Diagon Alley (WWoHP Part 4)

We got up bright and early on Wednesday to head to Universal Studios. Our Early Admission got us in at 8 AM, and we were told that if we got there by 7:30, they often opened the gates early. We got up, ate some cold cereal for breakfast, and then caught the shuttle to the park. The shuttle stop was right outside of our hotel, and the bus was sitting there waiting for us when we came down. (During our whole trip, we never waited one time for a shuttle, and once we boarded the longest wait before we left was about 5 minutes. AWESOME!) It only took a few minutes to get to the gate, and all six of us were so excited.

Headed for the shuttle

We made it to Universal Studios!

(On Christian's shoulder is Freddy the Fish. He is Christian's class "pet" and goes along on adventures with the students. He is one well-traveled stuffed animal!)

There aren't many times in life when you are as excited as your children to experience something. This was one of those rare, special occasions. I think Hannah and Ben were right there with us on excitement level. (As an aside... They were so fun to have along on the trip. They spoke in British accents the whole time, and the smiles never left their faces. They were the life of the party!) We lined up outside the gates, and sure enough, they opened them up about 10 minutes early, meaning we got in 70 minutes before the General Public. It might not seem like a big deal, but when you have an 8 year old and a 5 year old, any amount of time that you can save from waiting in lines is HUGE. We headed straight for Diagon Alley to go on the "Escape from Gringotts" ride. While we wanted to get a good spot in line, I also wanted to make sure that everyone got a chance to fully take in the atmosphere and magic of our first look at Diagon Alley, so we took it slow.

When you approach the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the first things you see are some of the sites of London. King's Cross Station, cool red phone booths, and the Knight bus let you know that you are close. First, we stopped in one of the phone booths and dialed the Ministry of Magic. The boys were confused about the phone booths because they haven't been allowed to read or watch past book 4, but they were nice enough to go along with their crazy mom and her obsession with taking pictures.

Then we went to see the Knight bus. In front of the Knight bus was Stan Shunpike and the shrunken head. They were hilarious! You could stop and talk to them and ask them questions. Stan never once broke character, and he made everyone laugh with his corny jokes and British accent. From there, you have to go around the corner of a brick wall to find the entrance to Diagon Alley. It is tucked back behind so that it really feels like a hidden world. Every detail was so perfectly done! The bricks were made to look like they were moving, and as you entered, you could hear the sound that moving bricks would make.

Entering Diagon Alley

Then you get your first glimpse of Diagon Alley. The streets, shops, and sounds were so quirky and fun. I loved everything about it. The main feature is definitely the dragon on top of Gringott's Bank at the end of the street. It is huge and growls and rumbles. As soon as you start to hear the growling, you know that it will breathe fire soon. Every 15 minutes or so, it breathes a huge flame of real fire. If you are close enough, you can actually feel the heat. I thought it was really cool, but Andrew was  kind of scared of it. He kept saying that we would get burned if we were too close. We tried to explain that it wouldn't be a problem, citing theme park safety and liability, but he would still ask to go somewhere else whenever we would hear the rumbling start.

After we were done gawking at how cool Diagon Alley was, we made our way to Gringotts to get in line for the ride. You enter the bank, and immediately see the Goblins hard at work keeping the books. They move and talk and were very impressive.  It really looked like a scene straight out of the movies. There really wasn't any line, so we walked straight through to the back of the bank where you get in a huge elevator to go down to the vaults. It is dark and a bit spooky once you get to the lower vaults. Andrew didn't want to ride it, so we were going to just do a child swap with him (meaning that one parent could wait with the child, and then when the rest of the group came back, the parent that was waiting could immediately go on the ride). Even though we promised him that he would not have to go on the ride, he was freaking out a little bit. Keep in mind, that this is the first BIG amusement park the kids have ever been to, so they have very little experience with thrill rides.We had to keep reassuring him that everything was okay. We wound our way through the underground vaults and finally made it to the actual ride. The line was constantly moving the whole time, and we never really had to wait. It was the perfect scenario.

Jonathon and Andrew went to a little side room to watch movies, while we rode. Christian was being very brave, but I could tell he was pretty scared. We put him in the middle of the mine cart between me and Hannah. The ride was really neat. You wear 3D glasses as you speed through the mine. I thought the scariest part was at the very beginning where they slowly tip the cart so that it is facing straight down and then drop you. It wasn't a very big drop though, so your stomach catches up pretty quickly :) From there, you speed past different characters and scenarios. Bellatrix and Voldemort shoot 3D spells at you, a dragon breathes fire, and security trolls try to smash the cart among other things.  It has the feeling of riding a mild to moderately intense roller coaster with all the cool added 4D effects mixed in. Hannah and Ben were cheering and having a great time, which really helped Christian feel better. I told him that he could just close his eyes if he got scared, and he only had to close them a few times. He ended up having a good time and was proud of himself for doing something new. When we got off the ride, I swapped with Jonathon, and Hannah and Ben got to immediately ride again with him. It was a sweet deal!

