Universal Orlando Summer Trip Report – Part 1
Universal Orlando had been on my list of places to visit since the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened several years ago. I had visited regularly as a child, and fondly remember attractions such as Kongfrontaton and Jaws. Since the original Potter-land opened, it’s been a series of “next times” and close misses, including a weekend getaway for The Walking Dead at Halloween Horror Nights that was actually booked last year but ultimately canceled. Laziness always got the best of me, as it was always far easier to just stay on-site at Walt Disney World and rely on Disney’s Magical Express and other Disney transportation rather than renting a car.
But, the desire to return to Universal Orlando remained. Being a total dupe for good marketing, I was hooked on the idea of going to Universal Orlando after having watched every episode of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon this spring when he filmed live at Universal Orlando and an NBC special on the making of Diagon Alley. I’m also incredibly impatient, so when Sarah set her dates for her annual mother-daughter trip with her mom, I penciled in a trip to Orlando on my calendar. After all, if she was going to have fun in the tropics, why should I just sit at home?!
Fast forward to my third day in Orlando, and I was getting up bright and early to head to Universal Orlando after a late night at Walt Disney World. Rather than going alone, I assembled a rag-tag band of photographer-friends, and we made the trip together. The gang consisted of Mark Willard, Cory Disbrow and his fiancee Sam, Ben Hendel, and Kevin Davis. (I should disclaim from the get-go that the opinions herein do not reflect those of these upstanding individuals…actually, nor do they reflect mine, for that matter.)
Universal Orlando regular Cory Disbrow advised that we get there by 7:45 am to park and make it through security before getting in line for Diagon Alley’s 9 am opening. Maybe he meant 7:45 am Pacific, as this turned out to be super excessive as we sat around waiting from about 8 am until just before 9 am. It’s definitely better safe than sorry, though, I guess.
During that hour period, I wandered around the limited area where we were allowed to walk and checked out some areas of Universal Studios Florida that were vaguely familiar to me…
…Part of this vague familiarity might have been in that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has similar representations of popular Hollywood icons. Curse Michael Eisner and his clandestine plan to open his studios park before Universal, orchestrated for the sole purpose of debuting his flagship Brown Derby before Universal! Too bad he misread the plans and made his a restaurant instead of a hat shop. WHAT A FOOL.
Other parts of the park I definitely remembered from visits when I was young. Because replica Sunset Blvd. apartments are an “attraction” that leaves an indelible impression on all children.
One of the unfortunate things about the first installment of a trip report starting with a morning visit in a confined area of the park is that you get a bunch of photos that aren’t exactly “wow” inducing. I promise the night photos of Diagon Alley in part 2 of the report will be more interesting. This installment is more of a “showcase” for my terribly lame sense of humor.
Who am I kidding; what’s morning exciting than a photo of a parked yellow taxi?! Since I don’t know the significance of this vehicle (and I’m betting you don’t, either), I’m going to say it’s the original vehicle driven by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.
To answer the question above, a parked RV is more exciting (also accepted as an answer: just about anything).
I don’t want to set the wrong tone from the outset–I’m not mocking Universal Studios Florida; more mocking the garden variety photos I felt compelled to take while waiting. Actually, I was impressed with what I had seen of the park to that point. My expectation, based on what I had heard from others, was that the park was sort of a hodgepodge, with no semblance of “theme.” That was not the case, and things that otherwise might be deemed superfluous–like the Allah Villas–are demonstrative of that.
As I wandered around taking photos, security inched the line (because we weren’t the only ones crazy enough to show up over an hour early) ever-closer to Diagon Alley, further building the anticipation.
Finally, we were allowed into Diagon Alley. Even though I had watched the ‘Making Of’ special, Tonight Show episodes, I had mostly averted my eyes to anything concerning Potter. Essentially, I knew there was a dragon on top of the building where the ride is located, but that’s about it. If you don’t want to see spoilers of Diagon Alley, you should stop reading now. While I can’t post on-ride photos, everything else is fair game.
I assumed Diagon Alley is located in a mini-land with basically a short lead-in corridor and not much else based on comments I had heard about it being cramped. I was very wrong. Even though we were on a mission to make it to Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, I was still taken aback by the size and the various pathways I caught glimpses of as we raced to get in line. It almost felt wrong to rush through and not savor the land. It was like quickly devouring some Animal Style fries to get to that delicious Animal Style Double-Double, except if you didn’t already have the Double-Double and knew you’d have to wait an extra 90 minutes for it if you savored the fries. (Sorry, odd example…but I’ve got In-N-Out on the mind!)
