All aboard the Hogwarts Express!  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened on June 18 to great fanfare and much excitement, complete with a celebrity-filled grand opening and tons of media coverage. If you’ve ever imagined or hoped that you could wave a wand and do magical things, a trip to The Wizarding World is probably the closest you’ll come to the real thing.
Even if you think a muggle is a designer dog, you’ll enjoy this part of Universal’s Islands of Adventure, but you may want to watch a Harry Potter movie or read a J.K. Rowling book beforehand. I’ve done both and also read up on Harry Potter on a myriad of websites that have popped up like poppies in a field (oops, wrong wizard) so I felt prepared for my July visit. My nieces (Hannah, age 13, and Alexis, age 16) came along; Hannah’s pretty wild about Harry Potter and I was counting on her to answer any questions I had. (And for the uninitiated, a muggle is a person with no magical abilities.)

Once inside the park, we trekked over to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’d heard it’s best to go first thing, but after we entered the park, we were given a flyer that suggested going after 3 p.m. We decided to take our chances anyway and walked there to see how long it would take to get into the rides and shops. I had nightmarish visions of a frenzied stampede of muggles running me down, but my fears were allayed (although crowds filled the streets to maximum capacity).

First stop:  Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry for the thrill ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Wait time: 90 minutes (not bad in comparison to the 4-6 hour wait when it first opened). Alexis noticed a sign for single riders, which was a great timesaver; we got in line at 10 a.m. and were done at 10:25. Lucky us!

The ride was a blast; imagine flying on a broomstick through the English countryside at high speed and later coming face-to-face with giant spiders.  It seemed to last a long time by theme park standards and the effects were thrilling enough to make my heart beat faster and induce some mild screaming while still being just plain fun. Second stop: The nieces hop on The Flight of the Hippogriff (a fairly tame rollercoaster, although I still heard screams of excitement).  At 11:40, we joined the queue at the tavern Three Broomsticks. About 20 minutes later, we had fish and chips (delicious!), shepherd’s pie (quite tasty!), chicken fingers and chocolate berry trifle.

I sipped Butterbeer, a foamy nonalcoholic concoction tasting like cream soda, and pumpkin juice, similar to spiced apple cider; both were created especially for Wizarding World. Muggles over age 21 can imbibe several varieties of beer and other spirits at the Hog’s Head pub adjoining the tavern. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to check out Olivander’s, Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. Olivander’s only holds 25 people and features a presentation in which a magic wand selects one person to be its owner. In the morning, the line looked extremely long; at 4 p.m. the line seemed shorter, so we gave it a try. After 15 minutes, we rounded a corner and saw that it was much longer, so we ducked under the chain and left. I’ve heard that the wait time is at least 2 hours now and I’m sure die-hard Potter fans won’t mind the wait. We did check out several shops where we didn’t have to wait in line, although they were so crowded it was hard to move around. (Note to J.K.: Next time, please make the shops a bit larger.) We went to Honeydukes, a delightful Victorian-style candy store where you can buy chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott’s jelly beans (warning: some flavors are pretty yucky), huge lollipops, chocolate-peppermint flies (perhaps to feed the chocolate frog?) and much more.

There’s even a bakery case with such yummies as pumpkin tarts, caramel apples and cauldron cakes. The adjoining shop, Zonko’s, reminded me of a toy shop circa the early 1900s (albeit one that attracts mischievous boys) with such novelties as chattering teeth, screaming yo-yos and metal robots. After the girls explored Honeydukes, the adventurous Alexis headed for the Dragon Challenge rollercoaster; Hannah and I grabbed a spot on a bench in the covered Hogwarts Express train depot (although Hannah did gather up some courage and went on the rollercoaster later).

We were grateful for the shade-producing V-shaped roof, which seemed to be several stories high.  Looking up, I noticed barn owls in the rafters and was surprised to see them moving their heads and flapping their wings. It was a small detail, and I’m not sure if many noticed, but I thought it was pretty cool. I just may make another visit when the weather cools down; I’m sure there are more magical details to be found in Harry’s world.