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Diagon alley from the set of the harry potter movies.

Harry Potter fans…walk around the set of Diagon Alley any time of the day. Experience the movie set when Diagon Alley came to life as part of this bustling creative scene from the imagination of J.K. Rowling.

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Harry potter new york virtual reality experiences realize the magic of the wizarding world.

The immersive elements of "Wizards Take Flight" and "Chaos at Hogwarts" take you on a journey through the halls of the famed wizarding school and above the skies of London with the help of Dobby and Hagrid.

By Abbey White

Abbey White

Associate Editor & News Writer

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A little over a month after the three-floor, 21,000-square-foot Harry Potter New York opened its storefront in New York City’s Flatiron District, it’s giving Harry Potter and wizarding world fans the chance to try two new magically immersive virtual reality experiences.

Created by WarnerMedia in a joint effort with leading VR-company Dreamscape Immersive, interactive software company Wevr and U.K. studio Keylight, “Chaos at Hogwarts” and “Wizards Take Flight” let fans explore the Wizarding World in two distinctive storylines that bring alive the popular book and film franchise in impressive new ways.

The Hollywood Reporter was given an early look at the 30-minute experiences, which debuted Thursday and encourage fans to interact with popular creatures, characters and locations from the Harry Potter universe .

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Tucked into separate nooks of the store, customized entryways for each VR experience are flanked by costumed employees who lead you through your entire adventure. Ticketholders are first taken into a decorated holding room, where they don their adjustable state-of-the-art VR gear and receive instructions on how to navigate through their upcoming journey. This is also where you’ll learn how to cast spells and select your own avatar who will sport your chosen Hogwarts house robes.

Big Harry Potter fans should keep their eyes peeled for the various Easter eggs hidden within these holding areas, where re-created props, posters, signage and more rest on shelves or in lockers, and hang along the room and hallway walls.

Once geared up, you’ll be led into the actual experience room, where the headsets will provide a 360-view of every scene (including everything beneath you) and the immersive elements will help set the experience apart from other VR.

In “Wizards Take Flight,” you’re asked to take a seat on a broom and pull out a peripheral wand that will be vital in a high-flying battle against Death Eaters. Attendees are encouraged to shout their spells while flicking their wands (with perfect technique) as they balance on their broomstick, which shifts up and down and side-to-side to help you virtually fly.

Dobby drops in briefly to assist guests before they’re given a chance to freely roam Hogwarts’ grounds, including around the Whomping Willow and Quidditch pitch.

Led by Hagrid, you’ll then zoom across London’s skies, where you’ll encounter Voldemort’s ghastly following in their signature black hoods and masks. As your avatar whips through virtual fog and thunderstorms, prepare to have your own hyperrealistic physical experience in the VR room.

Those effects, combined with the movement of the VR equipment (which will rumble in cases where you hit or swipe building tops), mean “Wizards Take Flight” may be the closest you’ll get to feeling like you’re actually broomstick-flying.

“Chaos at Hogwarts,” a standing experience, offers a different and arguably more involved immersive VR story thanks to the extra elements of walking and teamwork. Unlike “Wizards Take Flight,” guests are required to wear backpacks and foot trackers, in addition to the headsets, hand trackers and peripheral wands.

That’s because you’ll be traveling the halls of Hogwarts, from house common rooms and moving staircases to dark, watery corridors and — at one point — a rather crowded (and fiery) Great Hall. Along the way, you’ll be casting several spells, so you might want to jog your memory on those before heading in.

You’ll begin with an intensely realistic experience at Platform 9 3/4 before grabbing your wand and traversing several popular Hogwarts locales, where you’ll meet a handful of magical creatures, a few familiar ghosts and a number of chatty portraits.

As you roam the school, prepare for some incredibly lifelike situations that involve rumbling beneath your feet and even the feeling of free-falling. In an exciting and action-packed first visit to the school, young wizards and witches will go on a wild chase led by Dobby that can end multiple ways.

Both the VR adventures require separate ticketing, have height and age requirements, and are wheelchair accessible. Younger and older attendees should also be ready for action-driven stories that can feel more like 4D attractions than standard VR.

Tickets for “Chaos at Hogwarts” and “Wizards Take Flight” are on sale and can be purchased from the Harry Potter New York website for $34. The adventures, which are currently only available for the dates of July 15 to Aug. 15, require timed reservations with advanced booking highly encouraged. Tickets for Aug. 16 to Sept. 15 will be released in the coming weeks.

