For Molly's birthday we bought her a Hermione Granger costume. Shortly after, I started getting targeted ads for Harry Potter related things on my social media accounts. Apparently the Harry Potter algorithms work, because we ended up buying tickets to go to an Uxbridge Wizard Festival & Hallows Express Train Ride through The York Durham Region Heritage Railway. Targeted marketing works. Molly and Jack used some birthday money they'd received to pay for their tickets and Chris and I bought our own.
Tickets for the event were pricey, but the kids were super excited to dress up and have something to look forward to. We bought the Premium Tickets which included entrance into the event grounds as well as an hour long train ride for a journey to deliver evil prisoners to Goodwoodora Prison for $55 per person.
When we saw the schedule called for rain ALL DAY LONG, we put on our rain boots under our wizard cloaks and set out for a day of magic, fun, and adventure!
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| Hanging out with some of the professors |
Best Parts of The Event
The Enchanted Alley was a lot of fun. Kids were able to take wizard classes in potions, weather spells, and a bunch of other interactive mini shows like Quidditch Matches and House Duels. Molly was even called up to the front of a tented 'classroom' to make it snow! People who had tickets to the train were permitted to attend an area that had Hagrid's Enchanted pets, Jack was happy to see snakes, lizards, and a bunch of other animals. There was someone there with birds of prey including a falcon and white owl, but we only got to see the falcon. People dressed in character around the park and were happy to take pictures with the kids - even the person whose name we're not supposed to mention.... Shuttle buses took you from parking/registration to the train and to magicians alley/park. We never had to wait more than 3 minutes to get on a bus which was nice. Because of copyright issues a lot of things were Harry Potter esque without explicitly saying it (like our train platform was 19 and 1/2), but it was fun to see how they changed things.
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| Look who is being creepy... |
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| Molly uses her powers to make it snow inside in 'Weather Class' |
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| Meet Mr. Falcon |
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| The Tortoise & The Hare |
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| Jackie Potter Speaking to the snakes |
Worst Parts of The Event
It was cold in the rain. I know that's no ones fault, but some heat lamps (or hot chocolate for sale that was actually hot) would have helped a lot. While the train ride was fun, it was geared towards younger kids and I'm guessing by the time Molly and Jack were 10 or 11 they would have found the show on the train on the cheesy side. There was a maze by the train apparently, but the location wasn't well marked and we missed it.
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| Molly wasn't thrilled that the sorting hat put her in Slytherin |
What We Spent
There were add ons that came in addition to our $55 per person ticket. Parking was $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Food from the fast food stand wasn't bad (for 20 dollars we got three burgers and two hot chocolates). The kids insisted on using gift money and their allowance to purchase chocolate wands that were a whopping $15 a piece. While a lot of merchandise (like the $24 t-shirts) were reasonable it would have been nice to see some more stuff in the $10-12 range. I'm a little sad we didn't see any chocolate frogs.
Was It Worth it?
It was a fun day, but an expensive one. We were there from 11am to just after 4pm and probably would have stayed later if it were a warmer, dryer day. The kids will be talking about it for ages. I would go back again, but may not splurge on the train tickets (which would have saved us $30 a ticket) next time because we've already done it now, even if it meant not seeing the amazing creatures. If your kids love Harry Potter and magic it's worth checking out next fall. There are also other train based events in Uxbridge including The Polar Express for Christmas and Thomas the Train events. For a link to the schedule click here.
