Harry Potter World

         I'm not sure about you, but I am a Hufflepuff. I was not overly excited at first about that sorting but I respect the sorting hat and have embraced it. In case your not sure what that means here is the description of a Hufflepuff  “Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its members.” See that is a pretty great discerption. 

         have been crushed that I never received my letter form Hogwarts for almost half my life now so I was excited to visit Hogwarts and Hogshead at Universal Studios Hollywood. About 5 years ago I was able to visit the Orland park and was so excited to experience the magic again.  

       Me about 5 years ago at the Orland Park 

       The official opening day is still to come, it is April 7th. But lucky for me and other muggles Universal Studios randomly selects days for technical run throughs and allows us mere muggles a chance to raise a butter beer to all our childhood dreams coming true. 

         Lucky for me I have a bestie who is as equally obsessed with Harry Potter and down for spur of the moment change of plans to drive a few hours away from the direction we are headed to go explore Hogsmead. We were in California to celebrate her 30th birthday by exploring Joshua Tree National park, but more of that in another post. Thank God for friends who like to change plans and are also know the true importance of walking through hogshead.

       One of the perks; possibly the only perk of a flight out of PDX at 6 am is that you are easily in LA by 8 am and you still have the whole day ahead. So upon landing in LA and realizing In-n-Out was not open yet we were happy to learn via twitter that the Harry Potter area at Universal Studios was open so we quickly made a decision to go. 

      I lived in California until I was about 6, when we moved to Portland which has been my home base since. I have successfully avoided having to drive in LA any time I have visited since then until this trip. So for those of you not from the LA here is a geography lesson we learned via 2 hours of traffic one Friday morning. That the Orange County airport is a lot more south then Universal Stuidos, but well located for a quick run out  highway 10 to Joshua Tree. Which is why we selected it as the airport to fly into; 200 buck round trip on Southwest did not hurt either. But more importantly I hate LAX. So we had a bit of a drive ahead of us. 

        I am as big a Disney fan as I am a Harry Potter fan, my dad worked at Disneyland when I was younger and I have been easily over 30 times, several of those trips with my friend who I was with for Joshua Tree. So we are used to gate times at 8 and felt like we were going to miss a chance to get in if they close early or limit numbers, we are really good to think up worst case scenarios in our heads, we can win at that. Lucky for us Universal does not open till 10, which is mind blowing to us Disney fans, but it was perfect because it put as at the park right about opening time.

      Like I said I have been to the park in Orlando, back when it was just Hogwarts and Hogsmead, so the park in Hollywood I was expecting to be very similar. And it was. But that is not a bad thing, at least to me. But I had never been in Universal Hollywood before, I am not a huge roller coaster fan and always chose to go to Disney instead as it is still one of my favorite places. So walking through the gates was new and I was excited for a full day of magic and fun. We quickly walked/ skipped till we were at the entrance!!! 

                            EEKKKKKK So excited! 

       Have you ever had the experience of being somewhere new but feeling like it was coming home? Thats what it was for me. Once your through the gate you are greeted by the Hogwarts Express  on one side and Honeydukes on the other.

                            Hogwarts Express

                            Honeydukes 

                            Magical!!!!

        The piped in familiar magical theme song greets you like an old friend. Similar to the Florida park, the Harry Potter area is a small part of a larger theme park and it is pretty small but no detail was overlooked. We walked through Hogsmead excitedly pointing things out to each other and pretty much just freaking out. At the end of Hogsmead you end up at Hogwarts every fans dream. 

      Hogwarts  

          There are two rides/ attractions in the area both of which I don't know the real names of; but one is a fantastic 3D virtual rollercoaster that moves you through Hogwarts on a broom escorted by the Golden Trio. Strangely my favorite thing about this ride may be what you see when you are in line. It moves you through Hogwarts showcasing amazing details and providing commentary by different characters. Amazingly there was no line and we sort of speed walked through the line the first time, only stopping briefly to appreciate the herbology greenhouse and the moving pictures before starting the ride. As I said it is 3D, not my favorite but definitely a benefit to this attraction. You fly over hogwarts on your broom, come face to face with a dragon, dementors and giant snakes. Im not going to lie, there where parts where I was a little freaked out, the dementors get pretttttyyyy close. It is a very fun ride and lasts a good amount of time, which is great cause nothing sucks more at a theme park then waiting an hour for a ride to be 60 seconds. 

