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A Walk-through the Castle
Hogwarts Castle at Islands of Adventure is home to one of my favourite dark rides....the Forbidden Journey. But every time I've ridden the ride, I rushed my way through the castle. Afterall, when you're in the ride queue with a ton of people ahead of you and a ton of people behind you, it's unlikely that you're going to be doing anything other than keep going with the crowd. Besides, if you are riding this ride, you'll be asked to stow all bags and large cameras away.
For this trip, I was determined to take some time to see the castle. In fact, for the Universal portion of my trip, it was probably in the top 5 of must-do's.
I had been more than happy to wave the boys off because it was going to be an opportunity for me to do the 'tour only' option for the castle. I don't know how many of you are aware of this option. You can request to walk through the castle and I understand that they will only let you do so if the castle isn't too busy.
The trick is to find a cast member that will let you into the tour only line. I found that if you ask any near where the lockers are, they will waive you through the regular tour line. Instead, I headed out of the locker area and found someone else that knew exactly what I was asking for. By way of comparison, DH did come back to the park after dropping DS off at the room. I was still inside the castle at that stage and told him to come and take this tour. He wasn't so lucky. The cast member he spoke to told him to get in the normal line and let people walk around him. As he didn't know better, that's what he did.
If you decide to take this line, be aware that this line does not go outside at all. You won't see the greenhouse area at all. And there are stairs to navigate as well.
It's also very dark inside the castle; so if you are planning on taking pictures, you'll need one capable of dealing with low light. I did see other people taking pictures with a flash in this room. I don't know if it was forbidden or not so you might want to check before you do so.
Aside from being able to see the castle queue area at your leisure, there is one additional room that you'll see in this line that you won't see in the regular line. This room is full of portraits.
Wonderful Portraits that talk!
I spent at least 10 minutes in this room trying to listen to all the conversation.
At this point, I think you head back into the regular queue inside the castle. I really love the theming in here.
Dumbledore's Office.
The man himself!
With that Elder Wand.
The details are so true to life and exquisite in here.
We head into the Defence of the Dark Arts room next.....where a familiar trio await. On this tour only queue, you'll find yourself right at the back of the room and it's hard to see the details up the front of the room. Still....you can stay here for as long as you like and not be bothered by the riders.
They were encouraging us to not stay for Professor Binn's lecture.....instead let's go play quidditch instead.
We're heading through the Gryffindor Common Room....and that means the Fat Lady!
It's an amazing talking portrait.
Everyone else was just walking on by.
I didn't grab any pictures inside the common room and I'm really kicking myself now. My excuse is that I had the 50 mm lens and everything just was too close.
There is one final detail to admire....the Sorting Hat.
I spent a bit of time listening to him but it didn't take me long to figure out he was talking about ride safety.
After this point, you head out instead of heading in towards the ride. I was pretty pleased to have taken the time to go through the castle. It was nice to look at the details at leisure....but I do wish I could have done it AND gone on the ride as well.
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when he jumps on the car! Oh my re all the wet rides! Love The Cat in the hat! 
I didn't really know a thing about Universal, like I told you we haven't been there since the "kids" were little and the oldest will be 40 in less than a month 