Guests that buy their VR experience tickets will not need to enter the Harry Potter New York virtual queue that manages in-store capacity and can proceed to the front of the line 30 minutes prior to their scheduled time.

Once you’re done with your VR adventures, you can also explore the store. Located at 935 Broadway, Harry Potter New York features 15 themed areas, including wand and personalization shops, a Butterbeer Bar, a sweetshop themed after Honeydukes and the first permanent House of MinaLima in the U.S. Inside, you can browse and purchase prints from the design studio behind the graphic props of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts  franchises.

There are also a number of interactive experiences, including a London telephone box for photo ops, a rather large re-creation of Nagini (who occasionally hisses in Parseltongue) and a store-wide scavenger hunt featuring displayed props from the films.

To visit the store without a VR experience ticket, you’ll want to enter the virtual queue and be prepared to follow the Harry Potter New York health and safety guidelines .

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Wizarding World of Harry Potter Fan Site

Finding Magic at Wizarding World Park and Beyond

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogsmeade Virtual Tour

Many readers have expressed how much they “wish they could visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park !”  It’s either too far, too expensive, or just not possible for one reason or another.

Fortunately, we’ve visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter enough times and taken video of almost everything at the Harry Potter park .  Now, we’re creating this page, with all our videos from the park to create a virtual Harry Potter park vacation , just for you!

While it will never take the place of the real thing, hopefully, our videos and descriptions of the park will tide you over until you can make it or maintain the memories of a recent visit until you come, again.

Table of Contents

Harry Potter Park Grand Opening

The grand opening celebrations for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter park went on for literally weeks!  Soft openings, VIP events, and the official grand opening day consumed the park for the better part of a month.  We were very fortunate to have attended many of the soft opening days, one of the VIP grand opening celebrations and the actual opening day.  Here’s a couple videos of these very special Harry Potter park  opening events.

Hogsmeade Village

Now that the Harry Potter park is open, we must take a general tour of the area.  Universal and JK Rowling created Hogsmeade Village and Hogwarts Castle in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.   Although technically on Diagon Alley, some places still made it to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, including Ollivanders Wand Shop and Gringotts Bank .  These are just general tours.  The detail comes below. 🙂

Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes

Three Broomsticks is one of the better themed building interiors in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogsmeade.  They have lots of the standard fare including rotisserie chicken, fish and chips, and turkey legs, but also include some unique dishes like shepherd’s pie, cornish pasties, and ham soup.  Of course, this is where you can get your Butterbeer and pumpkin juice, too!

Honeydukes is one of the famous attractions in Hogsmeade. It is a sweet shop famous for its chocolate and many wonderfully wild sweets. In the Harry Potter books, it also houses the entrance to a secret passageway to Hogwarts.  Other than the technicolor paint job in this building, you’ll find Chocolate Frogs , Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans , and Clippy’s Clip Joint Clippings , as well as many other Harry Potter favorites.

Moaning Myrtle

Don’t be surprised on your visit to the “public conveniences” in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park if you hear voices!

I was caught completely off-guard my first time in the restrooms in the Wizarding World when a girl’s voice started speaking to me from the ether.  Come to find out, it was none other than Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter books and movies!  She’s graced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogsmeade with her presence, but only in the main bathrooms — both the boys and the girls.

We shot a short video to give you some idea of what it’s like.  Please note: we only filmed the floor, so no dirty stuff (get your minds out of the gutter!) and because they’re fully tiled bathrooms, the sound is a bit rough.  We did the best we could to single out Myrtle’s voice, but it’s still a bit difficult to hear her clearly.

Dervish & Banges and Owl Post

Dervish & Banges is of course where Hogwarts students pick up their school supplies and other sundry things.  Wands, Rememberalls, Sneakoscopes, your class robes, broomsticks, t-shirts, ball caps, and more can be found in Dervish & Banges or the Owl Post.

Although officially two separate shops, at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the shops can be found in essentially the same location and you can meander through both while indoors.  Recently enlarged, you’ll find that these shops are often very crowded and most of the items can be purchased in other areas of the Wizarding World and even in other parts of the Islands of Adventure theme park.

