The Wizarding World of OVERPICED and OVERHYPED Harry Potter

After a run of movies that started out as cute and charming to a real armpit called the Half Blood Prince.....Harry Potter has captured the imagination of the young and old for years. Now there is a new theme park in Orlando Called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter that is a TOTAL BUST....in our book.

Well the hype and newness hasn't worn off yet, but if you are wondering what The Wizarding World of Harry Potter located at Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida is all about........don't expect much.

If you are making plans to visit the attraction, my advice to you is.......wait six months. As season pass holders, my wife and I have been watching the attraction be built for over a year. The commercials on the television and the ads run on the Internet are misleading to say the least. We even waited a month to see it and were EXTEREMELY disappointed.

After waiting in a line, for over an hour, outside the newest addition to the Orlando tourist trap, we finally were admitted to the 20 acre complex which was built within the Islands of Adventure Park. We were greeted by approximately 3000, elbow to elbow people from all over the world on a 97 degree day. The smell was horendous to say the least. Every exhibit was surrounded by lines containing no less than 250 heads, strollers, wheel chairs, and yes....sweating smelling bodies. Even the simplest of exhibits, a candy store Honeydukes, had a line of no less than 150 people and require a wait of 45 minutes in the hot sun, to get inside where the prices were so extreme, I had to laugh at the masses spending money there. For an example.....the chocolate frog that escaped Harry on the train ride to Hogwarts can be had.....for a meager $10.00 US. A box of around 75 jelly beans that have a variety of flavors, some good, some just awful, just like in the movie, can be purchased for the same amount of money $10.00 US. Now why would ANYONE in their right mind, spend that much money on a box of jelly beans? Tehn there is the merchandise that doesn't even pertain to the movie. All Chinese made tinker toys you can buy in any Dollar Store across America for $1 - $2 dollars at prices seven to ten times higher. Example.....a carnival type Whoopee Cushion that costs around twenty cents at online clearing houses....$4.50 US. This was the cheapest item in the store.

Next there is the train staion where a locomotive engine extends into the main street....nothing to see here.....the train station is the location for lockers to store your goods while ride one of the roller coasters. Then there is Ollivander's Wand Shop where a wand picks it's owner. HYPE HYPE HYPE......another line of 250+ and an hour later out in the hot sun where 25 people are allowed in at a time for one child to have the chance of being picked. A short magic show that last two minutes then you get dumped into the merchandising shop The Owl's Post, with even higher prices for Chinese plastic goods.

If you get dehydrated with all this standing and line waiting you can buy a bottle of Pumpkin Juice or Butter Beer or Pear Juice for no less than $6.25 US. No other drinks are available inside because J.K. Rowling would not allow it.

Hogwarts Castle is another piece of art that could have been made much more interesting. The view of pictures on the wall, closed marked doors, etc. are all done in museum fashion. There is a ride inside where the usual 48" standard must be met before you can get on it. If you have children that are smaller than this....the whole Harry Potter park is a total bust. Outside of a couple of shows, one being a frog choir singing and another some sort of dancing and dueling show....there is NOTHING here for the smaller in stature.

If two roller coasters, over priced shops, eateries that serve simple over priced food, T-shirts you can up to the light and read a newspaper through costing upwards of $30.00 US and everything made in China is your idea of spending your hard earned money....then by all means go there. PLEASE.....that would make the rest of the park available for me to enjoy. In my book....it is the biggest waste of money, real estate, time and effort ever placed in an amusement park and another way of supporting the Chinese crap product industry.