We are off to school this week as Getting to Know Universal boards the Hogwarts Express. The cross-park transportation attraction opened in 2014 as part of the Diagon Alley expansion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The Hogwarts Express, along with Diagon Alley, replaced the Jaws attraction which closed in early 2012.
Quick Glance
Location: Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure
Attraction Type: Transportation attraction with special effects
Scope: Headliner
Touring Plans Rating: 4 1/2 stars
Height Requirement: No
The Experience
Hogwarts Express is a slow train ride that simulates the trip between King’s Cross Station and Hogsmeade Village. Guests ride in the iconic train, just like Hogwarts students, in movie-replica cabins that seat up to 8. Cabins feature a virtual window to the outside world that show familiar sights from the Wizarding World. Windows facing the trail passageways are frosted and a unique projection system casts shadows giving guests an immersive experience.
The ride experience starting at the Hogsmeade or King’s Cross stations is completely different. Guests beginning at King’s Cross have a large air-conditioned queue to cross from the muggle world to the Wizarding World at Platform 9 3/4 and board on a grandiose train platform straight from the movie. The ride film from King’s Cross to Hogsmeade features owls, Dementors, the trolley lady, and Hagrid. Comparatively, the Hogsmeade Station queue is entirely outdoors (but covered), and the ride features the Weasley Twins, Voldemort, and the Knight Bus.
Unlike most attractions, Hogwarts Express encourages guests to carry food and drink onto the ride. In fact, the King’s Cross station even includes a snack stand in the queue featuring crisps, candies, fruit, drinks, and even beer!
The Opinion
Thanks to its accessibility and a memorable ride experience, the Hogwarts Express ranks as one of the best attractions at the resort. There are not many iconic experiences in a theme park quite as memorable as a ride on the Hogwarts Express – from riding in movie replica cabins, crossing over to Platform 9 3/4, and even disembarking the ride in a totally different park. The ride experience lives up to the hype–make sure you ride in both directions to see the complete experience.
Restrictions & Accommodations
Hogwarts Express is accessible by ECV or wheelchair
All guests must be able to sit upright unassisted or be accompanied by a supervising companion
The attraction might cause motion sickness
The attraction includes closed spaces, flashes of light, and scary imagery
Touring Tips
Because the attraction is park-to-park transportation only guests with park-to-park tickets can ride, a sneaky upsell by the Universal pencil pushers. The queues for King’s Cross and Hogsmeade vary in waits throughout the day; in the mornings and evenings the lines remain at or under 15 minutes while queues will surge in the late mornings and mid-day as guests who experienced Potter land transfer over to the other park.
From our friends at touringplans.com Filed Under: Harry Potter, Universal Orlando Resort, Hogwarts Express, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida
Yesterday morning, Disney’s Hollywood Studios experienced a major disturbance in the Force. The star attraction of the park, Rise of the Resistance, failed to produce boarding groups at the 10:00 a.m. park opening. This led to the most eager of guests being unable to secure return times at park opening to ride what is the most anticipated attraction of the park. It is easy to imagine that this would increase wait times throughout the park. Not only that, but it could throw off the plans of many guests.
Line for Bag Screening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Entrance
A Few Unexpected Closures at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
In addition to the unexpected lack of early morning availability for Rise of the Resistance yesterday morning, Tower of Terror experienced some unexpected downtime too. Thankfully our TouringPlans Lines App makes it possible to adjust your plans in real time, without having to use a Jedi mind trick. Our app uses real-time data to show expected wait times compared to Disney’s posted wait times. Recommendations on which attractions to experience when are updated throughout the day based on changing conditions.
Tower of Terror Downtime on August 30, 2020
Around 11:30 a.m. both Rise of The Resistance and Tower of Terror were unavailable. Here’s how wait times looked then. We’ve included the wait times that Disney posted as well as the expected wait times our Lines app calculated.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Posted Wait Time 60 / Expected 50
Slinky Dog Coaster
Posted Wait Time 50 / Expected 39
Rock N’ Roller Coaster
Posted Wait Time 50 / Expected 41
Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run
Posted Wait Time 45 / Expected 37
All other attractions were 20 minutes or less
Now, let’s look at the Observed Wait Times from yesterday that are available on TouringPlans.com.
