Let me start this off by saying I have often said that I don't understand the need for fancy cameras and professional photography, that I'm perfectly okay with using my cell phone camera to capture the special moments in my life, etc. etc.
Alright. I started this entry the day I got back from Orlando, but I've been so OVERWHELMED BY THE AWESOMENESS of the whole experience that I've put off writing about it. So this isn't going to be a fair review necessarily. As I've mentioned before I'm quite the Harry Potter fan, so this is going to be a report from a "Fan Girl" perspective with some gushing and some iPhone photos. No selfies, though. I spared you that, so say thank you and let's move on.
Okay. To begin, let me say that I've been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter before. About two years ago when Diagon Alley was just a twinkle in Universal Studios Orlando's eye, my dad, brother, friend, and I explored Hogsmeade with joy and wonder in our hearts. My father has even described Hogsmeade at Universal on numerous occasions as being "magical."
Okay. To begin, let me say that I've been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter before. About two years ago when Diagon Alley was just a twinkle in Universal Studios Orlando's eye, my dad, brother, friend, and I explored Hogsmeade with joy and wonder in our hearts. My father has even described Hogsmeade at Universal on numerous occasions as being "magical."
So yes, I had been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter before. And, hey, not to brag, but I've also been to the Studio Tour in London. So you could say I've been around the Harry Potter tourism block and I've had my share of Butterbeers. I'd heard that Diagon Alley was even BIGGER and even COOLER than the Hogsmeade section of the park. I was excited. I wanted to believe it. But nothing could have prepared me.
My friend and I decided against better judgment to go to the park the Sunday after Diagon Alley officially opened. We were warned by numerous jealous people on Facebook that we were crazy and that the wait was going to be literally a million hours long and that we were just going to be miserable the whole time. First of all, how can anyone be miserable when surrounded by thousands of hot, sweaty, overzealous Harry Potter fans on the opening weekend of a new theme park? Not possible. Secondly, how wrong you naysayers were. I guess everyone was afraid of crowds on opening weekend, because the park was pretty damn empty. The emptiest I've ever seen Universal Studios. It was pretty great.
Trying to be clever, my friend (let's call her Helga, since she's a Hufflepuff. That's cute) . . . my friend Helga and I decided to start over on the Hogsmeade side and take the Hogwarts Express over to the new side of the Harry Potter kingdom. This might have been smart. Who's to say? We did get to ride in our very own car on the train and nerd the fuck out without anyone judging us for getting excited about such things.
My friend and I decided against better judgment to go to the park the Sunday after Diagon Alley officially opened. We were warned by numerous jealous people on Facebook that we were crazy and that the wait was going to be literally a million hours long and that we were just going to be miserable the whole time. First of all, how can anyone be miserable when surrounded by thousands of hot, sweaty, overzealous Harry Potter fans on the opening weekend of a new theme park? Not possible. Secondly, how wrong you naysayers were. I guess everyone was afraid of crowds on opening weekend, because the park was pretty damn empty. The emptiest I've ever seen Universal Studios. It was pretty great.
Trying to be clever, my friend (let's call her Helga, since she's a Hufflepuff. That's cute) . . . my friend Helga and I decided to start over on the Hogsmeade side and take the Hogwarts Express over to the new side of the Harry Potter kingdom. This might have been smart. Who's to say? We did get to ride in our very own car on the train and nerd the fuck out without anyone judging us for getting excited about such things.
I know it's early in this post to say so, but I can tell you right now before we go any further that the Hogwarts Express was my favorite part. I didn't get a picture of the inside of the car, but the train itself was very detailed. And while we suspect Emma Watson did not lend her voice for the Hermione that was on the train, it was still very fun to see the trio's shadows walk past our compartment and have Harry (spoiler alert) save us from dementors (this happens on the ride TO Hogsmeade, not FROM Hogsmeade. The adventure is different each way. So it's two rides for the price of one!). But I mean really. One of the most magical things about the Harry Potter Universe has always been the Hogwarts Express for me, so getting to ride on this was a real treat.
As you get off the train in Diagon Alley, you're actually dumped out into an area that looks a lot like normal London, which I suppose is pretty fitting. It goes along with the theme of the rest of that side of Universal Studios as well, which is all about city streets and such (for the most part). It was about 9AM by the time we made it over to this side of the park, and this was the only time we really encountered a crowd all day. For some reason I still don't understand, there was a line to get into the actual Diagon Alley section of the park, even though once we got up to the front of the line, the only thing that seemed to be between us and the entrance of the magical world of wizards was some dude who seemed intent on high-fiving everyone who came through the line.
