Attraction Review: Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey Ride

in Movies, Theme Parks, Universal Orlando

Forbidden Journey

Excitement is building as Universal Orlando lets more Guests by the day into their new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. Recently, limited soft openings have allowed all park Guests to finally enter the area, enabling many excited visitors to experience the groundbreaking new attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

I have had a chance to ride Forbidden Journey three times this week and have already written my completely spoiler-free thoughts on the attraction. If you’re not interested in potentially “ruining” the ride by reading details about what’s inside, I recommend reading that article rather than what I include below.

From this point forward, this post will be filled with spoilers as I take you step-by-step through the entire Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride experience, offering both descriptions of each scene as well as my own personal thoughts on how well those scenes work. Get ready for an exciting ride…

The introduction

Now that we’re prepared to unleash Forbidden Journey spoilers, I recommend you first watch our video tour of the incredible Hogwarts Castle queue that stops just short of the ride’s loading area:

As you can see, Forbidden Journey truly begins the experience long before you sit down for the ride. A slow walk through the queue takes roughly 20 minutes, longer if you care to stop and watch each scene several times. The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom actually features three separate bits of dialogue between Harry, Ron, and Hermione and three different spells that get cast in the room, each with its own unique special effects. They’re all worth stopping and watching, though the one seen in its entirety in the video above is definitely the most entertaining.

Upon passing through everything you saw above, just past the Sorting Hat, you arrive in the “Room of Requirement,” which acts as the loading area for Forbidden Journey. This room is impressive not because it is filled with detail like all of the other Hogwarts Castle areas, but rather because of how well it hides the massive contraption you’re about to strap yourself into.

Loading area

Upon first arriving into the Room of Requirement, you are greeted by Hogwarts students who ask, “How many muggles in your party?” You get the feeling like you’re really being escorted out of the castle by a group of students eager to help you skip a boring lecture on Hogwarts history. It’s a nice touch.

When approaching the loading area, you catch your first glimpse of the “enchanted benches” that you’ve been told will guide you out of the castle and to a Quidditch match. These four-seat vehicles glide horizontally along a mirrored back wall, reflecting floating candles above and making the room seem much larger than it is (though it is already a large room, to begin with). The “benches” really appear to be nothing more than that. There is no indication at that time that they will do anything except slowly floating along the ground, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth.

A unique element to boarding Forbidden Journey is that the ride vehicles never stop moving. Guests are required to step onto a slow-moving platform and take a seat while in motion. Compared to Disney’s Omnimover system, the loading process is utilized on attractions like The Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. But comparisons to those attractions end there as each of the four seats on the vehicles features an over-the-shoulder harness like those found on many roller coasters. Once you sit down in the snug seats and pull the harness down, you realize that there is no way this ride is going to be a slow-moving adventure.

Speaking of snug seats, it should be noted that a good number of Guests are unable to ride Forbidden Journey due to their height and/or girth. There are test seats outside the attraction as well as before you reach the Sorting Hat. While Universal has released the ride’s minimum height requirement of 48″, they haven’t officially stated any maximums. But if you feel like you are taller than most or rather overweight, then there’s a good chance you won’t be able to ride. Fortunately, you can still walk through the queue and enjoy the scenes presented within Hogwarts Castle.

For those who do fit properly in the seats, the Forbidden Journey begins with gentle music as you glide along with the moving platform, which is surprisingly long. It takes somewhere around 15-30 seconds to make it from the initial loading area to the ride’s first scene.

Bringing the ride home

The entire ride (which lasts around four minutes) is far too dark to be captured well on video. Moreover, no video of this attraction would ever do it justice. Plus, you’re asked to stow any bulky bags or equipment in lockers before entering the queue. If you do hang onto anything, there’s also a small bin in the seatbacks.

So rather than posting four minutes of video featuring almost nothing but blackness, I (with the aid of my wife Michelle) created a high-quality stereo audio recording of the entire attraction, which I have embedded below for your listening enjoyment. So you can either listen now and then continue to read my descriptions of each scene, or you can read the rest of this article first and then come back to listen afterward. Either way, I recommend listening using headphones for hearing all of the details.

