Universal Studios Hollywood

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Hogsmeade village and Hogwarts Castle, built into the hillside on the Upper Lot and better than the Orlando original at ground level.

Opened2016
Attractions4
Places to eat3
HeadlinerHarry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened here in April 2016, six years after the Orlando version, and the extra six years show. The village is denser, the snow-topped rooflines sit better against the hillside, and the castle is placed so it rises out of the terrain rather than standing on flat ground. It is the best-looking thing at Universal Studios Hollywood by a clear margin.

What it does not have is scale. Orlando's Wizarding World is two lands in two parks joined by a train. Hollywood has one village, one castle, one dark ride, one small coaster and one wand shop, and you can walk it end to end in three minutes. That is not a criticism of what is here — it is a warning against expecting a day's worth of it.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is the headliner and is mechanically identical to the Orlando ride: a robotic arm on a moving track that pitches you through screens and practical sets. Flight of the Hippogriff is a sixty-second family coaster with a 39-inch requirement and a queue out of all proportion to it. Ollivanders runs a wand ceremony for a couple of dozen people at a time and is much better than it sounds.

The interactive wands are a real spend decision. Around twenty spell-casting locations are scattered through the village, they need a specific interactive wand rather than the cheaper ones, and children who get one will want to find all of them. Budget the time or do not buy the wand.

Do not miss

Hogwarts Castle rising out of the hillside — the best sightline in the park
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Butterbeer, in all three temperatures
The Ollivanders wand ceremony
Interactive wand spell locations hidden through the village

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter tips

Come here first or come here last. Between 11am and 4pm this is the most congested ground in the park and the village is too small to absorb it.
The Forbidden Journey queue through the castle is a genuine attraction and there is a walk-through option that lets you see it without riding. Ask a team member at the entrance.
If you buy one Butterbeer, make it the frozen one. It is the version that holds up in Southern California heat and the only one worth the queue at the outdoor cart.
Interactive wands only work with the interactive models, which cost considerably more than the standard ones. Check the box before you buy, because the disappointment is entirely avoidable.
Flight of the Hippogriff runs about sixty seconds. Ride it early or accept a long wait for very little.

Attractions in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

48"122cm

Dark ride · 4½ min · Express

A robotic-arm dark ride through Hogwarts that pitches you past screens and practical sets, and the most intense ride in the park.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey opened with the Wizarding World here in April 2016 and is mechanically identical to the Orlando original. The ride system is a bench mounted on a robotic arm, which itself rides a track — meaning the vehicle can pitch, roll and turn to face any direction while moving through the building. When it was new it was the most sophisticated ride system in the world, and it still moves in ways nothing else does.

Tips for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

Use the test seat outside the entrance before you queue. The over-the-shoulder restraint has a genuine size limit and the queue is the wrong place to discover it.
The single rider line is excellent here and cuts a long standby dramatically. The ride is not a shared experience in any meaningful sense, so you lose nothing by splitting up.
There is a castle walk-through option that gives you the queue without the ride. It is the right answer for anyone who wants to see Hogwarts but cannot or does not want to ride.
This is the worst ride in the park for motion sickness. Leave a large gap between this and The Simpsons Ride, and do not do both after a heavy meal.
Leave loose items in the free lockers outside. Nothing stays in a pocket on this ride and the enforcement at the platform is strict.

Full guide to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey →

Flight of the Hippogriff

39"99cm

Roller coaster · 1 min · Express

A sixty-second family coaster past Hagrid's hut, with a queue routinely four times longer than the ride is.

Flight of the Hippogriff is the Wizarding World's junior coaster, tucked behind Hogsmeade village next to a very good recreation of Hagrid's hut with Buckbeak standing outside it. It is a small steel coaster with one lift, a handful of banked turns and a modest drop, and it lasts about a minute from dispatch to brake run.

Tips for Flight of the Hippogriff

Ride it in the first hour or skip it. Sixty seconds is not worth a 45-minute wait in an unshaded queue, and that is the standard midday trade here.
This is a good first coaster for a nervous child. The entire layout is visible from the queue, so they can see exactly what they are agreeing to.
At 39 inches it is one of the lowest thresholds in the park, which makes it a genuine option for families otherwise locked out by the 40-inch wall.
Rider switch is available, so an adult can wait with a smaller sibling and ride afterward without queuing again.
The queue has little shade. On a hot afternoon this is one of the least pleasant places to stand at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Full guide to Flight of the Hippogriff →

Ollivanders

Any height

Show · 10 min

A ten-minute wand ceremony for two dozen people at a time, and the best-executed small thing in the park.

