Travel Log: Hogsmeade (and a little bit about Diagon Alley)
So my friend Noel and I went to Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure to see Hogsmeade. We unfortunately were about two weeks too early to see Diagon Alley, which won’t open until July 8 - but in retrospect, that was probably a good thing. (I’ll explain why in a moment - and no, it’s not because Diagon Alley won’t be awesome, because let’s face it, it will be.)
Noel and I had done most of our homework, and gotten some very good advice from all quarters, and ended up getting a room at one of Universal’s partner hotels, which meant we were allowed to enter the park one hour early. We left the boys at the time share on Monday night and drove the short distance to the hotel - the newest in the Universal lineup, the Cabana Bay Resort Hotel. It was, in a word, hysterical. The whole thing is supposed to have a 1950s motif, and according to Noel (who remembers the 1950s, it was like stepping back into her childhood. Our room:
The entire hotel looked like that - you really expected to see beehive hairstyles and high-waisted bikinis beside the pool. Even the shampoo bottles had a sort of art-deco feel to them, and there were big-screen TVs showing old cartoons in the cafeteria-style restaurant. I should have gotten a picture of the buses that took us to the park - they had that fake wooden paneling decorating the sides. The only nod to the modern day was the Starbucks in the lobby.
Not that I’m complaining. Noel and I were up at 6am so that we could throw our bags in the (covered) garage, check out of our rooms, and be on the first shuttle to the park just after 7am. Starbucks was practically a requirement.
Universal has a pretty good setup for their space - you have to walk through their City Walk, where all the restaurants are located, before reaching the entrance to Islands of Adventure. A little further on (but still very walkable) is the entrance to Unviersal Studios, where Diagon Alley will be located. We reached the entrance for IoA and joined the rest of the lines - all very short, we were maybe 10 people back, and it was just before 7.30. Within fifteen minutes, the line was much longer - there were easily a couple hundred people behind us, and that’s just all I could see, there may have been more.
A little bit before 8, the gates opened, and the attendants started processing us all through. We were allowed to walk through the first section of the park - nothing was open - until we reached another block, just before the Dr Suess area. And there we all patiently queued up again, and waited some more. We could see the spires of Hogwarts in the distance, and at the stroke of 8am, the ropes went down, and in we all went. Some of the younger kids ran - most of us just walked very briskly. Within a few minutes, we were there!
All the advice I’d received said the same thing: go straight to Forbidden Journey in the castle. So we went, pausing briefly when we were overcome with the urge to take photos. (And I’m glad we did - the good thing about being there so early was that the place was fairly empty, so photos were easy to get. But we were also conscious that there were a lot of people behind us, far more than people in front, and Forbidden Journey is one of the more popular rides.)
We went into the castle, shoved our stuff in a locker, and headed in. We forgot to ask for single-rider, but we hurried through the castle anyway, knowing we’d take a tour later. We hardly waited before boarding the ride, and then off we went.
It was excellent. So excellent that we left our stuff in its locker (where it’d be safe for another hour at least) and went a second time, this time utilizing the single-rider lines, and again it was a super-short wait (and a much shorter distance to walk). So short, in fact, that we decided to go a THIRD time, as it was only 8.30 and we figured we’d be in and out with plenty of time to spare before the massive crowds came in at 9am and blocked up Dragon Challenge.
We weren’t quite wrong. There wasn’t anyone in front of us in the single-rider line, but we still ended up waiting because the ride shut down while the “students” put on some more cars for people to ride. One of the students explained that there are normally 47 cars, but only 40 had been loaded at the start of the day.
A word about the workers: every person we saw in the castle was dressed as a Hogwarts student. Clearly they have their pick of the costume, as well - some wore just the shirt/jumper/tie combination, some also had the robes above that. They all had House colors, too. And they were clearly adhering to their roles - Noel asked if they’d been able to choose their Houses, and we were very firmly told that they’d been Sorted when they arrived at school, by the very Hat on display in the corner! At another point while we were waiting, one of the Slytherin students came over to us. He had that Slytherin smirk on his face, and he started asking us about our houses. When I told him I was Ravenclaw (because Pottermore’s Sorting Hat can stuff it, thankyouverymuch), he gave me a sort of approving nod and said, “Yeah, that’ll do,” as if I was at least passable.
(All the Slytherins were like that, btw. Not mean in the slightest, mind, but I think they were all having way too much fun with their roles. More on this later.)