After Gringotts, we knew we wanted to go to Ollivanders to attend the wand choosing ceremony. The crowd was really small still as the park hadn't officially opened yet, so we ended up in a group with only about 10 other people for the show. Ollivander chose someone from the group to come find their wand. There were only 4 kids in the group, so we were really hoping that Christian or Andrew would get picked, but alas! Ollivander had the little girl that he selected try some simple spells using various wands. None of them worked quite right until he found the wand that "chose" her. When he got to the right wand, there was music and flashing lights, and it was all very cute. The boys were totally enthralled. After the show, we went into the wand shop where the boys got to buy a wand. We discussed prior to our trip that we were going to buy each boy a regular wand as our gift to them. They are quite expensive ($35 each), but we knew that it would be a great souvenir for them. If they wanted to upgrade to the new interactive wands, they would each have to pay the extra $10. Both boys decided to spend their own money to get the interactive wands. Christian chose Dumbledore's wand, and Andrew chose Harry Potter's. Not to be left out, Hannah got Professor McGonagall's and Ben, the rebel, got Fenrir Greyback's wand. They were completely thrilled with their wands, and I think it was the single best purchase we made the entire trip!

Inside Ollivanders Wand Shop

Testing out their new wands

The interactive wands turned out to be extremely fun for the boys. Scattered throughout Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are golden medallions on the ground. They show the wand movement needed and the spell to say in order to do magic. Most of the interactive magic happened in the store windows where the boys were able to flush toilets, open books, and make things dance. There were also places to make it rain and to turn on a water fountain, etc. It took a little practice to get the wand movements down, but the boys learned pretty quickly. There were about 25 magical spots throughout the 2 parks, and we made sure to go to all of them. Christian was a really good little wizard. He usually got the spell right on the first try and was definitely the best of our bunch. 

Andrew Learning to do Magic!

For the next couple of hours, we explored all of the fun shops in Diagon Alley. We walked through the Owlery, admired the Wizard robes at Madame Malkims, exchanged some of our money for wizarding money at Gringotts, checked out some magical creatures in Magical Menagerie, and laughed at all the silly things in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. In terms of wearable souvenirs, I thought that Quality Quidditch Supplies was really the place to go. They had great hats, shirts, socks, ties, scarves, etc. Christian and Andrew even found a Firebolt broomstick that they were pretty excited about. Once again, the attention to detail was really what made Diagon Alley so amazing. Not one feature in the entire area was overlooked. Even the bathrooms were identified as "witch" or "wizard", and Moaning Myrtle could be heard talking/singing in the girl's bathroom. 

The Owlery, complete with lots of "owl poop" (I told you they were thorough :)

The bright colors of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Our Wizard Money from Gringotts-- It can be spent throughout the WWoHP

Our future seekers and their Firebolts

Looks like Hannah found the right bathroom

I loved the amazing colors and quirky architecture. I couldn't stop taking pictures! 

After we walked around for a while, we decided to head to the Fountain of Fair Fortune for some butterbeer. We were so excited to taste it! There were two different varieties available: regular or frozen. We decided to get one of each and split them. They were both delicious, but we all agreed that the frozen butterbeer won the taste test, hands down. It tasted like a creamy butterscotch slushy. Mmmmm! That was definitely not the last butterbeer we would drink over the course of our trip.

Before we left Diagon Alley, we found the entrance to Knockturn Alley and decided to check out some of the dark arts. It was dark and creepy and just how you would expect it to be. Borgin and Burkes had some fun souvenirs for the rebels of the group. The boys found an interactive wand medallion that allowed them to control the movements of a skeleton with their own movements. We spent quite a few minutes inside Borgin and Burkes making the skeleton dance. 

Our Dark Wizards

Christian and Sirius Black

We were able to return to Diagon Alley later, so we had a chance to see and do a few more things. The boys took a ride on Sirius's motorcycle, and we took advantage of the empty park to have a wand duel in front of some picturesque buildings. 

Dueling

Lastly, we got ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. We each got a different flavor so we could all have a little sample of all the fun British specialties. We tried pistachio, toffee apple, strawberries and cream, butterbeer, chocolate raspberry, and clotted cream.  In my opinion, clotted cream was the best! It started off sweet and creamy and had a little zing at the end. Delicious! Diagon Alley was such a great addition to Universal Studios. I was so impressed with everything that they did. For our family, truly obsessed HP fans, it was completely magical and perfect, but I think that even a regular muggle would find it amusing, charming, and well worth their time.

ICE CREAM!