Adding Diagon Alley Onto Our December Trip!

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Allie's picture
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Adding Diagon Alley Onto Our December Trip!

I've been meaning to post this for like a week now but I keep forgetting whenever I am on here! Now that we are officially booked for December 4th - December 11th, I went and booked myself, DH, and BIL for the DIS Unplugged DISapalooza party. They have rented out Diagon Alley from 9pm to 12pm and capped it off at 900 people so we will be able to explore the area with a relatively small group if you compare to the average crowds. Even though it is just for Diagon Alley, they will have the Hogwarts Express running back and forth between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, we just only can ride both ways and not get off at Hogsmeade. We also get all you can drink butter beer, pumpkin juice, gillywater, etc AND all you can eat ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. I'm absolutely thrilled that we got this booked and we got in at the last possible second! I booked us for the party last week on Wednesday and by Thursday it was full! eek eek eek

Anywho, I'm looking for any tips from anyone that has been. DH and I have done Hogsmeade (BIL hasn't but we won't have access to this area) but none of us have been to Diagon Alley. Are the interactive wands worth it? What are some can't miss things? We only have 3 hours and I know we'll want to ride the train for sure and probably Gringotts multiple times, but I want to budget the rest of our time well. We'll have just had dinner at Turf Club and will have all you can eat ice cream, so we probably won't try Leaky Cauldron (will be open but at your own cost) unless we end up needing "real" food OR if you convince me there is something we just have to try.

I'm SO excited! All three of us are big Harry Potter nerds and with Penny starting to come along on Disney trips and with her being so little, I didn't know when we would be able to fit Universal into our future plans to get to see the HP expansion so this just worked out perfectly!! yay

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Very cool .will be getting to our HP section of our trip report soonish crossfingers

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Allie's picture
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I'm anxiously awaiting it! awesome

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How awesome! I love Diagon Alley!

Definitely ride the Hogwarts Express, it's the best attraction there. Beyond that, just go everywhere. Poke into every shop, peek into every corner. If you don't want to buy an interactive wand, just stand nearby and watch other people use theirs Try the Earl Grey lavender ice cream, it's awesome. Go to Ollivanders and, if they're playing, catch the storytellers and Celestina Warbeck. Peek inside the Leaky Cauldron if you can. Get creeped out in Knockturn Alley. Even if you can't do everything, you'll love everything you do see.

Allie's picture
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Awesome! Thanks, I'm getting really excited! The Earl Grey & Lavender ice cream is definitely on my list as is the Chocolate Chili. I don't think they are having the storytellers but I know for sure Celestina Warbeck is listed as entertainment for the evening. And that's a great idea about watching other people use the wands rather then forking over the $45...though in the moment I'm sure one of the boys is going to become convinced they need one.

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I am so jealous! This sounds like an awesome experience!!! awesome biggrin

Allie's picture
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Yeah, we're pretty pumped about it! I've started re-reading all the books in anticipation. yay

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That sounds so exciting!!
stars yeah

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congrats congrats congrats

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There are lots of interactive windows and areas for the wands. If you purchase a wand you'll get a map with all of the stops on it. Visiting all the shops is lots of fun and knockturn alley has interactive stops too. Yes, i bought a wand biggrin

edit: i prefer the non-frozen butterbeer, we had a couple of real beers as well.

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Allie's picture
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Thanks, Dee! We tried both the frozen and non-frozen butterbeer when we went to Hogsmeade a few years ago and I think we liked the non-frozen best, too. I really want to try the warm butterbeer this time around! awesome

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awesome

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Allie wrote:
Thanks, Dee! We tried both the frozen and non-frozen butterbeer when we went to Hogsmeade a few years ago and I think we liked the non-frozen best, too. I really want to try the warm butterbeer this time around! awesome

Hot butterbeer is our favorite of them all Beer

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This is SO Awesome!!!! I am so excited for you, and more than a little envious wink , that you get
To experience DA with so few people. We've been to Hogsmeade many times and we loved it because we're huge HP fans. But DA is on a completely different level. It is spectacular!

As far as getting a wand, we never wanted one before either but they have many new ones now and some of them are really cool. DH picked out the one he wanted and it happened to be interactive. He tried it a few times, but there were always kid's waiting behind him and he felt bad making them wait. So we just watched people from then on. All I cared about was seeing what the wand made the object do, I didn't care about doing it myself!
This was our only souvenir so I didn't mind the $45. I'm putting it in a shadow box in our living room beside the sorting hat and Hedwig awesome

One thing I recommend is going into the muggle money exchange building. Go at the beginning of the night so you can spend the money or save it and it can make a cool souvenir. There is one Goblin in this building. DH an I were The only ones in there when we went in so we were talking in line about how much to get. The goblin looked up once and then the second time he looked up he actually yelled something about holding up the line and get moving!!! It was cool!

If you look at Number 12 Grimwald Place before you go into DA, be sure to stay there for a few minutes and look at the window above the door. The Night Bus is outside beside Number 12 and it's neat to see too.

I'm sure you'll have an amazing time. Just walking into the lobby of Gringott's to get to the ride was absolutely amazing! They did a wonderful job in the entire area.

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All great tips, thanks Annie! I'm soooooo excited!