So the ride started up and I boarded. Now, the cars are more like benches - you sit next to each other, but you can’t really see your companions, so single-riders is a really good way to get on since the line’s a bit shorter. The benches move to the left, so the folks sitting on the far left side of the bench get to see things first. The first two times, I’d ridden on the far right. This time, though, I was on the first seat on the far left. It’s a very different ride, let me tell you, when you’re first up. Not better or worse, just different in some small ways. I like it a bit better, but this is probably a matter of personal preference, like where you ride on a roller coaster.
But what really made this particular trip different was because shortly after we began - the ride shut down. Again. We were stuck for about five minutes.
Of course, I took photos. Because that’s what you do when you’re stuck in a ride and your camera phone is in your pocket and they’ve turned on the lights and you can actually see all the details that you can’t see when the lights are out.
I have to admit, I’m really curious how the ride works - I’d love to take a tour of it with the lights on, to see how all the effects happen. There are points when if you look in the right direction, you can see all the other riders moving up and down in their benches, and that’s kind of fun. But I’m weird like that!
Anyway, after the third go, Noel and I decided it was time to move on to Dragon before the Peons joined us in the park. So we retrieved our stuff from the locker and went on to the next one, bypassing the Hippogriff ride in favor of the more popular Dragon. Once again, stuff went into lockers; once again, we went quickly through the winding waiting areas. The waiting areas are interesting, with bits of Potteralia (or whatever it’s called) sprinkled inside to keep you visually entertained.
And then we were inside, and ready to board, and that’s when Noel and I noticed something we’d sort of not seen prior to boarding: the Dragon? It’s not just a roller coaster. It’s one of those coasters where your feet are hanging and you’re suspended from above and that usually means you’re going to go upside-down and possibly risk losing your lunch, and I am not kidding when I tell you that just remembering this and writing about it, I am already beginning to feel seriously dizzy like the entire room is spinning.
*breathes and takes a moment*
Okay. I had some water, I’m better now. Noel and I rode. Neither of us are Gryffindor, but we were very brave. Godric would have been proud to claim us as his own, if Rowena and Salazar hadn’t gotten to us first. I don’t think our legs were even shaking when we got off, and managed to make our extremely low and somewhat tipsy way back out to the street.
We did, however, reward ourselves with pumpkin juice, because we didn’t think our tummies could handle the butterbeer just yet.
I’ve actually had real pumpkin juice - they sold it in Kyrgyzstan. It tastes like…well, pumpkin, and it’s very thick like a smoothie. I used it when cooking. This juice wasn’t like that - there’s pumpkin in it, but the ingredients also list apple juice and apricot, and it tastes a lot like a pumpkin pie, but sweeter and not quite as heavily spiced. Plus you get the plastic pumpkin on top, which Andrew has already appropriated for his own devices.
At any rate, it made a delicious breakfast. But my head was still kind of spinning from the Dragon, and I didn’t feel particularly steady on my feet, so we decided to walk a little and look in the storefronts and check out Honeydukes while we made our way back up the street.
We took a brief detour at Ollivanders. Obviously we were too old to be chosen by a wand ourselves, but it’s a fun show. My one regret is that I was entirely stupid and forgot to take off my sunglasses inside. Which explains why I thought it was so dark in there.
Anyway, we wandered in the little shop attached for a bit, and took note of some of the things we saw, but didn’t buy anything just yet. We worked our way up the street to the castle, where we walked very confidently up to the students guarding the entrance and used all our advice and proudly said, “We would like a castle tour!”
“Okay!” said the students, and ushered us past all the peons waiting in the sun and right inside. We bypassed all those people waiting in line, and before we knew it, we were all by ourselves in the castle, with all the time in the world to look.
Easy cheesy.
The castle tour was lovely and quiet and most importantly, air-conditioned. The nice thing about the tour is that there’s no hurry - there are so few people taking it that you don’t feel the least bit guilty sticking around in each room to look at - and more importantly, listen to - everything going on. Because of course, the portraits move and talk, and we heard the four Founders of Hogwarts talking about Harry Potter and Dumbledore, before Dumbledore himself gave us a welcoming speech, and then the Fat Lady talked about Harry’s prowess on the Quidditch Field. Harry, Ron, and Hermione show up, and we get a little talk about how to fly from some unidentified portraits.
The only real problem with the castle is that it’s fairly dark inside - most of my photos didn’t turn out very well. Read: at all, which is why there aren’t any. I’d need my better camera, and I didn’t want to carry it so I was stuck with my camera phone, which is nice enough in bright sunlight, but not dark places.
We stuck around in each room for a couple of iterations of each presentation - they’re all a little bit different, and I think they’re even slightly interchangeable so that no two presentations are exactly alike. What I found most curious, though, is that while no one is hurrying you along, people kept moving quickly down the lines, barely stopping to watch or listen to anything. I have no idea why they were hurrying - castle tourists don’t get to ride the ride, and the only thing waiting on the other side was 90F sunshine.
