Staycation! Immersive World of Harry Potter Exhibition

Enchants New York But Only for Limited Time

BY KAREN RUBIN TRAVEL FEATURES SYNDICATE GOINGPLACESFARANDNEAR.COM

Fans and superfans alike will be ecstatic to be immersed in the newly opened Harry Potter: The Exhibition, the most comprehensive touring exhibition ever presented on Harry Potter and the entire Wizarding World, which has traveled to Herald Square in midtown Manhattan but only for a limited time.

To call it an “exhibition” is an understatement. On every level –from the actual costumes, wands, props (the Sorting Hat! The Sword of Gryffindor! The Elder Wand! The Resurrection Stone!) from all the Harry Potter plus Fantastic Beasts™ movies and Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – to the opportunity to compete for points for your House by casting a spell, preparing a potion, trying your hand at Quidditch, summoning your Patronus– you feel you are part of this magical world. The experience is completely personalized, individualized for you as you take this journey through magnificently crafted, magical environments with the aid of remarkable design and technology. It is truly immersive, truly interactive, truly experiential, truly enchanting.

Our visit starts with choosing a Hogwarts House (a photo is snapped of you in the sorting hat), a wand, a Patronus, all encoded in an RFID wristband that you use to log in at various stations to capture interactions and deliver an absolutely personalized experience, designed to not

Fans and superfans alike will be ecstatic to be immersed in the newly opened Harry Potter: The Exhibition, the most comprehensive touring exhibition ever presented on Harry Potter and the entire Wizarding World, is on view in Herald Square in midtown Manhattan but only for a limited time © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com merely put you in the story, but put you into the films’ creation.

We are ushered into the From Page to Screen Gallery where a first edition of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is ensconced in a Gringotts-inspired vault. We are surrounded by inspirational video and literary quotes and enthusiastic guides introduce us “first years” to the exhibition – we feel the same sense of wonder and being new to Hogwarts as Harry, Ron and Hermione would have felt as first years.

We next move into the Hogwarts Castle Gallery featuring an immersive multimedia experience with the castle as a backdrop for iconic elements like the Whomping Willow and Dementors and see ourselves on the Marauder’s Map.

Walking through the Great Hall Gallery we get to see the same paintings as the students would see going into their House, and learn that filmmakers lined the walls with more than 200 paintings, some based on real art and some on subjects that included members of the film crew and their families.

The Hogwarts Houses gallery allows us personalized moments with the Hogwarts house we selected during our registration (I selected Gryffindor) but we still get to experience noteworthy tidbits about all the Hogwarts houses and their important characters. The celebratory hall feature an iconic Sorting Hat (perfect for photo ops) and Sword of Gryffindor, and house crests on meticulously created stained glass windows.

The Great Hall has some tables where we can sit, with the backdrop from the movie, and learn that the set designer made the floor of York stones that lasted through 10 years of onscreen Hogwarts students walking, running, dancing; there were four 100 ft custom-made tables that were distressed to suggest their longevity and the actors were encouraged to write and draw on the tables. In the first film, real candles were suspended from the ceiling but there were safety concerns, so they switched to digital and had five sizes of CGI candles coded for six varied flames so no two were the same.

Hogwarts Classrooms are filled with iconic props, creatures, and costumes. We get to interact with magical lessons and games through digital touchscreens to reveal behindthe-scenes secrets about iconic classroom moments. We even get to brew potions in the Potions Classroom (there’s a recipe book), predict the future in Divination, pot a mandrake in the Herbology Greenhouse, and use their digital wand to defeat a boggart in Defense Against the Dark Arts – all earning points for our House.

Hagrid’s Hut and The Forbidden Forest offer an interactive Patronus charm experience (I get to conjure up mine, a terrier). We then uncover iconic creatures, such as centaurs and Acromantula, hidden in the forest.

In the Tri Wizard tournament section, we learn that 35 costumes

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