This ride provides the only opportunity at Universal Orlando to come in contact with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore as portrayed by the original actors (doubles are used for some actors elsewhere). Half the attraction is a series of preshows, setting the stage for the main event, a wild dark ride. You can get on the ride in only 10–25 minutes using the singles line, but everyone should go through the main queue at least once.

From Hogsmeade you reach the attraction through the imposing Winged Boar gates and then progress along a winding path. Entering the castle on a lower level, you walk through a sort of dungeon festooned with various icons and prop replicas from the Potter flicks, including the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. You later emerge back outside and into the Hogwarts greenhouses. Cleverly conceived and executed, with some strategically placed mandrakes to amuse you, the greenhouses compose the larger part of the Forbidden Journey’s queuing area. If you’re among the first in the park and in the queue, you’ll move through this area pretty quickly. Otherwise . . . well, we hope you like plants. The greenhouses aren’t air-conditioned, but fans move the (hot) air around. Blessedly, there are water fountains but, alas, no restrooms.

Having finally escaped horticulture purgatory, you reenter the castle, moving along its halls and passageways. One chamber you’ll probably remember from the films is a multistory gallery of portraits, many of whose subjects come alive when they take a notion. You’ll see for the first time the four founders of Hogwarts: Helga Hufflepuff holding her famous cup, Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw nearby, and the tall, moving portrait of Salazar Slytherin straight ahead. The founders argue about Quidditch and Dumbledore’s controversial decision to host an open house at Hogwarts for Muggles (garden-variety mortals). Don’t rush through the gallery—the effects are very cool, and the conversation is essential to understanding the rest of the attraction.

Next up, after you’ve navigated some more passages, is Dumbledore’s office, where the chief wizard appears on a balcony and welcomes you to Hogwarts. The headmaster’s appearance is your introduction to Musion Eyeliner technology—a high-definition video-projection system that produces breathtakingly realistic, three-dimensional, life-size moving holograms. The technology uses a special foil that reflects images from HD projectors, producing holographic images of variable sizes and incredible clarity. After his welcoming remarks, Dumbledore dispatches you to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom to hear a presentation on the history of Hogwarts.

As you gather to await the lecture, Harry, Ron, and Hermione pop out from beneath an invisibility cloak. They suggest that you ditch the lecture in favor of joining them for a proper tour of Hogwarts, including a Quidditch match. After some repartee among the characters and a couple of special effects surprises, it’s off to the Hogwarts Official Attraction Safety Briefing and Boarding Instructions Chamber—OK, we made up the name, but you get the picture. The briefing and instructions are presented by animated portraits, including an etiquette teacher. Later on, even the famed Sorting Hat gets into the act. All this leads to the Room of Requirement, where hundreds of candles float overhead and you board the ride.

After all the high-tech stuff in your queuing odyssey, you’ll naturally expect to be wowed by your ride vehicle. Surely it’s a Nimbus 3000 turbo-broom, a phoenix, a hippogriff, or at least the Weasleys’ flying car. But no, what you’ll ride on the most technologically advanced theme park attraction in America is . . . a bench? Yep, a bench.

A bit anticlimactic, perhaps, but as benches go, this one’s a doozy, mounted on a Kuka robotic arm. When not engaged in Quidditch matches, a Kuka arm is a computer-controlled robotic arm similar to the kind used in heavy manufacturing. If you think about pictures you’ve seen of automotive assembly plants, Kuka arms are like those long metal appendages that come in to complete welds, move heavy stuff around, or fasten things. With the right programming, the arms can handle just about any repetitive industrial tasks thrown at them (see kuka-robotics.com for more info).

Your 4¼-minute adventure is a headlong sprint through the most thrilling moments from the first few Potter books: You’ll soar over Hogwarts Castle, narrowly evade an attacking dragon, spar with the Whomping Willow, get tossed into a Quidditch match, and fight off Dementors inside the Chamber of Secrets. Scenes alternate between enormous physical sets, complete with animatronic creatures, elaborate lighting effects, and high-definition video-projection domes that surround your field of view, similar to Soarin’ or The Simpsons Ride. Those Kuka-powered benches really do “levitate” in a manner that feels remarkably like free flight, and while you don’t go upside down, the sensation of floating on your back or being slung from side to side is certainly unique.

The seamless transitions between screens and sets, and the way the domes appear to remain stationary in front of you while actually moving (much like Dreamfinder’s dirigible in the original Journey into Imagination at Epcot), serve to blur the boundary between actual and virtual better than any attraction before it. The greatest-hits montage plotline may be a bit muddled, but the ride is enormously effective at leaving you feeling like you just survived the scariest scrapes from the early educational career of The Boy Who Lived.

Having experienced Forbidden Journey for ourselves, we have two primary bones to pick. First, Islands of Adventure team members rush you through the queue. To understand the story line and get the most out of the attraction, you really need to see and hear the entire presentation in each of the preshow rooms. This won’t happen unless, contrary to the admonishments of the team members, you just park yourself and watch a full run-through of each preshow. Try to find a place to stop where you can let those behind you pass and where you’re as far away from any staff as possible. As long as you’re not creating a logjam, the team members will leave you alone as often as not.

Another alternative is to tell the greeter at the castle entrance that you want to take the castle-only tour (also referred to as an accommodation tour). This self-guided experience lets guests who don’t want to ride take in the many features of the castle by way of a different queue. You can pause as long as you desire in each of the various chambers and savor the preshows without being herded along. At the end, if you decide to ride, just ask to be guided to the singles line—this way you’ll maximize your enjoyment of the castle while you minimize your wait for the ride. Note that the castle-only tour is often unavailable on days of peak attendance, and at press time Universal was conducting tests that could lead to Universal Express access replacing the castle tour altogether.

Another gripe: The dialogue in the preshows is delivered in English accents of varying degrees of intelligibility, and at a very brisk pace. Add an echo effect owing to the cavernous nature of the preshow rooms, and it can be quite difficult for Yanks to decipher what’s being said. This is especially evident in the staccato repartee between Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Related blogs:
A Virtual Guided Walk Through of Hogwarts