Six Words I Never Thought I Would Say: “I Can’t Wait for Diagon Alley!”

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley Opens July 8, 2014

A little over two months ago, I gave myself an assignment. I decided that I needed to watch all the Harry Potter films so I could familiarize myself with the seemingly nonsensical words and items that would undoubtedly be featured in the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando Resort when it opened this summer. At the time, details had been coming out about this new “land” that would double the existing Wizarding World in size, and I knew if I was going to be able to do my job (social marketing for a travel agency), I was going to need to learn what in the heck I was writing and tweeting about.

I read the press releases and reviewed all the media photos, but, I mean, how was I to know what Gringotts bank was or why the thought of escaping from it was so exciting to Potter fans?

And, what was the big deal about being able to ride a train between two parks…

…even if these guys were to be seen from it?

What on God’s green earth were Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and why would they require an entire store?

I mean, I could understand fuss over a new restaurant because themed foods and eateries area ton of fun and add a whole other element to the story.

But an ice cream parlour? Really?

Things were just not adding up for me. At all.

How I Became a Potterhead

Now, I look back and laugh at my own bewilderment with the Harry Potter franchise. I can’t believe I was so late to the game on this one, especially when I had been living 15 miles from every Harry Potter fan’s Mecca for nearly two years!

At this point, I am DYING to experience all of these things! They look and sound INCREDIBLE! Universal Orlando has sure taken things to another level this time! They have thought of everything and included so, so many great story elements. We haven’t even seen or heard much about what’s in all the shops yet either. There’s so much to see, do, taste and experience!

I. Cannot. Wait. Any. Longer! Luckily, my wait is up tomorrow! More on that below….

In order for you to fully understand what happened to transform me from completely clueless to Potterhead, I need to give you a little explanation of my interest, background and familiarity with the Harry Potter films and the existing Wizarding World of Harry Potter area at Universal Orlando.

The “Other” Theme Park in Orlando

Prior to moving to Florida in 2012, Andy and I had not been to Universal since May 2007 when we took a joint vacation with our closest friends. (Side note: one of those friends had never been to Walt Disney World, Universal Studios or any other major theme parks before that trip. What!?). At that time, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter did not exist. In fact, it’s development was announced on May 31, 2007, right after we returned home. It was probably big news then, but we had no idea at the time.

While Walt Disney World is our true love, we actually hold a very special place in our hearts for Universal Orlando. There’s a back story here I promise to tell another time. Aside from that, we really (really!) enjoy the attractions at Universal. Not only are the rides and attractions top notch, but they built around some of Andy’s very favorite franchises like Terminator, Jurassic Park, Simpsons, Transformers, and formerly Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Jaws. To this day, I still think the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man is one of the coolest rides of any theme park and I am not even a comic book fan! (Another side note: We took the aforementioned, never-been-on-a-theme-park-attraction friend on the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man for the first attraction of the entire vacation. It may have blown his mind and we quite possibly set an impossibly high standard for the rest of the trip.).

Anyway, having zero interest in the Harry Potter books or films combined with having heard about the insanely long lines that persist to this day at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP), we were in no hurry to go back to our old stomping grounds to check it out. And, let’s face it, when you are vacationing at Disney and already committed to tickets, dining, etc., it seems “hard” to step away and go to Universal. So, we didn’t. For 5 years.

The Wizarding What?

I’m not a fantasy fiction fan at all. I think Andy would say that he is, but not in a huge way. I assumed I would live my whole life without seeing things like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or anything of the sort. Yet, after our move, we thought it was time for a visit to Universal Orlando to at least check out what all this WWoHP madness was really all about.

Upon arrival, I remember feeling really surprised by the look and feel of Hogsmeade and thinking, “What’s this now? Universal knows how to make a really themed land? Hmm. Perhaps we’ve underestimated them. I need to see more!” We looked around the area and in the shops, and it all seemed pretty cool, but none of it meant anything to us. Sure, it looked pretty detailed and fairly interesting, but we had no idea what it was about and honestly, we couldn’t understand why people were so gaga for this silly wizardy stuff. So, we got ourselves in line for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. We walked through the Hogwart’s castle, saw the kids from the movies, went past Dumbledore’s office, saw a bunch of talking paintings, which looked amazing by the way, and noticed a talking hat, but still had no real appreciation of what was in front of us.

