Harry Potter: The Exhibition Review
Calling all witches and wizards! Harry Potter: The Exhibition immerses you in the wizarding world of Harry Potter with interactive exhibits, original props and costumes, and behind-the-scenes fun facts. Check out this review to learn more about visiting Harry Potter: The Exhibition.
A special thanks to Imagine Exhibitions for hosting our experience at Harry Potter: The Exhibition in Atlanta! As always, all opinions are my own.
We got to check out Harry Potter: The Exhibition in Atlanta during a reveal of the new Hogwarts Explosion Cake from Send A Cake. We were so impressed by the exhibit (and the exploding cake box)!
Harry Potter: The Exhibition is part immersive exhibit, part museum. You get to interact with fun exhibits, see original props and costumes, and learn behind-the-scenes stories from the expanding Wizarding World — including the Harry Potter films, the Fantastic Beast films, and The Cursed Child play.
Ready to enter the Wizarding World? Harry Potter: The Exhibition is currently showing in New York City and Paris.
Harry Potter: The Exhibition Review
You’ll start your experience off with a Sorting Hat ceremony. Choose your Hogwarts House (this will be important as you’re trying to earn points for your house throughout the experience), your wand, and your Patronus.
Once sorted, you’ll pass by Gringotts Vault and into a video introduction room. A lucky witch or wizard will get to say the spell to unlock the door, and then you’ll enter into the Marauder’s Map. This will be the first time you get to use your magic wrist band, which will show your name on the map. Answer a few Harry Potter trivia questions and then be on your way through the rest of the experience.
Each exhibit is set up like a Harry Potter set and is full of fun surprises. You can “enter” each Hogwarts House to learn about the costumes and characters. You’ll see the floating candles in the Great Hall. You can learn all about wands. You’ll get to learn like a real wizard in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, and Divination where you’ll get to cast spells, brew potions, plot a Mandrake, and read your fortune.
You get to visit Hagrid’s Hut, compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, cast your Patronus, play Quidditch, travel via Portkey and Floo Powder, and so much more.
There are plenty of photo opps set up, like Newt Scamander’s suitcase, Dolores Umbridge’s office, and Harry’s cupboard under the stairs.
Original props and costumes are spread throughout the experience. And not to spoil anything, but they do have the Invisibility Cloak!
At the end of the experience, you can see how many points your Hogwarts House earned.
Café and Gift Shop
Once you’ve gone through the exhibit, you can stop for a bite at the café and browse through the gift shop.
The café has a small menu of sandwiches, salads, and pastries and specialty drinks that can be cocktails or mocktails. The drinks all come with some fancy “magical” elements like a smoke bubble or dry ice fog.
The gift shop is full of Harry Potter clothing, plushies, mugs, stationary, knickknacks, and candies. There is gear specialized to every house and you can even get your wizarding robes.
What Was Great About the Experience
- All the interactive elements were so much fun! I loved being able to play Quidditch and cast my Patronus.
- The costumes and props were so cool to see.
- I loved reading the behind-the-scenes facts about the costume choices, special effects, casting, and props.
- I liked that it had a little bit of everything — immersive experiences, museum-like displays, photo opps.
- The workers were very nice and helped add to the magic.
What Was Not So Great
- The low lighting, while great for setting the mood, made it hard to read some of the displays.
- The crystal ball in Divination room was so difficult to read! One of the workers warned us that we needed to practically put our face on the ball in order to see it, and to not scan our wristbands until we were in place or else we might miss our fortune.
- The interactive displays don’t let you go again once you’ve completed the task — I understand this is so you can’t just keep getting points for your House, but I just wanted to cast my Patronus again and brew another potion for the fun of it.
Harry Potter: The Exhibition Details
Harry Potter: The Exhibition is currently on display in New York City, New York and in Paris, France.
The experience takes about 60-90 minutes to walk through.
Ticket prices range from $27-$100. Flextime tickets that can be used for any date and time. VIP tickets come with priority access, a lanyard, an audio guide, and a discount at the retail store.
Harry Potter costumes are welcome, but aren’t required.
Looking for more immersive experiences?
Do you just love visiting immersive experiences? Me too! Check out these immersive experience reviews:
- Art of the Brick Immersive Experience Review
- Stranger Things: The Experience Review
- Monet & Friends Alive Immersive Experience Review
- Save the Video Store: An Immersive 90s Experience Review
- Mad Hatter’s (Gin &) Tea Party Review
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Cheers!
Paige
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