The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

One of the biggest draws for us to go to Universal is that it is the home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWOHP).  We are HUGE Harry fans, so we were excited to visit.  I had heard good things, so I had high expectations.  These expectations were blown totally out of the water.  The Harry Potter lands were AMAZING.  I could not believe how much detail had been put into this world.  It really came alive for us.

The WWOHP is divided into two sections- Diagon Alley (located in Universal Studios) and Hogsmeade (located in Islands of Adventure).  The two sections are connected by the Hogwarts Express.  As guests of the Royal Pacific Resort, we had early access to the Diagon Alley, and we took advantage of that on our first day in the park.  We are glad that we did because the WWOHP was by far the busiest area of the park later in the day.  To enter Diagon Alley, you walk through the brick wall- just like in the book.

 Once in Diagon Alley, the dominating building is Gringotts.  There is a dragon perched on top and it breathes fire every 20 minutes or so.

 There are other shops as well including Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  We saw all sorts of things inside of the shops and in the window displays.  We saw a Firebolt, a quidditch set (with bludgers that were trying to escape), and the Monster Book of Monsters (that was in a cage for obvious reasons).  We explored every inch of Diagon Alley...

.... except this part ;)

Hagrid must have also been around somewhere because we saw his bike.  

 Inside of Gringotts is the ride "Escape from Gringotts".  This was one of the few rides that our Express Pass would not work for.  It was actually better this way because walking through the queue was half the fun.  The interior of Gringotts is beyoned belief.  Animatronic goblins man their stations, scribbling in their ledgers.  The ride itself is, in my opinion, the best in the park.  I have never ridden anything like it before- absolutely amazing.

 Another must-do in Diagon Alley was a visit to Ollivanders.  They have a thing where you can let the wand choose you, but Olivia and Owen were having none of that.  They wanted to choose their own wand- and there were tons to choose from.  Olivia chose Dumbledore's wand and Owen chose Professor McGonagall's wand.  Although it was a little more expensive, we got the kids interactive wands.  There are brass plates on the ground in front of many shop windows in both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.  These brass plates contain a spell and instructions for using your wand.  If you stand on these plates and do the spell with an interactive wand, then something magical will happen.  The kids spent a lot of time locating the plates and using their wands to cast spells and see the magic happen.

 Here Owen is getting instruction from a witch on how to make water come out of the fountain.

 Olivia is practicing her wizarding skills here.

 The kids weren't the only ones who liked the interactive wands.

 We thought about visiting the Ministry of Magic, but decided against it.

We did meet the driver of the Knight Bus.  The driver was a nice fellow.  The shrunken head (hanging in the window) was also interactive and conversed with everyone who would listen.

 The kids knocked on the door of 12 Grimmauld Place.  Kreacher looked out of the window, but wouldn't answer (probably thought they were Muggles).

 After spending a fair amount of time in Diagon Alley, we boarded the Hogwarts Express to travel to Hogsmeade.  In this picture the kids are about to pass through the wall between platforms 9 and 10.  It doesn't look that impressive here, but when you are in line it looks like the people ahead of you are actually disappearing into the wall.

 Here we are- platform nine and three-quarters.

 And here's the Hogwarts Express.

Hogsmeade is in an eternal state of winter.  There are many shops and places to use the interactive wands in this part of the park as well.

 We walked through Hogsmeade and into Hogwarts, stopping along the way to take some photos.

 Located inside the castle is the ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  This is another ride where the Express Pass would not work, and once again it is for the best.  We would have missed so much had we bypassed the line.  But because we didn't, we got to see things like... the entrance to Dumbledore's office,

 the hallways of Hogwarts- where the pictures move and talk to each other,

 Dumbledore's office and the pensieve (in photo),

and the sorting hat.  We also saw the Fat Lady's portrait (she's a talker), the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom, and we got to see it snow indoors.  The Forbidden Journey ride is also very good- in spite of the fact that we were chased by Dementors and smacked around by the Whomping Willow.

 We saw the Three Broomsticks and the Hog's Head, but we did not eat there.  We did, however, pop into HoneyDukes for a chocolate frog.

 The kids were excited to eat their chocolate frog, and were also thrilled about the trading cards that they got (Dumbledore and Rowena Ravenclaw).

And of course we couldn't leave without a Butterbeer.  We didn't particularly care for it- tasted like toffee.  All this drinking made Olivia have to visit the ladies room.  She came out complaining that Moaning Myrtle was in the restroom and wouldn't quit complaining about how lonely she was.  It's details like this that made the WWOHP a truly magical place.