Wizarding World - Diagon Alley Discussion - Part 3

[Ajstriker26]

^ Were they given the scarves too?

The scarves and about 5 kids were given the Hogwarts Express hats :yikes:

 

[Frank Drackman]

Was just peekin around and noticed that Bryn Court sure is proud of his dragon! It's now the lead image on his website: http://www.moviesculptor.com/

WOW! Thanks for that! Man, I do not know what 'it' is, but seeing all his work like that, there is 'something' in the eyes of everything he sculptures/creates. Everything I looked at seems to have a sort of emotion or a backstory captured in the eyes...the eyes being the gateway to the soul, I'm not sure I have ever seen pictures of so many items that seem to capture feeling in the eyes....

 

[GAcoaster]

AK is pulling 19K on a good day this Summer. An E-ticket with entrances in both parks--divide the crowd in half, that's still less than 1,000 guests/hour on either side.

I think the ride is doing fine, but the larger point is AK is dead this Summer (as are EPCOT and Sea World). Meanwhile, reports of DHS' death seem greatly exaggerated. The take-away seems to be in a weak Summer, the parks with the new stuff (and MK because it's MK) are the ones who do better than the rest.

MK has been missing their projections for attendance by 5,000 - 10,000 each day most of the summer.

 

[Quint]

^ Were they given the scarves too?

Scarves, commemorative tickets, and a free Butterbeer ice cream.

 

[Teebin]

The scarves and about 5 kids were given the Hogwarts Express hats :yikes:

Do they sell the HE hats somewhere in the park? If not, what a keepsake!

 

[Quint]

kids were given the Hogwarts Express hats :yikes:

They were made honorary Hogwarts Express porters. Those hats are the real McCoy. The same that team members wear.

 

[Mad Dog]

Universal announced that they have celebrated their 1 millionth rider on the Hogwarts Express today. 200 guests received comp Butterbeer ice cream to celebrate the milestone.

I love it. The Hogwart's Express is an unqualified success, and a mighty capacity machine, carrying apx. 30,000 passengers a day, 2700+ an hour. Where's the naysayers that said Universal wasn't doing very well with this expansion, and where are those that said HE is basically a dud since the lines are short.?The lines are short only because the excellent staff is getting turn around time much better than predictions. Kudos to those TM's....Over at WDW Magic, their Universal haters are having a fit. They basically called Seth a liar (though not using that word) yesterday when he said HE was doing 30,000 or so a day. Seth had to defend his statement but they weren't believing. Now they all have pie in the face with Universal's public announcement. But some are such haters they're actually insinuating that Universal falsified their numbers. You know, it all comes down to envy. WDW is doing nothing on new attractions and they just can't stand that the little kid up north is having success because they're spending money for new attractions. But when Kong opens I fully expect certain people to come out with their same word for word set statements of doom that they did with Transformer & Diagon.....So much about this expansion concerns great capacity. Put 8000 people in Springfield and an observer would say the park is packed like sardines. Move those same 8000 to New York, and people will say the Studios is at a 10 level. But put those 8000 in Diagon Alley, where due to the immersive closed land everyone is out of sight, and people will say the park only has an average crowd. Universal did such a great job on capacity and crowd control (including the popular Transformers, Hogwart's Express & Despicable Me additions), that the park can have record crowds without feeling overly crowded.

 

[Frogki]

See, that's really cool. Those are really unique, makes me wonder if they have anything special planned for September first considering it's the day the train leaves in the books and movies...

 

[Parkscope Joe]

More confirmation of OU insider's analysis from Day1. I always trust in OU Insider opinion. It's generally the best available.......except for the dippin dots low management guy that a few other people listen to. (LOL)....Great work guys, (HTF, Seth, Jungle Skip, Test Track, Disneyhead, Teebin,Drew, BriMan, and anyone else I missed). This is why OU is the prime source for Universal info. Only Robert Niles at TPI can come close. And the rest of the pack is definitely in the dust.

Hey don't loop me into this shady cast of characters! :rofl:

Seriously, there's a department in UOR who can't project, and always projects too high. If no one went to WDW and lined up at UOR at 5am they'd still over project. Then it hits the front line on cut backs of hours (because they prepared for the apocalypse). That's where I think TD and several others are getting info from.

*edit*

Also, HE is successful on another front that will make your jaw drop.

