Harry Potter Park Pix

mobius387

beer snob
Premium Supporter
Feb 16, 2009
4,404
Milwaukee, WI
I dunno how many of you all are harry potter fans, but I got to go to the park yesterday at Universal Studios. I read all the books and have seen most of the movies, so I'm a fan but not hardcore or anything.

It was absolute insanity; ive never seen that many people in that small of space. We waited almost 2 hours just to get into Islands of Adventure, once in that park it was an 8 hour wait to get into the harry potter park. we waited until the evening to get in line and we only had to wait about an hour and a half. there were a few rides in the park, but most of the fun was seeing the park and the atmosphere.

I have to say that U. Studios nailed it with this one. Even counting all the Disney parks, Harry Potter had the best atmosphere I've ever experienced. I went with my wife, sister, and her boyfriend, of which my wife and sis' boyfriend have never seen anything harry potter, yet they had a blast and they said the park was awesome as well.

unfortunately, the park was too packed to really do anything. everything had an at minimum 1 hour wait to do, even go into a store and shop. we did 1 ride and then got in line to buy some butterbeer (a drink they always had in the books for those who don't know what that is). the butterbeer was really good, it was like a cream soda with butterscotch poured into it. it was the only thing i bought at the park, $9 for a glass with a signature mug to take home. at that point it was almost 930 pm and the only thing else we wanted to do was take the hogwarts castle tour, which was a 2 hour wait so we said no.

nontheless, it was a ton of fun, even if i spent 8 hours total throughout the day waiting in lines EEK!. ill post some pictures below.

in the park people were buying things up like crazy. they were selling wands for $30 each and people were buying like 4 at a time. as expected there were many people dressed up in capes and wizard costumes. but they did a really good job with the merchandise; it all looked very authentic and well made.

so, if you like harry potter universe, enjoy the pictures ill post below. hopefully it'll give you an idea of what the park looked like.
 
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finally in the park. i look pretty happy, lol

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this is what the building roofs looked like in hogsmeade

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where they sold butterbeer. 60-90 minute wait EEK!

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some more buildings

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hogsmeade with all the people

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more packed madness

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wands!

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closer up of the castle

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That's INSANE! I can't wait to go! :) I might have to wait a year so it's not so crowded... EEK!

yah, it was pretty crazy. and what really sucked is that none of the employees really knew what was going on. we had no idea what we were suppose to do once in the park. like, we thought that we could just walk into the potter area once we got into islands of adventure, but we were WAAAY off on that one, lol. we got lied to 2 times by employees as to what was going on with entrances and stuff, and i asked like 6 people what was happening with HP and they didnt really know.

in hindsight, we should have gone to the universal studios park first and hit up all the rides there, then go over to IOA after lunch when you could just walk into the park. im just glad i got in!
 
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Going during the summer is absolutely insane! A trip to a theme park during the months of June through late August/early September is absolutely taboo for me no way am I waiting 4 hours to get on a ride. On a brighter side that looks cool! I hope you had fun!
 
Going during the summer is absolutely insane! A trip to a theme park during the months of June through late August/early September is absolutely taboo for me no way am I waiting 4 hours to get on a ride. On a brighter side that looks cool! I hope you had fun!

with the fast passes they have implemented at every park, it makes it OK for waiting in lines. if you plan it out right you can use your fast pass on the very popular rides, making the wait 10 mins at most. then you hit up the less popular rides and wait 30-45 mins tops.

the worst part about going in summer is the heat. some days it was 100 with heat index of 110. this year supposedly they set record highs for 2 of the days i was there. im from wisconsin, 110 and extremely humid is not very fun for me :hilarious:
 
where's the pic's of the harry potter ride's?


pssh,the place barely passe's as harry potter themed,you could have Scrooge walking around and i'll believe it's that