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you’re soaring heavenwards over Hogwarts; and Plat- After a break in the food court, where we find frothy
form 9 ¾, complete with the “real,” shiny red Hogwarts pints of Butterbeer, as well as a young mother threat-
Express. You can have your photo taken with a lug- ening to sell her whining daughter to a Death Eater,
gage cart that’s half submerged in a brick wall; walk we head outdoors to see a handful of exterior sets.
through the train, which is filled with student para- We step briefly aboard the Knight Bus, stroll across
phernalia; or “ride” in mock train cars as chocolate the rickety Hogwarts Bridge, and pop into 4 Privet
frogs and Dementors whizz by the windows. Drive, where the lounge is filled with Harry’s Hogwarts
There are darker exhibits, like a Death Eater’s din- letters, forever frozen in their whirling flight.
ner party, where I would think long and hard about Entering the next sound stage, we come to the
asking anyone to pass the salt, and the entrance to “creature shop,” which is chock-a-block with ghastly
the Forbidden Forest. Against Dumbledore’s explicit goblin heads, a fanged basilisk, and cases crammed
orders, we venture into the twilit wood, where spi- with other curiosities, like a wraithlike Voldemort who
der webs weave a silvery tapestry between chunky “awakens” at the touch of a button. Emerging into the
trees. Here, we encounter the majestic Buckbeak the cobblestoned Diagon Alley, we do a bit of window
Hippogriff, as well as the skittering figure of Aragog, shopping, checking out wand displays at Ollivanders,
every arachnophobe’s nightmare. signs advertising Pygmy Puffs and fang brushes at

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