Be sure to check out Part 1: The Rides!
On our previous visit to Universal back in May 2014, while the actual attractions relating to Diagon Alley and London weren't open, we could still see a lot of the London portion over the barriers and it looked great. This visit it was all open for business, so we were able to get right in and look at everything. The London set consists of a couple different sections: The townhouses from Grimmauld Place, the entry to Diagon Alley (they don't actually funnel all of the guests through the Leaky Cauldron), the Knight Bus and King's Cross station.
There isn't a whole lot to be said about Grimmauld Place (since you can't go inside) or about King's Cross since it's just a staging area for the Hogwarts Express ride. But both are faithfully recreated and look very good. Grimmauld Place is just a row of townhouses made to look like the movie set and King's Cross looks like a train terminal, plus barriers to form proper lines for the ride. The Knight Bus was parked out in front of the stretch of London buildings. They had someone dressed as the conductor who hung out and would take pictures with people by the bus. They even put the talking head in the front window by the conductor. And it actually talked which was a nice touch. You could also walk around to the back of the bus where Harry actually got on it for the first time and look inside. They did a very good job with the interior too. There were a lot of people waiting for a turn to look inside so I didn't linger too long to check out all of the details, but it had beds!
Now that we've talked about the front, it's time to move on into the alley itself. After all, that's really the attraction; We could actually travel to London if that's what we wanted to see. The entryway to Diagon Alley was exactly as you might expect: a brick wall in a little courtyard with an arched entry through it. They modeled the arch to look like it did when the bricks were in motion in the movie and it turned out great. As soon as I walked through that arch I really felt like I had stepped into the movie.
The alley looked fantastic! Not trying to have all of the guests enter through the Leaky Cauldron was a wise decision, so that is just inside the entrance on your left. Unfortunately due to crowds, other places we wanted to eat, etc we did not end up eating there, but it looked like standard fare with a slight British twist; I didn't notice if they had pea soup on the menu or not. Not every storefront in the alley corresponds to an actual shop that you can go into and buy things, but the storefronts themselves were extremely well done, even if the store interiors were pretty typical gift shops with a Harry Potter twist. The definite focal point of the alley is Gringots - complete with a fire-breathing dragon and everything! That's right. The dragon perched at the top of Gringots actually belches real flames at an interval. I had no idea that happened, so the first time I was very surprised. After seeing it for the first time - and seeing some birds flying dangerously close to the fiery end - I tried to figure out how they actually ensured that they didn't toast passing birds. My only thought is that they must shoot a blast of air out first or something to scare away any birds that may be too close. Regardless, it was great. There was also a great themed take-out beer place to the left of the dragon that served my favorite beer of the trip. But I'll touch on that in Part 4.
Something that my girlfriend was really looking forward to was Knockturn Alley - specifically Borgin and Burkes. She was worried that in an effort to make it more family friendly they would leave out some of the more macabre details and brighten the place up a bit. This worry was entirely baseless! Knockturn Alley was very dark and mysterious; Covered by a roof that was made to look like a cloudy night. Borgin and Burkes was also spot on. It was definitely still a fairly typical gift shop, but in addition to that it was a bit darker and there were lots of glass cases filled with evil looking objects, as well as the mounted hand that grabs Harry - moving and all. There was also a trunk on the floor that had some sort of pneumatic device inside making it sound like someone (or something) was trying to get out.
One of the new things that they added to Hogsmeade along with the opening of Diagon Alley was the interactive "spell casting." Basically, at certain spots throughout the Harry Potter themed areas, they had a sensor, and if you had one of the interactive wands you could point it in the general direction of the sensor, make the correct wand movement, and something would happen if you got it right. A few examples: an umbrella above a shop would pour water like it was raining, Christmas lights in a window would light up in a pattern, etc. We did not actually participate (I heard the wands ran about $50) but the idea and the execution were stellar. Even if rides aren't your thing or you have small children who are unable to participate in the rides, the interactive wand experience can make the trip very worth it and adds a lot to the immersive experience.
Overall I would say the experience was fantastically immersive and very enjoyable. Keep an eye out for Part 3: The Celebration Events!
No comments:
Post a Comment