The crowding continued on over to the Escape from Gringott's ride where we were told the wait would be 300 minutes long. We asked a Gilly Water schilling merchant to clarify: "Sir, does that sign mean 300 minutes or three hours?" He assured us it meant 300 minutes. Well, people don't understand math, I suppose, because we only waited in line for three hours. ONLY three hours, you say? Please understand we were told lines for this ride were seven hours long on opening day, and we still assumed at this point that the park would get more and more crowded as the day went on and this was the best it was going to get. Well, we were wrong and we were the idiots who stood in a three hour line for no reason when the line was much shorter for the rest of the day. That's alright. I enjoyed hyping myself up and listening to the Harry Potter theme song on repeat for three hours while I quietly wished I'd bought myself a coffee to drink in line while I waited. I know that sounds like sarcasm, but no. I really, really, really enjoyed it. I was in Diagon Alley. Everything is okay in Diagon Alley.
I do wish, however, that the line had been more like the line for the Hogwarts ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, over on the other side of the park. Waiting in that line is like going on a ride all on its own. Most of the time you wait in line, you're in the castle looking around at cool moving pictures and watching videos of Harry, Ron, and Hermione talking to you like you're their BFF and they're COUNTING ON YOU! I actually wished I had been able to wait in line longer on that Hogwarts ride (wait time was 20 minutes so we zipped through a lot of it). There wasn't as much of that fun stuff to look at over at Gringott's. I know a lot of that had to do with the fact that the line was so long, but we were outside in direct sunlight for a good bit of that wait. By the time we finally made it into the actual building, there was not much wait left and not enough time to take in all the fun stuff to look at.
I do wish, however, that the line had been more like the line for the Hogwarts ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, over on the other side of the park. Waiting in that line is like going on a ride all on its own. Most of the time you wait in line, you're in the castle looking around at cool moving pictures and watching videos of Harry, Ron, and Hermione talking to you like you're their BFF and they're COUNTING ON YOU! I actually wished I had been able to wait in line longer on that Hogwarts ride (wait time was 20 minutes so we zipped through a lot of it). There wasn't as much of that fun stuff to look at over at Gringott's. I know a lot of that had to do with the fact that the line was so long, but we were outside in direct sunlight for a good bit of that wait. By the time we finally made it into the actual building, there was not much wait left and not enough time to take in all the fun stuff to look at.
As you wait in line on the INSIDE, you have these amazing goblins giving you the stink eye every now and then before getting back to their work. This was the highlight of the "ride" for me and it wasn't even the ride. I just thought these guys looks really cool and I loved all the little details. I actually kind of felt bad for disrupting their work day. That's how busy they looked.
After you pass the goblins, you go straight into this room where you're supposed to watch a video that preps you for what your adventure is about to be. Bill Weasley, who is a curse breaker at Gringott's, leads you through what's about to happen, but I have absolutely NO CLUE what he said to me because there was a big group in front of me who talked loudly through the whole thing. This is the part of my adventure when I get all superior about how I'm a much bigger Harry Potter fan than some of the other people at the park and they don't DESERVE TO BE THERE if they're not going to APPRECIATE IT. And now I will stop being an obnoxious super fan and get on with my review. I think.
The actual ride was okay. I think it would have had to be really amazing at that point to have been fully worth the three hours. I enjoyed it, but I certainly wasn't dying to get back in line and do it all over again, even though the line was only an hour long after we got off. All I could think about at that point was getting some food.
So we went over to the Leaky Cauldron (that's in London). As a vegetarian, I was not super pleased with my options. I was promised that there was a vegetarian platter, but when I went up to the dude at the cash register and ordered this, he gave me a weird look like I was some sort of space alien. I guess this does give you that authentic vegetarian-in-London feel though, so I can appreciate that. Helga got the bangers and mash, which she seemed reasonably pleased with. When my food came out, it was a couple of potatoes and carrots with a very sad-looking salad. My frozen Butterbeer was the most substantial part of my meal. But, hey, I was totally okay with that. I'm a huge fan of the frozen Butterbeer. I find it much more appealing that its non-frozen sister. I know some people seem to think for some weird reason that Butterbeer is "too much," but A) I have a sweet tooth so I probably can't be trusted B) blending the drink with ice helps diminish the too muchness for me. Don't you love my food blogging vocabulary?