Ollivanders Wand Shop

Easily one of my favorite parts of the park and usually the longest line, also.  Many guests have complained that the show is too short for such a long wait.  You can watch the video and decide for yourself.  For me, it’s so much more than just the show.  It’s the theming of the building, the special effects, the “feel” of the whole show!  The video shows the entire show, however, be aware that I had to add some music over the top and it conceals the show audio a bit.  This was necessary due to Universal copyright rules.

Flight of the Hippogriff

Want to have the most spectacular view of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park?  Ride the Flight of the Hippogriff!  Right at the top of the first climb, you get an amazing view of the whole park!  You’ll see it briefly in the video.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Ride

Easily the most popular attraction at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Harry Potter ride sends guests on a virtual broomstick ride with Harry, Hermione, and Ron throughout the grounds of Hogwarts and even onto the Quidditch field.  You’ll see dragons, Hagrid, death eaters, and some of those nasty Slytherin characters, too.

The lighting on the ride is quite dim, so taking a decent video is nearly impossible.  However, I have taken video of the queue line, as it winds it’s way through Hogwarts.  For me, the line is almost as much fun as the ride with Dumbledore’s office, the sorting hat, and much more.

If you want a slight hint at what the Harry Potter ride is like, the original Super Bowl commercial gave away more of the ride’s content than I knew, at the time.  Check it out for a glimpse at the ride.

So, that’s your virtual tour of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogsmeade.   What did you think?  Ready to visit it for real?

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Tour the real-life locations of Harry Potter's world with Google Earth

Platform 9 3/4 really exists! (Kind of)

Attention Potterheads: Diagon Alley is real! Well, sort of. The busy London street that's packed with wizards—and invisible to muggles—is based on a real-life Leadenhall Market, a shop-filled covered passageway that dates to the 1400's.

You can go to Diagon Alley (er, Leadnehall Market) and visit a dozen real-world Harry Potter locations thanks to this amazing virtual tour from Google Earth . From Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station to the castle that was transformed into Hogwarts for the movies, this gorgeous virtual tour makes Harry Potter's world come to life.

Photograph: Shutterstock

This is a golden age of online Harry Potter activities: JK Rowling has unveiled a magical new online Harry Potter experience on Wizarding World—and it’s free; you can tour the “ Harry Potter: A History of Magic ” exhibit from the British Library at home; and an enterprising librarian made this Harry Potter-themed digital escape room that lets you wander through Hogwarts. That's a lot of magic to access with a couple of clicks of a trackpad.

You can also take advantage of this time in, and return to the source material for all this Harry Potter-tinted fun. This is a great time to stream the Harry Potter movies, which are among the 50 best  family movies to watch together.  And you can reread the original books: The NYPL's e-reader lets you download Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and hundreds of thousands of other books for free .

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Explore Hogwarts in Magical New Harry Potter Interactive Tour

Make sure you don't interrupt class as you explore Hogwarts like never before in a cool new Harry Potter interactive experience.

Harry Potter fans can now take a virtual tour of Hogwarts in a new digital simulation presented by Pottermore . Pottermore announced its first-ever Hogwarts Digital Experience, which allows users to visit the famed school and its grounds. Launch of the Hogwarts Experience coincides with the start of the Hogwarts school year, which is September 1st and coincidentally happens at the same time most Americans go back to school as well. Too bad fans can't really enroll in the school to get a degree in wizarding, but that can't be too far off in the future.

A press release from Pottermore announced the news today and the experience is truly a one-of-a-kind Harry Potter experience. Pottermore released a statement detailing the event. It reads.

"One of the most beloved and iconic settings from J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World , the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, can now be visited for free in an immersive digital experience beginning today on pottermore.com."

Visitors will access a first-person "fly-through" experience of three areas: the exterior of the castle, the Forbidden Forest and the Quidditch pitch, but users will not have access to the inside of the school because class is obviously in session now. Can't go around having thousands of people interrupting the school day.

The castle and its grounds are peppered with 'hotspots' or Easter Eggs, which are clickable points that expand to provide details about the magic and mystery of the famous wizarding school that Harry Potter and the gang attended. The statement continues.

"We've seen many interpretations of Hogwarts - from the artwork in the illustrated editions of the books to the eight feature films from Warner Bros.," says Henriette Stuart-Reckling, Global Digital Director, Pottermore. "This new feature on our website marks the first time fans will have the opportunity to explore the famous wizarding school any time, any place and at their own pace. It's a unique, mobile-first experience using bespoke visual assets allowing anyone to "visit" Hogwarts on-the-go."