[wpaudio url=”http://media.libsyn.com/media/insidethemagic/HarryPotterandtheForbiddenJourney.mp3″ text=”Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey full ride audio” dl=”0″]

The ride begins

As you reach the end of the horizontally moving platform, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey truly begins upon spotting Hermione Granger once more. She stands ahead of you up on a balcony, ready to assist you in leaving the castle. Played by Emma Watson (of course), this rather lifelike image appears to be created using the same “musion” technology that places her, Ron, Harry, and Dumbledore in the ride’s queue (as you saw in the video above). Unfortunately, this time, the effect is somewhat less believable, and she looks less like she’s standing in the room with you and more like a video projection. But you only see her for a brief moment as she enchants your bench and whisks you away through the “floo network.”

Having recently watched all of the Harry Potter films, I am familiar with the notion of traveling by floo. Wizards and witches interested in making their way quickly from one part of the Wizarding World to another need only sprinkle some “floo powder” into a fire, state clearly where they want to end up and jump in. But even knowing all of this, I didn’t grasp the fact that we were about to enter the floo network. We had been told by Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the earlier classroom scene in the queue that we would be traveling out of the castle by “enchanted bench,” not by the floo network. And although just after passing Hermione, you travel through a bright green cloud of fog, I never connected to the green flame that accompanies any floo network passage.

While this may seem like a minute detail, it actually represents the entire Forbidden Journey ride. A lot of scenes seem to come and go for no reason other than to entertain simply. The overall story of the ride is set up in bits and pieces throughout the queue via messages delivered by a series of moving portraits, Dumbledore, Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Still, the entire message never fully comes together. Is the ride’s story about the fact that muggles (non-wizards) are being allowed into Hogwarts for the first time? Or is it about the fact that Hagrid has “lost a dragon,” as is mentioned in passing a few times? Or is it that Harry, Ron, and Hermione really want us to see a Quidditch match? Or is there really no story at all?

Decades ago, Walt Disney Imagineering (then WED Enterprises) developed the world’s first theme park based largely on one simple design “rule”: Everything starts with a story. Even something as seemingly small as the recent name change of Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel to Prince Charming Regal Carrousel was accompanied by an extensive story explaining the new name. And yet, in Forbidden Journey, it seems like the story comes last behind state-of-the-art technology and in-your-face effects.

Now, I’m not necessarily saying Universal’s approach to Forbidden Journey is wrong. Even without a strong beginning, middle, and end-style story, the attraction is still an amazing ride unlike any other I’ve ever seen. Moreover, my favorite theme park attraction of all time, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, also only features a loose story that is not entirely clear to the average theme park-goer. There are times when a clear plot isn’t needed for an attraction to work. But when it comes to a ride based on a 7-book and soon-to-be 8-film series, I was simply expecting a more coherent story to carry me through the experience. But instead, Forbidden Journey provides an impressive whirlwind tour of almost every scene and character you’d expect to show up in a Harry Potter-based adventure.

With all that aside, let’s return to the action…

Scene 1:

Upon entering the floo network, you find your enchanted bench suddenly lift off the ground, through the green fog, and instantly begin flying through tight stone corridors. At the time of riding, I thought these were meant to be Hogwarts hallways, but now I realize they represent flying through the chimney to get to the observatory.

How it’s done: Lifting off of the ground should be rather unexpected for any Guests not realizing that the “enchanted benches” are actually some of the most technologically advanced ride vehicles currently employed in any attraction, anywhere. These seats are attached to the end of a giant robot arm created by Kuka Industrial Robotics. Similar arms can be seen at Disney’s The Sum of All Thrills attraction at EPCOT, though those arms are placed in a fixed position on the ground and feature just two seats on end.

The arms utilized in Forbidden Journey are often referred to as a “robocoaster,” as the entire arm assemblies travel along a track while also offering complete freedom of movement in any direction for riders. The system is incredibly smooth and never jerks riders around. Quick motions from left to right, upward and downward, and any combination in between are never coupled with any harshness or unpleasant feelings. While the arms are technically capable of placing riders completely upside down and spinning them around, Forbidden Journey never does this.

But all of this technology is completely hidden from the view of riders. You will never actually see the rig you are attached to, though if you’re really interested in seeing it in motion, there are a few areas of the ride that can offer you short glimpses at the vehicle ahead or behind you if you know where to look. But I recommend not searching for it, as it does ruin the illusion of flying (as if reading this article hasn’t already).