Millennium Falcon Observed Wait Times – August 30, 2020Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Observed Wait Times – August 30, 2020Tower of Terror Observed Wait Times – August 30, 2020
With the morning’s disruptions it would become necessary to adjust plans based on real-time data. Our Lines app directs users how to adjust their plans to reduce their wait times. For example, on the current day, the Lines app would indicate to wait until later in the day for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway as the wait time always goes down. But Toy Story Mania was going to stay at 10 -15 minutes throughout the day and would be good to ride anytime. Furthermore, with the unexpected downtime of Tower of Terror, the wait time at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was higher than normal since it is right next to Tower — so our Lines app would recommend waiting until later in the day. The same is true for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run as well.
It seems the outage for Rise of The Resistance Boarding Groups was due to a nationwide outage of a major internet provider. Other digital Disney services were disrupted too. The disruption led to distribution of boarding groups taking place at 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. As boarding groups were distributed and guests could begin riding Rise of the Resistance, we saw wait times throughout the park decrease. Tower of Terror came back online as well.
Slinky Dog Expected Wait Time in Lines App – 1:40 p.m.Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Expected Wait Time in Lines App – 1:40 p.m.
At 1:40 p.m. Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway had a Posted Wait Time of 60 minutes, but our Lines app showed an Expected Wait Time of 45 minutes. Slinky Dog Coaster had a Posted Wait Time 40, but our Lines App showed an Expected Wait Time of 31. This is not a drastic change in wait times, but as the evening rolled in wait times decreased significantly.
By 5:30 p.m. the wait times across Disney’s Hollywood Studios were half of what they were during the morning and early afternoon.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Posted Wait Time 35 / Expected 29
Slinky Dog Coaster
Posted Wait Time 30 / Expected 25
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Posted Wait Time 15 / Expected 14
Tower of Terror
Posted Wait Time 13 / Expected 20
Toy Story Mania
Posted Wait Time 12 / Expected 20
All other attractions were 20 minutes or less
Physical Distancing at Toy Story LandTower of Terror Expected Wait Time in Lines App 5:30 p.m.Runaway Railway Expected Wait Time in Lines App 5:30 p.m.
To give more context about how the unexpected lack of availability of Rise of the Resistance Boarding Groups and the unexpected downtime of Tower of Terror impacted wait time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, let’s look at the past three Sundays.
Observed Wait Time Comparison – all Sundays in August 2020
Wait times were a little higher than the previous Sundays during the morning, and then they leveled out in the afternoon. Overall the loss of Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror did impact guests in the morning, but wait times improved significantly in the early evening. In a situation like we saw yesterday it would be very helpful to have our Lines app along with you so your day can be adjusted on the spot, allowing you to save lots of time.
When was the last time you were at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Have you had a chance to experience Rise of the Resistance yet?
From our friends at touringplans.com Filed Under: Hollywood Studios, In the Parks, Trip Planning, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rise of the Resistance, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The Walt Disney World Resort has been utilizing a phased reopening for its resort hotels and due to the ever changing nature of the travel industry currently, they have decided to make a change in regards to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort’s reopening.
Originally slated to reopen on August 12 and then pushed back to October 4, the resort will once again have its reopening date pushed back. This time, for a more lengthy period of time. Disney has announced that Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will now not reopen to hotel Guests until next summer. This adjustment in the schedule is allowing the Walt Disney World Resort to complete some refurbishment work on the hotel. Work will be done to not only the Guest rooms, but also to the Great Ceremonial House. According to the Orlando Sentinel, changes to the rooms will include a move to a new color palette as well as details, patterns and textures from the film Moana.
Work will begin in early October. The Villas and Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will remain open during this refurbishment.
Those impacted will be emailed by Disney about their upcoming reservation.
The magic of a visit to Walt Disney World starts before you even arrive. It’s fun to plan out your trip and anticipate the experience. Arriving to Walt Disney World’s theme parks for the day is a quite different than it used to be, so let’s review what you need to know.
COVID-19 Warning Sign at Disney’s Animal Kingdomc
Parking Process
When pulling through the parking toll plaza of each park, I’ve been asked if I have a reservation for the park. Then my MagicBand is scanned and my ID confirmed, since I am an annual passholder with parking included. Disney is encouraging everyone to use contactless payment as much as possible. Each parking booth Cast Member I have encountered has been wearing both a mask and a protective clear face shield.
Parking is rather delightful right now because every other spot is filled first. Then after guests have moved on from loading up and walking to the park the empty spots are backfilled. Having the extra space makes it very nice for everyone, especially families who have kids to wrangle into strollers and such.
