Did Disney have any known interest in the rights for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter?

[comcastlover33]

What I mean is, did Disney have any publicly known interest in making Harry Potter a part of Walt Disney World

 

[hpriamson]

According to the 2013 Unofficial Guide to Disney World, J.K. Rowling and Disney were in talks to build a standalone HP theme park. It fell through when they couldn't agree on how much control Rowling would maintain over the park design & attractions.

 

[GatorMama]

I love Disney but as a HUGEHO fan, I think it turned out for the best. Disney wouldn't have done right by HP....

 

[JanaDee]

What I mean is, did Disney have any publicly known interest in making Harry Potter a part of Walt Disney World

Yes, Disney wasn't willing to give Rowling the control she wanted.

 

[DOOM1001]

Disney wanted to scale back JK Rowling's vision for a theme park experience,basically if Disney would have gotten it there would be a Harry Potter ride inside AK or DHS instead of two amazingly themed lands with the Hogwarts Express connecting them,it couldn't have turned out any better,Disney wouldn't or couldn't have pulled off what Universal did.

 

[Bluegrrl]

To sum up: Disney was all like," Ok, we are going to take all the control from you and build it our way for less that it's worth." Rowling was, "Ummm...don't think so." Then Uni was, "hey, we love your stuff, need to one up Disney, and will build everything to your satisfaction including not having soda products in the area, will help you make butterbeer and pumpkin juice to your spects and basically bend over backwards for you. Can we have the rights to your stuff instead?" Rowling went, "cool". Everything was built, people came from all over the world, Uni made tons of money and built the area up quickly and neatly, and then Disney went all, "but we have New Fantastyland...and uh..that Avatar thing...and, uh, Star Wars is coming...like winter...it's coming, we swear!" Then Uni put up a second HP thing...and Disney still is giving us the GRR Martin "Star Wars and Avatar and Disney Springs is coming...we swear!" Treatment.

 

[SeilerBird]

Universal could build six more Happy Potter in scope attractions and still not be any real competition to Disney World. Let's look at the scoreboard, Disney 50 million visitors per year and Uni gets 15 mill. And if they didn't have Disney as a neighbor they would be lucky to get 5 mill.

 

[DOOM1001]

Universal could build six more Happy Potter in scope attractions and still not be any real competition to Disney World. Let's look at the scoreboard, Disney 50 million visitors per year and Uni gets 15 mill. And if they didn't have Disney as a neighbor they would be lucky to get 5 mill.

Disney is obviously still number one but at the rate that Universal is putting up attractions,new hotels and waterparks onsite they are literally only an announcement away that they're building a third theme park where Wet n Wild stands to seriously cause Disney some discomfort.

 

[mel&me]

Universal did potter right, disney would have hacked it. turned out for the best.

 

[cgattis]

Universal could build six more Happy Potter in scope attractions and still not be any real competition to Disney World. Let's look at the scoreboard, Disney 50 million visitors per year and Uni gets 15 mill. And if they didn't have Disney as a neighbor they would be lucky to get 5 mill.

The winner in this competition is (are) the Harry Potter fans.

 

[bumbershoot]

Universal could build six more Happy Potter in scope attractions and still not be any real competition to Disney World.

But in another way of gauging competition...my son doesn't want to go to WDW anymore. It's boring to him. He loves the rides and the theming and of course HP over at Universal.

DH really dislikes the whole MB thing (so does DS), and none of us are huge fans of FP+ (though it worked better for me on a buddy trip than it did for us on a family trip or two). So DH barely wants to go. It's becoming an issue that we own DVC!

Since 2011 we have kept Universal APs. We get to WDW every so often.

In our household, WDW is losing, big time. (except for the DVC, but that's a hotel, really...separate bookkeeping for them)

 

[jjas]

I would say Disney is losing in our household also. I NEVER thought we would go to Orlando and NOT go to Disney but that is exactly what we have done our last three trips - all universal only. The trip before that we only did Disney for one day so we could say we did all four parks in one day.

