Harry Potter and the Angry Tourists
The entire world is closely watching Universal Orlando. Something is lurking behind walls and in the trees of the Orlando theme park, something magical, something that the world is waiting to have revealed. Rumors are circulating, like a Dementor around the eternal spot of happiness, that Universal is not ready to deal with what they have created and while the whole world is going to be watching, they are going to drop the ball and have a large crowd walking away from their parks in disappointment.
Although this paragraph has the term "rumors" based in it, the term seems glossed over and the article is stated as if this is an inevitable outcome, and no argument is made against that point.
The article starts out with the idea that "something magical" is waiting to be revealed, yet nothing is really said about the actual attraction being as forward thinking and state-of-the-art as they come. The attraction, by all accounts is going to be as unique and awe-inspiring as Spiderman when it first opened.
The rumors are circulating that they may not have as much capacity as they expect, but that won't turn people away, it hasn't turned people away from other Disney attractions (3 hour waits for Soarin') or Six Flags attractions (4 hour waits for Kingda Ka), and Harry Potter fans seem to be some of the most devoted in a long time. They've waited over a decade for a type of experience like this.
A Theme Park Within a Theme Park
Ever since it's inception, Universal has billed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as a "Theme Park within a Theme Park". While most of us who go to theme parks on a regular basis know this simply means a new section of the park, we have been inundated with questions about the "New Harry Potter theme park". Most of the people going for Harry Potter are not traditionally park folk. Sure they love the mouse, and they enjoy their regional amusement park, but they hardly live and breathe theme parks like a lot do. We have received questions from several readers, and newspapers(read here, here and here) asking all about the new theme park. "Where is the new theme park?" "What is the cost?" and "How many new rides will the new park have?" are all among the questions we've been getting. Universal has the world sold on the image of a whole big theme park filled to the brim with wizards and witches, dragons and butterbeer. The truth couldn't be further from that image.
A marketing ploy, to be sure, but if we're considering that people will be doing absolutely NO research before they arrive, then they will probably not enjoy themselves as much....just like people who fly to Disney during the week of Christmas, then complain they didn't get to see anything because you can't even move.
The media has taken the idea and ran with it. Universal may have shot themselves in the foot a bit by that percentage who will drive or fly down, show up at the gate and wonder why they can't buy a ticket to get into the Harry Potter Park, but people who actually do any in depth reading and understanding of things (as you're urging people to do in this article) would know better.
Again, Disney overhypes things all the time...most of their new attractions are hyped like their latest "E-Ticket" and they haven't come along with anything this size in a long time.
The Wizarding World of Hary Potter(WWOHP) will be a new themed area that used to sit on another themed area. WWoHP sits on the site of the old Lost Continent area that Universal ripped apart to make room for this new area. The whole area is about a 1/4 mile long and you can walk through it in about two minutes...that is you COULD walk through it if the streets weren't going to be filled with people. The area will host three rides, only one of which is new. The other two are going to be existing rides that have be re-themed. The main attraction will be "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" which will be housed in a building underneath Hogwarts castle. The tagline "theme park within a theme park" has sold Harry Potter, but it has sold it as something it's not, and it may end up backfiring on the park.
Wow, this section is very cynical, I don't even know where to begin...
Universal decided to gamble big on Harry Potter because ever since its opening, IOA has failed to be marketed correctly and failed to attract the market that was expected. This means that most people who have visited will go again and gladly ride the "Dragon" coasters again and will be happy to see all of the other new stuff.
And those people who haven't seen it yet will be noticing a brand new experience...because let's face it, Universal really NEEDS those people and is targeting those people who haven't visited before. I think it's a reach to say that people who have been to IOA will feel "robbed" that they've rethemed 2 coasters when there's a lot more to do in the area.
Laws of Attraction
While we are on the subject of the attractions, let's go over what people will see when they arrive in the "theme park within a theme park". Universal boasts there will be several new shops and three new attractions. Three new attractions. Actually if you want to get technical about it, one new attraction and two rethemed coasters. Universal is hoping to lure over the mouse crowd with what is the biggest selling book series and one of the largest movie franchises of all time. It's actually working as Universal has been giving tours of the area and exclusive invites to Disney fansites. This gets the webmasters to talk highly of the new area and therefore get their readers excited about it. Traditionally a lot of the folks who love the mouse stay around the Magic Kingdom because of the "family friendly attractions that accomodate Pooh size guests". Very rarely do they step out of this comfort zone because for them, it's about things they can do as a
family. With two coasters and a ride on a robot arm that swirls you around every which way, these people are going to go running with mouse ears firmly in hand back to the land of pixie dust.
