My Harry Potter World Experience - Diagon Alley

B made the wise (poor?) choice of promising to take me to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando after our plans to go to Montreal in April were dashed (plane tickets ended up being ridiculous!). So we booked a room at one of the Universal Studios resorts (Loews Sapphire Falls) and got a mad deal on plane tickets (yay Southwest Airlines!). 

B hates plane selfies.

I highly recommend staying at one of the resorts at Universal Studios. We were able to get into the park 1 hour early which was great - we were able to really enjoy that time without it being wall-to-wall people. There is also transportation to and from the resorts. We took the water taxi back and forth both days we were there - it docked outside the resort and dropped us off at City Walk, 10 minutes or so each way. Not having to worry about transportation was great! There are also shuttles available but the water taxi was much more fun.

Voodoo Donuts

We arrived on Wednesday and planned on doing WWoHP on Thursday. After settling into our hotel room, we headed to City Walk to check it out and have lunch. 

Voodoo Donuts recently opened at City Walk (quite obvious - the line was intermittently a mile long!) so after having lunch at the NBC Sports restaurant (their Wisconsin burgers are pretty darn good!) we popped over there to get a few of their smaller donuts. 

Of course, I did some shopping at City Walk, including picking up a pink Pygmy Puff!

In the evening, we weren't necessarily hungry for a full dinner, so we ate at the Caribbean-inspired tapas restaurant/bar inside the hotel. The food was AMAZING! B had a couple really good cocktails and I enjoyed a beer.

Thursday morning was WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER DAY! I woke up earlier than the alarm, got showered and ready, then jumped on the bed until B woke up and got ready. It was cool in the morning, just about 60 degrees, so I wore my newly acquired Hufflepuff scarf and my St. Mungo's t-shirt.

King's Cross Station                                                                      Dialing up the Ministry of Magic

The first thing you see when you enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter through Universal Studios (Hogsmeade is in Islands of Adventure) is the signature British red telephone booth and King's Cross station. It's so cool because it looks exactly like you are walking down a normal street and BOOM, King's Cross!

The Knight Bus                                                                                                    12 Grimmald Place

The Knight Bus is parked across the street from King's Cross, although Shrunken Head was still sleeping as it was rather early. And of course, there is 12 Grimmauld place, where you can see Kreacher peeking out of the window above the front door. 

Welcome to Diagon Alley                                                                                  The Leaky Cauldron

Walking through the entrance to Diagon Alley just about brought me to tears. If you have been reading the books since the beginning and you are so emotionally invested in this story, you get it. This magical world that served as an escape for me when I was in middle school and inspired me beyond belief...it's just surreal to walk into this world that JK Rowling created.

As you walk through the entrance, you also hear the sound of bricks moving around, just like in the move :)

The attention to detail is unreal - for instance the sign for The Leaky Cauldron actually leaks!

 

Ollivanders - Maker of Fine Wands

Our first stop, since it wasn't super busy yet (because we got in an hour before the park officially opened for the day), I went into Ollivander's to get my wand. According to Pottermore, my wand is Holly with a phoenix feather core, slightly flexible, 9 3/4". So I picked up the Holly interactive wand. They have so many options for everyone, including a HUGE selection of character wands from the movies that are interactive as well as the regular (not interactive) wands. 

Holly wood information

They had plaques with information about every kind of wood used for the wands. The shelves were set up just like in the movie - stacked but looking slightly haphazard. 

A selection of the character wands.

After picking up my wand, I pulled out the map with the list of places where you can cast spells with the interactive wands and started the explore Diagon Alley.

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

We then headed further into Diagon Alley, stopping in Madam Malkin's to check out school robes and uniforms, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes for candy, and the Quidditch Supply store. There is also the Magical Menagerie, where there are tons of different creatures (in stuffed animal and figurine form) from the books and movies.

The Escape from Gringotts.                                           Griphook's Office (RIP)

B was really excited about going on the Escape from Gringotts ride. Since it was still early and not yet crowded, we stashed our bags in the provided lockers (they're free for the first hour, which is perfect if you're just using them to put your stuff in during a ride) and walked on in. The queue area looks EXACTLY like Gringotts from the movie, right down to the crystal chandelier and the little scales that the goblins were using to count coins.

I'm not a big roller coaster person, but I really did enjoy the ride! (I don't want to put a bunch of specific stuff about the ride so as to not spoil it for anyone that hasn't been there.) 

After the ride, I went and found a bunch of the different spell markers, then we headed to King's Cross to go to Hogsmeade!

Stay tuned for my post about Hogsmeade coming up!