It has nothing to do with the fact my kids are older - they LOVE Disney - they have just found they love universal and especially the WWOHP more - at least for now. It is truly amazing.

 

[coluk003]

To sum up: Disney was all like," Ok, we are going to take all the control from you and build it our way for less that it's worth." Rowling was, "Ummm...don't think so." Then Uni was, "hey, we love your stuff, need to one up Disney, and will build everything to your satisfaction including not having soda products in the area, will help you make butterbeer and pumpkin juice to your spects and basically bend over backwards for you. Can we have the rights to your stuff instead?" Rowling went, "cool". Everything was built, people came from all over the world, Uni made tons of money and built the area up quickly and neatly, and then Disney went all, "but we have New Fantastyland...and uh..that Avatar thing...and, uh, Star Wars is coming...like winter...it's coming, we swear!" Then Uni put up a second HP thing...and Disney still is giving us the GRR Martin "Star Wars and Avatar and Disney Springs is coming...we swear!" Treatment.

and then you were like Oh my GOD, really!!!!!!

 

[tweak89]

I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Comparing the Potter themed areas at Universal with the expansion of Fantasyland I think Universal did a better job with their major park expansion. I was expecting more out of the new Fantasyland but came away unimpressed. Maybe it was the sheer amount of time they spent on it compared to the result that's disappointing.

After this current trip (today is our last day) WDW will be the occasional visit and Universal will likely be our "go to" park. Although not my first (or second or third) pick for a themed land, I hope Avatar land get's the Disney mojo going again.

 

[rwdavis2]

Although I think US did a better job than Disney would have (US HAD to knock it out of the park), I do think Ms. Rowling made a mistake in the scale of the IoA side. Even though the detail is amazing, it's too small and gets crowded too easily. From the photos I've seen of Diagon Alley, that does not seem to be a problem.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

but as a HUGE HO fan

Typos for the win.

 

[kbelle8995]

It would have been interesting in Disney hands. Didn't work out that way.

Universal did knock it out of the park. Especially Diagon Alley which is incredible.

 

[sharona]

Count us among the many who have been seduced by HP and Express Pass over to the dark side. We have been to Orlando 2X in the past year without visiting WDW. I had basically said no more WDW but since we'll be in Orlando again anyway in April we've decided to spend 1 day at MK... and if that 1 day goes well it might rekindle our love of WDW.

I agree that it worked out best for the fans of HP and Orlando visitors in general that UOR got HP instead of WDW. WWOHP is amazing and it would have been just another attraction at WDW (with a 180 minute wait for a m&g with Dobby).

 

[rwdavis2]

Count us among the many who have been seduced by HP and Express Pass over to the dark side. We have been to Orlando 2X in the past year without visiting WDW. I had basically said no more WDW but since we'll be in Orlando again anyway in April we've decided to spend 1 day at MK... and if that 1 day goes well it might rekindle our love of WDW.

I agree that it worked out best for the fans of HP and Orlando visitors in general that UOR got HP instead of WDW. WWOHP is amazing and it would have been just another attraction at WDW (with a 180 minute wait for a m&g with Dobby).

Although we have no plans for Universal on our trip next year it's probably in the plans the next time we can get the kids together at the same time with not WDW that trip. When the kids were still in high school Universal was a perfect long weekend trip. You could do it all at least once over 2-3 days plus the on-site Express Passes are great. I'm hoping by the time we go back that HP will be on the system.

 

[hpriamson]

Count us among the many who have been seduced by HP and Express Pass over to the dark side. We have been to Orlando 2X in the past year without visiting WDW. I had basically said no more WDW but since we'll be in Orlando again anyway in April we've decided to spend 1 day at MK... and if that 1 day goes well it might rekindle our love of WDW.

I agree that it worked out best for the fans of HP and Orlando visitors in general that UOR got HP instead of WDW. WWOHP is amazing and it would have been just another attraction at WDW (with a 180 minute wait for a m&g with Dobby).

I've got some bad news for you about Dobby...