Geez I am still so torn! I have a LOT of feelings and opinions about Harry Potter World. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best day of our trip, and I’m still trying to understand and justify why that is. Let me start with the bad stuff first, because I think a lot of my negative opinions were actually circumstantial.

Bad

• It was a million freaking degrees that day.
• I wanted to wear my Gryffindor cape tee, but it looked awful with leggings and sneakers (which is my Disneyland uniform!) so I wore jeans and flats. I was uncomfortable and sweating all day. I got a good picture but it was NOT WORTH IT. Dress for function and comfort! This really was probably 40% of my negative experience. Had I been in sneakers and a breezier outfit I would have been much happier.
• Universal Studios does not have much shade, as least not as much as Disneyland. This made the heat even worse, and my sister-in-law mentioned that it was a little harder to find good places to nurse.
• Universal Studies is NOT Disneyland. And I think that’s ok. We are just very used to Disneyland, and when you’re accustomed to good customer service and professional employees it can be a little frustrating when it’s not that important at Universal. In Disneyland every single worker is professional and accommodating – they internalize your problem and help solve it. Universal was not that way.
• There were a LOT of foreign tour groups there. Way more than you see at Disneyland. Maybe this was just the day, but it was incredibly frustrating to try to walk anywhere with these huge groups moving in packs and stopping at random to take pictures with iPads.
• Harry Potter World is NOT for kids. I don’t mean this in the way that Vegas is not for kids. I mean it’s designed for millennial HP freaks like me. I’ll go more into detail below, but if you’re with a bunch of kids then your entertainment at HP World is very limited.
• It’s hard to catch the “magic” when it’s very crowded. The details are amazing, but I just felt like I didn’t have the space or time or solitude to actually enjoy them.
• I found myself growing VERY pretentious and condescending. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE THEY DON’T LOVE HP AS MUCH AS I DO JUST MOVE ALONG TO SIMPSONS LAND AND LET ME ENJOY WHAT I CAME HERE FOR!!!!!!! It was hard not to feel like I ~deserved more space and time there. Which is dumb but it’s how I felt. We joked that everyone should have to answer an obscure Harry Potter trivia question before being allowed admittance. I wasn’t actually joking.
• The day we went was kind of a circus for our family in general. We planned to leave at 8:30, but we didn’t actually hit the road until over an hour later. We arrived at Universal sometime around 11, so it was quite crowded and hot. We didn’t really have or make a plan and I was super eager to get into HP World so we started there. Like I said above, it wasn’t that cool for kids so my niece rode her ride and then wanted to go do the more fun kid stuff in other parts of Universal Studios. While we rode rides there wasn’t really a shaded spot to sit, so everyone else kind of dispersed to find shaded seating. Eventually we were all scattered all over with no plan or discussion. I think this contributed to our frustration and dislike of Universal Studios in general. Lesson learned – we should have taken some time to make a game plan and stay on the same page.
• The “Forbidden Journey” ride broke down when we got there (apparently this happens often), which really took the wind out of my sails. I was so crushed that the ONE DAY I was here of course the ride breaks down. Luckily it was fixed a few hours later, so after riding some other rides (Jurassic Park – LOVE, and Mummy – pretty good!) we came back to ride Forbidden Journey. I’ll write more about that below.
• You’ve seen the movies – you know that everything is supposed to be really cramped and caving in. I love that they stayed true to the books & movies, but this made it SO INCONVENIENT to go into the stores or alleyways since it was a high-volume day, not to mention super hot and people wanted shade.
• You park kind of far away, have to walk through a mile of shops, and Harry Potter World is like at the end of the park. The little “lands” within Universal Studios are not as interconnected as Disneyland, and if you want to go down to the Lower Lot you literally have to take 4 long escalators down, which is a pain in the @** if you have a stroller, let me tell you.
• Strollers and cobblestone… not a great combo.
• Poor signage. Like I get that they’re trying to make it realistic, but you can’t really see where you’re supposed to go, where lines start or end, what the attractions are, anything.