Though it's a really neat experience, fans will more than likely bemoan the fact that yu can't actually go into Hogwarts. But the experience is free and it is actually really neat, even if you're not a huge Harry Potter fan .

Fans are able to access the site and take the virtual tour of Hogwarts through standard computers, but also smart phones and tablets as well and the experience is great on all three options. The only catch is that you have to be a registered user of the Pottermore site, which is completely free and an incredible resource for everything officially Potter . The tech team behind the experience did an excellent job of creating an experience that will take fans hours to get all of the way through.

Pottermore, the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling, is the global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World. As the digital heart of J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, Pottermore is dedicated to unlocking the power of imagination. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling.

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Explore the Hogwarts Grounds With This Magical New Harry Potter Interactive

I f you’ve ever daydreamed about what it would be like to wander around the Hogwarts grounds, you’re in luck: on Friday, Pottermore is debuting a digital tour experience of the campus.

J.K. Rowling’ s digital entertainment company explained in a statement, “Users visiting Pottermore will have the opportunity to explore the famous wizarding school and its grounds, including the Quidditch pitch where Harry mastered the Golden Snitch and the Forbidden Forest, complete with Hagrid’s hut.The castle and its grounds are peppered with ‘hot spots’ — clickable points that expand to provide details about the magic and mystery of the famous wizarding school that Harry Potter attended.”

Visitors will access a first-person “fly-through” experience of three areas: the exterior of the castle, the Forbidden Forest and the Quidditch pitch. (Sadly, the castle interiors aren’t part of the deal. You’ll have to leave those to your daydreams.)

“We’ve seen many interpretations of Hogwarts — from the artwork in the illustrated editions of the books to the eight feature films from Warner Bros.,” said Pottermore’s global digital director Henri Stuart-Reckling. “This new feature on our website marks the first time fans will have the opportunity to explore the famous wizarding school any time, any place and at their own pace. It’s a unique, mobile-first experience using bespoke visual assets allowing anyone to ‘visit’ Hogwarts on-the-go.”

The timing is fitting: the tour launches on Sept. 1, back-to-school day at Hogwarts. Check out a video preview above, and find the full experience on Pottermore .

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‘Harry Potter’ Fans Can Tour Hogwarts in New Digital Experience

By Joyce Chen

Harry Potter fans may not be able to physically go to Hogwarts next week, J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore website launched the second best thing. A new  interactive digital platform  called Hogwarts Experience allows fans to roam the grounds as if they were in the books. 

The website, which launched to coincide with the first official day of school at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, includes the Forbidden Forest (including Hagrid’s hut), the Quidditch pitch and the exterior of the castle itself. 

“From Professor Sprout’s greenhouses to Hagrid’s hut, the experience features many iconic details from the beloved wizarding school, which you can learn about and investigate at your own pace,” a note on the site reads. “(Sadly, no grumbling Argus Filch is included in this experience. Maybe he’s popped out for his Kwikspell course.)”

The Hogwarts Experience is free to all registered users of Pottermore, and is available across most devices, including smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Introducing the Hogwarts Experience from Pottermore. Go #BackToHogwarts this September first: https://t.co/rqqIDt4jGZ pic.twitter.com/lBa46FPCN1 — Pottermore (@pottermore) September 1, 2017

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Lastly, the website adds, September 1st, 2017, marks the “exact date of the ‘Nineteen Years Later’ Deathly Hallows epilogue in which readers saw a grown-up Harry, Ron and Hermione seeing off their children as the kids boarded the Hogwarts Express.” Proving that, like grown-up Harry, fans of the franchise can – in a way – go back to Hogwarts.

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A Virtual Guided Walk Through of Hogwarts

Well, Disney has gained competition in the past few years, and its name is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter . Nonsense, you say? No one could possibly measure up to Disney’s standards? HA is what I say back at you! Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling made sure the grounds of Hogsmeade were painstakingly accurate with little nuances and hidden gems that the greatest Potter fans would be sure to pick up on. Don’t believe me? Well, let me take you on a virtual tour of Universal’s resident castle: Hogwarts.

