The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade (Orlando): Part 2

[Teebin]

Its getting great reviews on Mugglenets forums by quite a few people. And I have talked with a few die hard fans while at the park or waiting in line and the emotion on their faces says it all. My sister is in Shanghai and is a DIE HARD fan and when she comes home in August I am taking her, she hasn't stopped talking about it since I went.

Mugglenet loved it. And as a hardcore fan myself, I felt like I was in heaven when I was there. Going back this Saturday...I cannot wait! I'm bringing my cousin who's never been to Universal. We're going to hit up the rest of the park during the morning and early afternoon and then go to HP at night. I'm surprised (he's only watched the movies), but he seems really excited to see the WWoHP.

This pleases me. I am not an HP fan... but I wanted them to be teary upon entrance or it would have been a failure. Sounds like they pulled it off. This is truly a case of "be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it" for UOR. They are lining up cues with new signs and tickets etc. two weeks after opening. Even they had no idea.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Hogshead Ale is produced in *drum roll* *be ready to be somewhat shocked* Melbourne, ............................

guess

guess

guess




FLORIDA! The Hogshead Ale is brewed exclusively by Florida Beer Company in Melbourne Florida! Tah Dah!

 

[Vyrus]

This pleases me. I am not an HP fan... but I wanted them to be teary upon entrance or it would have been a failure. Sounds like they pulled it off. This is truly a case of "be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it" for UOR. They are lining up cues with new signs and tickets etc. two weeks after opening. Even they had no idea.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Hogshead Ale is produced in *drum roll* *be ready to be somewhat shocked* Melbourne, ............................

guess

guess

guess




FLORIDA! The Hogshead Ale is brewed exclusively by Florida Beer Company in Melbourne Florida! Tah Dah!

Awesome! I'm glad its not A-B Inbev

 

[Cwoolboy]

and the Teebster brings us yet another interesting fun fact. THANKS TEEBIN!!!!!

 

[Teebin]

and the Teebster brings us yet another interesting fun fact. THANKS TEEBIN!!!!!

Thank me only for keeping my trap shut on all sources. Otherwise... thank all my great sources. They trust me, and they should. I have even thrown fake rocks over a few on here... meaning... they have disappeared, so it might seem. *grin*

(that was a reference to the final LOTRs movies... the cliffs and rockslide)

 

[Tbad556]

From @PaulChadkin:

Today the single rider line goes through an alternate version of the main queue. w/ Founder's portraits, Dumbledor's office and DADA class.

Interesting to say the least. I'm curious as to how exactly this ran and how long they're planning on doing this.

 

[Hatetofly]

From @PaulChadkin:

Interesting to say the least. I'm curious as to how exactly this ran and how long they're planning on doing this.

So they used part of the express queue because the singles was full huh.. It was crazy busy earlier today so I guess this will be a backup plan for days where the line gets out of hand.

 

[mantaguy]

Maybe that's why they're waiting to introduce express.

 

[Hatetofly]

This is from someone on another forum and thought it should be shared, WARNING MINOR SPOILER!

I re-rode Forbidden Journey today with a 90 min queue. Took 32 minutes to get on the attraction, so they're still hauling butt. I don't think the designers of this thing intended the line to move as quickly as it does, because you barely have enough time to see Dumbledore, as well as the Harry, Hermione, Ron sequence. The queue line just flies. It's really quite incredible.

As for the ride. The dragon AA is working again. I don't know if this is a new effect or just something that I haven't noticed (or not working when I first rode), but now they have a big curtain of fog separating the spider scene into two. No longer can you see ride vehicles if you look to the left or to the right.

 

[gannonsmovieworld]

This is from someone on another forum and thought it should be shared, WARNING MINOR SPOILER!

I re-rode Forbidden Journey today with a 90 min queue. Took 32 minutes to get on the attraction, so they're still hauling butt. I don't think the designers of this thing intended the line to move as quickly as it does, because you barely have enough time to see Dumbledore, as well as the Harry, Hermione, Ron sequence. The queue line just flies. It's really quite incredible.

As for the ride. The dragon AA is working again. I don't know if this is a new effect or just something that I haven't noticed (or not working when I first rode), but now they have a big curtain of fog separating the spider scene into two. No longer can you see ride vehicles if you look to the left or to the right.

They should put like some chains or something to separate the AADA classroom and Dumbledores office more so people sttay and watch the whole preshow and keep moving into the Grifindor common room and so on.

And it looks like we have a spy on OU looking at the complaints of seeing the ride vehicles or Universal Creative just noticed the problems by themselves.

 

[mantaguy]

Good to hear about the seperating fog screen. That was my biggest peeve with the ride. And I think they should let people step out of the queue in the two rooms woth the Musion so they can catch the whole thing. Right now the TMs bark at people to keep moving.

 

[crazyidea]

Hey that's the fog screen teebin was referring to a while back. Sounds neat-o

 

[Clive]

Great to hear about that fog screen - that's some positive show improvement, and the Forbidden Forest is one of those trouble spots where you can easily see the other arms if you glance around. Also great to hear the Dragon's back to 100%, I hope to see him working fully when I get back there in August.

As for the single rider's line change - that IS the express queue, and it has been used for single riders before. When I first showed up shortly after 2 on the 3rd, I was directed into that line - it has a separate portrait room with the Founders and then leads into Dumbledore's office, following the main queue the rest of the way. The typical single riders line as we all know goes right up that extra set of steps into the Gryffindor Common Room. Not sure why they were using the Express queue on either occasion.