The wait was already posted as 90 minutes when we got in line. I’d take you on a riveting minute-by-minute replay of our wait, but we have a lot of ground to cover. Suffice to say, even with two ride breakdowns, we still waited less than 90 minutes. For those wondering, yes, Escape from Gringotts has a Single Rider line, but much of the story is told via the queue, and you don’t get the full experience via Single Rider, so we elected to do the regular standby line for our first ride.
Besides the dull, outdoor overflow queue, the wait flew by thanks to the way the story was set-up through the pre-show, which occurred in multiple rooms of the queue. That’s really saying something, considering that the attraction broke down twice while we were waiting! There were animated figures (I’m not sure what non-Disney “Audio Animatronics” would be called, so I’m just calling them this).
The indoor queue was flat-out brilliant; easily one of the best queues I had ever seen, anywhere. I was actually a bit worried that it might have “Little Mermaid Syndrome”, with the queue overshadowing the actual attraction. I’m not going to fixate on the queue now, as I didn’t have my camera for this go-through, and I’m hoping to take it through on a later visit, at which time I’ll go into full detail.
Moving right along to the actual attraction itself, the only syndrome this had was “Awesome Syndrome.” I’ve heard a fair amount of criticism of Escape from Gringotts, and I think some of this is fair, but my prevailing line of thinking after getting off was: That. Was. Awesome.
I am not a Themeparkeologist (I believe that’s the technical term for a scientist of theme parks), so I can’t exactly articulate what the ride experience is, but I’d describe it as a hybrid of a simulator and rollercoaster, with 3D screens and projector effects, a ride vehicle moving along a track, and some tangible effects and props to give the attraction depth.
For me, attractions are more about the immersiveness of the experience and effectiveness of storytelling, rather than the mechanics of how it was accomplished and level of thrill, and regardless of the ride system here, I found the experience to be incredibly immersive and contain a well-told story. I know very little about the root story told in the attraction, since I’m not a Harry Potter fan, but it was easy to follow, and I felt like I was a part of the action. Never was I pulled out of the experience with a feeling that I was looking at screens or otherwise on a ride. The different types of effects were all well-employed, adding to the illusion and making me feel like I was escaping from Gringotts.
The biggest criticism I would go on to have about other Universal attractions is that they are incredibly fast-paced, similar in nature, and feell a bit montage-ish in nature, rather than effectively pulling guests into a story. I would put Escape from Gringotts among the best attractions at Universal in that it did not do this.
After Escape from Gringotts, it was time for ice cream. I’m told it’s British custom to reward oneself with ice cream after a successful bank heist (minus the robbing the bank part, in this case).
This would be my first encounter with Butterbeer. “Bad ice cream” is a contradiction in terms, so it’s tough to really sing the praises of this ice cream too loudly, but it was awesome, and I highly recommend it.
Because I am a foolish blogger, I tried to get a photo of the ice cream with the dragon in the background. Mission…accomplished? (Yes, assuming the mission was to look like an idiot as I held one arm out really far and tried to aim my camera with the other hand as my ice cream melted in the Florida heat.)
After finishing the ice cream, it was time to spend some time exploring Diagon Alley.
The unfortunate thing about not being a Harry Potter fan was that I’m sure many of the references were lost on me. For example, when I first saw this statue, I thought it was a hobbit on a large stalk of corn. (I’ve spent too much time in Indiana…) Once I, you know, actually thought about it, I realized that it was a character on a stack of money (given the proximity to the bank), but this is just one example of something I’m sure is a patently obvious reference if you’re a Harry Potter fan, but was just a cool detail to me.
To be sure, Diagon Alley is stuffed with these cool details. I certainly don’t think it’s necessary to be a Harry Potter fan to appreciate all of this, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt in “getting it.” There probably aren’t many hardcore Jules Vernes fans visiting Mysterious Island in Tokyo DisneySea, yet I think most guests fairly appreciate the beauty of that land.
It took over 1,000 words before I finally made a Tokyo DisneySea comparison. Not bad, given that park kept springing to mind as I walked through Diagon Alley. By way of background, I’m admittedly infatuated with Tokyo DisneySea, and I consider it far and away the best theme park on the planet.
The level of detail, the conveyed intimacy in a sprawling themed environment, the nooks & crannies, and the hidden treasures to discover were all shades of Tokyo DisneySea. Diagon Alley is the sort of place you just want to be in, a quality found in the best theme park lands. In that regard, which to me is the truest measure of a theme park, Diagon Alley is an A+ land. Escape from Gringotts is really just the (delicious) icing on the cake.