The best part, though, was watching reactions. One teenage girl was my favorite. When the Fat Lady turned and shouted at her, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”, the girl jumped and screamed, and then couldn’t stop laughing and shouting herself, “It’s the Fat Lady!”
(She would have stayed and watched the fun, but she was in the ride line, and the line was moving, so along she went. I hope she knew about the castle tour so she could come back later.)
We finished our tour, and then got back into the single riders line. (I’m not sure that counts as cheating, since we skipped the first part of the queue outside the castle, but no one stopped us, and it’s such a mess in the castle that I’m not sure how they could. Regardless, I don’t feel too guilty about it. Must be Noel’s Slytherin rubbing off on me.) Well, the ride had its revenge - three times that morning, and I was fine and happy, but one ride on the Dragon still had me queasy enough that my fourth time on Journey, I was a bit shaky coming off. It was still fun, but….I was about ready for lunch.
After that, we went back down the street, where we started chatting with one of the street vendors, and learned a few interesting things:
1. The schedule for the Hogwarts Choir and the TriWizard Demonstration. These take place on the stage just below the castle, and there isn’t really a posted schedule or one handed out. But Very Nice Employee #1 was able to tell us when to expect a performance, so that worked out well.
2. We also learned why some names aren’t offered on the Hogwarts souvenirs. I usually find my name (Sharon) pretty easily, even though it’s not terribly common anymore. But I didn’t see it on the Hogwarts keychains she was selling at her stand, and as we chatted, I mentioned how surprised I was. Very Nice Employee #1 told us that there’s several common names missing from the line-up, but there’s a lot of Latino names, because there are a lot of visitors from South America who visit the park, and most days, Very Nice Employee #1 has at least one customer who expresses delight that they’ve found their name on something.
But lastly, and most importantly:
3. Very Nice Employee #1 worked at Universal when Hogsmeade opened four years ago. She remembered eight-hour waits to even get into the park, and then wall-to-wall people once you were inside. And we could see her point - it was just after 11am by the time we talked to her, and Hogsmeade was already crowded with people, enough that Noel and I were dodging groups as we walked along. We both remembered the relative calm and quiet when we’d first rushed in just three hours previously, and that golden hour in retrospect seemed like heaven. Already, it was getting hard to really look at Hogsmeade properly. Remember what that photo looked like of Hogsmeade as we entered? Well, this is what it looked like shortly before lunchtime:
And that’s in a park which has been open for four years, not four days. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, not being there opening week of Diagon Alley…awesomeness factor aside.
We stuck around the stage to watch the Hogwarts Frog Choir. Four people (two with singing frogs), from all four Houses. They were great fun to watch - especially the girl from Slytherin, who had the girl from Hufflepuff completely cowed, and kept glaring at the boy from Gryffindor, who wanted very much to take center stage. They sang several songs (including “Can You Dance Like a Hippogriff”, which I’m very sorry I didn’t record because it was excellent). I did get a recording of them singing “Something Wicked”, though, because I happen to like it.
Click to viewAfter the choir, Noel and I went up to the gift shop in the castle, which we’d seen briefly after our Forbidden Journeys, mostly to kill some time before the TriWizard Demonstration. The Demonstration was good - mostly a recreation of the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons entrances from the movies, but live and taking place right there, and therefore fun to watch. I think the Beauxbatons costumes are probably some of the more comfortable costumes in the hot weather, though - no heavy fabrics or black cloaks for them.
After that we decided to have lunch at the Three Broomsticks and write out our postcards. Good decision, too - there wasn’t a line to get in, and we ordered and had our food almost immediately, and then settled down to write out postcards. Once done, we mailed them off in the Owl Post, and then headed up to do yet another castle tour (it was hot, okay?). Noel rode the Journey again, but I decided to forgo - I blame lingering memories of the Dragon and a full tummy from lunch. After that, we figured it was time to ride the Hippogriff.
Which was when we made a somewhat unpleasant discovery: when we’d made the reservations at the hotel, we had done it under the assumption that it, like all the other Universal hotels, included Universal Express, which is where you get to skip the majority of the line and go straight to the front for priority boarding on some rides. Not a big deal, as it’s only good for a few of the rides we wanted to go on, but it was meant to be a nice bonus in addition to the hour’s early admission (which let’s face it, was the primary goal). But as it turns out, Cabana Bay doesn’t include the Express bonus. The guy at the front of the line was very nice, however, and let us go in the Express line anyway. It was a quick line, anyway - less than ten minutes, even though it was posted at 40.