Ollivanders is a wand shop with a performance attached. Groups of roughly twenty-five are admitted into a dim room stacked floor to ceiling with wand boxes, a wandmaker appears, and one person from the group is chosen to be matched with a wand. Several attempts go badly — drawers fly open, wind blows, a shelf collapses — and then one works.

Tips for Ollivanders

Go in the morning or the evening. The line is short at both ends of the day and unpleasant in the sun in between.
Children who wave and make eye contact get chosen. Adults essentially never do. If your child wants to be picked, get them to the front of the group.
If you intend to buy a wand at all, buy the interactive model. The standard wands do not work at any of the spell locations and the disappointment is entirely avoidable.
You are not obliged to buy anything. The ceremony is free and nobody will stop you walking through the shop and out the other side.
This is one of the few attractions here with no screen in it at all, which makes it a good palate cleanser between simulators.

Full guide to Ollivanders →

Hogsmeade Spell-Casting Locations

Any height

Interactive game

Around twenty hidden effects around Hogsmeade that fire when you cast at them, and only with an interactive wand.

Scattered around the Hogsmeade village are roughly twenty marked spots where an interactive wand triggers a physical effect: a fountain runs, a shop window lights, a puppet dances, an umbrella opens. Bronze medallions in the pavement mark each location and show the wand movement required.

Tips for Hogsmeade Spell-Casting Locations

Only interactive wands work. Standard wands, souvenir wands and character replicas will not trigger anything, and the difference is not obvious on the shelf.
One wand per child is enough — they will happily take turns and adults get very little out of holding their own.
Ask a nearby team member if a spell will not fire. They know the exact angle and distance each location needs and they will demonstrate it.
Do this in the evening. The medallions are easier to spot when the crowd thins and the village is at its best after dark anyway.

Eating in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Quick service · The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Three Broomsticks

The Hogsmeade inn, serving British pub food in a timber hall with the best interior of any restaurant in the park.

$$Mobile order

CuisineBritish pub food
ReservationsNo reservations

Lounge · The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Hog's Head

The pub attached to Three Broomsticks, with an animatronic boar's head over the bar and the park's only interesting beer list.

CuisinePub — beer, cider and Butterbeer
ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Butterbeer Cart

An outdoor cart in the Hogsmeade square serving cold, frozen and hot Butterbeer, with the longest drinks queue in the park.

CuisineButterbeer in all three forms
ReservationsNo reservations

Snacks worth stopping for

Frozen Butterbeer

Butterbeer Cart

$9.49

A slushed version of the cream-soda-and-butterscotch drink, served with a thick foam head that sits on top rather than mixing in. Non-alcoholic, like every version of it.

Our take: The one to order. The cold version is sweet and thin by the third mouthful; the frozen version stays drinkable in Los Angeles heat, which is the whole argument.

Do not leave without it Drink Vegetarian Walkable

Cold Butterbeer

Hog's Head

$8.99

The original version: a chilled cream soda base with a butterscotch foam poured over the top, served in a cup or a souvenir tankard.

Our take: Fine, and sweeter than most people expect. Order it in cool weather and order the frozen one otherwise. Buy it at the Hog's Head, not the outdoor cart, and save fifteen minutes.

Drink Vegetarian Walkable

Hot Butterbeer

Butterbeer Cart

$8.99

The same butterscotch and cream soda flavor served warm, closer in texture to a hot custard drink than to the cold version.

Our take: Genuinely the best of the three on a cold night, and completely wrong in July. Southern California gives you maybe twenty evenings a year when this is the right order.

Drink Vegetarian Walkable

Fish and Chips

Three Broomsticks

$18.99

Battered white fish with thick-cut chips, served on a metal tray in the timber dining hall. The most consistently well-executed plate on the Three Broomsticks menu.

Our take: The order at Three Broomsticks. The batter holds, the fish is not overcooked, and it is the one item here that would pass without the theming to carry it.

Near the top of the list Savory

Shepherd's Pie

Three Broomsticks

$18.49

Minced meat in gravy under a piped mashed potato crust, baked and served in its own dish with a side salad.

Our take: Solid, heavy and completely fine. It is the right order in January and a mistake in August, when you still have a hillside and four escalators ahead of you.

Savory

The Great Feast

Three Broomsticks

—

A shared platter of rotisserie chicken, ribs, corn and potatoes intended for a family, sold as a single order rather than per person. Priced per platter and worth confirming at the counter.

Our take: Genuine value for four or more and a poor deal for two. Order it with a group and individual plates without one.

Savory

Nearby

Universal Studios Hollywood map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Universal Studios Hollywood Upper Lot The park's original level: the entrance, the Studio Tour boarding area, every show, and most of the walking. Springfield A built-out corner of the Simpsons town, with one ride and a genuinely funny run of themed food windows.