Category — u. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is in two different areas of Universal Orlando. Diagon Alley is in Universal Studios, and Hogsmeade is in Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

This page is an overview of Diagon Alley. Attractions here include

• Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
• Ollivanders
• The Hogwarts Express

REVIEW: DIAGON ALLEY AT THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Diagon Alley includes

•  A touch of “Muggle” London, well done and fun, where you’ll also find the station for the Hogwarts Express (shared with Hogsmeade)
• The richly themed area of Diagon Alley itself, with one ride and one other attraction

The rides are the all-new Hogwarts Express and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. Also worth special note is the charming attraction Ollivanders, where the wand chooses the wizard (there’s another version of Ollivanders in Hogsmeade).

• Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is the best new ride I’ve been on since Expedition Everest opened at the Animal Kingdom. It’s scary, but anyone who can take Disney World’s scariest rides–e.g. Tower of Terror–will love it.
• The Hogwarts Express requires that you have a “park to park” ticket (extra $) but is an easy way to get back and forth between the two Wizarding Worlds, and is moderately fun in itself. True Harry Potter fans need to ride it.
• Diagon Alley itself is quite well-done.  It doesn’t have the charm of Hogsmeade, but is much more richly detailed, and doesn’t suffer from off-theme elements–such as the massive roller coasters that flank one side of Hogsmeade.

The upshot: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley is absolutely worth a visit if you are going to Universal Orlando anyway, and/or are huge Harry Potter fans.  If you are, the best way to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is to stay at a Universal resort hotel.  This will allow you to take advantage of its resort hotel early entry program, saving you hours of waiting in line.

If, however, you are a first time visitor to Walt Disney World, and following one of this site’s Disney World itineraries, I can’t recommend taking time out of already over-packed days to see the Wizarding World, unless your children simply will give you no peace otherwise.

Instead, save the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for another trip.

MORE ON DIAGON ALLEY AT THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Diagon Alley is at the far right end of Universal Studios. It is hidden behind “London.”

London has fun stuff–be sure to check out the Knight Bus–but do so after you are done with Diagon Alley proper. The lines will be building while you are fooling around, you know…

Once you are in Diagon Alley, you’ll find a number of small blocks, each worth exploring for deep Harry Potter fans.

Shops and dining you’ll find here include The Leaky Cauldron, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, Borgin and Burkes, Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment, and Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour–and Ollivanders, of course, where you can watch the wand choose the wizard.

Not to be missed is the creepy Knockturn Alley…

In one sense, Diagon Alley is just one and a half new rides (half because the Express is shared with Hogsmeade.  In another sense, it’s the most deeply themed and detailed theme park area ever built.

If you are a real fan of Harry Potter, you could spend hours here.  If you aren’t, it’s still fun–especially Escape from Gringotts and Ollivanders–but you may find the rest of the setting simply a spur to thoughts of the positives of gentrification.

You can find much more detail on Diagon Alley here.

If you are a Universal hotel guest, and have a park-to-park pass, here’s the way to work both parts of the Wizarding World:

1. Be at the turnstiles for whichever park has early open by 45 minutes before early open is expected to start (if both are open early, which will be uncommon my recommended weeks, then pick Universal Studios/Diagon Alley).
2. At open, get back to the Wizarding World and ride (depending on which park you are in) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
3. See the Wand choosing the Wizard at the Ollivanders in either Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade
4. Get in line for the Hogwarts Express, and ride it to the other park. You’ll get there just about when day guests do. See whichever of Forbidden Journey or Gringotts you missed first thing
5. Relax, and see all the other rides and wonderful detailing in both Wizarding Worlds.

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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is in two different areas of Universal Orlando. Diagon Alley is in Universal Studios, and Hogsmeade is in Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

This page is an overview of Hogsmeade. Attractions here include

• The Flight of the Hippogriff
• Dragon Challenge
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
• Ollivanders
• The Hogwarts Express

REVIEW: HOGSMEADE AT THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Hogsmeade includes

•  A delightful but small built environment meant to bring the village of Hogsmeade (and a few imports from Diagon Alley) to life
• A replica of Hogwarts Castle, and
• Four rides (one shared with Diagon Alley) and another attraction

The four rides are the Flight of the Hippogriff, a minor roller coaster in the open air, Dragon Challenge, a world-class, very intense roller coaster (both slightly re-decorated versions of older rides), the all-new Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the all-new Hogwarts Express. Also worth special note is the charming attraction Ollivanders, where the wand chooses the wizard (there’s another version of Ollivanders in Diagon Alley.)

