Hogwarts Express: King's Cross Station — Local services in Orlando

I really liked King's Cross Station! It is beautiful, looks a lot like the movie (although it is not perfectly accurate...), and the attention to detail is amazing! I was confused at first because I wasn't sure at if the station is only for the Hogwarts Express, but it is indeed. 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 Island of Adventures faster. But Kings Cross Station is so well done, it even has the "Make a little magic..." advertisement from the movies, although the sentence was cut shorter. 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, and when you get to the wall (which is upstairs) that leads to Platform 9 3/4, you can actually "cross it" because there is a glass with a wall effect in front of where you walk, so make sure to have someone take a video of you when you go though the wall (If there is not too many people, that is...) Sadly, the platform area does not look like the movies at all. It is a very small space with only the signs to platform 9 and 10. Once you get to the platform, the details are even more amazing, with owls and Platform 9 3/4 signs! It looks a lot like the movie but I wouldn't say exactly the same. It is still amazing and very beautiful though. 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 gets to 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...

The last time I was at the park they only had the Islands of Adventure Hogsmeade side open. There was a replica of the train that you could take pictures with but it was not on a track. With the expansion of the Wizarding World into the Universal side of the park, this became one of the rides I was most interested in experiencing. You can ride Hogwarts Express as long as you have purchased a two park pass. On the night we visited our after hours ticket for the Orlando Informer Meetup provided access to the Wizarding World in both parks so we were able to ride the train.

You enter the train station at Kings Cross Station which is a quarter scale replica of the real station in London. On the wall are colorful posters for tourist destinations in London. Luggage is artfully stacked waiting to be loaded on the train for the students trip to Hogwarts. At the platform for 9 3/4 it looks like the people ahead of you are walking through a wall as described in the books. It uses the same Pepper's Ghost illusion that makes the ghosts dance in the banquet hall in the haunted mansion in Disney world.

On the night we visited we rode the train both ways. You sit in a railway car that looks like the one in movies. On one side you have a screen that shows scenes and characters as you travel. On the hallway side of the car shadows of characters and the dementors pass by your closed door. At one point chocolate frogs escaped from their trolley cart and adhered themselves to our door. You can hear characters speak as they go past. Most of them sounded great except for Hermione whose voice sounded nothing like Emma Watson. The scenes and shadows were very entertaining. There is always something to look at at during the duration of the short ride. What you see and hear depends on which direction you are traveling. It changes depending on whether you are leaving Kings Cross station for Hogsmeade or going from Hogsmeade back to Kings Cross Station.

If you are a Harry Potter fan you will love this ride. Like so much in the Wizarding World, great attention was paid to the details. It was quite brilliant of Universal to place the Wizarding World between the two parks in order to push people into purchasing the more expensive multi park pass. This ride allows you to stay immersed in the Wizarding world while connecting between...

Hogwarts™ Express: King's Cross Station Park-to-park tickets are required to ride on the Hogwarts™️ Express, which is another awesome sauce ride at Universal Orlando Resort! As you exit Diagon Alley™️, you are walking through a train station, which looks and operates like a real life one! 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! As mentioned above, 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!!!! At the entrance of King’s Cross Station, you’ll the destinations that specific trains are going to, the times that they depart the station, as well as if they are leaving on time, cancelled, or are delayed. The best things about this station is not just the ride itself and how big the train is, but you you get to walk the platform 9 3/4™️, like Harry Potter did in the movies! Well, not in real life, but it feels like that you’re in the movie itself, as you walk by the wall to platform 9 3/4™️! When you get on 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. The begins, with you leaving King’s Cross™️ Station, of course, then you’ll travel through Downtown London, and over the Interstate, and eventually into the British Countryside. Throughout the ride, you’ll see some mythical creatures and even Harry Potter and co. themselves flying right by your window! 3 1/2 minutes later, you’ve safely arrived at Hogwarts™️ Castle, home to the Hogwarts™️School of Witchcraft and Wizardry™️. The video during the ride ended exactly the way it started: a black wall with steam hissing in front of it. Then, you’ll exit the train and walk out through Hogsmeade™️ Station, and into the even most exciting Universal Orlando Resort park of all: Universal’s Islands of Adventure! AWESOME...