You’ve probably seen 938,394,572 photos of that dragon from the rest of the internet by now, but it’s impossible not to photograph the thing. Even if it didn’t breathe fire(!!!), cameras would be drawn to it as the wienie towering at the end of the alley. I spent a lot of time blinding myself as I looked into the sun, waiting for the flames. Photos without fire are the Universal equivalent of a monorail beam in a photo without a monorail. Sorry.
Coming soon to Universal Orlando: the Wizarding World of Hippopotamus.
I was so enthralled with Diagon Alley that I decided to purchase a wand to unlock some effects…until I saw the prices. Yowsers! Instead, I did the typical blogger thing and creeped on kids and watched them unlock the effects. (Since some of you might be new to reading my poor attempts at humor and may be “disturbed” by that, the preceding was a poor attempt at humor; I did not actually creep on kids–I quickly snapped this shot as I walked past.)
All of that creeping really makes you work up an appetite, so it was time for lunch at Leaky Cauldron. I’ll have a full review of the restaurant at some point, but suffice to say, it was awesome.
With my meal, I ordered Leaky Cauldron’s famous “glass of pure vodka” and…I think the drink to the right is wizard rootbeer. I kid. I was a bit worried that Butterbeer couldn’t possibly live up to the hype, but it absolutely did. Wow.
I had the Banger Sandwich, which was very good, albeit pricey. Although it’s a counter service restaurant, Leaky Cauldron is perhaps in between typical counter service and table service at Universal Orlando, in terms of price and quality.
After lunch, we stopped to watch Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees perform. These performers are talented and the show was a lot of fun.
It seems like there are a lot of complaints about recent theme park lands (or “mini-lands”) having only one flagship attraction. This isn’t just aimed at Diagon Alley, but many new additions from Disney, too. This doesn’t bother me at all, especially if it means those lands can be more focused and better convey their theme. Plus, all have minor diversions, such as these performances, that round out the area.
After that, it was time to take Hogwarts Express over to Islands of Adventure. This is one part of the Harry Potter films I recall, and seeing this was really cool.
From both an operations and a theming perspective, Hogwarts Express is absolutely brilliant. This is probably the most envelope-pushing thing to come to any theme park since 2001–maybe even before that.
Starting the day in Diagon Alley probably created unreasonable expectations for Hogsmeade; expectations it ultimately could not meet for me.
This is not to say that the land is not amazing. It is. It just lacks the depth of Diagon Alley. It’s brilliantly done, but it feels like less on an immersive environment to explore, and more a corridor leading to Hogwarts Castle.
I probably should be abundantly clear here so I don’t get hate mail for knocking Hogsmeade. I’m not knocking it generally–it’s still one of the best theme park lands anywhere, but I don’t think it compares to Diagon Alley.
First stop here was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I’ll be brief here because I have a lot of photos of the queue that I took with a tripod (albeit from Universal Studios Japan, but it’s the same thing) and I plan on doing a dedicated post to the attraction. In short, I thought the queue here was even better than Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
As for the ride, I’m a bit torn on it. Most people I know far prefer Forbidden Journey, but I think I prefer Escape from Gringotts. To me, Forbidden Journey is probably more technically impressive, but it feels like a fast-paced montage through the world of Harry Potter. It’s like the Star Tours 2 of Harry Potter, if that makes sense. It’s still an incredible experience in its own right, but I think Escape from Gringotts is the more complete and well-rounded experience in terms of storytelling. Regardless, both are very impressive, unique draws, and score very highly for me. In terms of new attractions since 2001, Mystic Manor is the only attraction (of those I’ve experienced) that immediately comes to mind as topping both.
I know I’ve basically only covered The Wizarding World(s) of Harry Potter up until this point, but that seems like a good stopping place for this installment. In Part 2, we’ll take a look at The Simpsons Ride, Spiderman, and the greatest attraction known to man, E.T. Adventure.
Share!
I’ll level with you–after not being too active with this blog for a while, I’m trying to kickstart it again and post here on a regular basis. If you enjoy this Universal Orlando Resort trip report, the photos, whatever, I would greatly appreciate it if you’d share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc., via the social media buttons on each installment to help spread the word. Reader comments with your feedback, thoughts, etc., are also greatly appreciated!
