The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area spanning two theme parks—Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida—at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area spanning two theme parks—Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida—at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. The area is themed to the Harry Potter media franchise, adapting elements from the film series and novels by J. K. Rowling. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was designed by Universal Creative from an exclusive license with Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The first phase was officially announced for Islands of Adventure on May 31, 2007, and after a two-and-a-half-year construction period, the area officially opened to the public on June 18, 2010. The area's flagship ride is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which exists within a re-creation of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It takes riders on a journey through Harry Potter's wizarding world. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter also contains Flight of the Hippogriff, a family roller coaster, and formerly included Dragon Challenge, a pair of inverted roller coasters, which was replaced in 2019 by a new roller coaster, Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. The area also features a re-creation of Hogsmeade containing many gift shops and restaurants from the novels including Dervish and Banges, Honeydukes, Ollivanders, Zonko's Joke Shop (though it houses Honeydukes), the Three Broomsticks, and the Hog's Head.
The second phase was initially announced on December 6, 2011, as a significant expansion of the existing Wizarding World of Harry Potter. On May 8, 2013, it was officially announced that a substantial portion of phase two would be constructed in the adjacent Universal Studios Florida theme park with a full scale working replica of the Hogwarts Express taking guests between the two lands. This phase's flagship ride is Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, a 3D dark ride/simulator based on Gringotts Bank, the wizarding bank that appears in the book and film series. Its design is similar to Transformers: The Ride and the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man rides but built on a roller coaster track. The remaining features are themed around London and Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley officially opened on July 8, 2014.
Attractions
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has four rides. Three rides opened in 2010 as part of phase one, while two additional rides opened in phase two in 2014. Dragon Challenge, one of the rides from the first phase, was closed permanently in 2017.
Hogsmeade
Dragon Challenge was an inverted roller coaster featuring two distinct tracks that overlapped and intertwined with each other. The coaster predated the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, having operated under the name Dueling Dragons since the park's 1999 opening. The tracks remained the same, but were renamed in homage to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament where Harry and the other contestants are each to duel with a dragon, depicted in chapter 20 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The two sides of the coaster were renamed "Hungarian Horntail" and "Chinese Fireball", after two of the dragon breeds which appear in the book. It was the only chasing inverted roller coaster in the world. The queue for this ride featured many Harry Potter relics, including the Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. In addition, the hike to the ride featured Ron Weasley's flying Ford Anglia from in the second film, as well as Hagrid's hut. Dragon Challenge closed on September 4, 2017 to make way for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which opened on June 13, 2019.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a dark ride inside the replica of Hogwarts Castle, simulating a tour of the castle and its surrounding grounds. Visitors initially walk through the castle, interacting with various characters and props from the Potter series, including a speech from Dumbledore, and directions from Harry, Hermione and Ron, before boarding a "magical bench" (controlled with a KUKA robotic arm system). Throughout the ride, guests are taken around the outside of the castle, using a combination of simulated flight as well as encountering realistic animatronic versions of the Whomping Willow, a horde of dementors, giant spiders, the Hungarian Horntail Dragon, and a Quidditch match.
Flight of the Hippogriff is a steel roller coaster designed for families, located adjacent to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The ride opened in 2000 as the Flying Unicorn. Similar to the Dragon Challenge, this ride was re-themed prior to the opening of the Wizarding World. The roller coaster's back-story is that Hogwarts's Care of Magical Creatures professor, Hagrid, is teaching young wizards to fly on a hippogriff (as Harry does in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) by using a wicker replica of the creature. A recreation of Hagrid's Hut is passed on the way for a lesson from Hagrid himself on how to properly approach a hippogriff.
Diagon Alley
Diagon Alley's flagship ride is Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, a 3-D motion-based steel roller coaster dark ride based around Gringotts Bank, the wizarding bank in Diagon Alley.Riders enter the bank into the queue area where Blordak greets visitors and instructs them to continue past him to travel deep into the vaults of the bank to open an account. Unlike Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, this ride is hosted by Bill Weasley, played by Domhnall Gleeson, reprising his role from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
A completely functioning full-scale replica of the Hogwarts Express was created for the Diagon Alley expansion, connecting King's Cross Station at Universal Studios to the Hogsmeade station at Islands of Adventure, manufactured by Doppelmayr Garaventa Group in the form of a funicular railway people mover. The Hogwarts Express King's Cross Station features a wall between Platforms 9 and 10, where guests can "walk through" to get to Platform 9+3⁄4, like in the first film.
Dining and shopping
Other than the main rides, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is also home to gift shops and restaurants. Several of these are recreations of locations in the Harry Potter books while others have been created specifically for the park. A recreation of Hogsmeade is housed at Islands of Adventure while a recreation of Diagon Alley is housed at Universal Studios Florida.
In the book series, Ollivanders wand shop is located in Diagon Alley, not Hogsmeade; however, installations of the shop are present in both areas of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The Hogsmeade area recreated the shop as "Ollivanders", portraying it as a branch of the original where Harry purchases his wand in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (known in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Unlike other shops in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, visitors are admitted in groups of 20 to experience the premise from the Potter series, that "the wand chooses the wizard". Similar to the first film, the wand keeper and a selected guest test a variety of wands until the right one is found. Effects include flowers drying out or a thunderstorm erupting inside the shop. Shoppers can then purchase souvenir wands.
Reception
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has been well received by Harry Potter fans. Matt Blum of Wired stated "every detail is finely crafted to enhance the experience". An Orlando Sentinel article stated "muggles will love their Harry Potter adventure" but identifies the need for the park to offer Universal Express Passes due to large crowds. It also stated Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a truly one-of-a-kind experience that cannot easily be described. Leigh Caldwell from Traveling Mamas noted that although The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is ideal for the whole family, it's not designed for anyone under 3 years old." She went on to consolidate others' comments about the area: "there is no doubt that fans of the Harry Potter books and movies are going to enjoy the heck out of a visit to the Wizarding World". Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, criticized the fact that the park was chosen to be in Orlando, rather than in London, stating that it was "utterly mad" to leave it to the Americans "to make money from a great British invention."
Free
2 Park Ticket: 164.00 USD
1 Park Ticket: 109.00 USD
1 Park Volcano Bay Ticket: 80.00 USD
Children:
2 Park Ticket: 159.00 USD
1 Park Ticket: 104.00 USD
1 Park Volcano Bay Ticket: 75.00 USD
You can take a ride to see the castle