See the Wonders of Harry Potter’s New Diagon Alley Attraction Before It Opens

ORLANDO, Florida—Harry Potter’s wizarding world just got a whole lot bigger. And more crooked.
Diagon Alley, the whimsical shopping street that served as young Harry Potter’s first introduction to the world of wands and broomsticks in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, will soon be open for business in the Muggle world when the new expansion to Universal Studios Florida opens on July 8.
WIRED got a special preview of the area this week—exactly four years after the Wizarding World of Harry Potter first opened—and spent as much time as we could soaking in all of the little details that Universal has used to replicate the feel of the movies’ magic, from fire-breathing dragons to ice-cold Butterbeer. Not only can you can take a thrill ride through the Gringotts bank, but you can have a hearty English meal at the Leaky Cauldron, even stock up on Puking Pastilles at Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. But the expansion is also full of twists and turns and tiny details, and if you look closely you can find all kinds of in-jokes and references to the books and movies.
Here’s what you can expect once Diagon Alley is open for business.

Of course, to board the Hogwarts Express train you've got to walk into the wall between platforms 9 and 10 to get to Platform 9 ¾. A nifty mirror effect makes it look as if you're disappearing into the brick wall, a perfect photo op.

The Knight Bus, sort of like Uber for wizards, sits outside the entrance to Diagon Alley. You can chat up the bus' conductor and his shrunken head companion.

How do you get into Diagon Alley? Why, by walking through this brick wall.

Harry used a bezoar (a stone from a goat's stomach; gross) to save Ron Weasley's life in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. You can find a jar of them in the Slug & Jiggers Apothecary window.

Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor has lots of hard-packed ice cream in odd flavors like Clotted Cream and Chocolate Chili. But the star is the soft-serve Butterbeer ice cream, with its elegant swirls of butterbeer-flavored syrup.

Like many youngsters today, Fred and George Weasley dropped out of school to found a disruptive technology startup. At Weasley's Wizard Wheezes you can buy toy versions of their inventions, from Decoy Detonators to Extendable Ears.

While you're waiting around to ride Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts, check out the copies of the Daily Prophet newspaper. Not only do the photos move around, but the articles on the pages are not just dummy text -- they're fully written out!

The dragon atop Gringotts Bank is no mere gargoyle. Every now and again, it breathes a giant blast of real fire! When you hear sort of a high-pitched whine near the dragon, he is about to belch some serious flames, so get your camera ready.

Not sure which wand to buy? Mr. Ollivander will find the right magic stick for you, with a fun little show to go along with it. Ollivander's been set up in the Harry Potter park since 2010, but his Diagon Alley branch is much, much larger to hold the crowds in.

Just like Harry, you can travel from London to Hogwarts in style in the Hogwarts Express, which will take you back and forth between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade in style. Amazing special effects during the ride include a Dementor attack.

Draco Malfoy used the Hand of Glory ("insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder") in one of his several dumb failed plots to kill Professor Dumbledore. He bought it from Borgin and Burke's shop in Knockturn Alley, where you can find it today.

Sadly, this tattoo parlor down Knockturn Alley is not an actual establishment and kids can't get real tattoos here. But the "animated tattoo" effects you can see if you peer in the window are worth the trip down seedy, dark Knockturn.

This is the kind of lock you have to pick if you want to break into a Gringotts vault.

Located just off Diagon Alley, the perpetually nighttime Knockturn Alley is where you go if you want to murder somebody and need the right magic to do it. You can also buy jewelry (note: jewelry may carry a death curse).

You don't have to go in Diagon Alley to find an easter egg. Hang out near 12 Grimmauld Place outside the area, and watch the windows to see Sirius Black's house elf Kreacher peer out at you. Oh, he doesn't like Muggles.

Gringotts Bank, and the thrill ride inside its doors, looms at the end of Diagon Alley's main drag.

The stuffed animals for sale in the Magical Menagerie are all characters from the books, from Fluffy the Cerberus to Buckbeak the Hippogriff. But what's up with the ferret? Even I had to be clued in to this: at the end of the last movie, Harry's son takes this ferret with him to Hogwarts.