• The Flight of the Hippogriff will be uninteresting to most.
• Dragon Challenge will appeal to fans of top-level roller coasters, but be far too intense for anyone else.
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has a stunning queue, and a pretty amazing ride, but will be off-limits to those with even moderate motion sickness.
• The Hogwarts Express requires that you have a “park to park” ticket (extra $) but is an easy way to get back and forth between the two Wizarding Worlds, and is moderately fun in itself. True Harry Potter fans need to ride it.
• The village of Hogsmeade is well-done and charming, but quite small.
• Butterbeer rocks.

The upshot: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Hogsmeade is absolutely worth a visit if you are going to Universal Orlando anyway, and/or are huge Harry Potter fans.  If you are, the best way to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is to stay at a Universal resort hotel.  This will allow you to take advantage of its resort hotel early entry program, saving you hours of waiting in line.

If, however, you are a first time visitor to Walt Disney World, and following one of this site’s Disney World itineraries, I can’t recommend taking time out of already over-packed days to see the Wizarding World, unless your children simply will give you no peace otherwise. (If you must fit Harry Potter into a Disney World visit, see the links at the bottom of the page for hints on fitting Harry Potter in.)

Instead, save the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for another trip.

MORE ON HOGSMEADE AT THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Because of the way Islands of Adventure is laid out, there are two ways to get to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter–clockwise or counterclockwise around the park.

If Islands of Adventure is open to early arrival (some days both parks are, and some one or the other is), Universal hotel guests may be sent one way, and everyone else another.  If you have a choice, go counter-clockwise.

Once you are in Hogsmeade, you end up in a charming area about the size of Disney World’s Liberty Square.  Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle are both stunningly well done.  The small number of things you can do in Hogsmeade–for example, see the wand pick the wizard at Ollivanders, or buy butterbeer– are mobbed.

If you are a Universal hotel guest, and have a park-to-park pass, here’s the way to work both parts of the Wizarding World:

1. Be at the turnstiles for whichever park has early open by 45 minutes before early open is expected to start (if both are open early, which will be uncommon my recommended weeks, then pick Universal Studios/Diagon Alley.)
2. At open, get back to the Wizarding World and ride (depending on which park you are in) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
3. See the Wand choosing the Wizard at the Ollivanders in either Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade
4. Get in line for the Hogwarts Express, and ride it to the other park. You’ll get there just about when day guests do. See whichever of Forbidden Journey or Gringotts you missed first thing
5. Relax, and see all the other rides and wonderful detailing in both Wizarding Worlds.

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HARRY POTTER AND THE ESCAPE FROM GRINGOTTS

The headliner ride at the second Wizarding World area to open at Universal Orlando, Diagon Alley in Universal Studios, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts re-tells the story of Harry, Ron and Hermione and the horcrux in the goblin bank Gringotts.

No one in your party knows what a horcrux is?

No worries, so long as you like thrills. The ride combines moving vehicles, motion simulators, elaborate sets, and 3D films into an elaborate adventure that may not always make sense but is always thrilling.

Without giving away any spoilers, the fear factor on the ride (and some of the effects) are midway between the scariest bits of Fantasmic and those of Tower of Terror. This will make it inappropriate for many younger kids, but much fun for older ones—especially if they are Harry Potter fans.

Unlike the headliner Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey in the other area of the Wizarding World, Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure, few will suffer from motion sickness on Escape from Gringotts, and the pacing of Gringotts is much better—not suffering from the overly slow and overly fast sections of Forbidden Journey.

Gringotts is deep in Diagon Alley, in the bank guarded by a dragon—a “Ukrainian Ironbelly” that you might see again on the ride, and that might just this moment be better utilized in combat in eastern Ukraine.

You enter the bank lobby…

…are weighed in the balance by Goblins…

…pass through an area with newspapers with moving images, just like in the books…

…then pass by a series of closed doors that will either ominously raise the hair on the back of your neck, or remind you to make a note to requisition more staples when you get back to the office…

…see a pre-show with Bill Weasley and a goblin banker…

…and enter an elevator that takes you down down down to the vaults themselves. (The effect here is great, and is best experienced away from the walls.)

You are now in the loading area…

…where you will board mine vehicles that will take you on a really fun ride!

As noted at the beginning, I’m not gonna give away the details of the ride, but Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (while not suffering the motion sickness or pacing issues of the Wizarding World’s other headliner, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey) is a real thrill, and thus may just scare the bejeezus out of younger kids.

Older folk who enjoy thrill rides will just love it—especially if they are also Harry Potter fans.

Immensely popular, the best way to see Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is at the very beginning or very end of the day.

