The Wizarding World of Harry Potter | | Must See & Do, Tips for Visiting, & More!

Hey everybody! Welcome to the Waldock Way. I'm Jessica. I'm Emily. I'm Kevin. And today's video is going to be a learning on location. So where did we get to learn at? We got to learn at the Wizarding World. Yes, we went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for our first days of school because every school year for the past four years we kick off back to school with a portion of Waldock's Wizards and Wands. And since this is our year of field trips, it seemed like the perfect way to start our school year. And was it? Totally! What did you think? Oh, I loved it. It was pretty awesome. So the first thing we're going to do is share some of our favorite things with you. Then we're going to give you some tips for visiting the Wizarding World in case you're heading there in the near future or if you want to plan a trip. And then we're going to share like a little mini haul, some of the things that we purchased at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. All right, who wants to share their favorites first? Um, you can Mommy. Okay. My favorite thing about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is that you feel totally immersed in the Wizarding World. From the minute that you walk in, from the shops to the characters, the cast members that are working there, the food, the drinks, everything about it just feels absolutely magical. There's not anywhere you turn and look or anything that you do while you're in those sections of the parks that feels anything less than like you were standing inside one of the Harry Potter movies. And it was, it was, I mean it was magical. It really was. Yeah, totally. Like I almost wanted to cry when I walked through the wall section at Diagon Alley. It absolutely took my breath away. And as somebody who has read all the books and watched all the movies and grown up with Harry Potter and passed that down to Emily, it was exactly everything I wanted it to be. My favorite part was the interactive wands. You could go into all the vendors and the wand chooses you, then you buy your wand, and then you can use your map and, and like go all over the two parks because it has two sides, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. So that's how you can do all cool spells, right guys? Yeah, right. Perfect. And yes, some are difficult, but there are people and like everywhere, like Mommy said, to help you out if you can't get the spell right. That's true, and you had that one witch help you quite a bit. Yes, she helped me a lot. So what were some of your favorite spells? What would just tell us one, like one favorite spell that you cast? Well, I have to say something. My favorite spot to do spells, don't tell anyone, it's at Nocturnal Alley. My favorite spell down there is when you cast a spell and like there's a skeleton, like it flips the page and there's a skeleton appears. That was my favorite. And then however you move, it moves with you, which is really cool. There was some really cool ones, yeah, especially the bird. Yeah, like how you could give it big feet or make it blow up. That's cool. I will say I suggest maybe starting with Diagon Alley spells mainly because there's a little bit more room and a lot of the spells are like in alleyways or like they're kind of dark or in the dark or but they're out of the way. The spells at Hogsmeade, you're kind of like in the main area. Like some of them are a little, they're not that the spells are more difficult. It just gets crowded. It's really crowded and you don't have as much room to move your wand around. So especially if you have younger kids or you have kids that maybe don't like people all up on them, I would start with the spells at Diagon Alley first. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, Diagon Alley has a lot of spells. Yeah. And that's where Nocturnal Alley was, right? Yes. And that was my favorite too. I mean, as far as interactive, that was pretty cool. As far as my favorite part to the parks, got to be the rides. And hands down. What was our favorite? Hybrid Motorbike. Oh yeah, fastest. It's faster than any other rides, but it is really cool. That may be my hands down top favorite ride there. Yes, it was. Not just there. That is my favorite ride ever. Yes. And I thought Slinky Dog was pretty cool. Yeah, me too. But this one, it has so many tricks and turns and twists and different things they have in this. You get a mix of so many different rides. And the magical and seeing Hagrid. Yeah, you can't beat that. Nope, don't give anything away. Don't give it away. That's her favorite part is the end. Yeah. So pay attention. It's a really awesome ride. We must have ridden it six or seven times. It was totally worth it. The whole time we were there, every day, it was like, where do you want to go? We're riding Hagrid. All right, let's go. That was by far the best. And it's really nice. I mean, a lot of the rides are set up where you can't take bags and hats and sunglasses and different things, but they've got lockers set up for you where you can put your stuff in there. And if you've got oversized, they have oversized lockers. It's done really well. I was impressed. So