Hogwarts Express: Hogsmeade Station — Attraction in Orlando

Hogwarts™️ Express: Hogsmeade™️ Station This is the ideal ride at Universal Orlando to give you feet a rest for a few minutes as you go from one awesome sauce park to another awesome sauce park!😉😅😃😁 Just like most of the other rides at Universal Orlando™️, this ride has a Universal Express lane, which cuts the wait time to ride on the train by 45 minutes! What I love about this replica of Hogsmeade™️Station is how it’s constructed exactly like a real train station, like Grand Central Station in NYC, and all the Union Stations in America’s great cities!!!! When you board the train, the doors close and depending on which side you sit on, to the left or right of you, you’ll see a brick wall with steam hissing in front of it, and also to the left or right of you, you’ll see the doors into the train, white, which will show you Harry Potter and other characters reacting to frogs jumping onto the wall, facing the passengers, in the middle of the ride. Once the ride starts, you’ll see Hogwarts™️ Castle, as you depart the British Countryside, and ride through green pastures and densely forested areas, and then eventually back into Downtown London! As you go through the British countryside, you’ll see a horse with the torso and head of a human, as it rides out into the mountainside! Throughout the ride, you’ll also hear voices from Harry Potter and the people at Hogwarts™️ wishing you a very safe return trip back to London and are also wishing you a great summer, since it’s the conclusion another academic year at Hogwarts™️! You might even see Harry Potter riding on his broom, flying right by the train as he tells you about the great adventure he’s had with you! Towards the end of the ride, you’ll cross the bridge over a wide interstate, and into London’s Central Business District. As you go through Downtown, you’ll see the triple-decker Knight Bus™️ being driven under a bridge which connects 2 buildings, as it briefly turns into a double-decker bus, then back into a triple-decker bus, as it finishes going under the bridge! 20 seconds later, you’ve safely arrived back at King’s Cross Station™️ at Platform 9 3/4™️! The video during the ride ended exactly the way it started: a black wall with steam hissing in front of it. You exit the train, walk through the station, and back into Universal Studios Florida™️, into Diagonal Alley™️!...

I really liked Hogsmeade's station! It is beautiful and the attention to detail is amazing! Remember that you will need a park-to-park ticket to go on the train. The line is generally about 15 minutes but can go down to 10 and even 5 depending of the time of the day, which is really not that bad and I would say that it is very worth taking, not just for the experience, but to get to Universal Studios Florida faster. There is a lot of queue space but the line goes pretty quickly because there is a train about every 10 minutes, maybe even less. As decoration, there are tons of luggages, packages and carts everywhere. Sadly, the station does not look like the movies at all. In the movies, when they get out of the train in Hogsmeade the station is outside, which is not the case here: it is a whole (partially) indoor building. It looks amazing though and is kind of similar to Kings Cross Station. Plus, there is a place outside of the line where you can go to take pictures with the front of the train. The thing that threw me off the most is that, when the train leaves the station, it goes backwards... I guess it was easier to do this way, but yikes... :/ The inside of the train looks a little smaller than the one in the movie, but is pretty similar. You will be 6 in your cabin. A video plays in the window as well as in the door window during the trip, which is a fun experience, you get to see characters from the franchise and cool things happening. The experience is a little different on the way back so you should try both. Oh and the outside of the train looks amazing, just like the movies, it even has steam coming out of it. I also loved the employees uniforms, they look so authentic. Definitely a must do for Harry Potter fans and anyone who is going to visit both parks in 1 day. There is also another area in Hogsmeade, not far from the station (but not in the station), with the front of the train on display, where there will sometimes be the train engineer in front of, whom you can talk to and take pictures with. Overall, I thought Hogsmeade Station was beautifully done and very practical, but not accurate...

The Hogwarts Express as a way to park hop is absolutely ingenious. It’s such a cool, indescribable feeling to see that train pull into the “station”- with the smoke coming out the pipe, and you really do feel like you’re a Hogwarts students waiting to be taken away to another term learning magic, fighting dragons and drinking butterbeer.

The ride itself is very pleasant. I don’t think it even lasts 10 minutes, and with all the visual elements that can be seen it goes by fast anyways because you are so distracted.

The train since covid has hit is not as enjoyable. They are pretty aggressive about informing you and warning you to keep your mask on during the ride, even though they keep each party separate and they are individual rooms, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense. But besides that, they basically threaten you to keep your mask on and even show you an apparent picture of how you are on camera and they are watching. Like, how creepy??? I really don’t like that. Makes me uncomfortable. I get they need to have measures for covid but that in itself makes me want to avoid riding the train until things are more normal again. I don’t know.

If you haven’t ridden it definitely still do, but it’s simple to just walk from each park too, especially if the line for the train is super long, which happens often.

Another note for the train is that it does take you from one park to another, so you need a 2 park pass to be able to ride. You have to rescan your pass or fingerprint before you can even enter....