         Naturally they have the ride exiting through the gift shop, which as a crazy fan I was okay because I was on the look out for a cute mug, my favorite go to souvenir and something for my little nephew ewok, but the gift shop and merchandise in general was lacking. If anyone from Universal were to ever read this, know you are missing huge income due to the poor quality of merchandise available. Everything it seemed was themed to a house, which is great. As I stated I am a Huffuelpuff and am learning to be proud. But I am also a 30 year old women who is not going to spend 45 bucks on a think itchy sweater in house colors that I will never wear. Everything it seemed was specific to houses, it was not until the very end of the day that I was able to find the only souvenir i bought, a black mug with the Hogwarts crest on it. There is just so much cute Harry Potter stuff on line and Etsy  it seems crazy that it was so bad, but in the long run it saved me money so that is good. 

                            The mug I ended up finding 

Since there was still no line, we did a quick U turn and went back on, this time stoping and really looking at the detail and listing to the characters when they are shown and are speaking. What was baffling to me is the capacity this ride has for lines, they are clearly expecting on peak days lines that I would guess at least 2 hours. As it is one of only 2 rides in the Harry Potter area it will be popular. 

       After leaving Hogwarts we went to Hagrids Cabin and rode some very short, jerky rollercoaster with thestrals. Again the details are great, as you are in line, or in our case, where the line would be. You walk by Hagrid’s cabin and you hear hound barking and Hagrid talking. Its so fun, but the ride was not so fun. The seats are crazy small and your legs end up in a weird position that is painful, but you can life because the ride is maybe 60 seconds. I think they where trying to create a more child friendly ride as compared to the other in Hogwarts. But as someone who appreciated kid rides as much as more thrilling “E-Ticket” rides it was not good. With no line in site, my friend and I both had no inclination to go again. We just shook our heads and said no. 

                            The best part about the thestral ride- Hagrid’s Cabin 

         At this point we had only been in the Hogsmead for maybe an hour and had done both rides, so we took this as a sign from JK herself that we needed a butter beer and to explore the shops, so with a blended butter beer in hand we walked around and looked for better merch and loving all the details. The butter beer was fantastic and I would definitely get that again. There are different themed shops like Olivanders where you can find a wand of your own or one that is fashioned after your favorite character, it was fun to see them all and the displays are very similar to the movie with stacks of wands everywhere. One thing that was a little annoying was we were talking to an employe who looked to be about my age, maybe a little younger. I asked if this was such a dream for her and if she was a huge fan. She looked me dead in the eye and just said she did not understand the question, that she grew up in Hogsmead. (eye roll) It bothered me, we were the only people in the store so there was no chance of a kid overhearing. I get not breaking character and presenting an image and an all encompassing story but I found it lame. Not to compare everything to Disney but that is my theme park background so to speak and I have had real conversations with cast members who do not try and pretend like Fantasyland is real and that we were going to fly if only we had a little faith, trust and pixie dust. So after quickly exiting that shop and reminding myself that this place is magical we carried on walking through the other shops and loving the fun of the page come to life. 

                            The magicalness of Olivanders 

                            Such great details in al the windows 

Hogshead 

A fun addition is the live performances that take place, we were able to witness both a toad choir that was a little bit Pitch Perfect a little bit High School Musical, both things I love so in my opinion it was great. It was a fantastic break to watch the performance while enjoying my butter beer and seeing Hogwarts in the background. 

                          The Butter Beer is so good

                            I love the detail put in

        All things considered it was a great little trip, the issue being it was a little trip. I think collectively we only spent three hours in the areas, we went and explored a little bit more of Universal, which is strange. Maybe if I grew up attending I would be filled with nostalgia and love it. Maybe if I had never been to Disney until I was an adult I would find the idea of high living dozens of cast members will who are wearing Micky Hands while walking down Main Street, with music playing a bit weird. No, never that is not weird at all, I take it back. 

       All and all it was a fantastic day or half day as there was not a lot to see or do specific to Harry Potter and the rest of the park had little to interest me. I found a mug I like, (still annoyed by the crap merch) and got to explore Hogwarts and relive the magic of reading the books for the first time and the world I created in my head and heart. If you are a Potterhead and find yourself in Hollywood with a half a day to spend do it. You will not be disappointed. 

                            It was a great day!

               Also bonus amazingness, there is an In-n-Out less then 5 minutes away!

      In-n-Out!