Oh boy, this was a MAJOR highlight in our trip. We talked about it so much before going, both being giant Harry Potter geeks it was only natural that we’d get super excited about visiting Wizarding World!
The last time I went to Islands of Adventure the area that has now become Wizarding World was a sort of Medieval part of the park, the Dragon Challenge ride was called Dueling Dragons back then. Here’s a bit of a rundown…
Dragon Challenge
The ride itself is the same as dueling dragons but they’ve pretty much rebuilt all the surrounding areas, and it all looks so good. Dragon challenge has a fantastic queuing system (wish I could have taken some photos but the camera was safely in a locker at this point), with loads of Harry Potter references. We rode this a few times, and tried both dragons, one of which was better than the other but I can’t remember which :/
Forbidden Journey
The Hogwarts ride! This is the ride that takes place in the castle, you sit in a pew and get taken on this ride around Hogwarts & the grounds, you even get involved in a Quidditch match! really, it’s a mix of motion & 3D… but it’s magical! Again, the queuing area was great – there were mandrake greenhouses, the goblet of fire, the pensieve…ah!
Butterbeer
Couldn’t visit Hogsmeade and not have a butterbeer, even if it is a frozen butterscotch slushy with a layer of cream… It was surprisingly tastey, though, and you could get it frozen or just with ice. The ‘froth’ on top is pretty much just cream I think, but it’s kinda nice! I had mine in a souvenir cup, oh yehhhhh! We completely forgot to get the pumpkin juice, we’d planned to get some on the way out of the park :/
Zonkos
This was such a little treasure trove! They were selling toys and games, such as the extendable ears, and also had quite a lot of fake products just for the display! It was really heaving when we went in which is a shame because I wanted to take a few more photos.
Honeydukes
Another super busy shop, it could’ve been so much bigger! You’re pretty much in a walking queue the whole way around. We ended up buying our chocolate frogs at another gift shop in the park because it was too crammed in Honeydukes. It’s so fun in there though, if it wasn’t so busy I’d have taken more photos of the packaging, amazing.
Hogwarts Express
First thing you see on entering Hogsmeade is the Hogwarts Express, complete with steam! Kinda tricky to get photos of the train because of people having their photos taken in front of it.
Olivanders
We didn’t get to go into Ollivanders, I think there’s a ‘wand choosing experience’ that goes on in there and there was a massive queue of kids waiting to go in. We got to see the wands in another shop, though, and they were pretty spectacular!
The Owl Post Office
And the rest…
I was getting really annoyed at my camera, it kept steaming up due to the humidity… not fun! It was also pretty difficult having to jostle with the other tourists who all wanted the same photos. Ah!
It was so much fun there, though, I’d go back tomorrow if I could!
I'm Kim, a 27 year old English designer type who lives with two mad kitties and one astrophysicist. I own 