Now, part of my reluctance to ride the Hippogriff earlier in the day was because I’d misunderstood what it was. I had done my research - but I think in researching the rides for Hogsmeade I’d gotten them mixed up with the rides at Disney World, and for some reason, I had it in my head that Hippogriff was like Dumbo, except with hippogriffs instead of flying elephants.
(Yes, yes, I know. Go on, laugh. You have to admit the concept doesn’t sound completely off-the-wall, if a little boring.)
Of course, Hippogriff is actually a very tame roller coaster suitable for smaller kids - Andrew could ride it and be perfectly happy. Noel and I boarded, and went around, and were happy as clams.
But this is the thing: Hippogriff was very similar, if a little bit longer, than the ride Andrew likes best at Busch Gardens, Grover’s Alpine Coaster. It goes up, down, and around, at a nice brisk pace, with a few drops but nothing that would cause you to lose your lunch. Grover takes about 40 seconds; Hippogriff was maybe a minute or 90 seconds, not long at all. Grover, I’ve been on tons of times and never minded a bit.
But Hippogriff? I got off Hippogriff, still somewhat queasy. And I don’t blame Hippogriff - I blame Dragon.
(Conclusion: I am never riding anything that sends me upside-down again. Period. OMFG. Not when it takes me all day to shake it.)
After the non-harrowing ride on Hippogriff, Noel and I headed out of Hogsmeade - but with two final stops. The first stop was our “reward” for braving Hippogriff: frozen butterbeer.
Friends, I have two words for you. FROZEN. BUTTERBEER.
Those of you following me on Tumblr are always well aware of my love affair with that delicious, delectable, delightful concoction known to the world as frozen butterbeer. It soothes, calms, and comforts. Its sweet and icy flavor slides down your throat like a warm ray of sunshine - not the 90 degree kind, but the comfortable beam on a cool spring day, the sort that comes with a gentle breeze and the whiff of wildflowers. You drink, and the hustle-bustle of the world around you falls away; the Muggles who are not carrying their cups of liquid cheer seem pale and colorless, unimportant and certainly uninformed, while you smile benevolently at all who share your good luck to find themselves blessed with their butterbeery bounty.
Friends, I tell you this. There is nothing in this world that cannot be improved with the generous and frequent application of frozen butterbeer. I dare say that if Tom Riddle himself had only had access to this most delightful of drinks, the world of Harry Potter would be a very different place.
And possibly not exist at Universal Studios, so maybe it’s better that it’s not available everywhere. Well, there’s a mind-riddle for you. Damn.
Armed with our frozen butterbeers, Noel and I wandered out of Hogsmeade, with a last longing look at the still inoperable train station to Diagon Alley. There was a guard by the gated entrance, who luckily had a good sense of humor about sad people looking longingly at what she was guarding.
I admit we were somewhat dreamy as we walked through the park - I couldn’t quite remember some of what we passed, but that’s because we had a rather singular focus on our way to Hogsmeade that morning. And it was with some shock that I realized that it was 2.30 already - we’d been in Hogsmeade for six-and-a-half-hours, and had seen and done absolutely everything we could - some things multiple times. Plus, apart from the line at Ollivanders, we’d hardly waited for anything at all.
So: if you are a Harry Potter fan, and someone tells you that you can get through Hogsmeade in half a day…they are wrong. Can’t be done, especially if you have a stronger stomach than I do and want to do the Dragon Challenge several times. Give yourselves half a day, lest you be those people rushing through the castle tour, unable to stop and listen to the Fat Lady shout “UP GRYFFINDOR” at unsuspected visitors.
Anyway. Noel and I stopped briefly in Dr Seuss’s world (I’d seen some t-shirts on the way in that I wanted to buy for Andrew) and then we headed over to Universal Studios, because we did have two-park tickets, and we figured we should at least look at Diagon Alley while we were there.
It’s maybe a ten-minute walk to Universal Studios. It looks a little like you’re walking in the back lot of a movie studio (or it looks like what everyone thinks a back lot would look like). The current maps don’t have Diagon Alley listed, but luckily, the tour book I’d bought did, so we used that to make our way around. We also had an idea of where it was - just over the buildings, we could see the profile of a dragon on top of a rounded rooftop.
(No picture, alas, but it was confirmation that we were heading in the right place!)
We did take one detour - into the Shrek show - but otherwise didn’t stop, and just as we reached our destination, it started to rain.
Appropriate, really. Because you go into Diagon Alley through London, and shouldn’t it always be raining in London?
