We had a great time. My husband says it's better than Disney but I don't agree! It was a little expensive even with a Florida Resident discount. It came to $136 for a 1-day two park ticket!! But the only way to ride the new Harry Potter Train is to get a two park ticket! So they got me. It was the same amount of money to get a 2-day park to park ticket at Universal/IOA for 4 people as it was to get a 3-day single park entry ticket to Disney World for 6 people!!!! (Florida Resident Discounts on both of course)
Okay rant over on to my review lol. The new Harry Potter sections... AMAZING!! The details were everywhere and nowhere cause if you were looking for Diagon Alley you better just know where it is or you will walk right by the secret passage way that let's you in!!!
Once I was in my first words were wow!!! They did a great job with the details here this is amazing. I can't say enough on how real it all looks and feels. We ate at the Leaky Cauldron on Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was surprisingly good and very real feeling. I will do a full review on just the restaurant but I will tease you with a picture or two here!
Ok so after we ate we finished exploring Diagon Alley it was really nice and my kids wanted wands so bad but they started at $40! That was for the ones that don't do magic! Granted they were very nice but not nice enough to buy, especially because I know three week after we get home they will be lost!
We went on the one ride in Diagon Alley Escape From Gringotts and it was a very well done moving simulator ride. If that makes sense lol. It was about a half hour wait on a Sunday afternoon during a moderately busy weekend. It was the end of the President's day holiday. The line moved fairly consistently, which, always makes me happy :-) No details were spared here either.
Next we take the train to Hogsmeade....
The train is located outside of Diagon Alley. So when we finally left we headed for the train. It was pretty cool!! Although I'm told that the half hour wait for the train itself is longer than it would take to go out of Universal and into the front gates of Islands of Adventure!
But we went on anyway, why? UMMM because it's a magical train taking me to Hogsmeade of course! Again, the details were great. I really felt like I was in a train station! The ride was fun, my four year old was a little scared to when we got on because they close the train door and "lock" you in. But after the ride started he realized just how cool it was. I can't explain it without giving it away but if you have park to park tickets or you love Harry Potter then you really should do it.
If it's more important to you to stay on budget then skip it so you miss a short train ride!!
When we got off the wonderful train ride it looked like a different world. As it should lol. It was covered in snow and there was a rollercoaster to our right. I'm pretty sure this is an older rollercoaster that was re-purposed but it fit in fine. It was called dueling dragons and it was fun. I wouldn't do it twice because of the 7 or so loops it did but definitely would do once a day!
There was one other Harry Potter ride that I did not go on my then 4 month old fell asleep while we were waiting for rider swap! But my daughter said it made her sick especially since she already wasn't feeling good from doing the dueling dragons twice! Everyone else loved it though. It was called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and I will be checking it out next time we go!
Oh there is also one more family friendly as they call it roller coaster in this section but we didn't have enough time or energy to convince my 4 year old he should try it!
So in conclusion, loved the new Harry Potter sections of both parks. It is something they totally needed! I will be writing my opinion of the entire park tomorrow. Thanks for reading and enjoy Universal and Islands of Adventure.... Oh and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter of course!
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