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With the Wizarding World of Harry Potter now officially open at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park, crowds are flocking there by the thousands each day to walk through Hogsmeade Village and tour Hogwarts Castle. But while most of the excited Harry Potter fans are showing up when the park opens in the morning, the real magic comes alive within the Wizarding World at night.
Theme parks are famously more beautiful at night as carefully designed lighting often injects additional character into surroundings. But when night falls on a highly detailed themed environment like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a bit of extra magic takes place as the area sparkles with life.
Not only is the Wizarding World more beautiful at night, but it’s also a lot less crowded. The many thousands of guests that showed up when Islands of Adventure opened have dwindled down to a few hundred by the time the park closes. With considerably shorter lines and temperatures falling 10-15 degrees less than the hot daytime highs, a couple of peaceful nighttime hours in the Wizarding World can easily result in more fun and enjoyment than being there for half the day. And if you linger around until the park closes, you can even enjoy the freedom to slowly walk out of the area nearly alone, as if it was all built just for you.
I could try to further describe the complete feeling of taking a stroll around Hogsmeade Village at night, but I’d rather let it speak for itself. So I present below a nighttime photo and video tour of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter:
An extra incentive for visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at night is that you can peer into the many animated shop windows throughout Hogsmeade Village without struggling to avoid the glare the sun produces during the day. As a result, you can spot fun visuals like a golden snitch flying around in the background of this window, which I hadn’t ever noticed during the daytime:
In walking around the Wizarding World at night, you may find yourself wondering as I was if you are really just in a theme park or if you have somehow transported to another time and place. And once most of the other tourists have left for the night and Hogsmeade Village quiets down with only the triumphant chords of “Hedwig’s Theme” audible, you may feel like you’ve stepped beyond the boundaries of Universal Orlando and into your own private Harry Potter film - with you as the star.
Visit our photo gallery to find even more of our nighttime photos from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
For more excitement from within the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, don’t miss our daytime tours of Hogsmeade Village, Hogwarts Castle (the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey queue), and plenty more.
Howdy Ricky,
Well, once again, Inside the Magic has demonstrated excellence in capturing
the real magic of this incredible place. Sadly many theme park goers do not take the time to actually savor the magic…instead opting for rushing through the park as if it were a race. And, as a result the miss out on so much…
Both you and your wife through your excellent podcasts have really captured
the magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter far better than any other site that I have ran across…including Universal’s “Official” site.
It sure would be great to hear you and your wife talk a little about some
financial strategies for visiting. The wisdom for instance of looking strongly at an Annual Passport so that the park can be savored at a much slower pace. The savings in parking alone ($98 for seven days, $196 for
14 days) when factored in…might just make the Annual Passport a smart choice
compared to single day or even multi-day passes. Your advice about AAA member
discounts could save folks a very large amount of money on stuff from the park. Please give some thought on a possible podcast discussion on this subject.
Thank you for capturing and helping us savor the magic.
Adios for now. Talk to ya on down the trail.
Wild Ol’ Dan
Amazing photos. Orlando Attractions magazine actually published a similar article about nine days ago, a great source for anyone wanting to see more photos and video of the Wizarding World at night:
http://attractionsmagazine.com/blog/2010/06/13/photovideo-update-nighttime-in-the-wizarding-world-of-harry-potter/
great pictures! does anybody know what time the parking garage opens now? i cant find it anywhere!
Hi Ricky,
Thank you for keeping the magic alive in each and every article you write! I did not know your website before searching for news on the WWHP some 3 weeks ago. And from then on it has been amazing!
We’d already booked a night at the Royal Pacific for October just to take advantage of their perks since we’re staying off-site for the rest of our trip. We’ll probably check-in at 5 or 6 pm and we are planning to take a look at WWHP at night for a couple of hours and then come back next morning with the early entry perk. I was wondering though, how to do the check-out since the check-out time is 11 am and at that time we’ll probably be still having fun inside WWHP? And do you think leaving the hotel at 7:30 will be OK or do they open earlier than 8am?
Thanks once more!
You might have a chance to enter even earlier than 8 a.m., but no guarantees. If your goal is to get the most of out of the early entry, make sure you’re at the park’s entrance before 8 a.m.
If you’re checking out that day, talk to the front desk about leaving your bags with them while you’re in the park. You can’t let them sit in your room all day.
The WWoHP was AMAZING!!!!!! When you get a chance check out the video i made from our visit…. Universal held a special event from 10pm until 2am and we had Hogwarts all to ourselves.. The event was called “A night of 1000 Wizards” and I will never ever ever forget my visit there.. Can’t wait to go back.. THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM IS FULL OF AWESOME! <3
here is the link for my video.. I hope you like it..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z887MWOQh9k
Looks like you had a blast! Great video, thanks for sharing it.
I was also at the Night of a Thousand Wizards and have posted an article with photos from that night:
http://www.insidethemagic.net/2010/07/night-of-a-thousand-wizards-draws-biggest-harry-potter-fans-to-universal-orlandos-wizarding-world-at-infinitus-2010/