Distanced Parking at Disney’s Hollywood StudiosDistanced Parking at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
I have found that the parking lot can be a challenge for safety compliance in that some guests do not have their mask on yet and have not adjusted to physically distancing practices. I generally wait in the car for the majority of folks in my row to head toward the park, and then I finally get out and get moving. Parking trams are not currently operational so you will have to walk through the parking lot to the park entrance.
As you approach the entrance you’ll probably notice a few white tents. Staffed by one of Florida’s largest hospital groups, AdventHealth, every guest has their temperature taken with a no-touch thermometer. Disney states on their website that; “Based on guidance from health authorities, anyone displaying a temperature of 100.4 F or above will be directed to an additional location for rescreening and assistance. Those with temperatures 100.4 F or above will not be allowed entry; those in their party will not be allowed entry either.”
During my visits everyone has been extremely friendly, always joking around with my son. It is a quick, touchless scan. Every guest I have witnessed has been great about the screening too.
Temperature Screening at EPCOT International GatewayTemperature Screening and Distancing Markers at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Bag Screening
I recently visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom and EPCOT. At both parks the bag screening process has changed to a touchless systems. For safety reasons I will not go into detail about the process, and I did not take pictures specifically of the bag check area. During my recent it was just my son and I so I had to manage the bag check with my son in the stroller. The Security Cast Members did a great job of directing me and helping me navigate the screening process with bags and a stroller with no additional party members. Cell phones can stay in bags as they are checked. Larger metal items (like umbrellas) may need to be removed.
Physical Distancing
During busy hours such as park opening, the entrance and ticket scan area can get backed up. There are markings throughout the main gate area in order to allow for safe physical distancing. Plenty of Cast Members are on hand to direct guests and ensure everyone is following the procedures. Members of the “Mask Enforcement Squad” are around the park, and definitely have a strong presence at the front of the park. They not only ensure guests are wearing masks, but that their face coverings comply with specifications such as no exhalation valves.
Temperature Screening and Distancing Markers at Disney’s Hollywood StudiosPhysical Distancing Markers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Entrance
No Bio-Metric Finger Scan
To reduce touch points, the bio-metric finger scan is turned off when you scan you ticket or MagicBand. Of course having reservations just to get into the park helps with some of the reasons bio-metric scans exist in the first place. It also speeds up the process of getting into the park, which is welcomed. Between walking to the park entrance, going through the temperature screening, then the bag check, it can seem like a lot of work to finally walk into the Most Magical Place on Earth.
No Bio-Metric Scan at EPCOTDistancing Markers at International Gateway Entrance
Are you planning on visiting Walt Disney World anytime soon? What other aspects of visiting Disney are you curious about? Let us know in the comments.
From our friends at touringplans.com Filed Under: Dos and Don’ts, In the Parks, Observations, Trip Planning, disney entrance, disney parking, disney procedures, disney reopening, disney temperature screening, walt disney world
Welcome to the latest edition of The Magic, The Memories, and Merch!, the longest-running monthly look at the still closed Disney Outlet Stores in Orlando. However this month, for the first time in a long time, we have some really good news! So let’s get right to it with…
THE GOOD: The Disney Outlet Store closest to Disneyland IS FINALLY OPEN!
While we in Florida have been outside of the Disney Outlet Stores looking in, not unlike the kids looking into the toy shop window in A Christmas Story, Christela McC was able to finally get back into the Disney Outlet Store that is located closest to Disneyland. Not only did the store re-open, it came back with deals even crazier than usual. For the first several weeks, the outlet offered an additional 40% off the already discounted ticketed price. Later in the month the additional discount dropped down to “just” 25%, but keep in mind this is a discount on items already massively reduced in price. The amount of times we in Florida have got an “additional discount” remains at ZERO.
Also, keep in mind that out in California those paying with a Disney Chase Visa card get an additional 10% taken off after all the other discounts have been applied. BE FAIR TO FLORIDA!!!!! Before I have an aneurysm, let’s see what items Christela saw at the store. First up is this solid Disneyland Resort attractions T-shirt. Love the concept of this shirt, but the thing keeping it from “great” status is the fact that some of the attractions are – for whatever reason – upside down. Just BONKERS. Originally $24.99, marked down to $14.99.
How great is it that the back of the shirt featured the dates in which each attraction made its debut?
Kid’s size Black Spire Outpost shirt. Originally $24.99, marked down to $8.99. For me personally, this is the type of merchandise I like in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. I love that minimalist style, but I can also see why others don’t, especially kids.
Kid’s Radiator Springs Racers shirt. Original price $17.99, marked down to $7.99.
