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We got up early this morning, grabbed breakfast at the Starbucks in our hotel, and then walked over to Universal Studios for the Early Park Admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley.

The new addition to the park is in the back corner where Jaws used to be. That area has now been turned into London complete with King’s Cross Station, 13 Grimmauld Place, Liecester Square fountain (with Knight Bus) and the Underground station through which you enter Diagon Alley. Like our first experience over at Hogsmeade a few years ago, the first time you walk into the attraction is truly magical. You can’t believe you’re actually there. There’s so much to look at, and so much detail. My daughter was completely “fan-girling out” as she put it.

The morning line led right into the main ride attraction, Escape from Gringotts. Like the Forbidden Journal ride in Hogwarts Castle over at Islands of Adventure, the waiting area for the ride winds through all sorts of areas in the bank from the majestic main lobby (complete with goblin bankers hard at work), through “security processing” where they take the obligatory ride photo, down an “elevator” into the vaults area, and a cavernous underground space where you board your train. The ride itself is a combination roller coaster and 3D movie experience and is a blast.

After escaping from Gringotts, we spent some time wandering around Diagon Alley and taking in the sights. Most of the stores are, of course, places to buy merchandise and refreshments (ppst, Gilly Water is just bottled water!), but with extravagant decor to make them look like the places from the books and movies. You can even wander down Knockturn Alley to visit Borgin and Burkes if you tend toward the dark arts.

My daughter noticed some kids waving wands at shop windows and that’s when we discovered the spell emblems on the ground all over. By “casting” a spell (waving your wand in a specific pattern as indicated on the emblem) you could cause interactive things to happen, like shooting water on someone, or animating a window. After a few frustrating minutes of trying to get a spell to work, we were informed that they required a new, interactive wand. Since my daughter’s wand was from 2011 (when the first park opened), it wouldn’t work. I’m guessing the new ones have some sort of chip in them. My daughter really wanted a new wand, but she didn’t have enough of her own money and we weren’t going to fall for Universal’s latest money grab and get one for her either!

We left Diagon Alley and headed through King’s Cross Station to catch the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4. There’s even a neat video effect where you can see people walking through the wall to get the platform (nice touch). The train takes you from Diagon Alley (at Universal Studios) to Hogsmeade (at Islands of Adventure) so you have to have a 2-park ticket in order to ride the train. The train consists of compartments that seat eight people each and the “windows” are actually video screens showing the British countryside go by (so you’re not actually looking out a real window). Even the frosted windows on the doors of your compartment are video screens, showing shadows of Harry, Hermione, and Ron (and dementors!) roaming the hall outside.

In Hogsmeade we rode the Dragon Challenge coaster (front car) but were disappointed that the two dragon trains are no longer synchronized (which means they don’t charge at each other and then loop away at the last moment, one of the best parts of the ride). A Universal employee informed me that they can’t do that anymore because “people are stupid” and some lawyers got involved. Too bad.

After a little more time in Hogsmeade, we left the Harry Potter area and stopped for an early lunch at Mythos, which was actually very good. The rain was supposed to roll in mid-afternoon so we wanted to hit some of the outdoor rides that would close in bad weather. Since the crowds were actually pretty light for a holiday weekend, and we had our Express passes to skip the longer lines, we rode in the front car of The Hulk coaster (awesome!) and, figuring we were going to get wet anyway, got soaked on Ripsaw Falls.

The weather seemed to be holding and we had planned on doing more of Islands of Adventure tomorrow, so we took the Hogwarts Express from Hogsmeade back to King’s Cross Station (and yes, the window video is different on the way back, of course). Back at Universal we rode Rip, Ride, Rockit (although I still refer to it as the Rip, Ride, Rockit, Rip-off) and also finally got into Minion Madness (which was a lot of fun, although very bouncy).

By now it was late afternoon and it still hadn’t rained, which was incredible but we weren’t complaining. My in-laws happened to be in town, however, and we were meeting them for dinner at Chevy’s closer to Downtown Disney so we had to leave the park early to get back to our hotel, freshen up, get the car, and drive over.

Dinner was very enjoyable (tableside guacamole and a margarita!) and we were back at our hotel around 9:30pm. We let my daughter hang out for a bit poolside to watch some of the movie (Harry Potter, of course) before retiring for the evening.