A lot of information said here, but nothing of substance, Universal sent info to the Disney fansites, and those who went were excited about it. That's a plus. Sure, it may be nice to joke about the "pooh sized" guests at WDW, but somehow even with all of those people, some of the most popular rides at WDW are Everest, Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Dinosaur...those are intense rides. Sure, there will be some people disappointed, that is inevitable, but to pinpoint a certain population of "pooh sized" guests is not what Universal is doing...they're just getting as much exposure to the Orlando area as possible, not to mention a market of Harry Potter fanatics who may not have come to Orlando otherwise.
The Harry Potter series, while it is aimed at a younger audience is hardly nice fairy tales.
And more to the rides, Hogwarts Castle is the centerpiece of the park. Many guests can be overheard saying "I can't wait to go inside that castle." Sure, it looks amazing, and after all the concept art shows you walking right through the front gates and into the courtyard of the castle. Reality of it is, it's just a shell sitting ontop of a larger building. Unlike the other Orlando Castle (Cinderellas Castle at Magic Kingdom) you will not be able to browse through it. The ride will empty out into a gift shop but like Cinderellas castle you won't be able to have dinner, browse swords or (for the super select) stay the night in the castle.
Hogwart's Castle may be a facade, but people going "inside" will not know the difference from everything I've seen. You may want to burst the bubble of everyone who's ever ventured into the Haunted Mansion for the past 40 years also...it's also a facade. The actual ride building is the huge structure behind it.
It's interesting to have such knowledge of the inner workings of the attraction, when some of it still isn't complete...everyone who has seen parts of the inside of the castle (sorry, the fake inniards of the fake castle) seemed very impressed, and wowed by the things like moving portraits they didn't expect to be so true to the movies.
Dragons Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff are rethemes of existing rides. From what we've seen they've taken and somewhat improved upon Flying Unicorn, going from just a stable with a box and some speakers to a full blown hut with all kinds of magical creatures inside. dragons, however, is a different story. From what we've seen of the new "dragons Challenge" they've taken all the skulls, melted nights, spiderwebs and frozen horses out of it. We are told that it will be appropriate to the ride, but somehow I doubt that. The queue line for Dueling dragons made you sad that you were going to ride a coaster instead of a living breathing dragon.
Yes, we get it already, 2 rides are re-themes of existing attractions..ok
Its quite interesting to refer to the Flying Unicorn like that....there was a LOT of theming to that stable with a box and speakers...but I digress. We don't know what Universal fully has up their sleeves for the Dragon's Challenge queue yet, but I'm sure they will be able to theme it appropriately. I'm still not sure what led to the expectation that Universal is going to seriously mis-calculate this massive gamble on their part, and not theme the queue properly for Dragon Challenge when we've already seen how impressive parts of the Forbidden Journey queue are.
Do you expect to see a line where you can cross and say "yep, that's where the budget ran out"?
The shops, well, we've seen this area before and the shops look to be a bit on the crowded together side. We've heard that most of the shops are going to be interactive, and that means a lot of people standing around trying to wait for things to happen. The wand shop will be the most cramped with tons of people trying to let their "wands choose the wizard" to the tune of $30(ish) to upwards around $100 dollars. This interactive experience is said to be an intimate one, so expect the lines for this to be huge. While we're on the subject of lines.
I agree, I think the shops do look smaller than they should be, and there will probably be crowding issues during busy times....BUT I haven't been in them yet to know for sure.
I do think the initial summer months will be quite overcapacity, but I also think that most people going to see the hyped up land will be expecting it also.
Express and Discounts
This part has been 100% confirmed with the hotel reservations line. Prior to this article I did call the hotel line to ask what the prices were, and more specifically about the Express situation, doesn't mean exactly this is what they'll do but this is what they are being told to say for now. Universal Orlando has their version of Disney's "Fastpass" system which allows you to skip the lines and gain entry through your own special entrance. Unlike Disney's system, you have no time frame that you have to do this in. Also unlike Disney's system, this is not free. You have to pay for the "privilege" of not waiting in line. You also only get to use it once per ride. The price ranges depending on how busy it is expected to be with prices starting at $20 for the slow days to as much as $50 on the busy days. You call it price gouging, Universal calls it supply and demand. Here's where the staying at the hotels has their advantage. If you stay at one of the
three onsite hotels your room key acts as an unlimited Express Pass. While on the phone, I asked about the Wizarding World attractions and I was informed "you're going to be able to use your express on two attractions, not on Forbidden Journey". Not Forbidden Journey? That will be the one attraction everyone is staying on site to see. Let's face it, you have a bunch of shops and two coasters that have been rethemed, and you're not letting your paying customers use their "privilege" for your most anticipated ride? Wow.
