The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Summer 2019)

During our family trip to Disney, we took a day off from all things mouse to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. C and I spent many days reading the last few HP books aloud to each other many moons ago and it’s been a real delight to introduce the girls to the books and movies.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter brings all of the familiar wizarding scenes to life. Once we actually found “London” at the back of the Universal Studios park, we stepped into the books. Among our first stops: Diagon Alley, complete with Ollivanders, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and Gringotts (the dragon on the roof breathes real fire and next door you can exchange your muggle money for wizard money), among many other shops and storefronts we knew from the books and movies.

After choosing new wands at Ollivander’s and trying them out at the various interactive wand spots throughout Diagon Alley, we grabbed a few glasses of frozen butterbeer (yummy but sooo sweet) and headed over to Kings Cross Station to jump on the Hogwarts Express.

The Hogwarts Express took us straight into Hogsmeade Station. The ride only took a few minutes, but we saw various scenes pass by our “windows.” Once we arrived in Hogsmeade, we caught our first glimpse of Hogwarts!

Over in Hogsmeade, we had lunch at the Three Broomsticks and rode both the Flight of the Hippogriff (the girls’ favorite) and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. W wasn’t quite tall enough for the latter, but the queue wound its way through Hogswarts and we all enjoyed seeing various Hogwarts rooms and characters come to life. We closed out our afternoon in Hogsmeade with a trip to Honeydukes.