Food and merchandise part of Orlando theme park battle

I wish this trend would go nationwide. Everyone knows you are going to pay a premium for park food. I would rather spend >$30 per meal for good food then spend <$30 for crappy food. I spend so much more money at those three chains inside the gate then at the regional parks, and actually look forward to doing so (because the food is amazing.)

I completely agree. If I am at an awesome park like Universal, the experience shouldn't stop at the rides. An all-around immersion in the parks is a good business decision as far as I can tell. I'm excited to eat a "Clogger" burger and drink Duff beer. And if the quality of the food is good, I am very likely to eat in the park and NOT go elsewhere, regardless of price.

We had an excellent lunch at Three Broomsticks, happily, as we were hesitant to try it at first. The best part was the efficiency- there was no shortage of employees to serve us or direct us to available seats. The fish and chips was almost as good as any pub fish I've had. A fun thing to note is there's no soda soft drinks in Potter Land, only Butterbeer and fruit drinks. I had pear juice with my meal that was delicious.

The interior was fantastic. But- an interesting factoid was told to me by an employee, that while the Three Broomsticks is mentioned in the books, of course, in the movies the interior wasn't featured until the last one (or two). So Universal had designed the restaurant first, imagining from the book descriptions, then the movie set had to follow suit to be "authentic". Every other location was a re-creation of what we see in the movies, but in this case the opposite happened. Fun.

I did not know that.