The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Universal Orlando

If you’re not at least a tiny fan of Harry Potter this might be a good blog post to skip. Or read on and maybe you will be inspired to read the books or watch the movies and see for yourself why so many people - children and adults, are captivated by the series.

Did you know one of the slowest times of the year to travel is after Thanksgiving and up until about December 19th when travel picks up for Christmas? It is so I decided it might be the perfect time to fulfill my daughter’s dream to spend a few days being totally immersed in her favorite books of all time. When Tom heard about our plans for family fun he decided it sounded too good to miss - we were thrilled to have him join us. Time to dust off my carryon and pull out my packing light list. While not as long as many of my trips to Europe - I was going to be gone a total of 16 days so the list was a big help. It’s one of my most popular posts so if you’re interested check the archive and click on August 8, 2018.

I love my Away carryon and just before Covid shut the world down in March of 2020 I had purchased the Away large backpack on their 1st ever Half Price sale. I finally got to use it! That was it for 16 days. I love traveling light.

We stayed at a beautiful Marriott resort in Orlando called The Grande Vista. It was a huge resort and had lovely facilities. There were multiple pools, tennis and pickle ball courts, a golf course, restaurants, a spa and fitness center. The weather was incredible the entire time we were there so when we weren’t at the parks we were able to enjoy the pools and outside spaces.

A couple of quick things I did before jumping into the tips and pics about maximizing your Harry Potter experience. Would it be a vacation if I didn’t go to at least one museum? Probably not so I did manage to find one that seemed worthy of a few hours. My kids were working remotely during the day so I made a visit to the Orlando Art Museum by myself.

It’s not a huge museum but they had some interesting things. Quite a large collection of Old Masters including a few Rubens. There was a beautiful Chihuly glass sculpture and a Nick Cave Soundsuit. The exhibit that was my favorite was from the artist Louis Dewis (1872-1946) - an artist I was unfamiliar with but who was inspired by the Impressionists. I didn’t count them but my best guess is there were at least 20 pieces, very nice! I spent about an hour and a half in total.

There was kind of a cool neighborhood market close to the museum called the East End Market that I made a stop to see. It housed a variety of vendors and shops. I had a nice cup of coffee and a delicious vegan biscuit.

That’s going to pretty much be it on this post as far as food pictures. I did quite a bit of research on restaurants prior to heading to Orlando, but the majority of cool unique highly rated spots are in areas that are a pretty significant drive from where the resorts are located close to Universal and the Disney Parks. There are lots of nice chain restaurants around the resorts - so plenty of places to eat without driving 40 or 50 minutes each way but they are there if you want to drive. A nice website to check out is timeout.com. They have info for lots of cities but they do a great job on Orlando.

So let’s hop on our brooms (mine is the Nimbus 2000) and begin our flight into Universal Studios. First just a couple of the basics. Universal has two parks that are joined by a walkway full of restaurants and bars. There are two places where the Harry Potter books take place - London and Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. So London and Diagon Alley are located in Universal Studios, and Hogwarts and Hogsmeade are located in Universal Islands of Adventure. The only way to visit both is to buy a ticket that includes both parks. That is also the only way to ride the Hogwarts Express which is a train that the Wizards take to get between the two areas. Yes it’s more expensive to buy the ticket for both parks, but you’re already spending a lot of money to be there so go for the whole experience! More about buying tickets later. If you’ve been to the Universal Parks before or just aren’t interested in any of the Harry Potter stuff all the other rides, shows and experiences are still all there and your tickets get you into everything. The detail and authenticity of creating this Harry Potter experience is incredible. It’s as if they just moved the movie set to Florida and added great rides.

This is a picture of Islands of Adventure and I love it because you see the contrast with Hogwarts in the background and the Velocicoaster right in front. The Velocicoaster is the newest roller coaster at the park and it’s wild! It has a 155 foot tall drop and 4 inversions. It goes 70 miles an hour. Tom and Keeley basically tricked me into going on it, but I’m not mad because now I can forever brag that I did it and survived! Once was enough for me but they did it another couple of times and waited to ride in the first car. They love roller coasters so it was great that they could go together! Yes in the picture bottom right the car stays upside down for what feels like a long time. Then is does it three more times. Those are the parts where my eyes are closed😱

The first thing I recommend doing when you arrive is head straight to get your magic wand. The main shop to buy one at is Ollivanders Wand Shop. There are other places to buy them in both parks but Ollivanders is the only place you can watch how the wand selects the wizard. They pick one person in the group to participate but it’s still really fun to watch the process. There are 40 different wands to choose from each named after a character from the books. Different colors, shapes etc. They really are magic. At various places throughout the parks you can use them and make magic happen! Well that’s if you know the correct spell. If you forget you can just look on the ground and follow the directions. A map of all the magic spots are included in your wand box. Keeley got Professor McGonagall’s wand, Tom has Albus Dumbledore’s and I went for Hermione Granger. I feel like a kindred spirit with Hermione’s quest for knowledge and extreme annoying behavior (sometimes). Here are pics waiting outside the wand store, picking our wands and Keeley getting ready to do some magic!

