I have a question that's probably already been answered but I can't seem to find anything on it. What exactly are we looking at queue-wise? The queue was always one of my favorite parts of DD/DC and I was just wondering what we could possibly be seeing as we're walking through.
If I were to give my most educated
guess...
This abbey structure's old classrooms would be where we begin our queue journey, now used as storage space for Hagrid's various creatures. I'm thinking it's a highly decayed structure, wood and stone aching with weight, heavy vines and agriculture growing through the windows and whatnot. Hopefully some really cool archaic wizarding minutiae. Potentially a major queue effect or element that introduces our journey.
We then descend into the catacombs and caves beneath the abbey, and make our way through to a set of show elements. I wouldn't expect any dull moments, either -- cobwebs, skulls, ancient runes, hopefully some scare gags, and maybe even some creatures? I'm hoping for at least one Kong-worm-style animatronic.
Once we reach the loading platform, I imagine we'll be in the mouth of the caves and back into an abbey setting. I'm hoping for some natural sunlight inclusion. We're loaded in twos, with the taller motorbike seat on the right. The first scene happens in the partially-sunlit courtyard, and then we're off.
Surely the pixies will be the first story element, kind of like "oh just come help ol Hagrid rescue some cornish pixies" featuring some hopefully improved character voices. Then, we come across the Anglia and narrowly miss it, heading then into more caverns beneath the abbey, fly into another storage shack of Hagrid's (I would not expect this structure to be Hagrid's Hut per se) and encounter a blast-ended skrewt, that seemingly can't control itself and ends up causing more damage, blasting us out of the hut and towards the glorious coaster segments that follow.
It's now up to us to steer back to Hagrid, but we end up crashing through some of the trees (featuring some pixies statues maybe?), later landing right in front of Fluffy, who curiously sniffs us, then barks us adieu as we venture into some deep caves. After a head chopper, they then end up leading us to a major dead end element, at which point the bike probably has given out and we have to rely on steering backwards through a forest that keeps getting denser and denser, with swaying fog and scarier noises.
Throughout the Forbidden Forest, we spot creatures and potentially some dark magic, which leads us to the devil's snare scene. It seems like it will do us in, when suddenly... Hagrid is there beneath us to save the day and either 1) cast
lumos solem or 2) use the blast-ended skrewt to release us. We're now instructed to make it back to the abbey, as he's caught his pixies and skrewt. So we floor it and wrap it up triumphantly, later waving bye to Hagrid as we roll back into the Abbey cave/catacombs.
Anyways, I want to see a few renderings when we
do get an announcement: one of what the entrance will actually look like with the ride in the background, one action shot with an animatronic, and a few shots of queue line elements. I sincerely hope they're hand-drawn and not weirdly rendered.