After spending a whole day casting spells in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando Resort, our reporters shared their honest thoughts about the new second-generation interactive wands.
Second-Generation Interactive Wands Review
First, we have to mention the price of the new wands. Every design of the second-gen wand costs $85 plus tax, which is not cheap. The first generation wands were in the $65 to $75 range, making the second generation a $10 increase in price.
The second-gen wands do have additional features that explain some of the increased cost, such as haptic vibration and custom lighting for each spell. Nonetheless, it is still a large investment for a souvenir that can only be used inside the parks. If you are a guest coming on vacation to Universal Orlando Resort, spending $85 per wand may be a bit steep for an experience you would only complete once — unless you already plan on returning.
Investing in the interactive wands partially depends on how often you expect to be in the Universal parks and if you are likely to repeat the experience. In the words of our reporter, she probably wouldn’t buy her own wand because she would be happy borrowing a friend’s wand to do the experience a single time instead of repeating it.
Being able to repeat the interactive wand experience is a major factor in deciding whether the wands are a worthwhile purchase.
First, not all aspects of the experience are intuitive at first glance. The instructions that come with the purchase of the wand are extremely basic and leave out many of the features. The updated Universal Play App now has an extended tutorial section, but even this still does not fully explain the experience as well as actually taking part in it. As a result, it can easily take a few hours before guests get to actively enjoy the full abilities of their interactive wand.
As an example, one of the new features in the app is the ability to have a running list of all the possible spells guests have cast. As you cast a spell, the app will register it in your completed collection list so you can see which spells are still available. However, it took our reporter several hours to realize the spells are only logging in the app correctly if the wand vibrates while the spell is being cast. While our reporter successfully completed several of the locations, the app didn’t sync all of her spells.
Another feature that is not fully explained at first glance is that some locations in the park have multiple spells available in the same spot. Guests may need to visit the same location more than once or complete one of the new challenges before unlocking a more complicated spell.
While the app lists some of the multiple-spell locations, the map feature is not a complete list, and several spells are more “hidden.” It is also possible to fail at some of the new locations, such as when guests battle a training dummy at the Dueling Club Tent. On the positive side, this does make the experience far more repeatable for guests who visit more than once.
Additionally, taking part in the new spell Adventures encourages guests to have an Annual Pass or Multi-Park Ticket for transferring between Universal Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. The adventures are completed in steps, with some of the final locations — such as the advertised dementor encounter where guests get to cast their Patronus — only becoming available after completing other tasks first. If guests accidentally miss a location or want to fully accomplish every mission, they may need to go back to the other park.
Finally, the interactive wand experience is a serious time investment. If guests want to unlock the majority of the spell locations and complete the Adventures, they will be spending most, if not all, of their park day inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For guests who only plan on visiting Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade for an hour during their vacation, it would definitely not be worth the money.
Apart from needing a little time to figure out the mechanics and find each of the locations, many spell spots will have a 5- to 10-minute wait. With 29 individual locations in both parks and over 40 spells to unlock, “completing” most of the interactive wand experience is at least a full-day investment. This is especially the case if guests want to rank high on the new daily Wizard leaderboard, which calculates each guest’s success with spells into a total House Point score for the day.
All of this to say, whether you should buy an interactive wand depends on how much time and energy you want to invest in getting everything out of the experience. Casting spells around The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is very cool and a great way to have fun without riding attractions. The newly added effects are particularly impressive. The updated Universal Play App also has many new features that add to the interactive wand experience compared to the first-generation wands, such as a more detailed map, a daily leaderboard, and customization options.
However, none of these features will be helpful to a guest who only plans on being within the Harry Potter lands for an hour or two. Nonetheless, casting spells in the real world is a lifelong dream for many Harry Potter fans, and the new second-generation interactive wands are as close as you can get to a real experience.
Will you be purchasing a second-generation interactive wand? Let us know in the comments, and watch our experience and review video below:
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