Next we headed to Gringotts Wizarding Bank. It’s actually a really cool ride where you take a car down into the vaults just like they did in the movie. There are plenty of animated Goblins working the counters as you walk to get in line for the ride. And if you’re patient and stand outside of the bank you get to see the dragon on top breathe fire!

It was so fun to be there in December and see everything decorated for the holidays. Snow on all the roofs and lots of wreaths, garland and lights.

We had tickets for both parks and took the Hogwarts Express both ways. The rides are different depending on which direction you go. We got to enter through King’s Cross Station and hop on at platform 9 and 3/4. And remember you can only ride the train if you have tickets for both parks.

Who wants butter beer? You have to try it! Comes three ways. Regular, frozen and hot. We shared the regular and the frozen. Both delicious. They only come in one size and that’s large so you might want to consider sharing it. To me it tasted like root beer with butterscotch on top. It’s pretty sweet but good. The phone booth is available for conversations with the Minister of Magic and you can make a quick stop to see the Night Bus😊 Keeley wanted to do it all!

We had one great meal in the parks the two days we were there. So I need to give a shout-out to making a RESERVATION in advance (even just a day or two) for Mythos which is located in Islands of Adventure. For the past 10 years it has won the award for best food of all amusement parks in the country. The food was great! Cost wise it wasn’t more expensive than the fairly bad food we had the day before from a stand in the park where we couldn’t find a place to even sit down and eat it. It’s a Mediterranean restaurant which we all loved and really delicious. We were ready to sit for a bit so ordered drinks waiting for our food. Keeley had a beer and Tom ordered a specialty drink called Potion of the Gods. We all tried it and it was good but burst out laughing when it was delivered in a glass as big as Keeley’s head!

Hogwarts with my favorite Wizards!

I did quite a bit of research in advance before we arrived, and I’m happy to share my tips. Keeley and I were so fortunate because Tom had visited the parks in May of 2021 so he was our personal guide. Since he’s not currently available for hire I’ll do my best.

1 - Download the Universal APP. Absolutely essential! You will use it constantly to check ride wait times, make ride reservations, check restaurant menus, make meal reservations etc. Everything you need to know or want to know is on the APP.

2 - Don’t bring much in with you. A small crossbody or Fanny pack or pockets that zip or button works great. You can’t take ANYTHING on any of the rides - especially not a phone so you will be putting all your belongings in a pretty tiny locker outside of every ride so it needs to fit.

3 - Make sure you know what time each park opens and closes. The APP will tell you this. It’s not the same everyday and can change abruptly. Get there at least a half hour or more before the park opens. They have a huge parking garage but it’s at least a mile and most likely 2 from where you will enter the park. The lines to get into parking can be quite long and slightly slow. We got there early and had time to buy coffee and donuts while we waited for the park to open. A perfect way to start a vacation day for me! Getting there early is one of the best times to head right for the ride you can’t wait to go on and could be a 2 hour wait in just a few hours. REMEMBER WHERE YOU PARKED. Take a picture on your phone of the location. The lots and floors are labeled by Super Hero😊

4 - Buy your park tickets in advance. You will pay full price and waste time if you plan to buy your tickets when you arrive at the park. If you are staying at a resort call them in advance and ask them what price the tickets are from them. Usually they are able to get discounted tickets. Another source you should check is www.undercovertourist.com. It is a legitimate website and they sell tickets to Universal and Disney at a discount. Know in advance what you are looking for as far as how many days you want to visit the parks. The more days you will be there the cheaper each day will cost. The tickets we got were buy 2 days and get a third day free. Even the two day ticket was cheaper than a 2 day ticket bought at the park. If you only have one day that’s fine but two days will allow you to really take in just about everything.

5 - The park offers free Wi-Fi so use it if you have limited data with your cellphone plan.

There are way too many rides for me to go through each one - but do not miss Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. It’s the newest ride in the Harry Potter area of the park, and the technology is mind blowing. It is a roller coaster but it doesn’t go high so even if you’re not a coaster fan it is not to be missed. We rode it a couple of times and it was as fun the third time as the first. Ever wanted to play quidditch? Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey will help you check that off your list. The rides are really great even if you don’t know a thing about Harry Potter, and there are lots of other attractions in both parks from the many other Universal movies. There are shows and parades and lots of characters milling about so to say never a dull moment is an understatement.

We had a fabulous time and will talk about it for years. Another special thing that happened on this trip was my birthday! I can’t remember the last time I got to spend my birthday with both of my amazing children! They took me out for a great birthday celebration and meal - but just getting to be with them was the best gift of all💕

That was the end of Florida for my kids but not for me! I was then off for another week at the beach so check back soon for an update on that.🤗