Is Dragon Challenge closed now?
Ok, so I have mixed feelings on my HP experience....
We went to Universal Studios for 1 day last year just to see some HP stuff. In order to ride the train, you have to have a ticket to both parks, which obviously costs more than a ticket to just one park. We did just 1 park bc we only had the 1 day. The Gringotts ride was awesome. We did the wand shop thing - my kids weren't picked, but it was fun to watch. Then we bought $50 each interactive wands that required my kids to be so precise to get the wand to work that the kids ended up frustrated and stopped using them. Interactive wands are over rated based on our experience. My friend who was there with her kids felt the same about the wands - not worth it to pay extra for interactive, too hard to get to work right, etc. (Fwiw her kids and mine aged from 5-8.) We walked in a few shops, had buttered beer, the dragon on the bank is cool to see. Overall, it was good to see it.....but I wish we just went to Disney instead.
Shame you didn’t enjoy it.
As for costs, one day anywhere is going to cost a lot.........I suppose it’s good business sense to only have access to the HE if you have a park to park ticket.
I think you’re one of the first people I’ve heard say they didn’t love watching their kids use the interactive wands......most love them, but not for everyone. I love watching the little ones faces when they manage one of the spells........
But least you know you won’t go back........it’s not for everyone I suppose.......
Yeah I wanted to love the wands, but the kids were having trouble with them. They even had a staff at each one trying to help kids make them work, which made me think it wasn't just an issue for us.
We might go back someday and do the other side. Brilliant money make for them to split it that way, I totally get that. We were just heading up for a day bc our actual vacation was down in St Pete beach so we were keeping it on a budget for the 1 day. I always splurge for hoppers when we go to Disney and will be there multiple days.
I think it can be really difficult for die-hard-Disney-don't-go-to-Universal-ever people to go over to Universal. There usually (at least based on a lot of comments) a constant comparison to Disney.Ok, I'll be the first to give a mixed review instead of just positive - don't hate me HP fanatics.......
We went to Universal Studios for 1 day last year just to see some HP stuff. In order to ride the train, you have to have a ticket to both parks, which obviously costs more than a ticket to just one park. So half of HP is at IOA and half is at Universal. We did just 1 park bc we only had the 1 day. My youngest was too short to ride the Forbidden Journey so we chose Univeral over IOA. The Gringotts ride was awesome. We did the wand shop thing - my kids weren't picked, but it was fun to watch. Then we bought $50 each interactive wands that required my kids to be so precise to get the wand to work that the kids ended up frustrated and stopped using them. Interactive wands are over rated based on our experience. My friend who was there with her kids felt the same about the wands - not worth it to pay extra for interactive, too hard to get to work right, etc. (Fwiw her kids and mine aged from 5-8.) We walked in a few shops, had buttered beer, the dragon on the bank is cool to see. HP was a relatively smaller area than I expected. There is only 1 ride on the Universal side and that kind of is a bummer. Maybe the IOA side is bigger and better, I don' t know. Overall, it was good to see it and we had fun.....but I wish we just went to Disney instead.
I think it sucks that the wands weren't working for you; I know some people have gone back to talk with the employees regarding them not working but I understand that moment has passed plus not everyone (including myself) would necessarily think to go talk to someone about it not working. The people I saw using them it seemed to work fairly well (I know the fountain though took a few people a few tries to get it to work).@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson I have not been since they opened Pandora - going in April. My kids haven't seen Avatar so they would not have the expectations of a Banshee the way they did about the wands. We know theme park merch will be pricey and I was happy to buy them the wands - we were just disappointed in the interactive part compared to what we expected (Maybe we had too high expectations?).
I understand what you are saying about new lands at WDW only having only 1 or 2 rides too. This may become more apparent in a year or so when ppl start to ask if going to Star Wars Land for the day is worth it the way ppl ask about HP land. OP asked as a self proclaimed Disney-aholic and I answered as another self proclaimed Disney-aholic. You are 100% correct and I agree that it can be hard for the "always go to Disney and never go to Universal" people to not compare Universal to Disney. That's true. That's totally how I felt- so in all fairness my opinion is biased bc I am a Disney girl.