Once through the gates and into the castle, you enter the dungeons. Here chaos ensues because you must put all bags of any size and pretty much anything you can’t fit in your pockets into a locker. Lockers are free for the time you wait in the queue, but do yourself a favor: have a non-rider carry all your stuff or pay the extra bucks and place your articles in a locker at another location such as Dragon Challenge to save yourself the hassle and keep your party together.

Once past the insanity, you wind through a dark path within the dungeon. Once your eyes adjust, take note of the many large pieces from the books and movies. The Mirror of Erisid from Year 1 is on your left. Notice the inscription along the top; when read backwards (or “mirrored”) it says, “I show not your face but your heart’s desire.” You may ask, “Why can’t I see anything in the Mirror of Erised?” it’s because you’re only a silly muggle, of course! The statue of the One-Eyed Witch on your right contains the secret passage to Honeydukes. Lean over the railing at the statue, and you’ll see Professor Snape’s office just to the left.

After you’ve traversed row upon row of switchbacks in the greenhouse, you’re back inside in what is known as “The Oxford Corridor.” This is where any fan of Harry Potter will start geeking out over the scenery and props. On your right, you will pass statues of the architect and the first headmaster of Hogwarts, as well as the house points, which are large hourglasses containing colored jewels that represent each House and their standing in competition towards the House Cup. As would be expected, Gryffindor is in the lead.

Continuing through the Oxford Corridor, you will come across a large golden statue of a griffin that marks the entrance to Albus Dumbledore’s office and a large tapestry of a unicorn that marks the entrance to the Room of Requirement. Strictly speaking, in the layout of the queue, these are in the wrong locations in the castle regarding their respective rooms, but the average guest would not know this.

Moving along, we enter a gallery lined wall to wall with hundreds of pictures and portraits. Most importantly you will see moving portraits of the four founders of Hogwarts, each holding important items pertaining to them from the story: Godric Gryffindor with his sword, Salazar Slytherin with his locket, Helga Hufflepuff with her chalice, and Rowena Ravenclaw with her tiara. Before the attraction was built, these characters had been mentioned in the books but never seen in the films. Therefore the actors were cast specifically for the ride.

Into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, this place is CRAWLING with props from the movies. In fact, you can find at least one artifact from each Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Harry ever had- Quirrell’s traveling trunks, Lockhart’s autobiographies and the large dragon skeleton, Lupin’s spine candles, Moody’s walking stick, Umbridge’s Defense Against the Dark Arts for Beginners books, and Snape’s slide projector. Also notice the chalkboard in front. The lesson for the day is the Patronus charm. Might that come in handy later?

As we’re waiting for our boring lecture to begin, a door magically opens all by itself and we hear three familiar voices. From beneath the invisibility cloak appear Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who invite us to something a little more exciting – a Quidditch match! They’ll need to sneak us out, though. Ron tries to use magic but ends up altering the weather. Hermione corrects him and explains she has enchanted some benches to fly us out to the field and to meet her in the Room of Requirement.

One of the cool thoughts put into every room is that each “loop” has at least two different scenes. This is to help alleviate the problem of getting caught in the same place for longer than expected and seeing the same scene over again. I bring this up now because the Defense Against the Dark Arts room is the easiest place to spot the differences. In one scene, the students are worried about getting caught by Mr. Filch and Ron makes it snow in the classroom, while in the other it’s Professor McGonagall and Ron makes it rain outside. Off to the Quidditch pitch! We take a shortcut through the Gryffindor common room where the Fat Lady’s portrait stands ajar at the entrance, giving us her two cents about letting every single muggle in without the password. Inside the common room, you’ll find three moving portraits – an etiquette teacher, an aviator, and a famous Quidditch player – all butting heads on the proper way to ride an enchanted bench and what you should and should not do. Farther down the hall, you will find the Sorting Hat giving out safety warnings for all who wish to ride. Fun Fact: The two poems that the Sorting Hat recites here are indeed written by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series!

I’m also a big theme park nerd, so whenever I go through the castle I like to point out this part of the ride mechanics: everything at Universal is on a points system. So, for example, if the dragon isn’t blowing smoke, that might be like one point. Once you reach ten points, Universal shuts down the ride and starts fixing stuff. Because they are giving out safety instructions, both the common room portraits and the Sorting Hat are an automatic ten points. This is because if the safety instructions are not given, then it’s a hazard to guests. And you probably never listened to those portraits in the first place, did you? I bet now you will!