And it does look a bit like London, if you took slices of London and shoved them all together. The first building in the façade is Kings Cross Station, which is where the Hogwarts Express from Hogsmeade will arrive. (Clever, really - anyone with a two-park pass will be able to use the Hogwarts Express to move between the parks, without having to gain access to either Harry Potter area if they don’t want to go in - or can’t, when it’s still high-peak enough to warrant separate access lines.)
And then there are other buildings and facades - an underground station, an official white building that I didn’t recognize but I’m sure one of you will tell me what it is, and a series of row houses which turn out to be Grimmauld Place. In front of it all, a fountain, and the Knight Bus.
Noel and I giggled like anything, and then ducked out as the rain started to lighten up, and took pictures. Most of them are from Noel’s camera, because mine had started acting up because of low power.
It was while we were posing by the Grimmauld Place sign that we started chatting with yet another park employee - Very Nice Employee #2, who as it turns out has been reading Harry Potter since he was a kid and didn’t even know Diagon Alley was going to open when he got the job a few months ago. Man, is he stoked. We talked books and movies and books v. movies for a while with him, and he was a complete delight. But we found out a few other curious things from him - first, that no one really knows where the entrance to Diagon Alley is going to be. That is, I’m sure someone knows, but they’re not letting anyone else in on it - perhaps it’ll be a surprise on opening day, or maybe it’s meant to be a secret and you have to actually find it. (Not sure how that’ll work, when half the world will want to get in on July 8, and they’ll all be armed with cameras.)
(Or - and here’s my thought - it’ll be that secret passage that is clearly visible behind me on Grimmauld Place. Probably not, but isn’t it funny to think so?)
Very Nice Employee #2 also told us that he’d heard that the lines four years ago were even worse than Very Nice Employee #1 had suggested - that cars had started lining up hours before the parking lots had even opened. That the lines had snaked all the way through the City Walk. And he agreed - we were better off not being there opening week.
The more I think about it, he’s right. In another week, you’re not going to be able to see the façade of London without people standing in front of it. Those pictures of me in front of Grimmauld Place? They’d have half a dozen other people in them, too. Heck, these sorts of picture will be impossible for a few more years, until the fervor dies down a bit.
Yeah, I’m sorry we missed Diagon Alley. But on the other hand, I get to see something much more fleeting - London, without anyone in it, when it’s still new and shining.
Someone came up to ask Very Nice Employee #2 a question, and we headed off, turning around every so often to get another look at Diagon Alley. As we did, another employee approached us.
“You know,” she said casually. “You can get a very good look from the top of the stadium there. You don’t have to stay for the show.”
“Really?”
“Yep. You didn’t hear it from me, though.”
Heck no. She didn’t tell us anything. She never spoke to us. She wasn’t even working that day.
Up the stadium we went - and while it wasn’t a great view (too many trees in the way), it was a very interesting view, for a few reasons.
For one thing, you can see that it’s not finished yet. The open area on the back of Grimmauld Place, and the construction clearly happening on the ground. Maybe that’s backstage - or maybe it’s something that’s not quite ready yet. And that mound with the trees - it seems out of place, doesn’t it? I can’t figure out what’s going on there.
Maybe someone else will, once it’s open.
We continued our brief tour of Universal Studios (the Simpsons area, btw, is actually seriously awesome; it’s really like you’re walking down a street in Springfield; if I’d had more life in my phone I’d have pictures of that too) and then headed back to Hogsmeade for one last castle tour. By then, the line for the single riders was quite long, and not even moving, and the line for regular riders even worse, so we skipping riding it again in favor of one last frozen butterbeer. Thus fortified, we headed home.
But I leave you with two bits of information gathered on our journey for those going to Diagon Alley in the near future:
The first is something we saw early in the day in Hogsmeade, but we didn’t know what they were. It wasn’t until one of the employees clued us in that we realized we were looking at something seriously awesome.
So apparently, one of the things that will start being sold when Diagon Alley opens are interactive wands. If you buy one, you can use them within the park to make things happen. You find one of these little markers on the ground - the ones we saw were all in front of shop windows - and you perform the spell, saying the words and using the motion exactly - and something will happen. Noel and I could nearly figure out what the something would be - “Incendio” in front of a fireworks display can only mean one thing, after all - but regardless, it’s a pretty neat idea, and I suspect there are a whole lot of people who will happily fork over the money to perform a little magic of their own.
(And possibly a lot of second-hand selling of the wands afterwards, depending on how expensive they are.)
All very well and good. But for me, it pales when compared to what may possibly be the most important spoiler regarding Diagon Alley of all.
Friends, I have three words for you.
BUTTERBEER ICE CREAM.