Your Thoughts…
Have you visited Universal Orlando recently? Do you agree or disagree with any of my thoughts on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? Are you interested in visiting Universal Orlando Resort? Have any questions or other thoughts? Please share below in the comments!
I agree with Jamie, because to die hard HP fans (me) Escape from Gringotts really leaves us hanging waiting for another installment. I also think that Forbidden Journey is wayyyy more full and magical than Escape from Gringotts. Also, Yes, DA is SOOOOOO much finished than DA and is SOOOOOO more interesting.
P.S. The hobbit on the corn is Mr. Gringott himself, the founder of the bank. (;
Your pictures are so amazing! I’d love to see some taken at SeaWorld…San Diego, or the other parks. 🙂
Tom,
I am curious has to how many days you would recommend to someone to spend at Universal? (I have only read part one so if you go into that in other posts I apologize). We are planning a WDW trip this summer. I have a Harry Potter fan so I want to jaunt over to Universal but am not sure if we need 1 or 2 days. I don’t want to buy a two day pass and not use it.
Thanks!
Jen
Loved reading this! We are DYING to go to Universal & see all of the HP stuff…we are huge Harry Potter fans!! But now that we live in WA it’s a bit more difficult (boy, I do miss being able to drive to WDW in a day or less!). So our next trip to FL will probably be a big one including WDW (duh!), Universal and Seaworld. Once my youngest is old enough and we save up that’s the plan! Til then I’ll live vicariously through your trip reports 🙂
Loving this report! We visited Universal Orlando for the 1st time in October. We had the exact same plan — arrive early and beeline to Gringott’s. I enjoyed Diagon Alley more than Hogsmeade. In fact after we did the attractions at Hogsmeade, we decided to take the Hogwarts Express (fabulous concept and brilliant decision by Universal as it makes it necessary to buy the more expensive 2 park ticket) back to Diagon Alley just to hang out. We absolutely LOVED Diagon Alley. This was our 1st trip to WDW as well, and as longtime Disneyland fans we loved certain aspects of WDW. Diagon Alley was one of the highlights of the trip though. I’m looking forward to seeing what Universal does here in California.
Tom,
Great job on all 3 trip reports from Universal. We just got back from a long weekend at the Universal Resort. I held off on reading your reports until we got back because I didn’t want any spoilers! I have to say I agree with 95% of your thoughts, but for me, Forbidden Journey pulls ahead for the win. I loved Gringotts, but I thought it relied a little too much on screens. It ended a bit abruptly and I was left wanting a bigger finale.
I had been to Universal several times before this trip so I guess my expectations were that they would be using some never before seen technology or new ride system for Gringotts. The ride does a great job at telling a story but I will always prefer attractions that utilize physical sets and characters over screens. To me, Spider Man does a much better job at combining virtual and physical sets to tell a story.
This was my biggest complaint about our total experience at the two parks. Universal uses too many 3D and screen/projection effects in their attractions. This may be a sign of the times but I hope the designers and leadership teams don’t overlook the value physical sets bring to an experience. I was almost angry after exiting Transformers. What a waste of an attraction. It is essentially a clone of Spider Man with far fewer immersive physical sets. I really missed Jaws and Kong and I think these parks need more attractions that use only “animated figures” to tell the story.
We still really enjoyed our experience as a whole, and Diagon Alley made the entire trip worthwhile. Also, we stayed at the Royal Pacific Hotel which was really nice and very convenient for its close proximity (walking distance) to both parks. This also allowed us to utilize Express Passes which were a huge plus. We walked on every single ride during our stay (with the exception of both HP attractions. These are exempt from Express Passes but we never waited on those very long either due to rope dropping the parks and using single rider later in the day).
Keep up the great work. Loving the pictures!
I’ve done the Harry Potter attractions a couple more times since originally writing this post, and I’ve grown to appreciate Forbidden Journey more, making them almost neck and neck. I still think Escape from Gringotts is incredible, but I now also appreciate why so many Potter fans love FJ.
I hope ‘screens’ are not the general direction of theme parks. I think Disney could certainly use an attraction or two akin to Spider-Man, but I do agree that Universal is over-doing it. I think their screen-centric attractions are very well done, but variety is the spice of life…and theme parks.
Tom I have always enjoyed your trip reports from wayyyyy back on WDWMagic. I’m glad to see you took the time to visit the “other” theme park, but I’m really surprised that you are not a Harry Potter fan…..I would have thought you were?! I’ve been recently and I have to say that it’s really one of the best themed “lands” I’ve seen….really makes you “feel” like you are in there! I can’t wait to see the rest of the pictures and read the blog. Oh by the way you really should visit during Halloween Horror Nights if you’re a fan of The Walking Dead! The details they put into the house, and the different themes of each “room” really puts you IN the show! I suggest getting the Express pass if you only visit for one night as it gets really crowded!