 

[Frogki]

Also, HE is successful on another front that will make your jaw drop.

Can you tell us what this front is, or when we'll know what it is?

 

[Mad Dog]

Hey don't loop me into this shady cast of characters! :rofl:

Seriously, there's a department in UOR who can't project, and always projects too high. If no one went to WDW and lined up at UOR at 5am they'd still over project. Then it hits the front line on cut backs of hours (because they prepared for the apocalypse). That's where I think TD and several others are getting info from.

*edit*

Also, HE is successful on another front that will make your jaw drop.

Just a guess, food & merch sales while in line?

 

[bcoots]

Holy cannoli is right! About halfway through the gallery there is a miniature of the rockwork inside gringott's, and a physical dragon prop is seeing flying through the caves. Is this something that got scrapped? Or is it on the ride but maybe just hard to see?

The miniature with the cutout dragon is for the screen projection in the final scene. In the picture after it you can see a cutout of Bellatrix and Voldemort standing on a rock.

 

[MrRoamer]

Also, HE is successful on another front that will make your jaw drop.

Number of beers taken on the ride?

 

[sjago13]

No breakdowns since opening?

 

[illumination]

The miniature with the cutout dragon is for the screen projection in the final scene. In the picture after it you can see a cutout of Bellatrix and Voldemort standing on a rock.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Frogki]

It's really awesome to me reading bak at how many people saying an Express simulator wouldn't work, interfere with backstage roads, be a capacity nightmare, etc, and now it's surpassed all arguments a one of the most effective parts of the expansion. I've never felt like I was really waiting for the ride, because the lines were always moving so quickly...

 

[IzzyB]

Just wanted to share a funny moment I had at work (publix) A customer comes up to me with her daughter and a 2 day pass to universal and IOA. I asked her when she was going and began to have a conversation with her. She told me she reserved two days at a Disney hotel planing to hit up the Disney parks but her daughter later changed her mind and wanted to go to universal instead. Lmao!! I was surprised because this little girl was more interested with Universal than Disney. She changed the families plans. Score for universal.

When my daughter is 40" tall (she is 39" and almost 39 1/2 with shoes on) and the new LO on the way is no longer preventing me from riding rides (January) I totally see us spending more time at Uni than Disney next year. Mainly because the new LO won't be interested in anything until about a year old and my daughter (who will be 4 in December) would much rather ride a coaster or other thrill rides than anything else. Sure she has her moments of wanting Peter Pan, Pooh, and visiting Mickey, but overall she is a thrill seeker. However, I do have friends with kids older than mine who their kids would rather go to Disney. In fact two of my friends with young kids (10 and under) that visit about once a year much prefer Disney because their kids are scared of coasters and other such rides. So it really depends on the kid. My daughter will go on rides that my friends 6 & 9 year olds won't go on.

On a side note, I was pregnant when Hogsmeade opened and couldn't ride anything and now I am pregnant when Diagon opens and again can't ride the main attraction lol I will again be waiting until next year to ride anything. Last time I rode sometime near the end of Jan. This year it probably won't be until February. I will go to see everything else before then though.

 

[freediverdude]

The Disney folks and fans might be finally waking up, but by the time Disney designs something like Star Wars land and gets it open, it will be 2018 (or later, lol), and by then Universal will have Kong, Ministry of Magic, and probably something else like a Star Trek land.

 

[Teebin]

Did anyone here previously know that there was conceived a dragon with outstretched wings? I cannot recall any such concept art.

 

[MillenniumDragons]

I went for the first time yesterday around 1PM and I saw a lot of pictures of the land and video walkthroughs, but when I went past the wall and into Diagon Alley I was blown away, didn't break down into tears like some, but I was just wowed by how grand DA is. It's so immersive and there's so much to see. It was obviously crowded, but it wasn't like you couldn't move around. Gringotts at around 1:30/2PM had a wait time of around 180 minutes and when I came back around 5:30/6PM the wait was still 150 minutes, didn't want to wait that long, but I have a season pass so I'll go back when the crowd dies down. Hogwarts Express was 20 minutes but the line moved fairly quick. The 2 other rides I rode were Mummy (30 Min but felt longer) and Transformers (75 Min, and after that long the music and lights gave me a headache!) Still had fun and Diagon Alley is just simply amazing.