This is my first post in a little while and I know I have been a little bit slack with posting (summer was so busy!), but I just returned from a fantastic trip to Florida and figured this would be the perfect time to get back to my blog :) For this trip I was most excited for the newly opened Diagon Alley Harry Potter expansion at Universal Studios so that is where I am going to start!
I am a huge Harry Potter fan so I have been excited for this expansion ever since it was officially announced! Since I follow the parks so closely I pretty much knew a lot of the details even before Universal confirmed them to be true so that is a couple of years of anticipation. And I must say Diagon Alley did not disappoint!
Universal worked very closely with J.K Rowling for the creation of both Wizarding World sections and it can clearly be seen in the phenomenal attention to detail in these parks. It was very important to her that everything be authentic to the series. The only downfall to this is that the shops and many areas are not as large as as spacious as you will normally find in a theme park but to make them larger would break the feeling that you are actually in these stores which she would not allow.
When you are in the Universal park and reach the Diagon Alley section, Universal has set up a London facade so that you are really getting the true experience. It is complete with King's Cross Station, 12 Grimmauld Place (home of Sirius Black in the series) and even the Knight bus. What is amazing is how well Diagon Alley is hidden behind the London facade! You don't even see it at all from the outside (like you wouldn't in the muggle world).
The entrance to Diagon Alley is very well blended in the Leicester Square building near the center. This is where you will find some of that amazing attention to detail. In an opening you will see brick walls and once you go around a turn you will of course see the brick wall open up to Diagon Alley!! J.K Rowling wanted people to enter into Diagon Alley this way just like Harry first did, and while I was skeptical this would be able to work without causing a lot of crowd congestion, this was done very well and it was not difficult at all to get through at all due to crowds!
Once you walk through the wall you enter into Diagon Alley and it truly looks like you just walked into the actual Diagon Alley you see in the movies (except wider streets!!). You are instantly fully immersed into the Diagon Alley experience with fully detailed buildings and music played in the movies in Diagon Alley. You will see familiar places like Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, Ollivanders wand shop, Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour and of course Gringott's!! And just like you can't see Diagon Alley from outside, you can't see anything outside of Diagon Alley so the experience is not broken.
We started off our morning of course in Diagon Alley, eating breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron.
The breakfast was delicious (a little pricey but worth it). Also created for the park found at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour was butterbeer ice cream. Since I love butterbeer I had to try this and it was absolutely delicious!!! This may have to be a new must have treat whenever we are at Universal!! I would highly recommend if you visit the park you try the butterbeer ice cream :)
Along with Diagon Alley J.K Rowling also created a new street called Horizont Alley just for the theme park which is an area to the right of Diagon Alley. Also to the left you will find a dark Alley which leads you into Knockturn Alley, a covered area so that it is always dark (like Knockturn Alley is) and of course includes Borgins and Burkes.
Escape to Gringott's is the areas major attraction which is really unlike any other theme park ride and more of a combination of several rides. The outside of the building is complete with a fire breathing dragon atop the building. And yes it really does periodically breath fire! The waits for this ride can be incredibly lengthy since it is so new and unfortunately it does break down a fair amount since they are still working out all of the bugs so I suggest getting on it early in your day. Since we were staying on site at the Hard Rock Resort we had early entry and were able to ride with only a 10 minute wait. Luckily even the queue area as soon as you reach the entrance to the building is incredibly detailed! You enter the bank into the main room seen in the movies (and it truly looks like you walked into the movie) complete with large chandeliers and animatronic goblins working away.
The ride experience itself is phenomenal. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so I won't give details on the actual ride itself. Basically the best comparison for this ride is that it is a combination of the Mummy and Spiderman or Transformers. You go through and come to many very large screens that almost surround your ride vehicle at points with 3D picture. But it also has parts which would be a mild roller coaster through the caverns below Gringotts. I am very happy to see this turned into a ride because my husband and I have always said when watching the movies that would make a great roller coaster ride (can you tell we are theme park addicts lol)! The only thing I can really say is that I would have like it to be little more thrilling during the roller coaster portions, but I think they were trying to create something anyone could enjoy and overall it was still an amazing ride experience!
The other major attraction built for this expansion is the Hogwarts Express. This also is a very innovative thing Universal has done as this doubles as transportation between the two Harry Potter sections in each park. You can't get to it from Diagon Alley itself as this is located in King's Cross Station naturally.As you enter and go through half of the queue it just looks as though you are going through King's Cross station in London. Eventually you reach a brick wall which Universal has made it look like you are watching people literally walk through the wall from a portion of the queue and of course when you reach it there is an opening for you to walk through to enter platform 9 3/4!
At platform 9 3/4 you board the Hogwarts Express train(which truly looks like you are on the train) and enter a hallway which has cabins to one side which you sit in. During the train ride over to Hogsmeade the window is equipped with screens to make it look like you are making the journey over to Hogwarts. You will see the countryside and of course the ride doesn't go completely smooth along the way. There is incredible technology on the train on both the doors to your cabin and the screen in your window. The ride in the opposite direction as well from Hogsmeade back to London is a completely different experience. Now keep in mind in order to experience this attraction you must have a multi park ticket for the same day since it is giving you admission to both. The only thing about the ride that drives me crazy is that Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson would not do the voice over for Harry and Hermione for the ride so they had to have them done by someone else. The voice for Harry is close enough that most people probably wouldn't even notice the difference. However the voice for Hermione is clearly not Emma Watson and sounds nothing like her! People in our train even commented on how that was not Hermione talking.
So in conclusion, I thought as a whole Diagon Alley was amazing and done incredibly well and as mentioned before with insane attention to detail. This is a must visit for any Harry Potter fan and I personally think even someone who hasn't seen the movies or read the books would be impressed with Diagon Alley and enjoy it as well! We had a fantastic time exploring the new area and really don't think there is much that they could have done any better. It is probably the best theming in a theme park area I have ever seen with the only other theme park area to match it being Hogsmeade!
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