This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
It doesn’t always get as much attention as its neighbor Disney World, but Universal Studios Orlando is definitely worth a visit. Especially to explore the incredibly — if not magically — successful The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Here are five attractions to prove it.
Escape from Gringotts
In the astonishing Great Hall of Gringotts Bank, which is used as the antechamber for the Escape from Gringotts ride, there is no need for an invisibility cloak to approach the turnstiles or to use the Imperius Curse to bewitch Bogrod, the goblin on duty.
To access the vaults, you just have to endure the disdainful looks of all these pencil-pushing dwarves who frown as they go about their soporific business, and then reach the “gringrots”, where the fun really begins.
Aboard miners’ carts fixed to rails, we then begin a mad race into the stony bowels of the bank. And this, in search of Bellatrix Lestrange’s safe, to get our hands on the horcrux, a highly evil object, which is hidden there. On the way, the vile witch tries to block our path, but we dodge the lightning that shoots from her wand.
Then, with the help of special effects, 3D images and shaking rails, armoured trolls try to skin us with their sledgehammers, before derailing the neighbouring cart. Nagini soon tries to sink her fangs into our veins. And this is until an albino dragon warms the gills of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who has come in turn to reinforce his Death Eater buddies. From one end of this merry-go-round to the other, we really feel like we are the actors in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
On Diagon Alley
Once outside, we find the great white dragon perched on the roof of the bank, from where it has just escaped. The latter spits (real) flames every five minutes, frightening all the Muggles walking around Diagon Alley.
This one is lined with shopping attractions. Ollivander’s is swamped with magic wands and Honeydukes is overflowing with surprise sweets and other explosive sweets. The ineffable Weasley’s joke shop is full of gadgets, like the spy ear used to listen to the Order of the Phoenix in Sirius Black’s house.
Filled with nooks and crannies, hidden passages, and animated storefronts, Diagon Alley ultimately leads to the Leaky Cauldron. This friendly tavern serves pumpkin juice and butterbeer on tap—like cream soda caramel.
Meanwhile, in the countless neighboring shops, many succumb to the spell of creeping commercialism, subject to a proliferation of products derived from the world of Harry Potter – unless, of course, a patronus of moderation is born.
Forbidden Journey
This thrilling ride has not aged a day, although it is almost 15 years old. The combined effect of the immense projections of enveloping images on hemispherical screens and the suspended seats attached to an articulated arm provides sensations very close to reality, with great fluidity.
It really feels like you’re taking part in a Quidditch match riding a Nimbus 2000, flying around a raging dragon and gliding over the waters of Hogwarts Lake.
To help us endure the (very long) queue, the approach route passes through multiple galleries of animated paintings, through Dumbledore’s office and through M’s mandrake greenhouse.me Sprout.
Okay, some of the features (the Basilisk, Aragog, the Whomping Willow) have aged a little badly, but the crazy aerial farandole that this merry-go-round takes us on is still as breathtaking as ever. As mind-blowing, in fact, as the formidable reconstruction of Hogwarts inside which this merry-go-round is located, right next to the main street of Hogsmeade.
Stopover at Hogsmeade
With its dormer-windowed cottages and “snowy” roofs, the main shopping street faithfully recreates that of the village frequented by Harry and his friends, including the Hog’s Head pub and the immense Three Broomsticks inn.
On the menu : shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, fish and chips, Irish stew and other (more or less) tasty dishes from the British Empire, which make us want to take a little Floo powder to escape elsewhere. But for that, there is the train.
The “Hogwarts Express”
Whether you take it from Hogsmeade or King’s Cross Station, the Hogwarts Express is much more than a means of transport that takes visitors from one section of the Harry Potter universe to another. It is, in its own right, a genuine attraction.
Although it is faithfully recreated, it does not sell chocolate frogs. Its windows do, however, frost over when the dementors pass by. In the window-screen of each cabin, we see a host of very realistic scenes, from the English countryside to the Knight Bus and Hagrid riding his sputtering celestial sidecar.
The scenes vary depending on the direction of the train, but from King’s Cross, an ingenious device shows us the occupants “entering the pillar” of platform 9 ¾. In the opposite direction, we pass through the Forbidden Forest and see centaurs, then the Weasley twins riding their brooms and setting off fireworks.
Then, the journey draws to a close and we soon return to the station, before being greeted by Mad-Eye Moody, the powerful Auror who hunts Death Eaters. Well, we assume that it is indeed him: what if it was Barty Crouch Jr. stuffed with polyjuice?
After all, everything here is an illusion…
The author was the inotAir Transat and Universal Studios.
This content was produced by the Special Publications Team of Dutyrelevant to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part in it.