Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure Opening Day Reviews Are In

Photography by: Universal Orlando Resort

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has cause to celebrate even more so than usual today: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is finally open and fans are beyond satisfied with how Universal Orlando Resort's latest attraction turned out.

Anticipation hit an all-time high after several members of the Harry Potter cast were spotted around the park and appeared to commemorate the ride's opening. Fans lined up at Islands of Adventure, where Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade is located, to get first dibs on the new rollercoaster.

Devoted thrill seekers and Potterheads started to queue as early as 5am. For the first few hundred lucky and well-prepared park guests, they were first to ride the coaster after the park opened to the public at 9am. For others, the wait extended up to ten hours as thousands lined up around the park. With most of the latest expansion set outside, inclement weather such as thunderstorms throughout the day forced the ride to temporarily close before reopening. Universal Orlando Resort tried to make sure their guests were taken care of as much as possible handing out free water and bringing out characters to entertain.

Despite the heat, rain, and long lines, fans reactions are absolutely magical. By interacting with familiar and new magical creatures as well as the Hogwarts groundskeeper, the attraction is everything fans have come to expect and more. Here are some of the best reactions so far from across social media:

Universal Orlando Resort Celebrates Grand Opening for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is ushering a new addition at Universal Orlando Resort this week. Two days ahead of its official grand opening to guests on June 13th, 2019, the popular Florida theme park celebrated their highly-anticipated new attraction.

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is expected to be a thrilling and immersive coaster unlike anything Universal Orlando Resort has created before. The new ride is the longest coaster in Florida and brings the beloved Hagrid and his animal companions to life with imaginative and unbelievable technology.

To kick-off the ride's official opening, Universal Orlando Resort livestreamed a special ceremony on their social media channels on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.

The Harry Potter x Vans Collection Has Arrived

Vans

Something wicked has officially come our way: Vans latest Harry Potter collection has arrived.

The renown footwear and apparel company launched its newest line of shoes and clothing inspired by J.K. Rowling's beloved wizarding world.

In April 2019, Vans gave fans a sneak peak of their collaboration across social media, which sent in the Harry Potter fandom into a frenzy.

Now Potterheads can unload their galleons on the entire collection - shoes, hoodies, backpacks, socks, shirts, and caps. The designs not only celebrate the famed Hogwarts houses - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin - but other beloved magical objects, spells, and themes such as the Maurader's Map, the Golden Snitch, Deathly Hallows, and Morsmorde.

Before the highly-anticipated released, Vans Senior Director of Global Merchandising Ashley Ahwah spoke with Forbes about joining the wizarding world family, how their talented designers were avid Potter fans, and hinted at other exciting releases slates for the rest of the year:

When we looked to approach this project, we're like looking at our brand parallels and it was such a great fit. An example is like Vans did for skateboarding J.K. Rowling brought the Harry Potter series and really took the cultural niche that was really based on escapism and introduced it to pop culture.

I think when we first approached this we found how many of our creative teams were avid, avid fans. A lot of our designers within footwear and apparel read the books, knew all of the nuances and secrets behind the series and it was really amazing to see how they could put together a story across all of the book series into a collection of footwear and apparel.

From footwear to apparel, you can find the entire Harry Potter x Vans collection on the official website. 

What To Expect From Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Universal Orlando Resort

As of June 13th, 2019, Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is the latest Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction added to Universal Orlando Resort's theme park.

With rave reviews from fans, the coaster has unexpected twists at every turn from thrilling acceleration and drops to magical creatures. 

What animal companions can we expect to see in the Forbidden Forest? How fast does the rollercoaster move? What does the merchandise look like? 

Here's what you can expect from the new attraction while you're planning your vacation.

10 Most Commonly Used Spells in Harry Potter Movies

Throughout the Harry Potter films, characters cast spells to protect themselves, create light in their dark world, and practice magic at Hogwarts. But how many spells are used in the film franchise and which ones are the most popular. This is a question that fellow Harry Potter fan and blogger Milan researched as a special guest post for PotterTalk.net. Think you know which spells were used the most in the Harry Potter films? The results might surprise you! So take it away Milan:


Expelliarmus is one of the most memorable spells that Harry uses in the series. He gained freedom from Voldemort while using it in the Battle of Hogwarts. But he was advised to change his approach because he could not be expected to win by simply disarming Death Eaters. Although many would say that it is one of the most commonly used spells in the movies, my research does not support that claim. Expelliarmus is actually near the end of my list. But which ones are above then? Some of them surely come to your mind. And I believe you will be surprised. But before we start, I would like to tell you more about research itself.

I watched all the movies once more (probably for the hundredth time) and took a note of every spell that was used. There's a lot of them! Especially as the serial moves on. It is interesting to note that Harry did not use a single spell in the first film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone unlike the rest of the films where numerous spells are used. Most of the spells used were noted, though there were a few issues with doing that.

Firstly, there are non-verbal charms and spells, many of which I managed to note, taking into account colour of the charm, context, reactions to it and the same events as they were described in the books. Of course, some of them I could not get a hold of, especially in great battles, and I did not want to make guesses. Unfortunately, as long as none of the people who made the movie or J.K. Rowling herself says exactly which spells were used, our list cannot be complete.

The second problem was keeping track of the spells. In moments when many different people use the spell, it is almost impossible to count all of them. In spite of that, many of them were counted anyway. All in all, I managed to note down roughly about 95% of the spells. The battles were the most problematic. You can see the list and the explanation in the infographic below as well as in the rest of the text.