![\"Pinnable_DiagonAlley\"](\"https:\/\/www.themagicforless.com\/tmflblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Pinnable_DiagonAlley-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Pinnable_DiagonAlley\\"")
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As much as we\u2019d all love to be at big events like the opening of Diagon Alley, it isn’t often that it actually happens.\u00a0 Just by chance, though, this past week, I found myself arriving at Universal Studios just one day after Diagon Alley\u2019s official opening.\u00a0 After hearing reports about the long lines and the wait times for the first day which were up to six hours, I didn’t know what to expect.<\/p>\n
The first morning, we knew we\u2019d be getting up early to be over at the parks for the Early Morning Entry.\u00a0 Sadly, though, the Escape from Gringott\u2019s Bank ride wouldn’t be opening until 9am and the line in place when we arrived was already up to four hours.\u00a0 It was not meant to be.\u00a0 We did have a great day at the parks though including the familiar Butterbeer and a ride on the original Harry Potter Forbidden Journey attraction.<\/p>\n
Not to be missed though is the Hogwarts Express Train between the two parks.\u00a0 We entered through King\u2019s Cross station the first time we rode and immediately felt as if we had been transported to London.\u00a0 We showed our Park to Park ticket and were allowed to enter.\u00a0 If you find yourself wanting to ride and only purchased a base ticket, don\u2019t despair.\u00a0 There are ticket windows at each station where you can upgrade your ticket.\u00a0 They look just like train station ticket windows.\u00a0 They have indeed thought of everything.<\/p>\n Stand back a bit though before you venture through the wall of track 9 \u00be and watch others pass through (or your own family).\u00a0 This little bit of magic is just another great example of the details that have gone into making this world as close to \u201creal\u201d as possible.\u00a0 Once you are shown to your car on the train, you\u2019ll feel immediately like you are embarking on a magical journey.\u00a0 The \u201cwindow\u201d from the train will show you pulling out of the station and traveling through the countryside toward Hogwarts.\u00a0 At times, you won\u2019t know which way to look because there is just as much happening outside your car door too!\u00a0 I won\u2019t spoil it for you.\u00a0 Make sure you ride in both directions too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a different view both ways.<\/p>\n As the evening stretched out in front of us, a downpour came with it and that scattered the crowds that were in line for Diagon Alley and we got our first glimpse of this new area of the park.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing!\u00a0 The attention to detail is once again breathtaking for Harry Potter fans and you really have to watch where you are walking because people are just looking up and over and all around and taking photos and pretty soon, you\u2019re bumping into someone you don\u2019t know.\u00a0 There are back alleys and dark corners and animated wanted posters.\u00a0 You can\u2019t help but stop to watch the dragon and people were cheering every time his fire breath lit up the sky.\u00a0 It was easy to see why some fans were brought to tears on opening day.\u00a0 You can immediately imagine yourself transported to the places in the books that were just part of your imagination before.\u00a0 Even in the downpour, you felt the realism.\u00a0 Shouldn’t it be raining in London?<\/p>\n One thing that I thought was brilliant is the covered area over one of the courtyards.\u00a0 It was a small respite from the rain and on sunny days gives you just a bit of relief from the direct sun.\u00a0 We could see the entrance to the Escape from Gringott\u2019s Bank attraction and I knew for sure that we would try one more time before we left to ride.\u00a0 We popped into several of the stores like the Menagerie, the Money Exchange and Wizard Wheezes.<\/p>\n My daughter tried out the interactive wand at both the Hogsmeade and Diagon alley locations and we had such a good time watching each display come to life in a different way.\u00a0 I do think one of my favorites is the water fountain in Diagon Alley that requires a spell to make the water spurt forth from the frog\u2019s mouth.\u00a0 Be careful though because a surprise awaits some innocent bystanders behind the water fountain!<\/p>\n The next morning, we arrived at the gates to Universal Studios at 6:15am along with the masses of other people eagerly waiting for the gates to open.\u00a0 You can imagine at 6:30am when the gates opened, the stampede the occurred.\u00a0 For the most part though, the crowds moved in an orderly way to the line to get into Diagon Alley and at 7am, we found ourselves making our way toward the entrance to the Escape from Gringott\u2019s Bank ride.\u00a0 As we approached the doorway, the wait time posted was already 75 minutes but this was the closest we had come and after hearing wait times of over 5 hours the day before, 75 minutes seemed like a small price to pay.\u00a0 As we entered, we were again mesmerized by the attention to detail.<\/p>\n All along the walls, the \u201cbankers\u201d were working with the head guy up front and two amazing crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.\u00a0 As we got to the other end of the hall, we stopped.\u00a0 It soon became evident that the ride had also stopped and we sat down and crossed our fingers that the ride would be up and running again soon.\u00a0 We didn’t have to wait long fortunately and we made our way downstairs where a few more surprises awaited us.\u00a0 The \u201csecurity guards\u201d were keeping us informed as much as possible and we had one more delay before we were to get on the elevator to take us deep within the bank.\u00a0 We were all getting very excited now.\u00a0 This was the closest we had gotten!\u00a0 As each car full of passengers took off, there was much cheering and funny enough, each car that returned was cheering too!<\/p>\n It was now our turn and we put on our 3D glasses.\u00a0 As our car took off, we couldn\u2019t help but join the cheer.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to spoil the ride for you and I\u2019m sure you can google it if you want but let me just say that it was worth the two hours we waited.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as intense as the Forbidden Journey ride but the first few moments might lead you to think that you\u2019re in for a roller coaster type experience.\u00a0 After that, the ride is much more like Transformers but as you might expect, we were cheering when we pulled back into the station.\u00a0 I happened to notice a young adult standing and waiting to get on the ride and she was so excited, she was visibly shaking.\u00a0 Universal hasn’t let its Harry Potter fans down.<\/p>\n After the fun of riding for the first time, we celebrated with a breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron which is very similar to breakfast at Three Broomsticks but we did like the magic candlesticks that helped the servers find our tables to bring our order to us.\u00a0 Be sure to wander around, look up, look down, and just marvel at all there is to see from beginning to end.\u00a0 You won\u2019t want to miss a moment. \u00a0If you want to learn more or want a free no-obligation quote<\/a>, you can always contact the amazing travel counselors at The Magic For Less Travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As much as we\u2019d all love to be at big events like the opening of Diagon Alley, it isn’t often that it actually happens.\u00a0 Just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":7705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[616],"class_list":["post-7695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-universal-theme-parks","tag-wizarding-world-of-harry-potter"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Track](\"https:\/\/www.themagicforless.com\/tmflblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_0436-224x300.jpg\" "\\"Track")
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