This is a guide only for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter because it has so much detail, but if you would like a guide to the entire park of Islands of Adventure, please see the rest of my guides when I post them. (click for bigger pictures!)
The Wizarding World is the closest we can ever get to Harry Potter, and it does not disappoint. As soon as you enter its walls, you’re greeted by the sight of Hogsmeade and the music from the films. There are butterbeer carts on either entrance, and Hogwarts Castle stands majestically against the blue sky.
If you’re ever lucky enough to come here, you’ll never take it for granted. And to be able to enjoy all the wonders and magic of this park, you need a plan. I’ve been to this wonderful park enough times to give advice, and hopefully what is included in this post will make your trip a little easier.
The first thing you need to remember when you finally get your trip is don’t rush. WWoHP is located in the middle of Universal’s Islands of Adventure. The parks included there are ones for Marvel Superhero Island, Toon Lagoon, Jurassic Park, Seuss landing, and The Lost Continent. The park will still be there at the end of the day, and ignoring the rest of the parks in Islands of Adventure will be a BIG mistake.
Get there early in the morning. You can find a schedule for opening and closing times to both Universal Parks here. Buy your tickets in advance. Before you pack your bags and leave your home, buy your tickets online maybe three weeks or a month in advance. They don’t expire for like six months, so it’s okay to get them early. Have them sent to your home so that you don’t have to wait in line for two hours and waste your time at the parks.
Since you have your tickets, you can just walk in as soon as you get to the park. When you enter Islands of Adventure, head to the left, not the right. I know that when you look at the map, it seems like a shorter route to WWoHP if you go to the right, but they won’t let you in on that side.
Take a left and head to Marvel Superhero Island. You’re going to pass this, Toon Island, and Jurassic Park. In Jurassic Park, there will be a line to get a reservation ticket for WWoHP. There are two lines here. One to get a reservation ticket for you and your party, and a stand-by line where you wait for hours to get into the park when there’s room. Do NOT go into the stand-by line. You’ll end up wasting four hours of your time there. The tickets look like this:
The reason they have lines is because they only let a certain amount of people into the park at a time so it’s more enjoyable. You don’t want to let everyone in and not even have room to walk.
They did that the first three times I went and it wasn’t nearly as pleasant as the last. When people leave, more are allowed to go in. Get your reservation ticket so you can come back to the park at they your designated time. Now you can go to the other parks, ride a rollercoaster, eat lunch, and take pictures while you wait.
To get in, head to the entrance from The Lost Continent into the park. There will be signs and staff telling you where to go from Jurassic park to get there. Give them your ticket, count your crowd, (each ticket lets in 9 people so get as many as you need.) You’ll be greeted by the Hogwarts Express looking pretty to your right and a butterbeer cart straight ahead. Once you’re in the WWoHP, you can stay as long as you want and leave whenever you want, but you need another ticket to get in again, unless you wait till nighttime when there’s less people going in. The reason they do this is because whenever people get there in the morning, they automatically rush to WWoHP, and now you know better than to do that!
At certain times, there will be a conductor there in his uniform for you to take pictures with in front of the train. To your left will be Honeydukes and Zonko’s joke shop. Either entrance will let you in both shops as they’re put together and there isn’t a wall between them. The candy and products here are amazing and you should spend some time looking at everything even if you don’t have any money to buy it all. A lot of detail was put into all the products that they provide at the parks.
When you’re done shopping there, walk a few feet and The Three Broomsticks Inn will be to the left of the butterbeer cart. There is a menu outside so you can see what they serve, and the prices for them. For pictures of all the dishes, click here. My family is five people, and the Great Feast is more than enough for us with an extra serving. If you get butterbeer, get the frozen kind, I think it tastes a lot better than the normal one!
When you pass the Three Broomsticks, you’ll find the restrooms on the left, and Dervish and Banges on the right. There is a little rest area under the cuckoo clock outside D&B and a little vendor selling cool HP themed stationary and journals and stamps. D&B has wizard robes and wands and scarves. Lots of cool merchandise as well as the more expensive gold and silver jewelry like the Time-Turner and the Deathly Hallows symbol.
The Dragon Challenge Rollercoaster is also on this side. Fortunately, there is hardly ever a line longer than 40 minutes for this, and averages about 25, which I can never understand because I love them. The red dragon goes a lot faster than the blue one, but the blue one lasts a little longer.
When you pass D&B, Ollivanders is nearly right next to it, but you have to get in line to go in. There’s a little demonstration that they do all day and you’re the audience, which is why there’s a line. You can buy wands here, of course!
When you pass Ollivanders, you’ll see a cart that has pins and keychains and scarves and other merchandise for you to buy for if you don’t want to go into the shops. I love their pins and I wish I could’ve bought all of them. When you pass the cart and snowman, you’ll find a little stage before you get to the castle. At certain times, the Bauxbatons and Durmstrang students come and put on a show for you. And the Hogwarts Choir comes out with the singing toads and sing wizard songs.
When you pass the stage, the castle entrance will be in front of you and you’ll be able to enter the line to wait to get into the castle. It is a ride/tour, so you can’t go in the Great Hall or dormitories or anything like that, but you get to go inside certain classrooms and the Gryffindor Common Room. The average wait time is two hours, so sorry about that. After you wait in line for that long, you’ll be let into the castle and into a locker storage area.
You’re not allowed to have bags on the ride, so rent a locker and put your stuff in there. It’s free for the first hour I think, and then if you wait longer to open it and retrieve your stuff, you have to pay. (I can’t remember how much though, sorry!) You’ll be let in to the rest of the line, and from there, it is about a 45 minute wait to get onto the ride. If you have a little digital camera, go ahead and take it because you’re going to tour the castle, and you’ll want to take pictures. When you get to the ride, there is a little compartment under each seat for loose objects and you can put it in there before you take your seat and the ride starts. Just don’t forget it when you get off the ride!
This ride probably takes the longest out of any of the ones in the park because of popularity so it’s unavoidable. But it IS worth it. If you get to the front of the line, and they tell you one of your children is too short to ride, there is a parent room where you can wait with your child while your family goes on the ride. They play the Harry Potter films while you wait and then when your family comes back, you can go ahead and go on the ride if you give your child to someone else in your family to watch.
After you leave the ride, you are let out into the locker room again to retrieve your things and now you can go into the gift shop called Filch’s Magical Emporium. They have lots of cool merchandise here like House scarves and clothing, the marauders map and stuffed toys. I wish I could’ve bought everything, but I only chose the things I just could NOT leave without. Here’s my scarf and pin that I got at this shop:
Even if you can’t buy anything, it’s still a good idea to look at everything and take pictures so when you go home, you can remember. After you leave the gift shop, you will walk down a path, and there will be another cart selling wands in case you don’t want to wait in line to enter Ollivanders. Past the cart will be the entrance to the Flying Hippogriff Rollercoaster. My seven year-old cousin LOVES this ride. It’s slower than the Dragon Challenge, and more kid-friendly, but I still liked it too. I didn’t want to leave anything without experiencing it.
I think that’s about all the advice I can give you. I tried to remember everything I’ve experienced so you can experience it too, and you can always send me questions in case you have anything to ask!
They let food into the park, so you don’t have to spend a fortune on the food they sell there
Always have your camera ready
Pictures are the best souvenirs you can ever take home!
Don’t rush, the park will be there all day, everyday
I know it’s exciting to get to go to WWoHP, but don’t ignore the rest of the parks
Include your family in everything even if they don’t like Harry Potter
And above all, try to have as much fun as you possibly can!
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