Thankfully I had brought food to supplement. We preferred the cold butterbeer because it seemed less sweet. We definitely did not need 1/per.

Gringotts with animatronic
goblins (not pictured)

Sweets: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes (great atmosphere, stock similar to Honeydukes), and an ice cream shop

Rides: Gringott's -- the queue is a tour of the Wizard bank with moving/talking pictures, animatronic goblins, vaults, and a child-swap waiting room playing any Gringott's scenes from the movies. Our 2yrold was scared the whole time--even in the child waiting room. I found myself saying, "It's ok; he's just a goblin." #didntwork But the rest of us enjoyed the tour. 

HOGWARTS EXPRESS

Connecting Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, the train is the best ride, IMO because it really is like getting on the train in the books/movies (minus the concession cart). The tech is amazing, and the story is a little different each way. We waited an hour "in Kings' Cross Station" to go from DA to Hogsmeade around 3pm and then walked right on to return around 7pm.

Hogsmeade (in 70-degree FL)

HOGSMEADE

- Open-air

Dinner at Three Broomsticks

- Charm incarnate
- Includes the castle

Shops: Lots of storefronts (many with wand tricks) but few real shops. There is a stand that sells wands if you start in Hogsmeade.

Food: Three Broomsticks, quick service (no wait at 4pm), with back patio overlooking the castle, where we got 3 adults meals and 3 kids meals plus pumpkin juice and coffee for $70. Also, a much-needed boost to get us through the evening.

Honeydukes! Felix felicis,
fizzing whizbees, choc frogs,
jelly slugs, love potions, etc. 

Sweets: Honeydukes where the "magical" candy (chocolate frogs, felix felicis, love potions) was picture-perfect but $10-12 each while the bulk candy was cheaper but we all agreed not very tasty. Our favorites for eating were the Fizzing Whizbees (dark chocolate with pop rocks).

Rides: Hogwarts -- The queue here is a tour of the castle, from the greenhouse to classrooms to Dumbledore's office. The tech along the way was impressive and again, more fun for me than the ride itself. Too dark and active to capture well in stills, but worth a visit. There's also a small hippogriff rollercoaster, but it didn't have the cool queue and didn't look worth an hour wait.

How would you do it next time?

Buy Online: If you can, buy your tickets ahead--just make sure you can tell if they are tied to specific days (we were glad to have flexibility when one of our kids vomited the morning we were planning to go). Our 1-day/2-park tix were $170 each. #gulp They are running a deal online now where you can get a 2-day ticket with 3 days free for $275, but I didn't see that deal at the park (and gift cards don't work online).

Express Pass: I'm glad we didn't buy this, since it costs $110/per and we were only going on 3 rides. If we were doing all of Universal, it might make more sense. I've also heard it's free if you stay at a Universal resort, so that's worth considering if you plan to spend several days seeing everything (not just HP).

Getting TO Universal: It took us longer to get there from Disney than we expected. First, we booked a MinnieVan via Lyft at 9am, but it took 30min to get to us (vs the promised "9min"), and when it arrived, the driver informed us they can't leave Disney property. So then we booked an Uber, got to Universal around 10am, waited in lines to get in (metal detectors), walked a ways to get to Universal Studios' entrance, stood in line to buy tickets (you have to redeem gift cards in person), and walked through the entire park to get to HP world around 11am. Moral of the story: Get your tix in advance and allow time for ride-share rush-hour and lots of walking.

Where to Start: They've balanced the assets of the 2 HP towns too well, so it would be hard to pick just one. Next time I'd probably try starting in Hogsmeade to see if it's less crowded early in the day, and because the castle was my overall favorite. I'd also recommend getting wands early, because the wands tricks hidden all over both towns were my boys' favorite thing (though keep in mind they work best with lighter crowds). I'd probably still end in Diagon Alley because I like buying souvenirs at the end (so I'm not carrying them all day), and that's where all the shops are.

Will We Go Back? Yes. We are all big HP fans and would love to revisit someday now that we know the lay of the land -- but probably in several years, once Katherine is old enough to enjoy it. We could have spent another day in just the Wizarding World (eating at the Leaky Cauldron, visiting the "pet" shop, and using the wands more), but we covered all the basics in one day and left content. Next time, I imagine we'll get multi-day tix so we can do the rest of Universal as well. I was not especially interested in what we saw of it, but I'm guessing my tweenage boys will be.

For more tips on theme park vacations, check out How We Do Disney.