Just got back from a trip to Universal/Disney and I’m happy to see this report! As a HUGE Harry Potter fan, I have to say that both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley do a great job of immersing you into the story. As far as rides go, I preferred Gringotts to Forbidden Journey (And yes, Gringotts went down both times we rode it, but the second time it was when we were about to load. Apparently they just have to send a few empty carts through to reset, so it wasn’t down for long.), but I’m not much of a rides person and couldn’t tell you why I liked it.
As for the differences between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, my impression was that they learned a ton from Hogsmeade. The shops were still small, but there were wider paths, better overflow queues, more options for entertainment, and (at least in regards to Ollivanders and Gringotts) a better understanding of the demand that would be coming. So, in my book Diagon Alley was the better section of the two parks.
And yes, I have way too many pictures of that Dragon. 🙂
I think a lot was definitely learned from Hogsmeade and applied to Diagon Alley. It will be interesting to see whether Universal Studios Hollywood simply clones Hogsmeade, or also implements some of those changes.
I love you, Tom! We cant wait for Wizarding World to come Los Angeles, so we are leaving S. Calif. in 35 days to see Diagon Alley, and I am psyched to see your photos and read your opinions. I read your two Diagon Alley posts and am craving more- your photos and your humor are always a pleasure (I was most surprised to read you sometimes leave your camera in a locker as you walked around!) I’m wondering how relevant are the non-ride buildings in Diagon- is that beautiful astronomy-themed place a store selling astronomy things? And the place with all the cages hanging from the ceiling- what happens there? We’ve seen Hogsmeade before and thought it was at least as good as a Disney effort, with infinite little details like lichen painted on Hogwarts. If Diagon is even better, I don’t think I can handle it!
BTW, we’re big Haunted Mansion fans, so we’ll also be spending a day at WDW mainly to see the new-to-us PepeLeQueue. We’re staying at a Disney hotel because of the free Magic Express airport transfers, and we’ll take a taxi from the hotel to Universal and back. We love our Anaheim Disneyland, but concede that WDW is better because it gets all of the old rides when, due to the limited space caused by being in urban Anahiem, Disneyland sacrifices them to put in a new ride. WDW has unlimited space and just adds and adds rides.
All that stuff is in shops, but I have no clue as to which shops are which at this point. They all were selling stuff that I didn’t intend upon buying, so I basically just looked at details, a lot of which were (I assume) references to the books and films.
I don’t know about WDW just adding and adding (if that were the case, it would still have Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, all of EPCOT Center, etc.), but you’re right about “the blessing of size” that it has.
Wonderful post, Tom! I’m really looking forward to reading the next installments. We are a family who throughly enjoys Disney. Since my kids are a little older now (13,7) we have decided to sacrifice a few of our normal Disney days for Universal on our next trip. I was wondering what your thoughts were on fitting this into a trip. Would you do Universal first? Last? In the middle? We would probably like to stay at a Universal resort for the “perks” during our time there and always stay on property at wdw. We have never been to Universal so I was thinking two nights/three days there. Does this sound about right to take in the park and not feel rushed?
If you want to take your time, repeat attractions, sit down to eat, etc., I think 3 days is good. As for when those 3 days should occur, I would probably do them at the beginning or end of the trip just so that’s less hotel changing.
I agree with most of what you said here. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, and had never been able to make it down to Florida until last summer. I went for a Harry Potter convention and set aside a day to go experience Universal afterwards. I too went without my spouse, so this year we have plans to go together (my husband can’t wait for the Simpson’s area). Someone I was with described Hogsmeade as “unfinished” after seeing the detail of Diagon Alley. I thought that described it well. It really is an amazing area, but the extreme detail of Diagon Alley really overshadows it. As far as comparing Gringotts with Forbidden Journey, that would be like making me choose between children haha. You are probably a the best to comment on the ride itself, not being an HP fan. But loving the world of HP so much, Forbidden Journey really feels magical to me. I couldn’t help crying my first time riding it feeling like you really were flying on a broomstick. I had to ride it again to get the gist of the “story” since I was too emotional to get it the first time haha. Gringott’s was awesome, but certain things were off if you are an HP die hard fan and like things sticking to canon.