To those in the know - when is Express going to be implemented for Forbidden Journey? Obviously not until the insane crowds die down of course, but once we're in consistent weeks of not having lines to enter the area, will it be installed? Or will we have another Rockit situation where the Express queue is there and ready to go but will remain shuttered? (It's now been over a year since Rockit opened still no Express... sigh...)

 

[rinacee]

Good to hear about the seperating fog screen. That was my biggest peeve with the ride. And I think they should let people step out of the queue in the two rooms woth the Musion so they can catch the whole thing. Right now the TMs bark at people to keep moving.

I was there for the GO and my brother and I hung out in the corner of the queue to watch two of of the DADA sequences. We just told people to pass us. The TMs didn't say anything...maybe because it was opening day and there was much craziness.

 

[Claire-Bear]

I was there for the GO and my brother and I hung out in the corner of the queue to watch two of of the DADA sequences. We just told people to pass us. The TMs didn't say anything...maybe because it was opening day and there was much craziness.

Yeah, we were barked at for sure. It didn't make sense; the queue outdoors in the boiling heat was very slow, yet there was no queue in the castle (or rather only a short queue by the loading). That was disappointing since they should have filled in the queue indoors so people had AC and could watch the scenes. Instead they shouted at us to keep moving and not to stop at all.

 

[TSSD]

This is from someone on another forum and thought it should be shared, WARNING MINOR SPOILER!

I re-rode Forbidden Journey today with a 90 min queue. Took 32 minutes to get on the attraction, so they're still hauling butt. I don't think the designers of this thing intended the line to move as quickly as it does, because you barely have enough time to see Dumbledore, as well as the Harry, Hermione, Ron sequence. The queue line just flies. It's really quite incredible.

As for the ride. The dragon AA is working again. I don't know if this is a new effect or just something that I haven't noticed (or not working when I first rode), but now they have a big curtain of fog separating the spider scene into two. No longer can you see ride vehicles if you look to the left or to the right.

Um.. Spoiler Thread?

 

[YETI PINTRADER]

Here is my report from yesterday. Got into the park and the line started at Toon Lagoon at the viking store but was moving really fast up until I entered Jurassic Park. They handed out red tickets to say we were in line. There were a lot of line cutters trying to get into the line but were sent to the back. In the line I saw that the line for FJ was out into the Jurassic Park arch. By the time I got in and went to the line myself it stretched to the side enterance but the letout into Jurassic Park from the green-house had been closed. the wait time read 120 but we didn't wait much more if any over an hour. The line moves constantly and once you hit the castle it moves into high speed. We flew through all of the rooms. The ride itself was running perfectly. It didn't break down as far as I saw (unlike Rockit' that broke down for me once, I heard people leaving the line saying that this was the second time it happened to them today.) The problem AA in FJ was working good as new. The biggest problem was the pictures in the gift shop. The samples did not go to the people who had just got off the ride and the person giving out numbers was writing out any number and making the people at the desk search through all the pictures to find the wright ones. It create a big backup for the photos. Hippogriph was reading 40 all day. Olivanders line was out to the Frog Choir area and could have been over an hour. Dragon Challenge was a walk on almost. Dervish and Bangs line went to the stroller parking for DC. Zonkos and Honeydukes were imposible to move in. I don't care if it is true to the book, when the quests have looks of disgust on their face and can't take a step in any direction then there is a problem.
I left the area about noon. Other things around the parks, Studios now has a lot of stilt performers dressed in Summer gear and dancing in the streets. Rockit' is a broken mess as said before. I did get on once and [HASHTAG]#132[/HASHTAG], Drumbone by Blue Man Group, is awesome on the ride. Spider-Man has had single-rider for a while and they were begging for them to come in. they had a giant sign out saying single riders wanted.
Went back to Wizarding World at about 8. FJ had a posted 90 minute wait but it was of course shorter. I then found that the best seat in FJ is the third. Hipogriph was a walk on at night and also gave a great view of the park and really made the ride worth it. The line to Olivanders closed around 9:30ish and the line for Dervish and Bangs still went to the DC stroller parking. DC was a walk on at about 9:40. Got on the first car that pulled into the station for The Horntail, that was BLUE!!!!!!!! Then I got to walk on to front row for the Firebolt. All the wands seemed to be in stock. I got Voldemort's and a friend I was with got Harry's.

 

[Tbad556]

Great trip report, Yeti! Sadly, they've been doing that for the FJ pictures every time I've gone so far.

Also, it sounds like that FastPass system they tried using a few days ago failed. From @FLallday:

[HASHTAG]#WWoHP[/HASHTAG] tested a fastpass system to come back later in the day, but that test "miserably failed" says TM. Line stretched to IOA gates.

 

[JungleSkip]

Great trip report, Yeti! Sadly, they've been doing that for the FJ pictures every time I've gone so far.

Also, it sounds like that FastPass system they tried using a few days ago failed. From @FLallday:

I really don't understand how that could have failed miserably unless Uni really screwed the pooch. It seems like a fairly easy system.

 

[Teebin]

Hey that's the fog screen teebin was referring to a while back. Sounds neat-o

Why yes it is! Thanks for recalling!

 

[Lombards64]

For everyones enjoyment, here's Screamscapes review of WWOHP (Part 1):
http://www.screamscape.com/html/wizarding_world_pt1.htm