Chapter 48
We Basically Paid a Hundred Bucks Each for This Ride

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(Originally posted October 6, 2012)

Now I don’t freely bandy about phrases like “my favorite ride,” but when I rode the Forbidden Journey for the first time (and three more subsequent times) on our first trip to the Wizarding World, I immediately thought I had found a new favorite ride. So this trip, I came in wondering whether I would be equally as impressed as I had been two years ago. Luckily, the answer is a resounding yes!

While it doesn’t have some of the charm and staying power so vital to the classic Disney attractions, this ride is exciting, has a clearly defined story, and makes the best use of new technology that I think any ride I’ve ever been on is able to do. Between the moments where you soar over the screens (a la Soarin’) and the spectacular “dark-ride” moments in three true dimensions, this attraction really takes the best of all worlds and is so much fun! I remember right after the Wizarding World had opened and I would hear people talking about how they closed their eyes during the Dementor scene or the attack of the Acromantula, but I never found the ride to be particularly SCARY. Exciting? YES!

A bonus of this first ride of the morning was that it cured my motion sickness! Once I started physically moving again, my brain quit that “roller coaster sensation” and I felt better in that way for the rest of the day!

The Forbidden Journey spits you out into Filch’s Emporium, aka the gift shop where I want absolutely everything. It was still early in the day, so we didn’t want to fill our hands up with bags just yet, but we set our eyes on several things we wanted.

So what ride do you go on after doing the Forbidden Journey? Trick question. You do the Forbidden Journey again of course! The standby line was still only supposed to be about 15 minutes, so we got right back in line for another go. This time we moved a little more slowly through the queue area, so I got to take a bunch more pictures. Warning: Pictures of the Hogwarts castle from EVERY possible angle ahead…

I love that the winged board are on the gates. Such great attention to detail.

If anyone had ever played the Harry Potter Wii games, you’ll be familiar with the Aqueduct section of the castle. That’s where you have to “speed-sidle” along if you want to get anywhere in that section of the castle.

More towers and turrets up the wazoo.

And suddenly we were back inside. This first portion of the line took a really long time on this go because people were really slow at understanding how to use the lockers. We come prepared without any extraneous “stuff” that we would need to store in a locker. The fanny pack can stay on during the ride as long as I turn it to the side. Therefore, we were in a hurry to get past those slow locker-users. Once we passed them, we were cookin’ through the rest of the queue.

Creeper. Mind you, I DO want to climb through his hump to get to the basement of Honeyduke’s.

Back to the greenhouses…

After we made it to the upper part of the greenhouses, we noticed that the line had certainly started backing up in the lower portion.

Our line moved pretty quickly at least.

Last time we were here, there were several crows circling around this turret.

Because of the forced perspective, however, they looked like they were giant crows. It was funny… Anyway, we moved on past the mandrakes.

Luckily they didn’t scream too loud because without earmuffs, I think we can be sure I would have passed out… Finally, we made it to the entrance back into the castle.