16 Super Secret Things You Probably Don’t Know About Harry Potter World
My family is full of hardcore Harry Potter fans, so when Universal Studios had us out to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida, we jumped on it. We even found some super secret stuff that will make your trip to Universal Studios even more fun!
16 Super Cool Secrets About The Wizarding World of Harry Potter At Universal Studios, Orlando
1. If your child isn’t tall enough for a particular ride, you can ask for a certificate to ride, and come back when they are tall enough. They go straight to the front of the line with their ride certificate in a few years. (You can actually do this at ANY ride in the entire park!)
2. Want to know when the dragon on top of Gringotts Bank is about to breathe fire? Just listen for the grumble. That means he’s about to blow!
3. If you adopt a Pygmy Puff at Weasley’s Wizard Weezes, they will do a super cool adoption ceremony for your kids.
4. Go to the Gringotts Money Exchange to trade real (Muggle) money for Wizarding Bank Notes you can use anywhere in the park!
5. If you ask the goblin at the money exchange ANY question at all, he will respond. (He said no when I asked him to marry me. Sigh…)
6. The Hogwarts Express train ride is totally different depending on which way you travel, so ride it TWICE!
7. Plus, you can run through the wall on Platfrom 9 3/4ths. (Okay, so it’s a series of mirrors that makes it LOOK that way when you take pictures, but still–COOL!)
8. If you go to Ollivanders, you might get chosen to participate in a wand ceremony where a shopkeeper actually has you try out spells with different wands.
8. If you’ve already purchased a wand, but then your kid gets chosen for a special wand ceremony (which totally happened to us…) they will exchange it if you keep the box.
9. Your wand comes with a map that has a secret hidden message only readable in Knockturn Alley!
10. Oh, and there are a couple of spots your wand works that aren’t actually on the map! So, get to wavin!
11. At the Magical Menagerie shop, if you listen to the snake outside, it speaks in PARSELTONGUE.
12. Ride Swap is awesome, if you have little kids that aren’t tall enough to ride, then one parent can wait with them in a room while the other parent goes to ride. The best part is, your bigger kids can ride with BOTH parents. So it’s a cool way to ride twice in a row!
13. If you have early access to the park (which you get when you stay at one of the Universal Resorts) the train to the OTHER part (Diagon Alley) starts 30 minutes before that park actually opens and you will be one of the first people there since it takes a while to get back there from the front of the park!
14. If you dial 62442 (MAGIC) in the phone booth at King’s Cross (just outside Diagon Alley) it will connect you to the Ministry of Magic!
15. The ice cream shop in Diagon Alley is usually super crowded, but you can go to the barrel outside and they sell Butterbeer ice cream with hardly any of the wait!
16. If you buy chocolate frogs you get trading cards just like in the movie! (But, you can buy these at your hotel gift shops, too– so you can skip the line for this one.)
We pretty much can’t wait to go back. I think our favorite part was the BUTTERBEEER!
