What are Disney doing next year with Universal Magic Potter?

[Sabi]

2010 is in a corner...Wizarding Wordl of the Harry Potter is growing up, step by step... officially will open summer 2010. Work is well underway.​

​

​

While the framework indicates an enormous volume, it doesn’t yet approach the height of Cinderella’s Castle; in order to achieve the effect indicated in concept art, I predict guests will enter through “cliffs” at the base of the magical school, with the castle itself mostly a forced-perspective mega-miniature mounted atop the show building. For an idea of what might be inside that enormous space, read U.S. Patent No. 6796908, which describes an interactive Harry Potter dark ride in which tourists use RFID-enabled electronic “magic wands” to “cast spells” that affect the outcome of the attraction.​

Elsewhere in Potterworld, you’ll find the Three Broomsticks pub-restaurant and other money-spending opportunities, all behind snow-covered Hogsmeade Village facades

The Flying Unicorn kiddie-coaster will be re-themed to one of Hagrid’s magical creatures, and Dueling Dragons’ elaborate castle queue will be redecorated (hopefully not destroyed) around a wizarding competition. What’s less certain: the details of “Project Strongarm,” the next-generation “RoboCoaster” that is supposed to be new area’s E-Ticket.
While specifics remain under wraps, we can glean something of the two new attractions’ potential by examining patent filings for cutting-edge effects designed by Scott Trowbridge, former head of Universal Creative (recently lured to Disney Imagineering). They include infinitely destructible “transforming scenery” (No. 11457160), a “high-speed punch-through” waterfall (No. 11457160) and a “time-slice multiplex” (No. 11565185) that displays different 3-D images to different viewers on the same screen. I’m most intrigued by the “ride track with motion base” which merges a Mummy-like roller coaster with a Spiderman-style simulator. While none of these ideas are guaranteed to germinate, they show the kind of next-gen engineering being employed.

Next summer, SeaWorld’s entry in the coaster wars is Manta. Bolliger & Mabillard, designers of Kraken and Hulk, are building a “flying” coaster that will send riders skimming facedown over water at 60 mph. At 140 feet high, it will be slightly smaller than its sister Tatsu in California, but the lush landscaping will compensate.

The DISNEY company has yet to announce any new rides to follow up Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ insanely crowded Toy Story Mania; an American Idol–themed karaoke contest