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The Wizard selects the Wand-wavers
Way too small! I think Universal completely underestimated the Harry appeal. Despite spending $265 Million on creating this area, Hogsmeade and the buildings are way too small.
There is no better example of this underestimation than heading into Ollivanders.
By this stage, the park had opened to the general public. We had just made it into the queue for Ollivanders before the majority of the people made it to this side of the park. I think we made it in as the second group for the day.
This interactive experience is held inside of the buildings. I don't think it holds more than 30 people inside at a time and the wait times for this can be rather long on a busy park day.
The Wandmaker Wizard is the man with all the power. Afterall, he chooses two lucky kids from the audience to come up and interact with him.
Yes, the Wizard chooses the Wand-Wavers for this experience. I had hoped that he might cast his eye over my DS' direction; but it was not to be. These two were sisters; so it made the decision easy for him. Rather like in the first book, the potential Hogwarts newbies are encouraged to wave the wand to see what happens.
For me, the effects could be better but there is no denying that it is a close representation of the book.
Eventually, both chosen ones find the perfect wand-fit.
It's not a long experience. I'm not even sure it takes up 5 minutes of time.
If the queue for this goes more than 3 turns, I would give it a miss or come back later.
Exit stage right and straight into Dervish and Banges. The merchandise and theming in here is dizzying! Feel free to buy a wand, school robes or a broomstick or two.
The space is rather confined.
Like everything else in here, way too small. But for Potterheads, go in and spend some time browsing. If nothing else, make sure you buy a postcard or two inside Dervish and Banges. You should be able to find somewhere to get an Owl postmark on your postcard.
We took the exit out of Dervish and Banges into the Owlery.
For those living in the US, I think there is a mailbox out here and you can get stamps (inside the shop?) to send the postcard home to you. I bought my postcards in 2010 and got them stamped with the Owl postmark. I think I brought them home with me rather than post them. They might have sold stamps for international postage as well; but I decided against that. Kinda cool to have Owl Post.
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Awesome!
