Visitor’s to Universal Studios’ new The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, will have seen a familiar face beyond those of Harry, Hermione and Ron this week… Jonathan Ross paid a visit to the Florida park.
The chat-show host had a magical time at the park which opened earlier this month, trying Butterbeer ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, casting spells with an interactive wand and riding the park’s signature new ‘coaster Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
The ride combines roller-coaster movement twinned with giant 3D projection screens and 4D effects such as vapour and water spray as Harry and pals battle Bellatrix LeStrange and Lord Voldemort in the vaults of the hyper-realistic bank, which even has a fire-breathing seven-tonne Ukrainian Iron-belly dragon on its roof.
The park is the second Potter offering by Universal after The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade opened four years ago in the Islands of Adventure park. The two are now connected by another new ride, Hogwarts Express, a realistic train journey from London Kings Cross at Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade.
CGI-scenes through the windows reveal London streets and the M25, before passing through the Scottish countryside to reach Hogwarts. Along the way, hippogriffs, centaurs and Potter characters on broomsticks appear – and you have to ride it both ways to get the full story.
No doubt theme-park fan Wossy thought it was all tewwific.
A 14-day, two-park ticket to Universal’s Islands of Adventure (for Hogsmeade) and Universal Studios (for Diagon Alley) costs £111 per adult and £102 per child. British Airways Holidays has seven nights’ room-only at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort for £809 per person for travel in September 2014. Price includes flights from Gatwick.