now we have a few tips for you so you can maybe have some help planning your upcoming Wizarding World trip. So our first tip is if possible, and if it's in your budget to stay on site, any of the universal resorts offer the majority of the resources we're going to be talking about. There are some more expensive resorts that also include your Express Pass. We didn't stay at one of those. So that's not going to be what is included. We stayed at Cabana Bay, which is one of their more affordable or budget friendly resorts. And they all include these things. So the first thing that they include that was phenomenal was the transportation. So they have a bus that takes you to and from CityWalk. And they say it comes every 15 minutes, but we literally never waited longer than five minutes for it. I mean, it was there like it was almost always waiting on us. And it's such a short drive because you're only going from your hotel, maybe to one other hotel and then directly to CityWalk. Yeah, that's not all the time. Yeah, it's not like there's multiple stops. I mean, we were from like literally from our hotel door on a bus and at CityWalk within 15 minutes every single time. And then the same thing, even at the end of the night, if we close the park, we will never had to wait on a bus. And we never stood on a bus either. We almost we always got a seat. Yeah, I was always a seat. Yeah. So that's one perk to staying at a resort. What's another perk? Another perk is that there's early admission. And that means you can get into the Wizarding World an hour early. Oh, yeah. And every minute counts. Yeah. So every day you can get into the Wizarding World an hour before park opening. So you will just be able to go straight back there and just make sure you have your hotel key with you because they're going to check that to make sure that you are staying at a resort. But that applies for all of the resorts, even the more affordable ones. And so what's another perk to staying at a resort? Resort hopping. You got to try it. Don't be scared. It doesn't matter what resort you're in. If one has pools and another one has pools and you're like, well, I wonder what's going on over there. Ride a bus. Walk. Go check it out. We went to one and they were playing movies at the pool. So you could be swimming and watching a movie. And then our hotel had a lazy river. Yeah. So if you were if you were staying somewhere else, but you wanted a lazy river, you could pool hop and come over to Cabana Bay and use the lazy river or you could hop for other things like food, food. They had each each one has its own restaurant. And so you had that dining experience that you could go ride a bus over to and do that. Also, if you're looking to shop, they have different setups and different shops with different merchandise. So you may find something that unique that you couldn't find anywhere else. One of the things like when we were there, Emily really, really wanted a Buckbeak, which we'll share with you our haul in just a minute. But the parks didn't have them. They were completely sold out. And we were lucky enough that because there's so many different resorts with different gift shops, you could have hopped around and we were able to find her one that same day. So there's that perk to that if something sold out or if you want something that's maybe a little different variation, you have that option. Our next tips are going to kind of help you make the most of your trip while you're there. So my tip is that you either need to plan to open or close the Wizarding World. Now you can stay at Universal or Islands of Adventure from open to close. But in the middle of the day and the peak times is when the Wizarding World gets the fullest, the most crowded and the hardest to kind of maneuver and get around. So you either want to get there and go straight for the Wizarding World and plan to open it. And if you're staying at a resort, use that early admission. Or you want to plan to close the park and then just kind of in the middle of the day when it's super busy, like from I would say like 11 to 3 or even 12 to 3. I would go with that. Yeah, you kind of want to be in the rest of the area. So like wander over to a few of the other rides, walk through, plan to eat, whatever you want to do. But you're not going to get as much done. So either open or close, or you can utilize the train and open and close. You could open one and close the other. Mine is you have to ride the train both ways. Each one has a different experience, which is really cool. Yes. Yeah, we won't give away any spoilers, but it is. I mean, the train ride itself is kind of the same, but it's a different experience both ways. Each time. So give it a chance and try that. So don't think just because you've rode it one way, you've done it. You want to ride it from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley and from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade. And kind of what goes with that too is the queues. Enjoy them. Even if you don't want to ride the ride, they give you the ability to go through the queue and then exit at a later point. This way you're still enjoying the magic. And some of the queues are definitely magic. I would advise to