3. Hogwarts Express

As someone who has ridden the actual Hogwarts Express on many occasions, I’d seem like the harshest critic of this train. After all, I know that it’s a fictional recreation of something very real back home. Despite my knowledge of its limitations, I still marvel at the technology.

When I board the Hogwarts Express to take a ride to a different part of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I feel as if I’m home. The Muggle technology perfectly recreates the panoramic landscape of the region between Hogsmeade Station and King’s Cross Station. The special interactions with those mischievous Weasley twins, the foreboding up-close look at Malfoy Manor, and the humorous journey of the Knight Bus all remind me of times I’ve spent at Hogwarts, memories good and bad. It even offers an interaction with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, three of my all-time favorite students.

The Hogwarts Express achieves the most impossible of tasks for Muggle engineering. It seems like magic even as I know it’s not. This is a train ticket I’m all too glad to buy…or enchant Muggles into letting me ride for free.

2. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

When the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2009, you Muggles flocked to one attraction before all others. This particular motion simulation dark ride maintained wait-times in excess of two hours for years after its debut. It was primarily responsible for the mobs at Islands of Adventure, and the explanation for its instant, insane popularity was simple. It was the best representation non-Wizards can craft of the magical world that otherwise eludes them.

The Forbidden Journey in question takes guests through the gates of Hogwarts, promising a sneak appearance at a Quidditch match. The fact that no one has tickets isn’t important since Harry Potter promises that he can get you into the event. If you can’t trust Harry Potter, who can you trust at Hogwarts?

The beauty of this experience is that it offers the equivalent of Harry Potter’s Greatest Hits. You Muggles get to relish in the heady sensation of soaring on a broom as you attack a Keeper, you feel the creeping terror of the Forbidden Forest and its sentient spiders, and you tremble in fear as a Dementor tries to suck your soul from your body. It’s the most accurate recreation of life at Hogwarts imaginable. You’d swear that Voldemort was right behind you, readying to cast Avada Kedavra.

The Muggle engineers knew that to sell the Universal Studios expansion, they’d need a grand slam attraction. To their credit, they accomplished this feat without the use of magic. It’s a five-minute journey into the wizarding realm, and it works well. The only reason why it’s not ranked at the top is that every great ride is built in expectation of something eventually surpassing it. That’s exactly what happened.

1. Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts

Motion simulation is tricky business. In the hands of the wrong Muggles, it can cause nausea and disorientation. Some of the initial guests at both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Hollywood suffered these effects with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. By the time their second attempt rolled around, they’d learned their lesson.

Escape from Gringotts is much more story-based than its predecessor, which is to say that while Forbidden Journey shows all the highlights of my Wizarding World, it’s a bit frenetic. The Gringotts version is much more measured. Part of that is because key elements of the ride take place on roller coaster tracks, negating many of the bumpy ride parts that could cause nausea. The coaster portion also ramps up the excitement of what’s a much more intense ride experience.

Whereas Forbidden Journey deploys Dementors as the big bads, Escape from Gringotts ramps up the danger. Bellatrix Lestrange, once the most feared female Wizard among the ranks of Death Eaters, is your enemy at the start of the fight. That’s understandable since you’re breaking into her bank vault. She’d kill you if you took a sip of her Butterbeer. Imagine what she’ll do if she catches you stealing her stuff. Even worse, you eventually incur the wrath of her main squeeze, Voldemort. Even I, a Commander for the winning side at the Battle of Hogwarts who knows that both of these Death Eaters are now deceased, still feel afraid when they chase me during Escape from Gringotts. You Muggles perfected the atmosphere of “the safest place in the world.”

While all five of the rides at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter have their advantages, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is clearly the best at recreating the realm of magic where I live.