I won four tickets to the Harry Potter experience in Cedar Creek. I went with my mom, my husband, and my 10 year old. I loved Harry Potter as a teen. However, this Harry Potter experience was so lackluster and disappointing.
We went on February 8th around 7pm. Weather was good. Parking was very organized. Although I wish there was a line for those that had already paid for parking and for those that still needed to pay for parking. The parking area was covered in rocks which made it hard for my mom to walk. (She's 62 and has some problems with her feet.)
Going in, there were a few photo ops right away. There was also a little area to get some British food and Harry Potter inspired hot chocolate and Butterbeer. Staff at these little stands were friendly, but it was expensive. A small cup of butterbeer was $9. My mom let the worker convince her to try it with some Captain Morgan rum bringing the total from $9 to $18 for such a small cup. My 10 year old got the Gryffindor hot chocolate which was a basic hot chocolate. I believe that was either $8 or $9 so still very overpriced. Oh, and the whole place is cashless so be sure to bring a debit or credit card.
Upon entering the trail, you first go into a small gift shop where you can buy wands. The regular wand was $40 and the light up wand was $50. We skipped this part because that was way overpriced for something you can get on Temu for under $10.
There was decent lighting on the trail. I thought there would be more cool lights and what not set up (kinda like Pumpkin Nights), but no. Just colored lights along the trail. There were a few props like out of the movies and sound clips played over and over. There was also a few places to use your wand to cast a spell, but we didn't have a wand since on Instagram, people had asked if they needed a wand and were told no, that one would be provided when casting a patronus. There was no mention of things that could use a wand anywhere or else I would have bought some cheaper ones online before we went. Oh, and at the patronus casting, there were no wands provided like they said there would be on Instagram. Luckily, a nice man let us borrow his wand to cast our patronus. The patronus casting was really the only worthwhile thing there, and I did like the lighted mushrooms. Seriously, we were all disappointed by it as it looked so good on the website but was quite the opposite. I think it took us about half an hour to walk it all of that, and that's only because we stopped to wait in line for the patronus casting and my mom was taking a few photos.
I will say the whole area was well maintained as were the restrooms. There were restrooms at the beginning and ending of the trail and halfway through the trail. Each stall has its own full size door and is enclosed so it's not like stalls in a convenient store or port-a-potties. Toilet paper was that cheap stuff though.
There was a drinks stand set up halfway through the trail as well.
At the end of the trail was a larger gift shop. It was pricey as you can imagine, but there was some nice stuff.
Exiting was a bit tricky from the parking lot as some cars are leaving and some are looking for parking, but the parking lot staff were very friendly and knew what they were doing to help the flow of traffic.
All in all, if I would have paid for this, I would have been angry. Luckily parking and the tickets were free for me since I had won a competition. I was kinda disappointed that we had driven almost three hours just to go to this event though.
I would say save your money and avoid this event. You aren't missing out even if you are a die hard Harry Potter fan. read more