If you are following my advice and staying at a Universal hotel, take advantage of early entry to see it. Be at the turnstiles well before early entry begins, and head straight to Gringotts.

If the only Universal park on early entry your days is Islands of Adventure, arrive at the turnstiles well before open, start there, see Forbidden Journey and Ollivanders in Hogsmeade, and then get in line for the Hogwarts Express (requires extra-cost park to park ticket). The first run of the Hogwarts Express should get you to Diagon Alley ahead of most of the crowds.

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A branch of Ollivanders has been open at Hogsmeade in Universal’s Islands of Adventure for years now.

With the opening of the second half of the Wizarding World, Diagon Alley in Universal Studios, there’s even more chances to see the wand choosing the wizard.

Lines at the Hogsmeade branch have been quite long, as the show has little capacity and is drop-dead cute. The Diagon Alley Ollivanders offer has three show spaces, so lines should be shorter.

The best way to see the show in either locale is to be one of the first to ride the headliner (Forbidden Journey or Gringotts) at either spot, and then to go immediately to Ollivanders!

For more on this darling show–including the importance of being Sarah, but even worse photos–see this.

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THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS AT THE WIZARDING WORLDS OF HARRY POTTER

The Hogwarts Express is a train between the two parts of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley in Universal Orlando’s Universal Studios theme park and Hogsmeade in its Island of Adventure theme park.

Being eligible to ride it requires a more-expensive “Park-to-Park” ticket. The Hogwarts Express has its charms but there’s not a lot to it—except for Harry Potter nuts (you know who you are), who kinda must ride it.

But you can use it and a room in a Universal hotel, which I wildly recommend, to get a somewhat easy day at the Wizarding World’s Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. More on this below.

The Hogwarts Express combines transport between the two Wizarding Worlds at Universal Orlando—Hogsmeade in the back right of Islands of Adventure, and Diagon Alley in the back right of Universal Studios (otherwise a really long walk) with some moderately cool visual and aural effects.

Plus with great visual authenticity it mimics Harry’s journeys from London to Hogsmeade and back, causing true Harry Potter fans to swoon.

There’s stations at each of the Wizarding Worlds.

In Universal Studios, King’s Cross station is just outside Diagon Alley, in the “regular” London area.

After your tickets are checked to make sure you have park-to-park privileges, you enter a queue, and are greeted by Hedwig to the platform.

The Hogwarts Express really looks like that in the films…

…both outside…

…and inside.

Your compartment will seat eight. Most—but not all!!—of the action is at the window. The seats closest to and furthest from the window have the worst views, and those in the middle of the compartment the best.

Stuff happens in the window…and also elsewhere, so don’t focus solely on the window. No more spoilers—just enjoy the journey!

The Hogsmeade station is darker than King’s Cross…

…and of course different outside.

There’s not a lot of capacity to the Hogwarts Express, so lines can quickly get long. On busy days, you may get a “return later” ticket, or may even be allowed only to take it one way.

My suggestions:

• Don’t go on a busy day.
• Stay (even for just a night) in a Universal hotel, so that you get early entry privileges
• Get in line for the Hogwarts Express as soon as you’ve seen one of the headliners rides and done Ollivander’s.

Here’s the details:

BUILDING HOGWARTS EXPRESS INTO A TOURING PLAN OF THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

If you go to Universal one of the weeks I recommend, and stay at a Universal hotel, then your day can flow like this:

1. Be at the turnstiles for whichever park has early open by 45 minutes before early open is expected to start (if both are open early, which will be uncommon my recommended weeks, then pick Universal Studios/Diagon Alley.)
2. At open, get back to the Wizarding World and ride (depending on which park you are in) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
3. See the Wand choosing the Wizard at Ollivanders
4. Get in line for the Hogwarts Express, and ride it to the other park. You’ll get there just about when day guests do. See whichever of Forbidden Journey or Gringotts you missed first thing

Relax, and see all the other wonderful detailing in both Wizarding Worlds.

Note that this assumes only one park is open to Universal hotel guests, and that the Hogwarts Express starts on time.

If both parks are open, divide the two headliners over two early mornings (you get early entry on both the day of check-in and day of check-out, and can check in at 7a) but still get in line for the Hogwarts Express as soon as you are out of Ollivanders.

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(For the first page of this review of Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, see this.)

PHOTO TOUR OF A SIX PERSON FAMILY SUITE AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

Disney World’s family suites basically combine the floor plans of two standard value resort rooms, almost literally so in the ~520 square foot family suites at All-Star Music and a little more creatively in the ~565 square foot family suites at Art of Animation.

