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

[White Rabbit]

Yeah apparently. If any of it gets on the moving belt, the ride has to be stopped. If it's just on the vehicle, they can not load it and keyhole it (meaning to send it around without profiling) and have it sent to the secondary platform where they can clean it, without stopping the whole ride.

 

[violarum]

Teebin, that's great news, thank you.

But I have to be frank with this new portrait idea. (Warning, this is long-ish...) What is one of the Sorting Hat's warnings? "Do not ride if flying makes you queasy." Verbatim. You listen to the spiel at least twice. There are also signs everywhere that this is a motion simulator ride. If now yet another warning must be installed so that people realize that this is a movement-based attraction, then I think it's time Universal starts with the ebb-and-flow queue system and install doors in order to allow for the multiple pre-show system we discussed a while back. Basically, it would allow for everyone to view the queue at a pace that pleases and without the annoying bars.

• There would be six "show rooms" in the main queue, and one in the single riders queue. Within these separate rooms, guests can either view the room in its full glory and watch its spiels and whatnot, or line up at the door for the next room.
• In the normal queue, guests first either line up for lockers, or line up for the ride itself, so there would be three queues outside: Singles, standby, and lockers in that order from left to right; In the lockers queue, guests would walk back outside to either go to the back of the line or join the queue with their family members.
• Then, guests walk through the dungeons and are able to stop and take pictures and whatnot, and the people limit would be somewhere along the lines of thirty people per "group". Each rotation would be every five minutes, but guests can remain in this section if they please.
• In the greenhouse, guests would line back up in the normal queue style.
• In the Oxford Corridor and in front of the Griffon statue, another group of about thirty people is allowed for another five minute round within.
• Likewise with the same time constraints with the Portrait Gallery and hallway.
• " " with the DADA classroom.
• " " with the Fat Lady / Gryffindor Common Room.
• Once again, in the ROR / Sorting Hat rooms, guests line up to ride the benches.

The main goal is to accentuate the feeling of walking at one's own will. When it comes to the inevitable dispute of "I was here first," the students must be alert and are to inform guests that order does not matter; everyone will be riding. Also, not all of the black bars would be discarded, as there is to be an imperative separation between single riders and standby riders. I feel as though this way, if one wishes to view the entire queue and ride or just view the queue without riding, everyone will be content and not feel rushed, and the sense of the castle being open to 'tours' would be accentuated.

 

[White Rabbit]

Although that would be ideal to get ride of those pesky complaints about "I felt rushed through the attraction", to a budget stand point, that means that ride would have to employ a lot more people than it has now. If you're saying that is a TM per room, to control the flow of guests, that's like what, 6 new positions? Also, with the three lines starting out front, that would add more confusion, so you would need 2 greeters plus a test seat person. Let's break it down, shall we? Let's look at all the positions on the ride now, and add in your new ones. This is if the ride is running at full capacity.

2 Courtyard Greeters
1 Test Seat
2 Dungeon Greeters
2 Queue Control
1 Grouper
1 Child Swap
1 Belt Pulse
1 Load 1
1 Load 2
1 Dispatch
1 Unload
2 Controls Attendants
1 ADA Runner
1 Secondary Platform
1 Castle Queue Patrol
1 Outside Queue Patrol

We're up to 20. These are just positions, no breakers, no Leads. Add in yours:

1 Dungeon Queue Flow
1 Oxford Corridor Queue Flow
1 Portrait Gallery/Dumbledore Queue Flow
1 DAFA QF
1 Common Room/Fat Lady QF

That's 25 positions. Add in breakers, and leads, and that's a lot of staff for 1 attraction. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just think that it wouldn't be done. Also, I think the crowd control would be a nightmare. Just let them be in a line, and get on the ride. General public guests wouldn't be able to figure out this whole "wait and watch the show" thing anyway.

