WWoHP - Diagon Alley Recap (Pic Heavy)

[just]

Know this is a mostly Disney board, but thought I'd give a recap of WWoHP, particularly Diagon Alley.

We were there on Tuesday which, according to most crowd calendars, was a green day for Universal (Diagon Alley) and an red day for IoA (Hogsmeade). We'd done Hogsmeade, and the rest of the parks 4 years ago, so this trip was really focused on Diagon Alley, and to a lesser extent Hogsmeade.

We stayed at Cabana Bay so got early entry to Universal. As per recommendations online, we got to the gates at 7:25ish for an 8am opening. There were 8 lines with about 6-10 people there when we arrived so about 80ish people were ahead of us. They opened the gates at 7:50 took about 10 minutes to walk to London, which looks really cool with the Night bus and Grimmauld Place



We used the phone box to dial the ministry of magic, because we thought the lines would be long later in the day, but they weren't. Then we headed through to Diagon Alley and headed right through to Escape from Gringotts as the interwebs told me that the queue can get as long as 2 hours during the day.



We didn't wait at all, but took our time walking through Gringotts. There wasn't as much to see along the way as with Forbidden Journey in Hogwarts, but still some fun things ... (the pictures in the newspaper moved)



The ride itself is really fun. I liked that it mixed traditional roller coaster stuff and 3d. I also like that it took place during the story, rather than the montage for Forbidden Journey. We did it about 3 more times using the single rider line (which bypasses Gringotts) but I never saw the wait go about 20 minutes all day.

Next I just spent the next hour enjoying Diagon Alley and all the awesome details they put in. It's so much bigger than Hogsmeade, with so much to see. The details are amazing both inside and outside the shops. (I took tons of pics, so just a small selection below)



They also included Knockturn alley which is so well done - I think it's my favorite part. It's really dark and creepy and Borgin and Burkes was so well done...



We ate at the Leaky Cauldron which is very similar to the Three Broomsticks so the food was very slightly better than average theme park food, but the atmosphere was great.

Next we went on the Hogwarts Express. This was our longest wait, but IoA had just opened so we think we were behind the first line of the day because we rode it a couple more times and the wait wasn't that long. There is a really long walk from entrance to train though. Again the attention to detail is exceptional. It's not really a ride, but if you're into the lore, it's great. The experience on the train is different each way so ride it at least twice (to and from Diagon Alley).



For the rest of the day we wandered around Hogmeade which was insanely busy, rode Forbidden Journey a few times, rode back and forth on the Hogwarts Express, had an icecream and beer at Diagon Alley and just soaked it all up.

The first hour was by far the best - it really was great to be there with so few people. Within a half an hour of the park opening the crowds were obviously larger and stayed consistent all day. The interwebs had told me that the last couple of hours of opening (so 4-6 for Universal on Tuesday and 5-7 at IoA) usually were also calm but I didn't really observe that.

Overall a great trip for a die-hard HP fan!

[jeaniebueller]

Great pictures! My BIL and his family were there in February and said it was literally wall to wall people to where you couldn't move. Glad it wasn't as crowded for you.

[jeaniebueller]

Apr 14, 2016 12:48:19 GMT -5 chilerellanos said:

Apr 14, 2016 12:45:02 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Great pictures! My BIL and his family were there in February and said it was literally wall to wall people to where you couldn't move. Glad it wasn't as crowded for you.

That's crazy! In February? We were there in June, and it was busy but not packed!

Oh shoot. I meant December. WE were in FL in Feb, they went in December.

[curbsideprophet]

Glad you had a good time!

[ilikedonuts]

I need to go there so bad! I think DH and I need an adults only trip as well as our regular family Disney trip in 2017.