The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

3^rd June 2016

The entrance

That famous globe

One of the most awesome days out of all my days travelling was spent at Orlando Studios Japan which is one of two theme parks in the world to have a Wizarding World of Harry Potter. As soon as I found out about this there was no question that I would going whilst I was in Japan.

I arrived just as the gates after the gates had opened. I was kicking myself a little that I wasn’t on time. They have a thing called a timed ticket for the Harry Potter section. On busy days they stop people going in and give you a ticket with a time on it for later in the day. The only way to avoid this is to get there early.

The Flying Ford Anglia

I don’t care that my 27^th birthday was looming large. Here I was running through a theme park, by myself, with a huge giddy grin on myself in order to be at the front of the line for Harry Potter Land! I wasn’t the only one running, though. I swear anyone under 40 in Japan is still a child. They love this stuff and they were running just as much as I was!

Hogwarts!

Turns out the park didn’t get busy enough to start doing the timed ticket. Still I got there in plenty of time so I headed for the most popular ride in the park to avoid the 3 hour queue. I took a quick snap of the Ford Anglia which was puffing smoke just outside of Hogsmeade. The village looked amazing but I was on a mission to get to Hogwarts!

The Greenhouses

The ride for the forbidden journey was filling up fast so I figured this would be my only chance to get on it all day. I passed through the Hogwarts Gates and walked through the Forbidden Forest to the Greenhouses. There was Harry Potter music being played all the time. I couldn’t help but grin like an absolute child. This was ridiculously exciting!

The Mirror of Erised

The one eyed witch

I walked through a cave underneath Hogwarts into a corridor full of cool things including the Mirror of Erised and the one eyed witch that guards the secret tunnel to Hogsmeade. There was another door that said kitchens but any self-respecting Harry Potter fan knows that the kitchens are behind a painting of a bowl of fruit and you have to tickle the pair. Get it right!

Always

The Forbidden Journey is an epic ride. Strapped in rows of four it’s a true 4D experience. You go on a sort of rollercoaster through the grounds on a broomstick being chased by dementors and dragons. There’s fire, water and wind to make it all seem real and there's unexpected G forces because you can’t see the actual rollercoaster tracks.

The Hippogriff

After that thrill I went over to Hagrid’s Hut which is another rollercoaster in this section of the park. I thought I’d go on that early too to avoid long queues.

Hagrids Hut

It wasn’t as good but still amazing as you take in the view of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade together. This place is truly magical.

House Points

Sherbet Lemon

After a mad first couple of hours I decided to now properly explore the rest of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I hadn’t noticed earlier on but there was another separate queue next to the Forbidden Journey that lets you walk through other parts of the castle. You don’t actually go into the one that you can see from the outside, just the rock it’s built on. In here there's yet more really cool stuff like the house point hourglasses and the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. I really had to control myself and not blurt out “Sherbet Lemon!”

The pictures move!

Many moving portraits

The portraits really do move. It’s magic! Or rather a very cleverly disguised screen. It’s very convincing though. It’s a shame they were all talking in Japanese. I met Harry, Ron and Hermione in one room but they had been dubbed in Japanese so they could have been saying anything.

Dumbledore's office

The Pensieve

Defence Against the Dark Arts

I found Dumbledore chatting some shit in his office along with the Pensieve. The Defence Against the Dark Arts room was pretty cool too. It looks just like the movies. There’s so much detail in them as well.

The Fat Lady

Gryffindor Common Room

Stares to the dormitories

On my way into the Gryffindor Common Room I met the Fat Lady. She was talking about Quidditch I think. It was the only word she said which I recognised.

Very pretty

Welcome to proud sons of Durmstrang

The ladies of Beauxbaton Academy of Magic

I left Hogwarts and walked over to Hogsmeade just in time to see the arrival of the boys from Durmstrang and the girls from Beauxbaton Academy. They did the same sort of welcome dance they do in the fourth film. At least this little play was occasionally in English.

Real life magic in action

In Hogsmeade I saw a kid casting a Hovering Charm. They have these little magic spots all over. If you buy a wand from the shop you can actually make magic happen. This kid was too scared to say ‘Wigardium Leviosa” though.

Ollivander's Wands

Wands

More wands

Ollivander’s seemed like a good place to start my exploration of Hogsmeade. I already have a wand that my sister brought back from the Florida one so I didn’t feel the need to buy another. I think they’ve used a bit of creative digression here as, obviously, Ollivander’s is in Diagon Alley not Hogsemeade.

Inside Ollivander's

There was a door in the side of the building that takes you into a little play where a man picks someone from the audience and tries out a few wands until a suitable one is found. There was some dramatic magic during this. Shelves would rattle, flowers bloomed and books zoomed across the ceiling.

The Post Office

The Hogs Head

Cleaner than I expected

Next door was the post office with very lifelike owls. Next door to that was the Hogs Head which looked a lot cleaner than it actually should. It’s also attached to the Three Broomsticks which is the main eatery in this section of the park.