Rescue Rangers button up shirt. Originally $59.99, marked down to $16.99. This one I really like and would buy in a second down here in Florida. I’d wear it in the parks and approach older guests to talk about reverse mortgages.
Retro Mickey jacket. Originally $59.99, marked down to $21.99. This one I actually bought in Florida as it arrived at our Outlets shortly before the world went to crap. I absolutely adore it, and maybe I’ll get to wear it that one night a year in Southern Florida when the weather isn’t 90 degrees with 100% humidity.
I mean look at the back of this jacket!!!!
Here’s three shirts that are labeled Made in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. However, only the 70s one features the Disneyland Resort logo on the front. This makes NO SENSE as Disneyland was “made” in the 1950s. If anything Walt Disney World could have the “Made in the 70s” gimmick as it opened in 1971. Anyway, each of these three shirts were originally $24.99, marked down to $12.99. This concept seems like a no-brainer to just change the logo at the bottom and port on over to Disney’s Pop Century Resort.
Both the 80s and 90s shirts would have benefited from adding a bunch of more characters on the shirts, especially with the library they can pull from.
Disneyland Resort zip-up hoodie. Original price $54.99, down to $19.99.
The Orange Bird Adventureland shirt. Original price was removed, marked down to $11.99.
Class of 2019 graduation ears. Originally $24.99, marked down to 99 cents. Imagine that. Under a dollar and at some point in the month could have gotten 40% off of that and then another 10% off that. I was told there would be no math, but I think at that point Disney is paying you to take it home.
Zero on a leash. Original price unknown, marked down to $7.99.
Haunted Mansion Tsum Tsum and Aulani Emoji booster pin packs. Christela couldn’t get a picture of these in the store because there were so many hands reaching over and grabbing them by the handful. Mansion pin set originally $32.99 while Aulani was $29.99, both marked down to $9.99.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit costume for Duffy. Original price unknown, marked down to 99 cents with an additional 40% off. For me personally, once an item drops down to 99 cents I almost have to buy it on principle. However this is also why I had to rent a storage unit that is, shall we say, off the books (because if my girlfriend found out about all this crap she may kill me).
Mickey Santa Loungefly backpack. Originally $90, marked down to $34.99. The eBay pirates came out in full force for this item – one couple came in and announced upon entering at store opening that they would take everything on the shelf plus whatever they had in the back. A fight nearly broke out in the middle of the store. Crazy times.
Set of 2 “toothpick” holders. Original price unknown, marked down to $8.99. Like the Black Spire Outpost style of artwork above, I’m a huge fan of this “Shag“-like retro style of art that looks like it would fit right in at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort.
Holiday bar towel. Original price unknown, marked down to $5.99. When stuff like this makes its way to the Florida Outlets, I’ll usually end up buying one for each particular season. We have one set for Halloween, another one featuring Remy from Ratatouille for just regular days, etc.
We’ll close out with this Holiday snacks adult onesie. Originally $69.99, marked down to $32.99. I’d probably be forced to wear this if my girlfriend ever finds out about the storage unit. Like the attractions shirt we started with, this also includes several of the designs being upside down and I just don’t understand the reasoning behind that.
Thanks Christela! So glad to see at least one of our regularly featured stores is open. Now let’s check in on Florida…
The Bad: The Disney Outlet Stores in Orlando are STILL CLOSED.
Someone play the sad trombone sound effect, because we’ve had yet another disappointing month here in Florida. What’s even crazier is that just about everything else in Florida has re-opened, even movie theaters, and yet the official Disney Character Warehouse outlet stores in Orlando (and there is another in Sunrise, Florida) remain closed. Many other Disney outlet stores across the country have reopened as well, just not these stores. Here’s the current look at the Disney outlet store located closest to Walt Disney World, off Vineland Ave.
Disney Character Warehouse. (photo by Brandon Glover)Disney Character Warehouse. (photo by Brandon Glover)
Minimal work has been done inside in what seems to be getting ready to help with social distancing, but no markers on the ground and no sanitizing stations have been put in.
A quick check at the Disney outlet store closer to the Universal Orlando Resort, off International Drive, reveals the same lack of activity.
Disney Character Warehouse. (photo by Brandon Glover)Disney Character Warehouse. (photo by Brandon Glover)Sorry, Moose out front should have told ya. (photo by Brandon Glover)
That hasn’t stopped Disney from releasing next level bonkers items. I mean take a close look at this “limited edition” pin featuring Mickey Mouse. Look at that face! Look at the hands and feet! Then for some reason there is a normal Mickey Mouse on the back of the package. WHAT IS GOING ON?!!! I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!!!