There were also a few new drinks on the menu. Helga and I split a Fishy Green Ale, which we were a bit skeptical about because an employee told us that it "tastes like toothpaste." Bitch, I don't know what kind of toothpaste you have at home, but this drink tasted nothing like toothpaste and you should stop telling people that. I'm not sure how to place the flavor of the drink. It's green-flavored, which could mean lime. I'm looking around on the Internet to see what other people have said about it, but I can't find a good description. Anyway, in this green liquid are blueberry flavored "fish eggs," which gives the drink a bubble tea type vibe. You get a big straw to suck up the eggs and the blueberry goodness bursts in your mouth. It was quite delightful. I found it very refreshing. This picture you see here is our very own Helga trying the Fishy Green Ale. Both of us liked it and neither of us thought it tasted anything like toothpaste, so there you have it.
The other new drinks seemed less exciting, so we didn't even try them. These drinks were Gilly Water, Lemon Squash, and Orange Squash. We asked about the Gilly Water, and it turns out it's really just flavored water. The Lemon Squash seemed to me like it was just lemonade, and the Orange Squash was, you guessed it, probably just regular OJ. If you've tried any of these drinks, correct me if I'm wrong. But I feel like the most unique beverages you're going to get are the Butterbeer and the Fishy Green Ale. Both are very yummy. There were also special witchy-themed beers, which I did not try because I'm not a beer person nor am I a person who thinks drinking before getting on rollercoasters is a particularly smart idea. So. Yeah.
Next we hit the shops in Diagon Alley, which was perhaps what we were most excited about. Both Helga and I are really into buying lotsa Harry Potter paraphernalia. I'm sure Helga wouldn't mind if I shared with you that she has a pretty amazing sorting hat sitting on her bed at her house. And I have things as well. Like a replica of Hermione Granger's wand. Point being we like buying Harry Potter stuff. We want more Harry Potter stuff all the time. I suggested we should make a Harry Potter subscription box service like Birchbox or Loot Crate but it would be ALL HARRY POTTER STUFF. When you sign up for a subscription, you could even say what house you're in so you could get items related to your preferred house and such. Too bad Warner Brothers owns the rights and probably wouldn't let us run with this genius idea. But I would very much be into signing up for a subscription service like that.
So anyway. I just rambled a lot, so let me get through this quickly. The shops were great. The Knockturn Alley area was really cool and fun, but also very dark and difficult to take pictures in, so I have none to share, sadly. The employees in all the shops were super friendly and eager to help, which I found impressive because I know these guys probably have been very busy as of late. I heard on opening day there were lines just to get in the store. So these kind fellows probably dealt with a lot of bitchy customers and their whiny children. Good on them for being such good sports. A lot of them were even in character, which I found pretty adorable.
After you pass the goblins, you go straight into this room where you're supposed to watch a video that preps you for what your adventure is about to be. Bill Weasley, who is a curse breaker at Gringott's, leads you through what's about to happen, but I have absolutely NO CLUE what he said to me because there was a big group in front of me who talked loudly through the whole thing. This is the part of my adventure when I get all superior about how I'm a much bigger Harry Potter fan than some of the other people at the park and they don't DESERVE TO BE THERE if they're not going to APPRECIATE IT. And now I will stop being an obnoxious super fan and get on with my review. I think.
The actual ride was okay. I think it would have had to be really amazing at that point to have been fully worth the three hours. I enjoyed it, but I certainly wasn't dying to get back in line and do it all over again, even though the line was only an hour long after we got off. All I could think about at that point was getting some food.
So we went over to the Leaky Cauldron (that's in London). As a vegetarian, I was not super pleased with my options. I was promised that there was a vegetarian platter, but when I went up to the dude at the cash register and ordered this, he gave me a weird look like I was some sort of space alien. I guess this does give you that authentic vegetarian-in-London feel though, so I can appreciate that. Helga got the bangers and mash, which she seemed reasonably pleased with. When my food came out, it was a couple of potatoes and carrots with a very sad-looking salad. My frozen Butterbeer was the most substantial part of my meal. But, hey, I was totally okay with that. I'm a huge fan of the frozen Butterbeer. I find it much more appealing that its non-frozen sister. I know some people seem to think for some weird reason that Butterbeer is "too much," but A) I have a sweet tooth so I probably can't be trusted B) blending the drink with ice helps diminish the too muchness for me. Don't you love my food blogging vocabulary?
