The following is a combination of emails by my source. He has been working on the ride since the beginning and here are some clips of his thoughts and comments on the ride: ENJOY!!
From latest email Mar 31 -
"Hey! Just thought I'd pop in and let you know how the project is coming along. Although we are going through some challenges in cycling multiple vehicles (remember we are shooting for 47) and we don't yet have all the show systems working yet, this ride is shaping up to be exactly as Universal has been hyping it. I know Universal hypes every new project and usually the reality doesn't live up to the hype but in this case I don't think they are going overboard in any way and I doubt anyone will be disappointed. All of you dark ride fans will not want to miss this groundbreaking attraction. Yes we are aiming for a mid-April soft opening but I wouldn't hold my breath. Things change on an hourly basis with this project and we still have quite a bit of work to do."
"And the ride inside is coming along nicely as well. I promise you won't be disappointed. From the entry, queue and load area to the amazing Quidditch match, the dementors suckingg your soul, the spiders, the willow and the dragon encounter. You will finally be able to walk off of a ride in Central Florida and say, "wow that was better than I thought it would be.""
"The Forbidden Journey scenic is being installed and it is absolutely stunning! We are starting to see things put together and it does not disappoint. There are many challenges with just these show elements in that many of them are 30 or 40 feet above ground. many of the major effects have been mocked up and tested and some are even more impressive than we expected. As I've said before I think the ride will be ready by early Spring. For all those who do not plan on experiencing this ride I would say you would be missing out on a major breakthrough in the history of dark rides."
"I can tell you Universal is having major problems with the HP dark ride. But the problems are a result of their own egos and CYA attitude. When I say there are problems I mean they are massive in scope: to the point where they should be re engineering the entire ride system, even after most of it has been fabricated already. Unfortunately they have been burying their heads in the sand and nobody will admit what needs to be done.
That being said, the plans for this ride are far more ambitious than anything Disney has completed in over 13 years here in Florida. I have seen similar problems with some Disney projects..hehehmmmm Test Track. They will open Potter however and it will be a huge success despite its unusually high downtime and low capacity. At least Potter is going to be ten times more entertaining and fun than Test Track could hope to be."
Enjoy and DISCUSS!