In the specific instance of flying through the stone-walled chimneys, the robot arm acts as a motion simulator base with Guests looking at projected images. You don’t actually fly through a physical set quite yet, and, honestly, the chimney projection is not all that convincing. Fortunately, it is short, and the next scene is far more immersive.

Scene 2:

Upon arriving in the observatory, you’ll find yourself flying at the top of Hogwarts Castle, looking out onto the surrounding scenery. Harry yells out the obvious fact that Hermione succeeded in making you fly and that he and Ron will be meeting up with you shortly. Passing from right to left, you gently fly through the wooden observatory, staring out at the sky and rolling hills. Each scenic view is presented through a large ornate archway. You pass by two of them, and they are suddenly thrust through a third, flying beyond the comfort of solid ground and out into the open air next to Hogwarts Castle.

How it’s done: The entire observatory is a real set. It’s a startling switch to go from the video projection of initially flying through the chimneys and suddenly ending up in a highly detailed real environment. This type of switch takes place numerous times throughout the ride and always left me thinking that the video-based sequences felt very fake, whereas the scenes featuring real-life elements felt, well, real. It’s a combination that, in my opinion, works better in The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, likely because Spider-Man uses 3D glasses and projections. The video sequences on Forbidden Journey are 2D and evoke a feeling more similar to The Simpsons Ride and Disney’s Soarin’ attraction, where it’s fun to experience them. Still, you realize they’re not real while you’re watching it.

But while the juxtaposition of real-life scenes with projected ones seems a bit odd, the actual transition between the two is incredibly smooth. Unlike Spider-Man, which clearly takes you from screen to screen, throwing a few real-life elements in between, all of Forbidden Journey’s scenes seamlessly flow into one another, regardless of which type of scene you’re traveling across.

Scene 3:

Once you have flown out of the observatory, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley emerge, flying on brooms ahead of you. They are dressed in their Quidditch outfits and want you to follow them to the match. However, upon approaching a large Hogwarts Castle bridge, you briefly slow your flight as you spot Hagrid standing there, holding a largely broken shackle at the end of a chain. He wonders if you’ve seen a dragon around. Well, sure enough, a huge dragon appears moments later and begins to chase you, Harry, and Ron, spitting fire while twisting and turning around you. Ultimately you take a turn toward what appears to be the Forbidden Forest.

How it’s done: This entire sequence is a video projection onto a dome surrounding you. Since the projection stretches all around you, you and the other three passengers with you in your vehicle are essentially immersed in your own private flight around Hogwarts. It’s a unique twist on the motion simulator technology that makes The Simpsons Ride and Soarin’ possible. Unlike those attractions during which you’re likely to catch a glimpse of other riders and their vehicles, there is no chance of this happening on Forbidden Journey.

Unfortunately, these video projections are the home of my biggest complaints about this ride. While the actual physical motions of the vehicles are quite smooth, the video you’re moving in synch with is all over the place. One second you are flying upward, then the next, you’re taking a turn, then you’re back up, then down, and so on. I understand the designers’ desire to simulate what it would really be like to fly alongside Potter and the gang, but instead of flying with experts, I was left feeling like I was a first-time flyer that couldn’t keep under control. Because of the fast, hectic pace, you never get a moment to really take it all in.

As a result, you can barely focus on anything. The projection moves so fast that everything ends up a blur. There are moments where it might as well not even have been Daniel Radcliffe or Rupert Grint playing their famous roles because you can’t even tell who they are due to the blurriness of the projection. It’s a truly unfortunate downfall for an otherwise fantastic attraction.

Scene 4:

Now, I’m not entirely sure of the location of this next scene. To evade the dragon, you take a sharp left turn into some wooden building. Another part of Hogwarts? Perhaps some random wooden shack in the Forbidden Forest?

Update (6/6/10): As pointed out by “DniScribe” in the comments below, the wooden structure you enter while evading the dragon is supposed to be the covered bridge connected to Hogwarts Castle.

Regardless of what it is, the important thing is that the dragon is still chasing you, igniting the wooden structure around you, sending you flying for cover around every turn. Ultimately, after dodging your way through this collapsing building, you find yourself face-to-face with the dragon when it spits fire, sending you flying in a completely different direction.

How it’s done: This entire sequence is made up of real-life elements. You make a left turn out of the previous video projection sequence and into an area surrounded by wooden beams. Along the right side are wooden embers glowing red along with what appear to be claw marks. Just beyond those, a giant dragon wing is flapping outside the building as the roars get louder and closer. The wing is a memorable moment as it’s the first time in the ride you encounter a real-life character of any kind. But it’s only setting the stage for the surprise that’s to come.

