Queue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCvxmI6sIA8
POV (dark): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8KHb2yIiuY
Dan went on it today as it had a small soft opening for the public for a few minutes this morning (I opted to sleep in, whoops) and said it's great. Can't wait to ride it although the crowds will be massive.
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Wizarding World of Harry Potter soft opens
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The ride is simply amazing, I will upload some pics soon. It was like Spiderman but the motion was better and the video, not in 3d, was clear and motion went well with it. There are actual scenes not video that look very good and have pop-out characters. I really don't want to go into much detail, but it was worth the 15 minute wait, which will be more like 200 when it opens. The queue line is really detailed, no budget cuts anywhere.
The rest of potterland was great, the butterbeer tasted really good, the frozen version was better than the chilled one. The restaurant had a good menu, but was only serving breakfast, but the lunch and dinner looked good. They do have a line for the wand store since it is so small, the Dragons Challenge line entrance looks good, did not go on it, rode it too many times with the Potter effects in. They did not open today until 9:56am, they probably did not open right away since it soft opened yesterday and there were A LOT of people there this morning, so they probably wanted to disperse a lot of the crowds away. It opened with only letting in about 125 people, so basically let in the people waiting then closed. Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer
Marathon down, Goofy to go.
That is very cool, I have no idea when I'll get to go. I really want to see it
SF trips 09 = 15
SF trips 10= 11 SF trips 11 =7
 The queue before entering the castle.  The statue at the entrance of the ride.  Some powder stuff near the castle entrance, magic power maybe?  Griffon  A moving and talking picture, one of many.  Picture room, bunch of talking photos here.  Library i think  The dinning room or church thing or whatever, almost there on the ride...  This talks to you  Hallway before loading on the ride  Loading area  Hard to see, loading area again.  Area from the castle  The Castle and ride entrance  Signage  More area shots  The train  Photo from the area entrance  Butterbeer, chilled and frozen kinds Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer
Marathon down, Goofy to go.
It's a simulator? Man, I'm really disappointed.
Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking, isn't thinking of.
Its on a track similar to Spiderman with a 4 across robocoaster arm type thing riding on it.
/\Exactly, kinda like Sum of all Thrills combined with Spiderman, but way better.
Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer
Marathon down, Goofy to go.
That's disappointing. I was hoping for some killer animatronics.
Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking, isn't thinking of.
So its like a robotic coaster?
Top 5: 1) El Toro. 2) Maverick. 3) Millenium Force. 4) Diamondback. 5) X2.
Coaster Count: 167 (41 Wood, 125 Steel) @Coaster_Cole on Twitter
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder
Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
That is so sweet!
Top 5: 1) El Toro. 2) Maverick. 3) Millenium Force. 4) Diamondback. 5) X2.
Coaster Count: 167 (41 Wood, 125 Steel) @Coaster_Cole on Twitter
It actually looks more like a G3 in my opinion.
Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer
Marathon down, Goofy to go.
A friend took this pic of the line to get into IOA this morning.
^^Wheres Waldo?
Is that the crowd for the opening? Top 5: 1) El Toro. 2) Maverick. 3) Millenium Force. 4) Diamondback. 5) X2.
Coaster Count: 167 (41 Wood, 125 Steel) @Coaster_Cole on Twitter
I went to IOA this morning to try and catch a soft opening, when the park opened a huge line formed outside the entrance but to no avail as it didnt not operate to day guests at all. There was a big crowd of hotel guests who had their riding time before park opening and it went for awhile past the park opening it looked like the ride may have been having some issues as well as the big volume of hotel guests, no day guests.
 Got there very early, no one on the walkways   These are all resort guests waiting to get into the park  After the resort guests were let in they filled the area up with regular day guests    It was only open for resort guests but a huge day guest standby line of hopefuls formed anyway (and people who im sure just saw the line and thought it would be open)  When I say long I mean LONG  ...to think its not even opening day yet and its already drawing huge crowds  Finish with a shot of Hulk
I got back in again and rode Forbidden Journey 5 more times, now a 20 minute wait is too long for me
 and had some more butterbeer  , found out if you have a souvenir mug, its only $3 for a refill of chilled and 4 for a frozen  . Also I sent out a postcard from the Owl Post to someone, just to do it. I also rode Dragon's Challenge to see what the queue is like, and its very lacking now, there are floating candles, the car and some mug thing, but other than that, its the same old until the load station, which the dragon effect has been there for sometime. I got myself a cool wand, they didn't have my birthdate one, so I got the one for the week before and its the coolest one, it was only $18, but with discounted prices. It's such a cool area, and the food in 3 Brooms for lunch was really good and fresh, much better than a normal theme park food place. No pictures this time. All I know is Universal is going to make a killing on this land.Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer
Marathon down, Goofy to go.
I've been reading up on it, and now I cannot wait to go check it out. Hopefully as soon as next spring rolling around. Too bad I can't just aparate there.
Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking, isn't thinking of.
I knew it was going to be very busy, but this is unbelievable! The line right now for Potter is 7+ hours, they are using Spidermans overflow queue for HP's line (on the exact opposite side of the park) this is the line to get into IOA
  
omg that's insane
SF trips 09 = 15
SF trips 10= 11 SF trips 11 =7
Up to a 10 hour wait right now with the queue for the ride going outside the park.
What's the big deal, really?
Have a take and don't suck, it's the Jim Rome Show!
Its a big deal because our industry is re-inventing itself and the new attractions like Forbidden Journey at IOA and World of Color at DCA show our industry is still capable of making great attractions and bringing in the big crowds. Look at those pics, this was the most crowded opening day for an attraction in the history of the industry. The technology involved with the ride and the queue raise the standard. Principles of competition: the better the Universal attractions are, the better the Disney attractions will be, the better the Sea World attractions will be, etc. I am not a fan of the HP franchise (and not really bif fan of the ride either) but as an enthusiast its great to see the theme park business can do well in such tough economic times.
^^A big deal to me is more of what will Disney do to respond. They already brought out Summer Nightastic on ultra short notice, have a food festival coming to Animal Kingdom this year and went against their word to bring back Captain EO. With the management seeing those lines, you know something else has to be coming in the next couple of years.
It also is a big move in a park putting all their eggs in once basket with one ride and a massive marketing campaign. If this move works (which I have my doubts where it will be in a year to three years) it will boost every single park in Orlando. It will also get people to visit who would not have came before and get WDW only people to check out other parks.
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