Editorial: No Room for Mistakes – The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

[Jon Fu]

I think Special Effects is also here to stay...if anything, I'm guessing shows are safe until after Potter. But we all know that area is being planned for development.

 

[Allen The Actor]

I personally feel that if they replaced SES with a hit show, like Wicked, it would be extremely popular. Mind you, SES is awesome as well, and I love that USH has a behind the scenes type show, but in it's current form, I'd prefer some extravagant show like Wicked, on the scale of the old Conan show.

I just...can't visualize how busy and tight the park is going to be. During peak times, the park is unbearable unfortunately. And I feel that once Potter comes, it'll be a sardine can year round unit they increase capacity elsewhere.

Universal Plaza will be great, but it'll just help with navigation....hardly anything else unfortunately. But it'll be great nonetheless

 

[William]

SES is a very popular show with guests. First-timers realize that the park offers a "behind-the-scenes" show, and they pounce at the opportunity. It seats tons of guests per show, and that's just what USH needs at the moment.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Which I totally understand and appreciate. Like I said, I love behind the scenes shows and stuff. ESPECIALLY at USH. I just wish it had a higher repeatability factor like the old SES for the sake of the repeat/AP visitors, which is a large population of the attendance.

 

[Juan T.]

And I thought Spring break was bad at Universal this year...I can't begin to imagine how packed it will be with Potter ;__;

 

[UniversalFan]

I think the best solution for capacity is to add more showtime windows, like how SES and Animal Actors usually have the same show times to get people off the streets into a show. I see that SES and AA combined can seat just roughly almost the same size of WaterWorld's guest capacity. Shrek usually has a good capacity. So just have at least 3-4 every 90 minutes. It's going to be a little hard for the actors to keep up with the amount of shows each day.

 

[Alexshow.]

Universal and Warner (Yes i'm even calling warner due to being that the warner studio is in hollywood aswell.) has a very big chance that they could screw up BIG. But i'm optimistic as the company's are both in Hollywood  and this time from what we're hearing we will beat orlando on the castle and if water world close's I guess that rumored show will take it's place and as we do know that this land is make or break i know for 2015 they could follow orlando for a Mr. Dna ride if csi closes and the explaniation is if they do have Mr dna have a bridge in the middle of the road that let's the tram go through the same path but the ride does go past the route and that would help universal a little on learning on the cutting edge ride because this would be a first for both parks as both have not done this ride concept before and would give universal hollywood some training to prepare for the largest and most complex ride in the park and beside's that. i would mabye reroute the tram in 2017 for a expansion if the area is popular enough. now that said will universal break or make it. I think they will Barely make it. now with that said how excited am i of TWWOHP..... I'm excited as hell for this as this i did knew when it was announced Universal will need to be prepared. that's really i just wanted to put out my thought on the make or break sitiuation for this.

 

[UniversalFan]

So what you are saying is a JP expansion. I'm not sure how they should do it. It seems complicated to do and is currently outside the park's boundaries.

 

[Chris]

Without diving into too much detail, I want to admit that I feel the same way with USH hourly capacity.  Our attraction range from 1500-2000 counts per hour with some of the lowest counts going to Transformers and Studio Tour.  This is a damming effect when you have high pressure on an attraction which can only push so many people through per hour without any downtime.  Despicable Me in Orlando has a very low hourly count.  With Minion Mayhem becoming a more highly focused attraction in Hollywood, I would not be surprised if we see a much larger capacity attraction over Orlando (which would be nice).  We need a crowd eater!  Waterworld can barely pull 2000 people out of the streets for only 30 minutes.  SES only 1400.  Wild West was 1600, but that is gone!  Shrek has some crowd eating capabilities because the show is short and can run quickly.  However, Potter is a snail.  Potter is one of the toughest attractions on the planet because of the slow crowd eating it does (hense why Orlando does not allow front of the line access). 

I see the future for USH is long wait times.  Its going to sell many more FOL passes, and Buy A Day Get A Year passes are probably going to go away after 2016.  Theme Parks are on a rise in attendance.  Let's keep the terrorist activities away for a while so these parks can benefit from tourism!

Which I totally understand and appreciate. Like I said, I love behind the scenes shows and stuff. ESPECIALLY at USH. I just wish it had a higher repeatability factor like the old SES for the sake of the repeat/AP visitors, which is a large population of the attendance.

Which is why I am all for smaller, street shows.  That will allow people to want to return because there is something they have missed.

 

[Jon Fu]

As it stands, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida have surprisingly close attendance numbers. It's actually impressive when you think about it, and it speaks volumes at what this park can actually handle.

Come to think of it, maybe I'm underestimating Universal and blowing this out of proportion. Hollywood should be commended by that statistic alone, considering how much more Florida has to work with.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Exactly! Small extra things can really make a visit! Disney has been nailing that for the past year on this coast.

 

[William]

Potter will probably be the park's biggest game changer so far.

 

[Allen The Actor]

There's no doubting that. I just feel that it'll bring some negative aspects to the park as well.

 

[Jon Fu]

A reader brought up this notion: what if Potter is almost self-contained? In that, while spillover will occur, the bulk of the Potter frenzy will stay within the confines of the  expansion?

We hadn't thought about that when we wrote the editorial, but that's almost what occurred at Islands of Adventure.

 

[Allen The Actor]

That's similar to what I brought up that USH most likely will use a Time Return type program to get into the land, similar to what IoA did. I think it'll be more tough to control here considering there aren't as many attractions

 

[William]

God, thinking of these crowds in the beloved Wizarding World is gonna make me puke.. <_<

 

[Allen The Actor]

I just thought of something....if they added something new to the Studio Tour, would it really help ease/spread out the Potter crowds or will it just make things worse? Because anything on the tour is still ON the tour, and just makes the tour longer (unless they cut something), and the wait longer.

 

[UniversalFan]

The teams can hold 174 people every 3 minutes, and its about an hour. So capacity is pretty high

 

[TSTLSOOM]

i remember one of my marketing buddies asking about "expierences" on the tour that might happen. One was a Fast and Furious one to replace the current one.

 

[Jon Fu]

i remember one of my marketing buddies asking about "expierences" on the tour that might happen. One was a Fast and Furious one to replace the current one.

I've been hearing a bunch of odd things surrounding Fast and Furious...things ranging from a simple retheme to an elaborate 3D experience. I've never heard this range of predictions for an attraction before. It's just odd.