Interesting perspective as someone who is actually a Harry Potter fan on how Forbidden Journey feels magical. Since it’s in large part pulling you into key scenes from the films/books, I totally get that, and why that would be special. Montages have a great way of doing that when they are a subject that resonates with the viewer.
Since I don’t have that attachment, it doesn’t resonate the same way with me. I can’t fault Universal for that, though, as I’m not the target audience!
Great post! We will be doing a few days of Universal during our next Disney trip and this is very helpful! Can’t wait for the next post!
Part 2 is now up! https://www.travelcaffeine.com/universal-orlando-summer-trip-report-part-2/
Another great post Tom!
What ground breaking attraction opened in 2001 that you make reference to twice?
No single groundbreaking attraction, per se, but that was the year both Tokyo DisneySea and Disney California Adventure opened, so it was a big year for theme parks.
So, we went in October, and I was so pumped to ride Escape from Gringotts. We got there, and they were letting people get in line, but told everyone it was down. We waited for almost 2 hours, said screw this, and left. Of course, then the ride came up a half hour later. Ugh. (To be fair, we were told it didn’t come up at all the day before.) Suffice to say, the ride apparently still goes down daily. We complained to customer service and they immediately printed out FastPasses for Gringotts as well as Forbidden Journey (the other HP ride in the other park). At the time I rode it, they were not allowing single riders, though that’s what we would have done. From what I understand, even the single rider line goes through the main queue, but maybe I’m wrong…
Also, the ET ride is the single scariest attraction to me. At 22, I almost refused to go on it with my family. My (now husband) agreed, actually, that it was creepy as heck. I seriously hope you’re kidding… 🙂
Can’t wait to read more!
Yeah, I’ve heard of Gringotts still having a lot of downtime, which is (supposedly) a result of them trying to stick to the planned grand opening date rather than taking the time needed during test and adjust to work out problems. It is getting better, though.
As far as E.T. Adventure goes, there are a lot of awful jokes in this trip report, but that is not one of them. If you are against E.T. Adventure, YOU ARE AGAINST AMERICA. 😉
We were told several times by cast members (or the Universal equivalent) that the ride breaks down because it is “so unique and created just for Universal”, so they don’t know how to fix it until a problem occurs. That seems ludicrous to me, but we were told that several times. Also when we were there the Hogwarts Express was down, but only for about 30 minutes. It was a rough day for us! 🙂
I am so excited for this trip report! Beautiful pictures, as always! This makes me want to go to Universal even more haha!
Thanks! I’d highly recommend a diversion to Universal during a Walt Disney World trip!
Was excited to finally see your post on this! We went back in October and Diagon Alley blew me away, we had been to Hogsmeade the year prior and as much as I like it, it really can’t hold a candle to the detail of Diagon Alley. Most of my pictures taken of that entire trip, including Disney, are in that area. Gringotts was amazing, just wish it was longer, I had a feeling at the end of wait, its over? I actually had that same feeling on Mine Train at MK. Can’t wait for the next installment 🙂
The ending is a bit on the abrupt side, but I don’t think it’s too bad. In terms of duration, I don’t think it’s unreasonably short, but I was left wanting more (as is the case with me and most good rides).
Yes! Exactly!
So excited you’re finally writing a report on universal Orlando …we love it .. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the comment. Hope you enjoy the next installment, too! 🙂
YES!
I got really excited when I saw that you had finally posted this.
Tend to agree with you on everything that you posted. Do not understand the hate for Gringotts at all. And I too agree that it is better then Forbidden Journey. It’s not bad by any means, but I just enjoy it more. Gringotts did some things that absolutely blew my mind!
When talking about Hogsmeade compared to DA, I look at it kind of like this. Hogsmeade is comparable to Carsland for me. Both are extremely amazing theme park lands, but there are multiple places where you can see other parts of the park and it takes you out of the experience just a little bit.
With Diagon Alley and the way it is constructed, there is no seeing out. You feel that you are actually there the entire time. And its just a whole other experience. This is what I imagine my first trip to DIsneySea will be like.
Also I can’t believe that you though Butterbeer wouldn’t measure up. I’m psyched to try the hot version.
Glad you posted this. Can’t wait to see more.
Glad you enjoyed the post!
My concern about Butterbeer was that it has been so hyped up. It is everywhere, and not just in theme park circles, in pop culture, too. Whenever anything garners that much attention, it can create unrealistic expectations. I had the same concern about Tokyo DisneySea before going there, actually. Fortunately, neither disappointed.