Never saw Harry Potter & not a fan, which rides to do? - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Never saw Harry Potter & not a fan, which rides to do?
We are going the end of December 2014/early January 2015 with our 9 year old son. He likes roller coasters but not things that are scary. We have not seen Harry Potter and I'm wondering which rides, if any, we should hit in that area.
If he likes coasters but not spooky things, you will want to ride Flight of the Hippogriff and Dragon Challenge (Dragon Challenge is very intense!). Skip Escape from Gringotts in Diagon Alley and Forbidden Journey in Hogsmeade.
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If you're afraid FJ would be too scary, and the line isn't too long, I would still walk thru the queue to see inside. There are awesome special effects in there! You can always bail on the ride and exit.
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You may want to forego the Mummy coaster too. That's a bit dark and scary. I think you can go on the website and preview some of the rides. Not sure, but seems like we did that a few years ago.
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Sorta off-topic, but...At 9 years old, he might be ready to read the first Harry Potter book. The first three are much "lighter" fare than the rest, as the characters are younger, and the darker events (like major-ish characters dying) start happening around book 4 or 5. I also noticed that the reading level increased; book one has simpler sentences & vocabulary, and so on. It's as if she were actually writing for kids at the age level of each book, or a couple of years younger.
I started reading the series with my sons around that age--I read each book myself first, then read them aloud together (they're 5 years apart, so I just read to the one who was the right age). If you do the same, reading it yourself first, you'll be able to judge whether he's ready for them. Reading books together was such fun; it was as if we were a tiny little book club.
If you have a family of readers, you'll get much more out of the series by reading the books before seeing the movies, imo.
Ginger
PS: Oh, for Universal Studios, you and your son will enjoy Honeydukes Sweet Shop and Zonko's, both in Hogsmeade Village, even without being familiar with the books and movies. And there's a big train locomotive (or used to be, before they added the Hogwarts Express) that you can take pictures in front of. Who doesn't like trains?
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I agree that you might like to read the first book before you go.
I read the first four books out loud to my family as they came out. My DH still talks about it all these years later. He loved that family time. (And I think the kids were around 4/5 and 6/7 when I read the first one to them).
I am with the others who suggest reading the first book, or watching the movies. Without prior understanding of the story, WWoHP will not be as "magical" (sorry for the pun) to you and yours as you will not understand what everything is about. Its so expertly themed that without prior knowledge of the stories you may not enjoy WWoHP at all.
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