do all of them. I mean, you can go to the Goblin's Bank and you can exchange real money for goblin money. But while you're there, there's a goblin actually at the podium looking thing, and he's sitting there counting numbers and doing what he's doing. He's talking to you. Talk to him. Yeah, he told me that I was taking too long to take pictures. She basically talked to him first and said, can I take your picture? And he stopped what he was doing, posed for, and then after she took so long focusing in and getting the picture just right, he's like, are we done? I need to go back to work. It was hilarious. But like, for instance, the Forbidden Journey, while I loved the ride the first time, it was a little tight on me because it comes over the shoulders. It was great, but it was a little uncomfortable and I had decided I didn't want to ride it again. But that ride is the ride that's in Hogwarts Castle. So you can still, even if you don't want to ride it, even if none of you want to ride it, you can still totally walk through the entire castle through Sprout's Greenhouse and a classroom and Dumbledore's office and see all of this magic brought to life and then just exit right before the ride. So even if you're not going to ride the rides, we highly suggest. Don't give up on it and don't walk away from it. Actually enjoy it. I mean, that's what you're there for. The rides are wonderful. They're done very well, but the magic is there. Experience it and then just have fun with it. And then our last tips for you have to do with shopping. So we're going to help you make your shopping experience the best that you can. So my number one tip is currently, I don't know if they'll still have it in the future, but check if they do. The Wizarding World, the hotel gift shops, the all the gift shops, as far as I'm concerned, everywhere I saw it is running a deal where you can put $295 on a universal gift card and then you get a free interactive one. Now you don't get to pick from any interactive one, but you get to pick from the promo ones, which every shop has different promo ones. They're all going to have like six different ones. So you can go to the different gift shops. You can go to the different places and find a one that you like. The best part about this is if you're going to spend any money in the Wizarding World anyway, you're basically getting $55 for free because I mean, maybe it's just us, but there's no way we were going to walk into the Wizarding World and not spend $295 on stuff. I mean, there honestly isn't. So you just put that money on the gift card, use the gift card to buy all the rest of your souvenirs. And then you basically got an interactive wand free. And so we actually got Stapes wand for free because I really liked the look of that. But Kevin's tip is going to be in case you get a wand you don't like. All right. Well, basically what I want to tell you is buyer's remorse. Think about it. It happens. We all do it. We've done it all our life. I did it. I was so ready to have a wand so I could get in there with Emily and go interactive and all. I picked a wand. I thought that was the one for me and got it back to the resort. We took a break, got some dinner and realized that there were other options and that wasn't the one that I really wanted. I kind of settled. So got to talking and found out from a nice sales clerk that there's an option. You don't have to have buyer's remorse. If you buy one, you use it, you don't really like it, you see something or see another one that you like better. If you have your receipt, your box and your wand, you can take it to a gift shop. You can take it to one of the parks and wherever this wand is that you see that's better than the one you have, trade it in. That's right. Trade it in. You can get a replacement, a whole new wand and you just give them your box, your wand and your receipt. They'll mark it off and there you go. Because there really is. There's different ones. I mean we saw Gregorovitch, Ollivanders, all of the resorts. I mean all of them have different options. I mean most of them have the main character wands, but after that they have different options. So that could totally happen. Even if you think, oh no, I love this wand. This is what I'm getting. You may find that you find one that you like better. We also wanted to tell you that there are three different types of wands. Not every one that you buy, because Emily loved the interactive wand so much, right? And she told you guys about it, but not every one that you get is going to interact. So one of the wands is a toy wand. You want to show us the toy wand? Show us how it works. And it's the one that has the light up end. So it is just kind of like the plastic. It's very popular with most of the kids. It lights up at the end. And you can turn off the brightness with the push. Like you could turn it brighter or darker with this little leaf button. You just keep pressing it. Well each of the buttons would be different. No, it's only one button. No, each wand would have a different type of button. I mean this has a leaf because it's Hermione. But basically if the end lights up like this with the big light, it's a toy. I mean it's still a nice one, but it's a kid's. It's not