If you haven't read the previous post about Universal Studios, you can read it here, before continuing this post, so you can walk through the entire journey of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.
Hogsmeade Village
When you step off the Hogwarts Express, you will have to shuffle your way through the crowd of other students and bystanders down the stairs and out of the station. As you exit the station and walk down, you will start to be able to see the snow-covered roofs of Hogsmeade Village. As you turn the corner around the hedges, you will see the entire village. As you walk through the village, keep your eyes open for places to practice your spells.
Walking up the street you have Honeydukes on your left, a great stop for all your sweet tooth needs. For those adventurous types, I recommend Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans; for those interested in a bit more bang for your Galleon, you should try the Shock-O-Choc, dark chocolate pieces with chili powder; and for those that want something a bit more traditional, I would go with the Ton-Tongue Toffee, a wonderful chocolate covered toffee with nuts. Once you have your fill of sweets you can head back outside in the village and head up the street a bit more to take a quick restroom break. This seems like a strange thing to talk about, but there is just one quick thing. It seems that Moaning Myrtle has decided to take up residency in the Hogsmeade bathrooms instead of the Hogwarts first-floor girls' bathroom. When you go in, listen carefully and you may hear her talking about how Olive Hornby teased her about her glasses.
When you are done, you can cross the street and head up a bit to the Owl Post. Walking into Owl Post may make you a little claustrophobic as it is piled high with packages, boxes, and letters. In the shop, you can purchase postcards and your very own owl to send messages with. Back outside, there is an area set up for getting items personalized and a small stand that is a wonderful "secret" find, that I missed on my first two trips. You can send mail from here and it will get a special stamp cancellation mark to signify that it went through Owl Post.
Up the street a bit more, connected to the Owl Post, is an Olivander's outpost shop. As with the main shop in Diagon Alley, you have the chance to be chosen by a wand or you can go the faster, but slightly less magical, route and pick your own. As you head towards the castle, turn left to go on a bridge where you can get a great shot of Hogwarts and is a great place for pictures with friends, no matter the time of day. Backtracking to the main pat, go past the main entrance of the castle and you will find Filch's Emporium. You will be able to browse through several confiscated goods, trinkets, and lost clothing from students. Make sure you look in every corner because there are little things hidden everywhere. When you are done looking through Filch's Emporium, you can head to outside and back towards the castle to experience the Forbidden Journey.
Hogwarts Forbidden Journey
Before you can enter Hogwarts, you must drop off any bags and souvenirs you may have bought already at the lockers to the side of Hogwarts. As you make your way to Hogwarts, take a moment to appreciate the winged boars on either side of the entrance and all of the details in the corridors as you walk through the castle. One of the first "rooms" you will see is the outside of the greenhouses, with overgrown plants creeping up the walls and across window panes. Going deeper into the castle you will see many familiar artifacts, including the griffon-blocked staircase, the sorting hat, and the Fat Lady who is sad she can't make it to the Quidditch match.
You will find portraits of the 4 Founders and they are having a conversation about Harry Potter as you walk by. After a few more corridors, you will find yourself looking at what looks to be the Room of Requirement, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione will appear from under the invisibility cloak and discuss trying to the clock tower. With just a couple more turns, prepare yourself for Floo Powder, flying on a broom, and all the adventures of Hogwarts.
I won't give away the full story of flying through Hogwarts and the grounds, but be warned: those that get motion sick, are arachnophobic, or are frightened of Dementors (who wouldn't be?) may have a difficult time on this journey. When you have made it safely back to Hogwarts, make sure you gather your items from your lockers or else risk they end up confiscated by Filch himself.
Flight of the Hippogriff
Directly across from Hogwarts, Hagrid has set up a small area for riding training hippogriffs, something to start with before meeting a real hippogriff and risk insulting it. The line is all outside as you are heading for a Care of Magical Creatures lesson. In the line you will find some of Hagrid's trinkets, but mostly it's just a nice walk through the Grounds of Hogwarts. One of Hagrid's assistants will help you onto one of the training Hippogriffs and make sure that you are safe for the duration of the lesson.
Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure
To finish off your adventures in Hogsmeade, you will go to another Care of Magical Creatures class in an abandoned part of the castle. Before you can start your walk there, you will need to leave all of your bags, souvenirs, hats, glasses, and drinks in a locker. You will be riding on Hagrid's motorbike or in the sidecar for the class and it is easy to lose things on the bikes which are quite fast.
As you start your walk to the class, you will walk past Hagrid's cabin and some of his giant pumpkins and then cross a bridge into an old part of the castle. You will quickly come up to a room where Hagrid and Mr. Weasley are talking about the lesson and enchanting the motorbikes for mass transportation of students. Once through that room you will continue through a small storage room with a big fireplace and some pods hanging from the ceiling, and then immediately into a large storage room full of various eggs. This leads into some tunnels before you head into a final workshop room with some of Hagrid's most useful tools. Take a look around all of the rooms you pass through as there are details in every corner. In the final room, look to the ceiling and you will see some blast-ended skrewts crawling around on the roof and sometimes Hagrid on his motorbike.
When it is your turn to start the class, you will board the motorbike or sidecar, and very shortly you will be off for the best lesson of your life. You will see another skrewt, Fluffy, and some pixies before the lesson starts to go awry, but you are in very capable hands - after all, it's Hagrid we're talking about, at least it's not Lockhart. When the lesson is over, you are safely returned to the old part of the castle, before you can head back into Hogsmeade.
Three Broomsticks and Hog's Head
For a quick bite to eat you can head to the Three Broomsticks, where they have plenty of options for everyone: fish and chips, turkey leg, or shepherd's pie. The Three Broomsticks offers great food, but while you are waiting you won't be bored as there is plenty to look at. Looking around you can see the various patrons of the Three Broomsticks and looking up will give you more to look at: seeing the stairs to the available rooms and general storage.
Right next door is the Hog's Head run by Aberforth Dumbledore. This is the place to go if you want to get an alcoholic butterbeer, but unfortunately, you can't order it that way, you have to get creative. There are several ways to make it alcoholic, I don't remember all of them, but the one I like the best is a cold butterbeer with a shot of rumchata. You will have to take a couple of drinks of the butterbeer first and then slowly pour the shot into the glass. I have heard that rum and whiskey are also good options to add, but I cannot attest to that.
As you travel through Hogsmeade you will find two locations for buying butterbeer at small carts in the street. One is between The Three Broomsticks and Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure, though this cart is normally very busy. There is a second cart further up the street, almost to Hogwarts, this one is usually much less busy. Though the fastest way to get butterbeer in Hogsmeade is at The Hog's Head as it is more hidden than the carts.
Back to Hogsmeade Station
When you are done with your time at Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, you can start heading to the train back to King's Cross Station and the Muggle world. After a quick walk through the station, you will find yourself on the platform and ready to board the train. Once in your compartment, a train attendant will come for a quick safety talk then you are ready to go. It is important to pay attention out the window and through the door into the corridor. What you will see is completely different than the journey to Hogwarts, so don't doze off at the end of the train ride.
Thanks for joining me on a Harry Potter adventure at Islands of Adventure. Be sure to come back next week for more Universal Orlando content!
See you next time!
Sami
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