RIDE EXPERIENCE (Spoilers ahead!) Once tight and secure aboard our ride vehicle – excuse me, “Enchanted Bench” – we are surrounded by dark mirrors and floating candles that represent the Room of Requirement. At the end of the room, Hermione waits above a large fireplace. We will be traveling by Floo Powder today, so on the count of three we all need to shout our destination: “Observatory”.

POOF! We’re off through the network of chimneys and a land in the astronomy tower where Harry and Ron meet us in their Quidditch robes, amazed at Hermione’s brilliance. They apologize for the crazy nature of the benches, but promise they haven’t lost anybody yet, “Not this week, anyway.” We pass Hagrid, the gamekeeper, who is still searching for that dragon from earlier. Oh, there it is! And, uh oh, she’s hungry! The dragon chases us around the grounds of Hogwarts and traps us in a covered bridge. As we make our way through, the dragon claws and tears apart at the wooden structure before it eventually collapses and we come face to snout with the larger than life creature and her smoky breath.

We narrowly escape, but not into better circumstances. We find ourselves racing through the Forbidden Forest, where the weather has apparently changed and there is now lightning. We are surrounded by many large spiders, led by the biggest of them all, Aragog. Hermione appears out of nowhere and tells us the Forest isn’t safe (as if that weren’t obvious!). She casts a spell that repels the arachnids and warns us of the Whomping Willow tree ahead. The Willow catches us and bats us us away, but luckily we land back on track – the Quidditch Pitch!

The game against Slytherin is already well underway as we watch Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy fight to catch the Snitch. Suddenly, a band of dementors appears! Harry tells us to follow him to safety. We dodge left and right through the stadium, but ultimately the dementors chase us into a dark cavern that turns out to be the Chamber of Secrets. We pass the basilisk skeleton, the large bust of Salazar Slytherin and- oh, no! – the Dark Mark that signifies Voldemort and his Death Eaters! That can’t be good.

Wow, what an amazing attraction, right!? Disney quality, wouldn’t you say? And that’s just one part of the whole Wizarding World of Harry Potter! What’s your favorite detail or reference in the entire land? Leave it in the comments below!

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19 thoughts on “ A Virtual Guided Walk Through of Hogwarts ”

I think the theming at Universal (especially Harry Potter) surpases what you see at Disney. I haven’t seen a heck of a lot of innovation at Disney in years. Competition is good though, and I’m looking forward to these two going toe to toe, in the end we win 🙂

If you are visiting Universal Studios, I highly recommend staying onsite. This gives you early entrance to WWoHP one hour before the park opens. It’s one of the few ways to see both the Ollivander’s Show and the Forbidden Journey rides without excessive lineups. You also get unlimited Universal Express for the rest of the park. One night’s stay can get you 2 days of these perks (check in day and check out day).

The rest of the park does not comare to Disney, but WWoHP certainly does! If you are a HP fan it’s a must-see!

I think we actually put it in the Unofficial Guide this year that if you have a family of four or more, it’s worth pulling out a calculator and pricing out Express Passes vs. a one night stay in a Universal resort, whether or not you even sleep there that night. On the weekend that was compared, it was like $56 per day per Express Pass versus the comparable value of about $44 per person staying a Universal resort (you get Express Pass on your room key on the day you check in AND out). Plus like you said Universal resort guests get Extra Magic Hours in the Wizarding World every day.

Keep in mind, though, that the new Cabana Bay Resort will not be getting Express Pass on their room keys, and they probably won’t be getting those Extra Magic Hours either.

I haven’t heard about the new resort, but if it doesn’t come with the perks we aren’t staying there! We like the Royal Pacific Hotel. It’s the closest to Islands of Adventure (a nice walk) and a beautiful property. Coincidentally, it’s also the cheapest of the onsite hotels.

