WALKING along a cobbled alley, I come a across a Victorian pet shop with a huge snake in the window.
“You’re a beautiful creature” I coo, tapping on the glass. The snake slithers up to the window and hisses, “Thanks”. He speaks some more, but I can’t understand him.
“He’s speaking Parseltongue now,” the shop assistant tells me. “He’s saying, ‘Welcome to Diagon Alley’.”
Chatting to the snake in the Magical Menagerie is just one of the wand-erful things you can do at Diagon Alley, the latest attraction to open at Universal Studios Florida. It follows the success of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened four years ago at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, recreating the snowcovered village of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts School.
In JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, Diagon Alley is a cobbled wizarding shopping area, completely hidden from the Muggles (non-wizards). It is the first wizarding place Harry Potter sees when he comes with Hagrid to shop for his school supplies.
Universal’s Diagon Alley is also hidden from view. At the entrance, I find some of London’s iconic landmarks set along an embankment. Parked up is a purple triple-decker Knight Bus from the movie Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. I share some banter with the Knight bus conductor and Dre Head, a shrunken head that hangs from the rear-view mirror.
Then, after entering Leicester Square tube station, I am magically transported to Diagon Alley, the centre of wizarding London.
Like Harry, who said he wished he had more than one set of eyes to take in all the sights the alley has to offer, I find it all a bit ‘Dumbledawsome’. At the top of the alley dominating the whole area is Gringotts Wizarding Bank, with a huge fire-breathing Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon on its roof.
The attention to detail is amazing. There is a bustling shopping area called Carkitt Market, featuring two live shows a day. Students from WADA (Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts) perform The Tale Of The Three Brothers (featured in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows), and we dance along to Molly Weasley’s favourite soul songstress, The Singing Sorceress: Celestina Warbeck And The Banshees, before heading for a refreshing cold Butterbeer at The Leaky Cauldron.
Shopping is a magical experience too. There’s Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment for telescopes and compasses, Scribbulus for quills, pens and stationary, Madam Malkin’s Robes For All Occasions, Quality Quidditch Supplies, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes for magical jokes and Magical Menagerie selling toy animals.
No trip would be complete without a visit to Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands. Don’t miss the ‘wand choosing a wizard’ experience that recreates the iconic scene when Harry Potter buys his wand from Mr Ollivander.
Along with a wand, visitors are given a map that marks all the interactive Wand Points in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.
Thus, with a swish and flick, I can levitate a feather quill at Scribbulus, light all the lamps and chandeliers in Flimflam’s Lanterns window, and use a silencing charm to quiet the maddening song of the Fwooper bird at Magical Menagerie. In the imposing Gringotts Bank building is the groundbreaking Harry Potter And The Escape From Gringotts roller coaster ride.
It’s based on the iconic scene in the eighth Harry Potter film when Harry, Ron and Hermione break into the bank.
King’s Cross Station at Diagon Alley
We queue in the bank’s huge marble hall entrance, where spookily life-like animatronic goblins are hard at work counting money. Once I get on the ride, I’m sent racing, plunging and spinning underground through a labyrinth of vaults, coming face to face with trolls and an angry, fire-breathing dragon.
Throughout the ride, I interact with familiar characters including Bill Weasley, Griphook, Bellatrix Lestrange, and even Lord Voldemort!
Another ride that is not so fast, but just as exhilarating, is the Hogwarts Express, the steam train that links Diagon Alley with Hogsmeade village in Islands of Adventure.
We watch a Hippogriff flying over a Scottish lake, see Lord Voldemort outside Malfoy Manor and are greeted by ‘Mad Eye’ Moody at King’s Cross. We even magically walk through the wall to reach Platform 9 and 3/4!
Our hotel, the newly opened Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, is like another theme park. Its retro feel is based on the family motels and beach resorts built in the US during the1950s and 1960s.
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