Fans of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter will be excited to know that Universal Studios has opened up a new section in the Islands of Adventure theme park. That’s right- a Wizarding World taken directly from the hit Harry Potter movies! It is currently scheduled to open in spring of 2010, and will feature a large Hogwarts Castle, which will have the Gryffindor common room and other iconic Hogwarts areas.
It will also have a Hogsmeade, as well as many popular wizarding stores- including Zonko’s, Honeyduke’s, an Owl Post- where you can send out letters postmarked by Hogsmeade- and Ollivander’s wand shop, which will have interactive and virtual wand-waving. There will also be a Three Broomsticks, which will, naturally, be offering Butterbeer among its themed cuisine- nonalcoholic, of course.
Islands of Adventure’s popular Dueling Dragons will now become Dragon Challenge, its fire and ice dragons morphing into Hungarian Horntail and Chinese Fireball dragons. The young children’s Flying Unicorn will become Flight of the Hippogriff.
The Forbidden Forest will be included as well, and the secretive plans on “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey”- the new ride located inside Hogwarts- are still just that: secret.
While the new Wizarding World remains shrouded a mystery, with the obvious excitement in the air and Universal’s attention to detail, it’s clear that Harry Potter fans will not be disappointed.