There were also a few new drinks on the menu. Helga and I split a Fishy Green Ale, which we were a bit skeptical about because an employee told us that it "tastes like toothpaste." Bitch, I don't know what kind of toothpaste you have at home, but this drink tasted nothing like toothpaste and you should stop telling people that. I'm not sure how to place the flavor of the drink. It's green-flavored, which could mean lime. I'm looking around on the Internet to see what other people have said about it, but I can't find a good description. Anyway, in this green liquid are blueberry flavored "fish eggs," which gives the drink a bubble tea type vibe. You get a big straw to suck up the eggs and the blueberry goodness bursts in your mouth. It was quite delightful. I found it very refreshing. This picture you see here is our very own Helga trying the Fishy Green Ale. Both of us liked it and neither of us thought it tasted anything like toothpaste, so there you have it.
The other new drinks seemed less exciting, so we didn't even try them. These drinks were Gilly Water, Lemon Squash, and Orange Squash. We asked about the Gilly Water, and it turns out it's really just flavored water. The Lemon Squash seemed to me like it was just lemonade, and the Orange Squash was, you guessed it, probably just regular OJ. If you've tried any of these drinks, correct me if I'm wrong. But I feel like the most unique beverages you're going to get are the Butterbeer and the Fishy Green Ale. Both are very yummy. There were also special witchy-themed beers, which I did not try because I'm not a beer person nor am I a person who thinks drinking before getting on rollercoasters is a particularly smart idea. So. Yeah.
Next we hit the shops in Diagon Alley, which was perhaps what we were most excited about. Both Helga and I are really into buying lotsa Harry Potter paraphernalia. I'm sure Helga wouldn't mind if I shared with you that she has a pretty amazing sorting hat sitting on her bed at her house. And I have things as well. Like a replica of Hermione Granger's wand. Point being we like buying Harry Potter stuff. We want more Harry Potter stuff all the time. I suggested we should make a Harry Potter subscription box service like Birchbox or Loot Crate but it would be ALL HARRY POTTER STUFF. When you sign up for a subscription, you could even say what house you're in so you could get items related to your preferred house and such. Too bad Warner Brothers owns the rights and probably wouldn't let us run with this genius idea. But I would very much be into signing up for a subscription service like that.
So anyway. I just rambled a lot, so let me get through this quickly. The shops were great. The Knockturn Alley area was really cool and fun, but also very dark and difficult to take pictures in, so I have none to share, sadly. The employees in all the shops were super friendly and eager to help, which I found impressive because I know these guys probably have been very busy as of late. I heard on opening day there were lines just to get in the store. So these kind fellows probably dealt with a lot of bitchy customers and their whiny children. Good on them for being such good sports. A lot of them were even in character, which I found pretty adorable.
The guy at Madame Malkin's pictured above with both Helga (left) and me (right) forced us to try on robes and was way more excited about it than we were. Which is saying a lot because we were pretty excited all day. Also, note how empty and spacious the store is behind us. Over in Hogsmeade, it seems as if they were not planning for the stores to be as popular as they have become. Even now, the stores over there seem a little cramped. On the Diagon Alley side, seems like Universal Studios wised up and designed the stores for major crowds. Granted, the park wasn't very crowded, but even if it had been, there was plenty of space to browse comfortably. Applause!
So there you have it. That's my review of the new stuff over at Diagon Alley. Hogsmeade is amazing and the Hogwarts castle is still pretty impressive, but truly nothing compares to what they've done over on the new side. Again, the highlight of the whole thing for me were the train rides on the Hogwarts Express. You have to buy a two park pass to use the train (ROBBERY!), but it's entirely worth it. That's saying a lot because those tickets are expensive and I am poor.
I got happy just writing this post, even though it took me a week to do it. Glad I could get it up on this day though, which is the 7th anniversary of the book release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Happy Birthday, Deathly Hallows! Isn't Harry Potter the greatest?
So there you have it. That's my review of the new stuff over at Diagon Alley. Hogsmeade is amazing and the Hogwarts castle is still pretty impressive, but truly nothing compares to what they've done over on the new side. Again, the highlight of the whole thing for me were the train rides on the Hogwarts Express. You have to buy a two park pass to use the train (ROBBERY!), but it's entirely worth it. That's saying a lot because those tickets are expensive and I am poor.
I got happy just writing this post, even though it took me a week to do it. Glad I could get it up on this day though, which is the 7th anniversary of the book release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Happy Birthday, Deathly Hallows! Isn't Harry Potter the greatest?