Universal Orlando's Wizarding World Of Harry Potter

[ShellemonsterDonkeys give me orgiastic scream!]

Good call, that is two words. Death Eaters.

I think that recent ideas have been going towards the ride following the chamber of secrets, but they have the sorcerer's stone chess scene in there as well. nice to flip these things around.

I don't know how they can tie these story elements together, but I was just refreshing my Potter history, and there is a common thread between the spiders right before this and the next scene that would involve voldemort and death eaters outside...

Book Seven Spoilers Ahoy! ... again



The death eaters and voldemort amass their army for the assault on Hogwarts in the spider camp.
Now wouldn't the battle of Hogwarts make for a thrilling end to the ride!
Granted, I think the previously mentioned possibilities are more likely.

End spoilers


So, that concept art... I only have a faint idea what the middle profile drawing represents. If I had to guess, it may be when Harry and Company slide out of the pipe into the room with the basilisk skin from COS. That vent at the top right looks very important with all the notes. A fire vent? Any idea?



Also, the HP website has a new poll about shopping locations.
http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/index.html

[Jew"It's not small, but it is very 'average.'"]

Eeek! It looks like the Potter box could possibly be larger than my beloved Indy box! I can't believe I'm this excited about a ride where a) I don't like Harry Potter at all, and b) we don't really know what it is yet... Still excited though, with visions of Kuka arms dancing in my head.

I'm almost certain it is bigger than Indy's show building.

[niiicolaaahHot Coaster Chick!]

What am I supposed to be seeing in the last photo?

[BeemerBoyWDW Monorail Fanatic]

I'm not happy that I might eventually have to watch the movies for any of this crap to make sense. I hate you Potter. I hate you. (shaking fist offscreen)

[CTU AgentThai Hedrick]

^ Being the IOA fanboy I am, once 'The Wizarding World' was announced I forced myself to read all seven books and watch all of the movies. They weren't that bad, but were extremely overrated and very forgettable. I would have still liked to see the new island be fresh material, but I'm sure Universal will pull it off well.

[King_K.“Fear can make a donkey attack a lion”]

There's been a low rumble in the Rumor Mill that the Island Skipper Tours might be returning once again to Islands.

If anyone remembers the iconic scene from the first Potter movie in which they arrive to Hogwarts by boat, then you'll understand what the significance of the rumor is. If they were to expand the current inlet from the Inland Sea going under the old JP/Lost bridge they can carve out a path through the pre existing foothills and all the way back to the castle, giving the illusion that your boat was navigating the cliffs at the base of the castle.

(Cause remember the castle is being built UPON the big ol' show box)

Direct transportation to the hot new attractions in the park would be an incredibly smart thing to do, especially seeing how they already have queue and a loading platform built and up to code

Construction around The Flying Unicorn has begun too.

[ShellemonsterDonkeys give me orgiastic scream!]

That may be one way Universal is satisfying J.K. Rowling's wishes that everyone has a wizarding world experience like in the books. She wanted some very unrealistic terms, as described in this Jim Hill Media article.

That sounds like a way to satisfy her wishes while also vastly improving guest flow issues.

Nice picture too. That looks like a castle spire, and I've not seen any pictures of that yet. Do you have anymore, because it's rather hard to tell where that is.

[CoasterEricHPJason X versus the Robot Space Donkey!]

It does look like a castle spire.. or maybe the roof of Hagrid's Hut?! Since the retheme of the Flying Unicorn is being themed to Hagrid and that part of the Hogwarts "campus"..

I'm wondering if the queue of the attraction will wind its way through the different area's of Hogwarts (which would be awesome).. or if there will also be a whole separate area in the castle that will be open to all guests.

Can you imagine if they have a character dining/show that takes place throughout Hogwarts and ends with dinner in the Great Hall??! That would make the long waiting list at Cinderella's Castle seem like NOTHING and would be a must do for a ton of guests and people would pay!

They could even hold it after park hours (in the offseason) and have guests take a boat from the Port of Entry to Hogwarts.. in the dusk/darkness.. it'd be HUGE!

Anyways.. I do hope they can capture the creepy/scary atmosphere of some parts of the book in the ride instead of making it too kiddy!

[King_K.“Fear can make a donkey attack a lion”]

Hm, this picture was put up today of the same area. So I'm guessing that it is Hagrid's Hut.

[ianf71I Guess Donkeys Are Okay]

I've not been around for a while, but just got back from spending NEw Year in Orlando, and I have to say while I'm really looking forward to HP land, IOA really screwed up with the queueing system for Duelling Dragons while they have areas closed off.
It was really busy when we were there (as was WDW, so much for the global credit crunch!) and when we reached the end of the queue (at the JP entrance/exit, people were complaining as the staff seemed pretty clueless on the waiting time from there. We walked around to see how far it was backed up and where the express pass entrance was and ended up not going on till the very end of the day.

Oh, and the Bluto ride was closed.