Oops, I forgot to add something: unless they’ve changed things since last June (the last time we were at US: Orlando) the express passes you buy aren’t as good as the ones from being a hotel guest, because they can only be used on each ride once. The Hotel guests have UNLIMITED express pass. This is how we rode the Hulk coaster 10 times in a row, literally walk-on each time! We have been so spoiled with this that we’re never going to Universal any other way again. 😉

I would bring as little into Universal if possible as a rule. Their water rides will get you SOAKED and A LOT of the rides don’t allow bags. You really don’t want to spend your trip waiting at lockers, so I would recommend a good pair of cargo pants/shorts as the ultimate solution. My boyfriend and I each had on shorts that had a lot of pockets and were able to take phones, a couple of small snacks, money, etc. I would recommend zip lock bags to store these things in so they don’t get wet. And I doubt you will be able to easily take photos on the ride. It is jerky and fast moving and unless you don’t want to enjoy to scenery and can keep a death grip on a camera, I would plan on not taking pictures during the actual ride. It is also quite dark though the queue, so it is hard to get a lot of good pictures from my experience.

As far as Hogsmeade. It is wonderfully done! And something I would say, is if you are in need of a quick snack, skip the carts outside and head into Honeydukes. We got a rock cake (sort of like a scone) and a cauldran cake for less than $7 and both were delicious.

I think where Universal loses out if you are looking for a comparison is on the edges. For instance, on Dragon Challenge you look out on an ugly construction area. Hopefully they will figure out how to better hide some of the equipment and construction in the future.

My WWOHP snack of choice is a bag of Fizzing Whizbees (pieces of chocolate with Pop Rocks inside) from Honeydukes and a frozen Butterbeer from the Hogs Head Pub.

And it’s kinda hard to put a giant umbrella or dome over the construction site and/or block your view on this tall open aired coaster! And Disney shouldn’t get off so easy- have you noticed you’re driving through the Cast Member parking lot on the speed portion of Test Track?

I agree…too dark!

If there’s a long wait, split up and use the single rider line. We were able to ride 5 times during a posted two hour wait.

Note- Single rider line bypasses most of the rooms described in the article. You end up in the common room for the instructions from the portraits and then the sorting hat. But you don’t see the greenhouse, Dumbledore’s office or the class room. I’m going to have to bite the bullet and get in the regular line at least once to see all the cool stuff!

Here’s a hidden secret, but don’t let it spread around. ;D If you ask at greeter for a “Castle Tour”, they will put you in a separate line that takes you through the inside of the castle without the 2 hour wait then send you to the exit right before you get on the ride. You see everything the normal line sees except portions of the dungeon, the greenhouse and the Oxford Corridor.

We enjoyed our experience but I kept thinking I wish Disney had been able to do it! It was too dark to really be able to see all of the detail. We got there right as the line started, so didn’t have to wait 2 hours like most, thus no noticing many of the details. Do not try to take anything with you on the ride other than a very small camera! The locker situation is crazy! Again so dark and so many people crushing to find a locker! That was the worst experience and we were trying to leave! They need to put more lockers in somewhere other than the entrance to the ride. It was fun and I wished we would have gone a second time even though the line was so long, but we didn’t want to mess with the lockers.

I agree, this attraction and the Harry Potter section as a whole were OK but nowhere near Disney quality. I think the Hogwarts queue was a highlight well worth seeing but it was too dark to really get much detail. Disney would never have the madness of that locker situation. And I’ll ride any roller coaster and I found the Forbidden Journey ride to be really rough, and the scenes cut so quickly that it was impossible for me to follow the story. Family are HUGE Harry Potter book and movie fans but were disappointed by Islands of Adventure, won’t be back until major additions.

You can bring a camera, but it has to fit in your pockets in the end. If someone any your party does not meet height requirements, take them in the line anyway. It is amazing. There is a sideroom for non-riders in the end that shows the movies. (As the cool Aunt, it meant I got to ride twice in a row.)

If the person doesn’t meet the height requirement though, they need to be at least 14 years to wait by themselves in the [Child Swap] sideroom. Otherwise an adult needs to stay with them because the Universal Team Members can not be held responsible for your children.

Fun Fact: The movie playing in the Child Swap room is the first 20 minutes of the first film on a loop. (It ends with Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express and then starts over again.) However, it has the proper British title card of Harry Potter and the PHILOSOPHER’S Stone!

You say that you have to store your stuff. can you bring a camera along?

The best rule of thumb is anything that can fit in your pockets is good to go. There is a tiny seat back compartment, but it’s only as big as a paperback book. So you could bring your camera phone or a small point-and-shoot, but not a big professional DSLR.

As a huge Harry Potter fan I can honestly say that the whole thing is enough to make you cry with joy.

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