The Three Broomsticks

Enjoying a butterbeer

The food was phenomenally expensive so there was no way I was going to buy anything here. It wasn’t even interesting food. I think Fish & Chips was one of the 4 meals to choose from. I couldn’t leave here, though, without trying the famous Butterbeer. It was actually really nice.

Stop, you're going to poke someone's eye out

Back at the other end of the village there was another little side show where some kids did some magic. It was all a bit cheesy but good all the same.

Inside Honeydukes

So much sweeties

The Hogwarts Express

The last shops to explore were Honeydukes sweet shop and Zonkos Joke Shop. Both really awesome and filled with an amazing selection of weird and wacky things. You could spend a serious amount of cash in here if you weren’t careful.

Hogsmeade

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is incredible. I had so much looking round but I had got my fill but it wasn’t time to go home. I still had the rest of the park to explore and many hours left to enjoy it.

Jaws

Next door was the Jaws section. This ride was in a boat that would take you in a loop on a river. We were cruising along on this automated boat and suddenly something hit the boat and the captain gave a very convincing display of panic. Then he appeared. I was right in the corner where he jumps out of the water at you. It was a little scary. Then we moved into a shed and things started exploding until he was finally killed.

Welcome to Jurrasic Park

ARGH!

Then it was on to Jurassic park. They had the theme tune blasting out of the speakers. It’s such an epic theme song. I went on The Flying Dinosaur which is the most insane ride I’ve ever been on. It’s one of those where you’re strapped in with your legs dangling and leaning forward like you’re flying. I’ve never been on anything like it. I was sat at the very front too. So many loops and corkscrews, going high up and through tunnels. It was ridiculous! I went on it twice!

The Flying Dinosaur

The queues were getting longer by now but they have this awesome singles queue which takes at least half the time. As I had no friends (sad face) it meant that I could use these queues no problem. It was like having VIP Access.

Big splash

Next door to that was Jurassic Park, the ride. This wasn’t in a car like I expected but in a boat. The same things happened which you might expect. There’s a goat and then some smoke and then there's not a goat. The boat goes through this warehouse and the alarm goes off and dinosaurs come out from everywhere. Then it all went black and slowly this huge dinosaur comes out of the gloom straight ahead of you. Just as soon as he lunges towards your face the boat drops and you go flying down the ramp making a huge splash.

Dinner in a diner

Old cars

Hollywood

New York

I had a late lunch at an old diner before walking though Hollywood to New York where I saw spider man down an alleyway. I was killing time before the big parade they have every day.

Get Reboooooorn

Its all kicking off

This is all singing all dancing visual spectacular. There’s confetti cannons, foam cannons, streamers and balloons. They really go the whole hog. Everyone was loving it. Even the security guard was dancing along.

Dancing security

Minions!

BAAAAANAAAANNNAAAA

They were singing a ridiculous catchy song to celebrate the parks 15^th birthday called “Reborn”. It was so cheesy but you just couldn’t help feeling the fun. Especially when the minions rolled past. They are hilarious.

Home of Skynet

From the fun I moved onto something more sinister at Cyberdyne Systems. In the first room we were given a presentation on the wonders the company is doing. At least I think so as it was all in Japanese again. I got a bit bored of this after 10 minutes and wanted to get on with it.

Arnie without his skin

We went into the next room which was set up like a huge cinema to watch a presentation on these new robots they’ve made called the T1000. Then stuff started to go wrong. Sarah and John Conner popped up on the screen behind. As in actual Linda Hamilton and the kid that plays John in Terminator 2. That was exciting. Then there was lots of explosions. The terminators started shooting everything and then there was huge bang and the chairs dropped a couple of inches making everyone jump. Not a boring ride after all.

BEE-DOR-BEE-DOR-BEE-DOR

Putting out the fire

Back out on the street the minions were out again causing chaos in their fire engine. They started spraying everyone with hoses and some people got really wet.

Backdraft

I was quite surprised to see a Backdraft ride here given that the film is 25 years old now. It wasn’t as popular as some of the others but I was very impressed. There were three rooms that all had flames and dramatic things happening but the last one was hugely impressive. It was really hot from all the flames and there was water bursting out from everywhere. There were metal drums flying across the room and the grand finale was a series of pipes falling on top of your head only for them to stop about a foot away.

Having much fun

The last ride of the day was the Hollywood rollercoaster. There was a wait time of 90 minutes but I took the singles queue and I was on within 10 minutes. Just before you set off there’s a menu where you can pick a song to blast through the headrests to make the experience more fun. I picked an Afrojack song that I’d never heard of before and it was a banger. Really seemed to fit in time with the rollercoaster too.

Hogsmeade by night

Hogwarts again

As the sun was setting I went back over to the Harry Potter section for one last ride but I was too late, it had closed. I hung around for a bit to catch Hogwarts by night but I was ushered about before it got properly dark.

Time to go home

Hollywood again

Bit quieter

I walked back through the park which looked even cooler now all the lights were on. I reflected on what had been an amazing day. Sure, it would have been more fun if I wasn’t by myself but what would have been a lot less fun is if I didn’t come at all for fear of looking lonely. I had thoroughly enjoyed myself.

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