Just past the wing is one of my favorite moments of the ride. You continue weaving through the building until, directly ahead, a big expanse opens up, revealing that you have reached the top of the structure. The ceiling comes to a point above you, and you think you’re going to head along the top, but suddenly you take a fast dive down back into the building. It’s a tough scene to describe, as there aren’t any specific landmarks to discuss, but it’s the first time you get a roller coaster-style sudden drop during the attraction.

Just beyond that drop, the entire room lights up, glowing red as an enormous animated dragon head appears right before your eyes. By animated, I don’t mean it’s a video or cartoon. I mean, it is a real-life, full-size, articulated figure that is horned, grizzly, and quite angry. Fortunately, it appears that it could only lodge its head into the building and can’t quite get you. But it is literally only a few feet from you when it opens its mouth, screams, and blasts you with “fire” created by a whole lot of fog and flickering lights. It’s definitely one of the highlights of the ride.

Scene 5:

You’ve obviously found Hagrid’s missing dragon, but that’s the last you’ll see of him. You’re separated from Harry and Ron and nowhere near the Quidditch match. But rather than your enchanted bench leading you back to them instead, you suddenly find yourself deep within the pit of the Acromantulas (giant spiders). Darkness surrounds you, but the occasional flash of light reveals that spiderwebs and plenty of 8-legged creatures surround you. While they don’t seem so bad at first, as they’re no bigger than a large dog, it’s not long before they begin to launch venom at you. If that wasn’t bad enough, you encounter Aragog, parent to all of the smaller Acromantulas. You spend a moment getting to know Aragog up close before moving on deeper into the pit. Fortunately, Hermione magically appears amongst the spiders to whisk you out of there and back to the Quidditch pitch.

How it’s done: While extremely exciting, this scene is a bit baffling. I don’t entirely understand how we transition from getting blasted by a dragon within a wooden building to suddenly being down deep in the pit of the Acromantulas. That aside, once you’re there, the ride vehicles really come alive. This is another real-life scene, not a video projection, and it is very dark, often pitch black, and really disorients you. Only flickering strobes light the way, revealing spiders around every corner, on the walls, and dangling from above. While winding around the spiders, you’re turning left, right, up, down, and even tilted sideways.

Depending on which seat you’re in, you may get quite wet during this scene, as many of the spiders spit at you. The left two seats are far more likely to get wet, possibly to the point where you’ll be dripping when you exit the ride. It’s fun and unexpected but also possibly excessive at times.

Coming face-to-face with the giant Aragog spider is an exciting but rather brief moment. If you blink, you might miss it entirely. Unlike the fully animated dragon from the previous scene, Aragog doesn’t seem to move at all. The motion of your vehicle combined with strobe lights offer a slight sensation of motion, but really you just fly past the creature.

But the appearance of Hermione in the midst of all of this has me completely confused. You see her from the shoulders up peering through a hole in the wall. She is a video projection very similar to the one you saw at the beginning of the ride. This time, however, it is completely out of place. She is just standing there, encouraging you to get out, but not really doing much else. I don’t understand how she got there or why she is there. But before you pass her, she tells you to watch out for the Whomping Willow on your way to the Quidditch pitch, which sets the stage for what’s to come.

Scene 6:

Leaving the Acromantulas pit, you are on your way back to Hogwarts Castle and, along the way, come mighty close to the famous Whomping Willow. In fact, you’re close enough to get whomped into the next scene.

How it’s done: This is one of the simpler scenes to describe, and yet it works very well. You’ve swung around and tilted on your back, facing upward, and you find yourself dangerously close to the Whomping Willow. And it’s really there. I’m sure there’s some clever visual trickery used here, but because you’re facing upward and staring at the top of this giant tree, you feel like you’re fifty feet in the air flying within inches of it. But the Whomping Willow is famous not only as a giant tree but as a giant tree that swings its branches at you. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens here. This is once again a real-life scene, and just as this real-life branch comes swinging at you, you’re thrust to the right and directly into the halfway point of the ride.