We climbed aboard what seemed to be a high-tech ride vehicle and off we went to “fly with Harry” like the commercials promised. Much to our surprise, the ride was incredible! We. Were. FLYING! I lost track of up and down, let alone left and right, and we went on an this amazing adventure that I could not explain one bit of! Among other things, we had no clue who was this obnoxious blond boy (Draco Malfoy), what is this ridiculous game / shoving match via flying broom (Quidditch), why were we being attacked by a dragon, odd ghost-like things (Dementors), enormous spiders and really mean-spirited, spiky trees? It was all very weird, but yet we LOVED it! I mean, we could not stop talking about how fluid and unique the motions were and how it was amazing to move between real props and sets and the 3D screens. Our minds were blown by the ride and the technology, but not so much that we ran to watch the movies. We enjoyed it as theme park fans, detail lovers, and in Andy’s case, as an engineer. It was definitely highly, highly impressive.

Movie Time!

As I mentioned at the beginning, it wasn’t until I felt I had to watch the movies that I ever had any desire to check them out. I’d been on a few tours of the WWoHP for my job, and had watched my friends and colleagues geek out over Hogsmeade, Butterbeer, chocolate frogs and the like, but still hadn’t thought about watching the films. Well, lucky for me, ABC Family had a marathon of the Harry Potter movies one weekend back in March and we DVR’ed them all. Knowing that I had hours upon hours ahead of me, I dreaded this task, but forged ahead — mainly because there was no space left on the DVR and I needed to watch and delete them!

I’ll be honest and say I was not a huge fan of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Knowing I still had over 17 hours of Harry Potter to watch, I was not thrilled with my self-inflicted assignment, but then something changed. The movies got better. The stories got richer and deeper and darker. The back stories were unraveled, while the movies intertwined. The characters grew on me — a lot! With each film I would declare a new “favorite” character. I couldn’t believe it, but by ‘Goblet of Fire’, I was hooked. No, make that ‘Prisoner of Azkaban!’

Andy and I were watching them together and I found myself barely able to wait for him to get home from work because I wanted to watch more Harry Potter! And that’s when it happened. I repeatedly suggested something I never thought I would say: “Let’s watch more Harry Potter!” Crazy, right? Who had I become? This is uncharted territory for me with this genre. The only other TV/movie I have been hooked on before is Mad Men, which could not be more different from Harry Potter!

I know it’s completely backwards, but it was fun for me to see the movie references I’d come to know from WWoHP in the movies themselves. It was amazing to see how much the movies looked like Universal! So many of WWoHP’s foods, drinks, souvenirs and details suddenly made sense! And, I was totally into it. No, we were totally into it!

A Return to WWoHP

We rushed back over to Universal the first chance we could to have a Butterbeer and explore Hogsmeade once again. Suddenly, everything made perfect sense and we were now in Potterhead heaven! All of the formerly “silly wizardy stuff” was like a gift from Universal Creative just for us! It was literally a whole new world to explore and enjoy and we loved it.

Since Universal always seems to close too early, we didn’t have much time to take in all the details as thoroughly as we would have liked, so we will definitely return again and make our way slowly through both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

On this particular visit, we also needed to save some time to leave Universal Islands of Adventure and run over to Universal Studios to ogle at the construction of London and Diagon Alley, which was in process at the time. Seeing King’s Cross, Grimmauld Place, London and even the Knight Bus was a thrill! We truly cannot wait to experience the fully completed expansion.

  

We were also quite happy to catch a glimpse of Hogwarts Express testing and riding back and forth on the tracks between parks! We definitely got some sideways glances from Team Members who were leaving the park through an exit close to our viewing spot (the park was closing, so apparently their shifts were over). I can only imagine what utter geeks we must have looked like to them as we stood there waiting and hoping the train would come by again. Luckily, it did and we captured this short video.

Now is the Time…Now is the Best Time!

Well, some time has passed and The Wizarding World of Diagon Alley is about to open to the public. It was announced today that the grand opening will be July 8, 2014.

On Friday, June 20, I have the distinct honor of attending a VIP preview will a few of my colleagues! I’m so incredibly excited about the opportunity preview the fantastic new Wizarding World expansion before it’s completely overrun by other Muggles! Ha!

The media preview was last night and this afternoon and there are nothing but rave reviews coming in from members of the media as well as Harry Potter cast stars, so my anticipation and excitement continue to build!

As the Harry Potter films’ cast members would say,
It’s going to be simply brilliant!

Cheers!