Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
you're inside the entrance before closing time, you should be allowed to ride as long
as it hasn't broken down.
Hogwarts Express
What it is
Transportation attraction.
Scope and scale
Super-headliner.
Fright potential
Potter villains and spirit creatures menace the train.
Bottleneck rating
10+.
When to go
Immediately after park opening.
Special comment
Expect lengthy waits in line; Park-to-
Park ticket required to enter Universal Studios.
Authors' rating
Not to be missed;
.
Duration of ride
4 minutes.
Probable wait in line per 142 people ahead of you
10
minutes.
Loading speed
Moderate.
PartofthegeniusofcreatingDiagonAlleyatUSFisthatit'sconnectedtoHogsmeade
at Islands of Adventure by the Hogwarts Express, just as in the novels and films. The
counterpart to Hogsmeade Station in IOA is Universal Studios' King's Cross station,
a landmark London train depot that has been re-created a few doors down from Di-
agon Alley's hidden entrance. (It's important to note that King's Cross has a separ-
ate entrance and exit from Diagon Alley: You can't go directly between them without
crossing through the London Waterfront.)
The passage to Platform 9¾, from which Hogwarts students depart on their way
to school, is concealed from Muggles by a seemingly solid brick wall, which you'll
witness guests ahead of you dematerializing through. (Spoiler: The “Pepper's Ghost”
effect creates a clever but congestion-prone photo op, but you experience only a dark
corridor with whooshing sound effects when crossing over yourself.)
Once on the platform, you'll pass a pile of luggage before being assigned to one
of the three train cars' seven compartments. The train itself looks exactingly authen-
tic to the
n
th degree, from the billowing steam to the brass fixtures and upholstery in
your eight-passenger private cabin. Along your one-way Hogwarts Express journey,
you'll see moving images projected beyond the windows of the car rather than the
park's backstage ares, with the streets of London and the Scottish countryside rolling
past outside your window. You experience a different presentation coming and go-
ing, and in addition to pastoral scenery there are surprises appearances by secondary