Scene 7:

Yes, that’s right, we’re only halfway through! Everything you have read since you first took off into the floo system has happened in the span of a mere 2 minutes. The good news is that you’re now back on course, as you’ve been whomped all the way to the Quidditch pitch and thrust right into the action. Suddenly, you’re caught back up with Harry and Ron in the middle of the Quidditch game. Harry yells out, “Where have you been,” as if you’d simply been strolling around a field. If only he knew you were nearly burned by a dragon, consumed by an Acromantula, and pummeled by the Whomping Willow. But it doesn’t matter, as the Quidditch game is in full swing, and you’re in the middle of it.

The match is between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and that means Harry is going head-to-head with Draco Malfoy. As always, Malfoy’s game is a bit dirty, talking trash and bumping Potter off course. After a few passes around the arena, it suddenly becomes clear that winning Quidditch is no longer the most important task at hand. Dementors have arrived.

Potter urges you to follow him as he leads you out of the Quidditch pitch and into total blackness.

How it’s done: This entire sequence is another video projection, and it’s a ton of fun to fly through a Quidditch match, ducking and dodging around the flying quaffle (ball) while watching Ron defend his goal. The pace is so fast that you can never catch more than a brief glimpse of the action before it goes whizzing past you. I’m sure it’s quite representative of what flying in a real Quidditch game would be like, but I would prefer the action to have slowed down just a bit so I could actually see what’s going on. It’s all a bit like watching a Michael Bay movie if it were first-person. It’s nearly impossible to focus on anything specific, but it all still works for the most part.

You spend about 20 seconds flying around the Quidditch game before those creepy Dementors appear and chase you and Harry of. They chase you for another 15 seconds while you follow Harry before he leads you out of the arena.

Scene 8:

Dementors. Lots of them. They’re big, scary, and come way closer to you than you would ever have imagined you’d get to one. You’re twisting through complete darkness with more Dementors popping out from every corner. Some even follow you. Somewhere along the line, you realize you’re in the Chamber of Secrets as you fly by the skull of the Basilisk and through the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin. And just when you think you’re safe, you spot Lord Voldemort’s Dark Mark appearing amongst a cloud of fog, and you know your luck just ran out. After that, more Dementors get even closer to the point where you can no longer escape their grasp. One locks you in its kiss, at which point you literally see your own soul being ripped from you in the form of your own face materializing in the fog. But fear not, as Harry Potter always comes to the rescue.

How it’s done: I believe this is the first time I have ever actually been physically startled by a dark ride scene since I rode Disney’s Haunted Mansion when I was very young. These Dementors are SCARY, and they’re real. This is no video projection. As your vehicle gently glides through the blackness, as if you are in a daze, you are suddenly thrust into super proximity to the first Dementor, which seems to appear out of nowhere. It is huge, likely 10 feet tall, with skeleton bones emerging from its black-draped cloth. And it’s fast. Something so large shouldn’t be able to creep up on you this quietly and quickly.

The first Dementor is unexpected and frightening. The next is scary. After that, unfortunately, the next few get a bit repetitive. They’re still extraordinarily cool, but you begin to scrutinize them a bit more the longer you have a chance to see them. What begins as a unique and scary character slowly devolves into a fabric-covered Halloween decoration. Perhaps some of the Dementors are more detailed than others. Or perhaps it’s that you get a better look at some of them when the lights come on. Either way, I remember some of them not looking as interesting as others.

My memory is a bit fuzzy as to exactly when you notice that Harry has led you into the Chamber of Secrets. Somewhere during this scene, you’ll definitely recognize the Basilisk skeleton as you go flying by it, and later the giant stone head of Slytherin is quite obvious as you pass right through its mouth. Both are quite impressive set pieces.

The Dark Mark appears amongst the blackness via a creepy video projected onto a fog screen. If you’ve been on the updated version of Pirates of the Caribbean at the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland and you’ve seen Davy Jones appear from the “waterfall,” then you know the type of fog screen I’m referring to. But in this case, rather than simulating a waterfall, the fog is used to make a giant skull appear.

The last Dementor you come face-to-face with has a wide-open glowing mouth, simulating the Dementor’s Kiss, which is said to suck your soul right out of you. This hilariously creepy effect is achieved by projecting an image of your own face onto the same type of fog screen as above. Earlier in the ride, flashes of light were actually flashes used to take your photo for this moment. Out of the three times, I rode it, I only saw my own face once, as the effect doesn’t always work. But when it does, it makes for a really excellent experience.

