One of my all time favorite parenting experiences was reading the Harry Potter series aloud to my two older children. It was also the first time I had read it or seen any of the movies. We took our time and it took us a couple of years to finish the series. We watched each movie only after we finished the book.
We got to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter about a week after finishing the last book – it was perfect timing and I couldn’t have planned it that way if I tried! Universal Studios was amazing, but our favorite part by far was, in fact, Harry Potter World.
It’s important to note that if you want to see the whole thing, you do have to buy tickets to both theme parks – the Island of Adventure (where you’ll find Hogwarts and Hogsmeade), and Universal (where you’ll find Diagon Alley.) Riding the Hogwarts Express allows you to go from one park to the other. It’s costly, but for us it was worth it!
The thing that amazed us about the Wizarding World was the level of detail. Everything, from the actual fire that shot out at intervals from the dragon on top of Gringotts Bank, to the delicious taste of Butter Beer served at the Three Broomsticks (and many other places throughout the park), to the unmarked brick alley entrance to Diagon Alley was just so perfectly executed.
My kids don’t like roller coasters, so we didn’t even do any of the rides, but we still had an awesome time! You can experience Ollivander’s wand shop without buying a wand, enjoy Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes without purchasing an extendable ear, creep into knockturn alley without being scared silly by a deatheater, and tour the Hogwarts castle without going on the roller coaster ride at the end.
For us, it was really about seeing all the portraits of characters we recognized, noticing the hourglasses where the four houses accumulated their points, overhearing Harry, Ron and Hermione sneaking around the castle, and those sorts of fantastic details that made it so exciting and magical. While I’d love to experience the rides someday (surely one of my four children will eventually be comfortable with roller coasters!), just being in such a perfectly rendered magical world was worth experiencing, in our opinions!
And of course, I can’t help but recommend the book series to anyone with children about ages 8 and up. The Jim Kay illustrated versions are beautiful, and really added to the enjoyment of reading them aloud.