We chose a perfect day to visit USJ: a rainy school day. You think that would keep the crowds away right? Wrong! Supposedly it was much quieter than it could be, but there were still 2 hour long queues for most rides! Luckily, we had 12 hours to spend there!
To start the day we raced straight for Harry Potter World, which is one of the worlds inside USJ. It's by far the most popular part of USJ so you have to line up to receive a timed entry ticket to the world. Because we'd arrived early it was only half an hour before we were wondering through a forest of pine trees with that comforting, magical, Harry Potter music playing in the background! That was until we turned a corner and heard the laughter and excitement erupting from inside the gates to Hogsmeade!
There was the Hogwarts Express at the station, a range of crazy sweets for sale at Honeydukes, wands at Ollivander’s, and wizarding goods at Dervish and Banges! After wondering through all the shops and deciding that we didn't actually need any muggle versions of Skiving Snackboxes or Fizzing Whizbees, we left Hogsmeade in search of Hogwarts Castle!
We found it and couldn't believe how impressive it looked! If you look closely you can see Harry and Ron weaving between the turrets on their broomsticks!
‘The Forbidden Journey’ ride is inside Hogwarts Castle. Being the most popular ride in the park, it had a queue a few hours long. Pre-empting this, the park made the queue wind through Hogwarts, giving you plenty to see during the wait. We passed through Professor Sprout’s greenhouse and Dumbledore’s office, and passed talking portraits and the Sorting Hat (all speaking in Japanese though)! The ride was the best 4D ride I’ve ever been on! It felt incredibly real flying around the castle and ducking under bridges, playing Quiddich and trying to catch the Snitch, and escaping the Dementors where you could see your face bring sucked into their mouths as they tried to kiss you! Luckily we escaped with the help of the famous Griffindor trio!
To celebrate we feasted at The Three Broomsticks. A huge platter of meat and vegetables was served with either a brew from the Hogs Head or a delicious cup of Butterbeer, which tasted like liquid cake! I’m still dreaming about how good the Butterbeer was and wishing that I could find Hermione to enchant my keepsake cup to be a never ending one!
Because we visited USJ around Halloween, come 6pm the park became infested with zombies! These zombies were incredibly scary and would limp after you, groaning with arms outstretched or carrying chainsaws! There was a SWAT team on patrol that occasionally were able to take control of a zombie and put them in the back of their van, but if they weren’t careful, just down the road the SWAT team would burst out of the van having been turned into zombies! The only way to escape the zombies was either to run fast, or wait for the music to start every half an hour, upon which the zombies became transfixed and would start dancing to this scary song:
The next time I come back to experience the magic, the snow on the rooftops will be real, and I'll be with a group of crazy muggles who have decked themselves out as Hogwarts wizards and witches (aka my family)!!
To start the day we raced straight for Harry Potter World, which is one of the worlds inside USJ. It's by far the most popular part of USJ so you have to line up to receive a timed entry ticket to the world. Because we'd arrived early it was only half an hour before we were wondering through a forest of pine trees with that comforting, magical, Harry Potter music playing in the background! That was until we turned a corner and heard the laughter and excitement erupting from inside the gates to Hogsmeade!
There was the Hogwarts Express at the station, a range of crazy sweets for sale at Honeydukes, wands at Ollivander’s, and wizarding goods at Dervish and Banges! After wondering through all the shops and deciding that we didn't actually need any muggle versions of Skiving Snackboxes or Fizzing Whizbees, we left Hogsmeade in search of Hogwarts Castle!
We found it and couldn't believe how impressive it looked! If you look closely you can see Harry and Ron weaving between the turrets on their broomsticks!
‘The Forbidden Journey’ ride is inside Hogwarts Castle. Being the most popular ride in the park, it had a queue a few hours long. Pre-empting this, the park made the queue wind through Hogwarts, giving you plenty to see during the wait. We passed through Professor Sprout’s greenhouse and Dumbledore’s office, and passed talking portraits and the Sorting Hat (all speaking in Japanese though)! The ride was the best 4D ride I’ve ever been on! It felt incredibly real flying around the castle and ducking under bridges, playing Quiddich and trying to catch the Snitch, and escaping the Dementors where you could see your face bring sucked into their mouths as they tried to kiss you! Luckily we escaped with the help of the famous Griffindor trio!
To celebrate we feasted at The Three Broomsticks. A huge platter of meat and vegetables was served with either a brew from the Hogs Head or a delicious cup of Butterbeer, which tasted like liquid cake! I’m still dreaming about how good the Butterbeer was and wishing that I could find Hermione to enchant my keepsake cup to be a never ending one!
Because we visited USJ around Halloween, come 6pm the park became infested with zombies! These zombies were incredibly scary and would limp after you, groaning with arms outstretched or carrying chainsaws! There was a SWAT team on patrol that occasionally were able to take control of a zombie and put them in the back of their van, but if they weren’t careful, just down the road the SWAT team would burst out of the van having been turned into zombies! The only way to escape the zombies was either to run fast, or wait for the music to start every half an hour, upon which the zombies became transfixed and would start dancing to this scary song:
The next time I come back to experience the magic, the snow on the rooftops will be real, and I'll be with a group of crazy muggles who have decked themselves out as Hogwarts wizards and witches (aka my family)!!
