Question about Ollivanders

I have a question about going to Ollivanders in Diagon Alley. It will by my daughter’s 10th birthday and she wants to get a wand at Ollivanders. I’ve read that if you are dressed up and showing that it’s your birthday there is a chance you might get picked by Ollivander. Plans and people say to go straight to Escape and then Ollivanders. If the expected crowd level is 3 (on a Wednesday) and no EP, is there a strategy to going to Ollivanders in hopes of increasing your odds of getting picked? Should we go to Ollivanders first and then Escape? Or does it not really matter and we should go to Escape first? Thanks!!

My daughter dragged me through 4 turns in the Olivanders queue.

I was told to stay at the front of the cue, try to be 3-4 people from the end (towards the centre) but at the front of the room and to wear dress up stuff… none of this worked for us BUT

On the last one as I was leaving I made sure to say thank you to the wand maker. They asked how old my daughter was and I told them 4, she told her she would see her in 10 years when she was preparing to attend Hogwarts.

As a joke I said ‘I’ll see you in 10 minutes when we come back through to watch again’ and as my daughter made her way out to the store I gave a quick explanation as to why we had been through so much due to my daughter loving Harry Potter and desperately wanting to be chosen.

The lovely lady called back my daughter and shut us all in the room. She performed the whole wand ceremony again (allowing us to film in the dark) with just us in the room and even adlibbed a portion of the speeches to explain to her about younger witches and the importance of the wand and it’s contents in growing up into a wonderful and caring person. It was AMAZING and is something that 1 year on my daughter still treasures and tells everyone about.

The moral of the story is that … I would think that if you called ahead and explained that it was your daughters birthday and wanted to see about ensuring that they would select her for the ceremony they may be quite accommodating, what happened to me just happened off the back of a conversation with no preparation or request. I imagine for a special occasion they would be willing to help you out… (they might even do a bit about it being her birthday and having something magical about her etc)

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We spent 3 mornings at universal staying onsite with unlimited express pass.

So we also were allowed into the parks early

First two days we just went straight on the rides

The third morning we went in Olivanders. We were the first “show” of the day. Family of 4 with 16 year old and a 13 year old.

The only others in with us were a married couple

Both my children were allowed to do the wand stuff in th show

It was as close to a private VIP experience as you could get

And with fastpass and the fact we had early park entry when we came out we still walked straight on the big rides

I guess if you aren’t onsite and don’t have fastpass it’s a totally different decision to make

Onsite with fastpass and early entry if you’ve got kids I definitely suggest ollivanders first. We felt very special to get that experience. Everyone else is running for the rides at that time.

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I can’t recommend enough the huge benefits staying deluxe universal gives you

If budget was an issue we would rather have one day in the park with early entry and the universal fast pass than two day without it

Worth very penny.

I personally prefer the universal day above to any of the other parks - although I can’t recommend FOP enough either!

They are my must dos!!

I totally get the staying on-site thing - I am VERY much the same way usually… But, the hotel was booked using points so it was kind of a no-brainer in that it was “free.” We are in the parks for four days so we have plenty of time and the plans are telling me I won’t wait more than 15 mins for any ride on our WWoHP birthday day. Since the waits aren’t that long, I’m thinking of going to Ollivanders first since it sounds like that may help in getting picked for the ceremony.

cYn_s15 That sounds amazing!!!

What a touching story! It truly brought tears to my eyes. My (adult) daughter told me she read an article that said that readers of the Harry Potter novels show more empathy that people who had not. Isn’t that a wonderful thing to come out of a book series?

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My DS got chosen on his Birthday, we were in a long queue and it was very busy. He didn’t dress up, but he did have a birthday badge on. He was 18! And over the moon! Funny thing was, when asked his name, said Harry (which it is) in his English accent, and Ollivander said “of course it is” :grinning:
Good luck!

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