Ride/Attraction/Store Reviews

• Flight of the Hippogriff
  • Younger kids can ride this which is way nice
  • It looks small and dinky, but it actually gets hummin’ along pretty fast!
  • Very circular and spinny so it can make you a little dizzy
  • You get to see Hagrid’s hut, the motorbike, and Buckbeak – which is one of the best animatronics I’ve ever seen!
  • Generally short lines with misting fans and drinking fountains along the way – very nice!
• The Forbidden Journey
  • The line situation was a FREAKING DISASTER. We started in a winding line outside, in the direct sunlight. Whatever. We just wanted to ride it. It was finally fixed and the wait time had gone from 90+ to 35 minutes. We stood outside in the hot sun for about 20-25 minutes, nbd. You have a great view of the castle and you get to see Mr. Weasley’s Ford Anglia!! Nice!
  • When we finally get to the opening of the castle the dude was standing there going “Ok the express line is this way, the single rider is this way, and the normal line goes here…” so we followed where he vaguely pointed. (Instead of Fast Passes like Disneyland you can buy a type of fastpass that just gets you into an express line on the rides.)
  • The line lead into a chaotic, crowded locker room??? Apparently you need to drop all of your stuff in the free lockers before riding the ride, which we didn’t need because we left everything in the stroller. Nowhere were there signs indicating this (or if there were they were not easily visible – also a problem), so we just walk into this insane locker room with no explanation. We push our way around and through finally seeing another HP employee we ask and he doesn’t really seem to be listening or understanding our very simple question: “Where in the h*ck is the line???”
  • FINALLY the line! Unfortunately, it was a straight walk-through. There’s the herbology stuff, corridors and classrooms in the castle, the INCREDIBLE moving paintings (my favorite part! I’ll share more below), and all of these cool details. We walked straight through all of it. Explain to me why I had to stand in the direct heat outside, but walked through the shaded, interesting, detailed interior castle right up to the ride? So bass-ackwards. I was pissed. I wanted to stand in that castle forever, noticing every inch! Why would they make me stand outside and walk through this? They could have easily bypassed the outside line and started the real line inside with more than plenty of room, shade, air conditioning, and plenty of fun details that I wanted to see!!! I’m still *slightly* angry about this if you can’t tell.
  • PSA: If you are even a slightly larger than average person you may not get to ride this ride. But don’t worry they will let you get all the way onto the ride and the moving conveyor loading belt before saying that your restraint hasn’t clicked far enough and escorting you off the ride in front of everyone. I’ve never seen anything like this, and it’s a huge bummer to watch. They were literally escorting off 20% of the people. How do you design an attraction that so many people can’t even ride? Very disappointing and embarrassing.
  • All of this aside, the ride is incredible. You’re sitting in a “bench” with your feet dangling, wearing Harry’s quidditch goggles (3D). You go through sections of 3D screens and actual sets/props. It rolls you on your back, facing down, flying through the air… it’s pretty cool! It’s also pretty scary – dementors and spiders and dragons – I screamed my head off!
  • Pro Tip: Do NOT drink a bunch of butterbeer before you ride this. A full stomach is probably not great either.
• Frog Choir
  • This just happened to be going on when we got there so we just walked right up to watch it. It’s really cute! There’s a member of each house with a singing frog and they make up this magical acapella group.
  • It was really hot and in direct sunlight, so if/when we go again I’ll get a snack & butterbeer and sit down in front on the ground to watch.
• Ollivander’s
  • The wait for this was like 45 minutes, and there were a bunch of tour groups with translators getting into line. I was the only one who really cared about this and it was sounding less and less appealing by the minute, so I passed.
  • I’ve heard it’s amazing, so I’m going to make it a priority when we go again (if I can talk my family into it after this nightmare day).
  • Allegedly there’s this cool show where someone is selected to be “chosen” by a wand. It lets out into a very cool, very crowded wand shop where you can buy your own.
  • If you buy one of the “premium” wands they can do “magic” around HP World, which is actually really really cool. I wish I had done this. If you’re a hard core fan, have a kid who is old enough to follow directions and young enough to believe in the magic, or if you have plenty of souvenir money to spend – do this. It’s cool.
• Honeydukes/Zonkos
• 
  • The stores all blend into one another, similar to the Emporium shops on Main Street in Disneyland.
  • Very crowded, not designed for large groups or strollers
  • So awesome though! Tons of stuff from the movies and books.
  • I got a caramel apple from Honeydukes and it was BOMB
• Gladrags Wizardwear/Owl Post/Dervish & Banges/Etc.
  • All of the HP paraphernalia you could hope for!
  • Also crowded, not designed for large groups or strollers
  • Tons of cool features inside the stores, so walk through even if it’s crowded and you don’t want to buy anything.
  • I liked that they had “Try Me” testers and cast members walking around displaying some of the interactive products.

Now lest you think I had a salty, terrible day let me tell you all the things I absolutely loved:

Good

• The detail and realism is awesome! If you have the space and time, you can really immerse yourself in the wizarding world and it rocks.
• Butterbeer is delicious – I preferred the frozen kind. Definitely try it!
• The shops have a ton of amazing stuff and they’re so fun to walk through and peruse.
• The Forbidden Journey ride is one of the best rides I’ve ever been on. Scary, cool, adrenaline-dumping, fantastic.
• Honestly I liked the castle as much as the ride. As stated above I wish we had actually waited in there instead of outside, not just because of the blistering heat and logic of it, but also because of the incredible detail. It’s HOGWARTS IN THERE.
• The music is playing as you walk through Hogsmeade and if that doesn’t make you just cry then you’re probably normal and not a freak like me.
• I am still thinking about the moving paintings. They, more than anything else, made me feel like I was actually in Hogwarts and part of the wizarding world. I don’t know how they managed to make the screens actually look like bona fide canvas, but bravo. Bravo.
• I have heard good things about the food in the Three Broomsticks. I think next time I’ll make it a point to eat a meal there.

Planning Your Trip to HP World

• Recognize that HP World is not for kids. They can ride Flight of the Hippogriff if they’re like 4 or older. The wand thing is supposed to be pretty cool. The singing and shows are interesting. And if you buy them the fancy wand they can do the interactive magic. Otherwise it’s not that cool. They might get bored. Thankfully The Beard and my angel MIL took Reese off my hands so I could just be a little first year running around.
• Harry Potter World is not an all day thing. Even when it’s busy it’ll probably take you a couple of hours at most to experience the entire thing.
• Your pass is for Universal Studios, so you can do anything else in the park. I recommend the Jurassic Park ride and The Mummy. My niece loved the Minions ride and there’s a cool splash pad/water park. Do your research on Universal Studios and pick a few other things you’d like to try while you’re there.
• They don’t do “baby swaps” like they do in Disneyland. A few of the rides in Universal Studios have baby swap waiting rooms, which I actually like BETTER than the baby swap system. We’d go sit in an air conditioned room with toys and let Reese run around and make friends while our family rode the ride, then they met us and we got to walk straight up to the loading zone for our turn.

Overall I definitely think it was worth a day pass, and we’ll go back because we bought the season pass from Costco (it was like $20 more). The magic is there. It’s a great thing to check out if you love Harry Potter. If you have a bunch of kids or are ambivalent about Harry Potter, then I’m not sure it’d be worth it for you in all honesty. I hope you go and have a much better time than we did – and I hope this post helped! Mischief managed!