The Express Pass system isn't new and hasn't been rolled out specially for the Wizarding World.
The issue of charging for an Express Pass is a separate argument in my mind and does not change just because there's now an extra land open at IOA.
The other thing to note is that the Forbidden Journey attraction is going to be a full experience within the queue, so having a fastpass would allow people to just go on the ride, but shouldn't we be expecting more of that, from any "top" attraction, that the experience should begin in the queue and be an integral part of the experience. Often it's been noted that people who are able to use fastpass or express pass exclusively can miss out on key elements of the story.
In this case there is a fundamental struggle between the creative people who run the Imagineering or Universal Creative departments, and the marketing types who want to give people perks. Don't forget, the reason that Disney offers the Fastpass is so people would have more time to buy souvenirs at their gift shops everywhere. Yes, I think after the attraction has been open for a while, they will change the rules so express pass will be available for it, and by that time, people will have seen the "full experience" and can choose to do just the ride itself.
That's not where it ends either. Upon further asking we were told that Passholder and Florida resident rates were not available for the time of grand opening either. Even more, we have heard rumors that if you are a passholder (or thinking about becoming one) you will not receive a discount on anything within in the Wizarding World. No 10% off on wands, Butterbeer or chocolate frogs for you. Like Disney, Universal seems to be shrinking the amount of items they offer discounts for.
Ok, they aren't discounting things when it first opens, I'd still opt to take a wait and see approach. Besides, they may be hedging their bets on crowds and capacities and hoping that the AP holders will want to wait until later in the year to visit.
Grand Opening Closed
While on the phone with the hotel reservations line, we learned that Royal Pacific was sold out and Hard Rock was close to selling out on the 17th of June, and they expected the same for the 18th as well. The whole world will be watching and many of them will be in the park trying to get a glimpse at all of the celebrities and have a first ride on the new attraction. There's just one problem. We've heard that while there will be a grand opening celebration, the general public will not be allowed into the Wizarding World to view it. Only select members of the media including a few websites were invited and will have the chance to rub elbows with the entire cast of all the films, and the area will also be closed for most of the day if not all day. If you stop and think about it, this makes a lot of sense as there will be so many people in that area that you're not going to be able to breathe let alone ride anything, watch any of the shows or talk to any of
the VIPs. Try again on the 19th.
I know what you're thinking, "Universal couldn't do that, so many people will be disappointed!"
They can, and most likely will. Case in point, they started selling Grand Opening Weekend packages for the last weekend in May. Then the June 18th announcement came and no one gave word to the thousands of people who already purchased their packages, until of course one of the very select groups of media went through and one of them asked.
"Visitors who have purchased those will receive everything that was promised", Tom Schroder, head of PR at Universal has said in an article from the Orlando Sentinel.
But they were being sold as being "GRAND OPENING" packages. It doesn't really matter though, as long as they get what they are promised. If you think about it though, this is the first time the area will be open to the public. You know what they call that? Soft Openings. They will still have bugs and will try and work them out. Not something that is indicitave of a Grand Opening to me.
This is also not a unique thing to theme parks, there are often times where an attraction will be open long before the official "grand opening"...however that does not mean everything will be incomplete or not up to running condition before then, it's just the day when they've been able to bring all of the celebrities and media together for their big photo-op.
So, to make an assumption that anyone going before June 18th will be disappointed is just plain guessing. Are there reports of anything behind schedule? Catastrophic failures of ride mechanisms? Anything like that?
We are not trying to discourage you from going to the park or to avoid it altogether. We are just trying to inform everyone who has been taken in by the hype of the whole grand event to what you may expect. At this point these are just rumors and could possibly be simply that, but too many times parks have done things like this. In fact we've tried to allow Universal a chance to either confirm or deny and clear up these rumors, but our queries have gone unanswered.
I think this is the most hilarious part...Here's all of the unconfirmed reasons why the opening is going to completely suck for everyone involved, but we don't want to discourage you from going.
Regardless the full Wizarding World Of Harry Potter is scheduled to start daily operations on June 19th, aside from the huge Grand Opening.
So, basically this editorial contains a lot of what-ifs taken to the most extreme degree, and other than the first half of the first paragraph, nowhere is there anything postive about the new land.
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