Can you walk through Hogwarts at Universal without riding the ride?
You can walk through Hogwarts™ castle without riding the ride attraction. Fully enjoy the world of Harry Potter™ including “Moving Portrait Corridor” and “The Portrait of the Fat Lady” like Harry Potter™ and his friends did!
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We highly recommend getting a Universal Express Pass. There is also a Single Riders line available for both rides. And again, there is a special area to enter if you just want to walk through the castle without waiting in the full ride line.
A 2-Park Ticket will allow you to go back and forth between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, the 2 Harry Potter-themed worlds, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. You can either walk back and forth between the parks, or use the Hogwarts Express train.
You can only access this attraction if you have a park-to-park ticket, though! In my opinion, you can absolutely fit everything you want to do in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in one day, even without Express Passes. You just need to be strategic about your itinerary!
Best Attractions at Universal Harry PotterRight off the bat, Islands of Adventure has an advantage because it has 4 rides instead of just 2. Plus, while I'd say the experience is better coming from Diagon Alley, you can ride The Hogwarts Express on either side.
You'll need a Park-to-Park ticket to ride the Hogwarts™ Express and visit both lands of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™. The train travels between Hogsmeade™ in Universal's Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley™ in Universal Studios Florida.
Another popular question we receive, is how many days should I plan at Harry Potter World? And as you can imagine there are so many amazing things to do in each section, you should give yourself at least two days to experience everything the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has to offer.
Since Hogwarts is, well, fictional, you can't really check-in. But, the Georgian House in London has transformed some guest rooms into Wizard's Chambers. The rooms are part of the hotel's Harry Potter Tour Package.
Starting in either park guarantees you a great day — obviously, you're at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you really can't go wrong — but we recommend starting at Hogsmeade, catching the train over to Diagon Alley mid-day, and then coming back to Hogsmeade to finish the night.
Things to consider: There is A LOT of walking around. We were there for just over SIX HOURS, and most of that was walking. There is a fair amount of queuing as well (see tip two!).
It's incredibly convenient to travel on the Hogwarts Express between parks and it gives you way more flexibility if the weather throws a wrench in your itinerary. Either way though, you're going to need 2 days to see both areas of Harry Potter World.
We learned from a Universal employee that it takes 35 minutes to leave Diagon Alley, exit the park, enter Islands of Adventure and walk to Hogwarts. So if the wait is 40 minutes for the Hogwarts Express (and your kids can handle the hike) don't take the train. You'll save time just walking around.
Definitely beats walking if there is little to no wait for the train, but the lines can get long, so it's actually faster to walk from park to park than to wait in this line if it's long. I'm not a die hard Harry Potter fan.