going to interact. And then you also have what they call their replica line. Which is one that I wanted and I was able to get Dumbledore. It is not an interactive. It's well done. It's well done. It's a little bit more realistic looking. It even has kind of a weighted end. It's just, I mean it's fantastic. It's beautiful. But it's not interactive. The interactive wands are going to have what's kind of going to look like a little LED light at the end. But there's no light. It's a sensor. It's how the interaction happens with the you know interactive spells that you're casting. They have them in all different kinds. But that's what you're looking for. And if you can see the ends of the prop versus the end of the interactive wand are just different enough that you'll be able to tell. One like I said has a little more of a weight to it and it looks more realistic. The interactive wands are so beautiful and look very realistic. But you need to make sure it has that sensor on the end. If that's what you're going for and you want to interact and you want to do the spells, make sure that you have the interactive wand or it won't work for you. But again like Kevin said you can always exchange it if you get the wrong one. But that way you can kind of know the difference between the three of them. So those are mine and Kevin's shopping tips. What is your shopping tip Emily? My shopping tip is if you've got so much stuff and you want to get a few more things, just let the owls do the work for you. You can send it right up to your hotel. Yep. So if you're staying on site, which hopefully you are, you can just have the owls take care of it and owls post it straight to your hotel and it'll be there the next day. So you don't even have to carry any of it around. Okay so now we're going to share our little mini Wizarding World haul with you. So of course the first thing we purchased were our interactive wands. We each got one and now Emily is going to share with you guys what she picked out. Go ahead. First I picked out a buck beak. It's really cool and we actually found something out. A hippogriff and a griffin are different. A hippogriff has a horseback and a griffin has a lion back but both of them have eagle fronts. Very nice. Educated. And the next thing is I could not stand it. Yes this is from the Fantastic Beasts but they're pygmy puffs. They're so cute! And of course we had to have them in both colors too. Of course yes. All right and the last thing. My last thing is a lego box Harry Potter which is the astronomy tower. And why did you pick the astronomy tower? Because we are learning about astronomers and all kinds of space and the back is really cool. Like there's so much stuff and in this you get baby mandrakes which I thought was really cool. They were really cute. Okay what do you have to show us babe? School supplies and I thought it was pretty cool. We got for her attempting to learn to do cursive a little bit and do some actual pen and ink drawings. Went ahead and got her a quill. She wanted a new journal so of course we had to get the Gryffindor. We have a nice little journal. We got some stationery and a notebook. And then I found something that I wanted to kind of go with her letters when she does pen pals and stuff like that. She can actually do the wax seal. I may play around with that a little bit too. And that's actually the Hogwarts seal. Yeah that is and there's other options. I mean you can get it for each house or you can get it for Hogwarts itself. Yeah and then I picked out all of the candy mainly for our movie nights because in Waldox, Wizards and Wands when you finish the book you watch the movie and you have a movie night. So we have the fizzing whizbees and the exploding bonbons. That sounds explody. And the fainting fancies. Probably makes you fainting. Probably. We have multiples of the every flavor beans. I hope I do not get nasty flavor. I hope you do. We have fudge flies. I want you to get bogey flavor. From Honeydukes we had a big thing of the saltwater taffy. Honeydukes is my favorite store in case you can't tell. Totally. Jelly slugs. The Honeydukes milk chocolate. We have one of those for each of us. And then the chocolate frogs which again I got one of those for each of us and the every flavor beans for each of us. There's one thing that we forgot. H2O. Everybody's drinking trying to stay hydrated. Oh yeah. Buy the bottles of water. They're called gilly water. But you buy the bottle of water and then you can buy elixirs. And it looks like a little potion. Different colors and you can put them in your water. And they're flavored. So there's fruit punch and raspberry or blue raspberry and just different flavors. So that's really cool too. Like I said everywhere you look everything you are doing is magical. They've spared no expense. They've taken it to every corner of every inch of the park. So it was definitely a blast. We had so much fun. It was absolutely magical. We bought annual passes so we will definitely be back. It was amazing. What did you think? I think this was a magical start of our school year. Yeah I do too. I think it was the perfect way to kick off our homeschool year. Wizards and Wands. The year of field trips. Go into the wizarding world.