The scene ends with Harry exclaiming, “Get away from them!” Presumably, he’s yelling at the Dementors and not you.

Scene 9:

Just as your soul is being ripped from your body, Harry Potter flies into the Chamber of Secrets with you and unleashes an “Expecto Patronum” onto the Dementors, driving them away. Unfortunately, at that moment, the chamber begins to cave in, but Harry leads you to safety and back to Hogwarts Castle. “To the Great Hall!”

How it’s done: Just after Harry exclaims, “Get away from them!” you’re thrust back into the final video dome projection of the ride. It’s almost over, but Harry’s got to take care of those pesky Dementors. But unlike his previous encounters with them, which required careful spell casting and great skill to create a Patronus Charm, he seems to be able to fire one off as if it’s nothing. With this being the ride’s climax, I was expecting a huge glowing Patronus blast like the one seen in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” It’s a moment that had the potential to be a real “wow.” Instead, the spell is rattled off rather matter-of-factly, blasting a single on-screen Dementor away before we continue flying behind Harry. It’s a bit disappointing and somewhat unfulfilling.

I’m not entirely sure why the Chamber of Secrets begins to cave in, other than the fact that it’s a pretty standard end to this kind of a ride. Your vehicle dodges falling rocks in all directions (much like in every other motion simulator you’ve ever been on), and when you emerge, Harry lets out the cliched line, “We made it!”

The flight back to Hogwarts Castle is a beautiful scene, passing over water and around a few turns before entering the Great Hall. Since you actually get to take a breath and look around for a second, it’s one of the better uses of the video projection sections of the ride. And it’s also the last.

Scene 10:

Your Forbidden Journey concludes when you reach the Great Hall and are immediately welcomed back by the entire Hogwarts school. At first, you see many students all cheering you on, including Harry Potter, the Weasley twins, and Ginny and Ron Weasley. After passing through there, you wind up in the moving portrait hallway where Dumbledore and more students wave and say goodbye. Dumbledore suggests that you “tuck your elbows in” just before you pass through the floo network once more on your way back to where you began. A quick flight through the chimneys, and you’re welcomed back safely.

How it’s done: These two final scenes are the most similar to Islands of Adventure’s Spider-Man attraction. Each consists of a large floor-to-ceiling video projection surrounded by real-life architecture. While both scenes are really nothing more than giant projected movies, the illusion of 3D is created by a perspective shift in the background. The same technique is utilized throughout the scenes in Spider-Man. As your vehicle moves from left to right, the video’s foreground remains static while the background of the shot shifts perspective, allowing you to see more as if you were truly traveling past a real space rather than a flat screen.

These final two scenes are a bit hokey, featuring many characters just standing around cheering at you. But they do serve as a final goodbye, allowing you to see everyone you have met on your Forbidden Journey one last time. You get the feeling that you truly were an outsider warmly welcomed into Hogwarts for a special occasion and are left feeling a bit sad that it’s all over.

Overall Impressions


Clearly, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey have impacted me, or I would not have written more than 5,500 words about it. It’s one of the most exciting and unique theme park attractions to be built in many years and certainly one that visitors to Orlando will flock to for years to come.

I tried not to nitpick the ride too much in my descriptions above. I tend in reviews to often focus on the negative and not praise the positive enough. In the end, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is an incredible attraction. Individually, some elements don’t come off as well as they likely could have. Video projections are sometimes blurry and hard to focus on. Scenes seem to come and go without any connection between them. But while the ride doesn’t necessarily take you through a linear story, it definitely takes you on an exciting adventure that very much mirrors Harry Potter’s own. You stumble through one enthralling happening after another, never quite sure how you’re going to make it out – but ultimately, you always do.

As Harry Potter himself describes his own experiences, “…the truth is, most of that was just luck. I didn’t know what I was doing half the time. I nearly always had help.” And that basically summarizes Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Universal Orlando has created a believable world that you might already know a little (or a lot) about – but in the end, it takes a little luck and a whole lot of help from familiar faces to see you through the incredible adventure that leaves you wanting to experience it all over again.

To wrap this up, here’s the on-ride photo we purchased after our first ride on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We’re the two younger riders on the vehicle’s left side (closer to the dragon). I think the big smiles on our faces say it all.

And if you’re interested in seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter before it grand opens on June 18, don’t miss our in-depth coverage:

See the ride for yourself

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