The result in Disney World family suites is 33-45% more square feet per person than standard value rooms when both are at capacity, two baths–at least one divided–and in a design choice that we’ll come back to, a private queen bed room, with the other four sleeping spots in the living areas.

Universal’s floor plans at Cabana Bay Beach resort are profoundly different.   At 430 square feet they are much smaller (much cheaper too), and compared to the 300 square foot Cabana Bay standard rooms you actually get fewer square feet per person at capacity in the Cabana Bay family suites than in its standard rooms. One bath.  The bedroom space has two queens, not a sole queen for adults.

You can design an OK interior corridor family two queen room that’s 24 feet by 12 feet.

• A 15×12 foot bedroom space will hold two queens on one side with 30 inches between them and 15 inches of wall clearance. Nothing else will fit on this side, but the other side has plenty of length for a dresser and table and chairs, and with more than 5 feet between the foot of the beds and the wall, there’s room for the depth of these as well as an access path the length of the space.
• In the 9×12 foot space that makes up the front of a 24×12 room, there’s space for closets on one side, a one-sink divided bath on the other, and a hallway to the bedroom between.

Cabana Bay’s standard two queen rooms basically follow this minimum model, but add a foot or so of length.

Family suites at Cabana Bay are four feet wider and about two feet longer.

In the sleeping area, two feet is taken from the bed space and added to the four feet of additional width to create a walk-in closet and a long bath behind a wall on the long side of the bedroom.

This leaves a space at the entry to the room where normally you’d find the bath and closet, and in its added length and width you’ll find the kitchenette, a table, and a living area with a fold-out couch.

You enter the family suites into a living/dining kitchenette area. In the Cabana Courtyard this is where the windows are too. Lazy River Courtyard family suites have the window in the back bedroom.

One side of this area has the kitchenette with a microwave, coffee-maker, mini-fridge, and storage.

A high table with chairs for two (high enough that more–by which I mean Mom–can stand at it, but there’s not much standing room here) divides the kitchen area from the living area. The connecting door, if there is one, is also here. The connecting doors connect only to another family suite—not to standard rooms.

On the other side you’ll find the living room space, with the sofa, a couple of small arm chairs, and some tables handy for your important books.

At the other side of the couch is this TV/dresser combo. The two drawers on the right serve this space–two on the other side, behind the large panel to the left, serve the bedroom.

The drawers themselves are good-sized, but in total this is not enough drawer space for the six people this suite will hold (there’s some more storage space in the shelves and cabinets in the kitchenette).

Moreover, when the sofa is unfolded, you can only get to these drawers from the side.

To unfold the sofa bed, first you move the tables and take off the cushions.

There’s not a lot of places to put these. Depends on whether you want to lose the chairs, or lose the floor of the kitchenette.

The unfolded bed I measured as about full-sized–53 inches by 75 inches.  The remaining sofa cushion at the head makes it sleep a little shorter than this.  While the sleeping mattress is 4 inches deep, it’s as lousy a cushion as I’ve slept on in a sofa bed for a while.  The problem is not a railed suspension–the suspension is not the issue. Rather, it’s rock hard.  I would not put one adult on this bed–much less two.

A large sliding door leads to the back bedroom and bath/closet area.

The two queen beds from the other side.

As noted, a couple of feet of width you’d expect to find here occupied by a dresser and a table and chairs or a desk has been shifted to the bath, so you end up with an oddly proportioned narrow bedroom with a TV hanging on the wall.

The other two drawers from the cabinetry that divides this space from the front are big enough but hard to access, tight on the side of one of the beds.

There a little more storage in the table between the beds.

In the Lazy River courtyard rooms, there’s windows at the very back (they are in the living room in the Cabana courtyard rooms).  Here’s my view. Pool views are nicer, more expensive, likely louder.

In the back corner is the entrance to a small walk-in closet.

The closet itself.  There’s a famous photo of Josh in one of these closets here.

In the middle of this wall the space opens to this sink area–which would be better with a curtain to trap light.

There’s a couple of small drawers.

On one side in its own room is a toilet.

One the other side of the central sink in another room is the tub/shower and another sink.

This is a better layout for six than a simple divided bath.  But the Disney family suite layout of two full baths, with at least one accessible without entering the bedroom space, is much better.

I can’t particularly recommend these family suites. Too many design compromises and not enough space. They need a half bath, and more and more accessible dresser space.  And without a much better cushion on the sofa bed the parents are stuck in the queen room, with just beds–no chairs, no nothing.

Most families that need the extra beds will want two connecting Cabana Bay standard four person queen rooms instead, which give more space, better and more beds, better storage, and another bath, at the cost of the living room seats and the microwave.

AMENITIES AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

This review continues here!!

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