Which leads us to…
The UGLY: Disney is still putting out a lot of weird stuff that is Outlet Worthy
Let’s start off with an item that was recently seen at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Our ol’ pal @bioreconstruct spent one of his rare moments on the ground this past week and took a picture of this “Halloween Countdown” piece. I didn’t even realize people counting down the days to Halloween was even a thing. First I find out about the absolutely bizarre perfectly sane thing called “Halloween trees” and now this. But this one gets even better. Take a close look at Minnie Mouse…
Intrepid TouringPlans blog guru Julia Mascardo has helped scour the internet for the most ridiculous Disney items available, and boy has she found some doozies. Let’s start off with this Mickey Mouse shirt at Wal-mart. Price is $19.19 and this is an officially approved product from the Walt Disney Company.
Staying with shirts, here we have a bonkers meme shirt at Kohl’s for $21.95. I’m wondering who the audience is for this, as we’ve covered them in the Outlet Reports in the past. The people who want a Beauty & the Beast shirt probably aren’t the demographic that would want a “meme” shirt. The people who wouldn’t mind wearing an obnoxious “Weird Flex But O.K.” shirt are probably wondering who the guy in the chair is. Just another amazing merchandise decision made my Team Disney.
That said, you could get me to wear either of those two shirts above before I could get Bacini – the official dog of DisTwitter – into this Mickey Mouse Dog Costume. I think we could get Vincent Vision 4D to get this for his dog Kent though, and film another award winning VLOG~! Actually, for those of you who don’t know, there is a HUGE rivalry in the are of DisTwitter pets. It’s competitive like you wouldn’t believe. I’m talking competition straight out of the Olympics. Bacini is like Nancy Kerrigan and Kent is like Tonya Harding. (Tom Bricker’s cat would be Mitch Gaylord in this metaphor.)
This Princess Leia Bun costume for cats is just $5.50 at Chewy, but I’d pay quadruple that just to see someone try to put it on a cat.
Staying on Star Wars, here’s a reminder that we can’t have the awesome Hyperspace Hoopla at the parks anymore because Disney wants to “protect” the Star Wars brand. However we can get this Darth Vader “Clap On, Clap Off” nightlight for $29.99 at Bed, Bath, & Beyond.
This overhead ceiling light isn’t that awesome, especially since it is designed for a children’s bedroom. However, apparently the company who makes it didn’t want to spend the extra money for the Disney license, so instead we get a “Cartoon Mouse” lamp.
Wayfair went the other way. They paid for the Mickey Mouse license, but said “F— it, we’re gonna call it FAUX TAXIDERMY.” You already have the insufferable QAnon weirdos up in your business Wayfair. Do you want the DisTwitter mob too?!
The Zero toy we saw earlier in the Disney Outlet Store does nothing for me, but I actually like this “mood lamp” from Boxlunch. Especially at $17.17.
Hot Topic has this interesting product featuring the awesome Pixar film Up. The box is a wonderful recreation of the “My Adventure Book” from the movie that never fails to tug at the heart near the end of the film.
Unfortunately the box reveals… an eyeshadow palette. WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!
Hot Topic going all in on crazy this month because you gotta check out this “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” necklace. This is from the point in the movie when Snow White was in a near death state. I want to meet the gal – or guy – who rocks this around their neck. I feel like if they remake the Harry Potter series for Netflix, this is the cursed necklace Draco Malfoy would give to Katie Bell.
Saks Fifth Avenue has this Mickey Mouse-branded “Facial Treatment Essence.” I know all of those words individually but have no idea what they mean when presented like that. The bottle is under 8 ounces, so it at least it can’t cost that much. Right?
Wrong.
ShopDisney has this Mickey Mouse cookie jar and maybe it’s just me, but it seems like Mickey’s been eating too many of his own cookies…
That however isn’t even the most disturbing part.
If we get that cookie jar, our kitchen won’t be complete without this $150 Iron Man Keurig coffee maker from Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Tony Stark’s lucky he didn’t live to see this.
This seems like a perfectly reasonable price on eBay.
Be kind. Rewind.
Our last item comes from the Bradford Exchange, so no matter what you’ll be able to buy it on monthly installments. It’s the “Mickey’s Magical Moments” figurine.
The bottom of the figurine features a quote from Walt Disney himself.
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