 

[violarum]

Well, it most definitely would be done if the willpower was there. I mean, Universal has the money for it, and DM and Spidey's upgrade will no doubt bring in more revenue. It would require more students, yes, but workers at WWoHP come and go quickly, especially with some of the kids at my school and the ones around it.

Now, yes, I know that it is challenging to allow guests to flow from one area to another, but crowd control skills and logistics have solved these issues before. Simple, precise, and memorized instructions always work well in theme parks, i.e. Poseidon's Fury.

 

[TSSD]

Teebin, that's great news, thank you.

But I have to be frank with this new portrait idea. (Warning, this is long-ish...) What is one of the Sorting Hat's warnings? "Do not ride if flying makes you queasy." Verbatim. You listen to the spiel at least twice. There are also signs everywhere that this is a motion simulator ride. If now yet another warning must be installed so that people realize that this is a movement-based attraction, then I think it's time Universal starts with the ebb-and-flow queue system and install doors in order to allow for the multiple pre-show system we discussed a while back. Basically, it would allow for everyone to view the queue at a pace that pleases and without the annoying bars.

This.

 

[mantaguy]

While I have no idea what Teebin is talking about, I do know that Forbidden Journey may be getting another moving portrait that is going in the common room that further explains what the ride does, and to make another warning about motion sickness. Apparently the puking all over the ride and moving belt have become kind of ridiculous now.

Interesting, I saw none today.

On the queue flow, I agree that there should be more structure the the flow of the line. There are the problems of staffing and increased wait times, but I think it would make a better experience. On the other hand, waited literally five minutes for FJ today. Win.

Oh and I took a great whiff of the "Floo smoke". Smelled like bacon.

 

[dmkrc5]

Does anyone know how the waits have been lately (after/before memorial day weekend)?

 

[mantaguy]

Does anyone know how the waits have been lately (after/before memorial day weekend)?

30 - 45 Is what I saw today. The whole park was actually less crowded than I expected. However the water rides had waits of 60, 60, and 75. Blame the heat.

 

[AndyP]

Rode Forbidden Journey today.. YAAAAY!

A few pages ago in this thread I was asking what the ride was like and that I was prone to getting a bit dizzy on motion simulators etc.

This ride is frikkin' AWESOME! Sorry for the caps, but HPATFJ is my favourite ride ever. And I'm not an impressionable 13 year old who calls each ride the best ever.... I'm an ageing 39 years young. Sensible. Business owner. Etc.

The way the ride throws you around is actually really fun. I have to admit I wasn't keen on being thrown virtually upside down, but overall the way the whole thing is put together is amazing. Will be riding again next visit, later next week.

 

[AcidPop]

"Virtually upside down?" I thought it was just kinda flat on your back at one point?

Starting to wonder if some of my family members who don't love rides will be able to do FJ.

 

[mantaguy]

At no point does FJ make you feel like you're going upsidedown on screen (however Simpsons does). During the (highlight Whomping Willow scene, it does flip you on your back a little past horizontal

 

[AcidPop]

Sounds pretty epic. I wish we could go this year. But my family is doing a vacation for our grandparents anniversary, and it looks like they're heading somewhere tropical. Doubt I'll tag along, because beaches bore me. Also I can just head down to the park that's 5 minutes away and go swimming there rather than pay thousands of dollars to do so. Plus, there are no jellyfish or sharks there. Big plus.

 

[AndyP]

At no point does FJ make you feel like you're going upsidedown on screen (however Simpsons does). During the (highlight Whomping Willow scene, it does flip you on your back a little past horizontal

For you, perhaps. :shrug:

I guess it's a sensation personal to the individual riding. At the scene you mentioned, I felt like I was going upside down.

 

[mantaguy]

Well Forbidden Journey has nothing like at 2:21:

[video=youtube;l8hThid_BTI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8hThid_BTI[/video]

I thought that was what you were talking about.

 

[AndyP]

Well Forbidden Journey has nothing like at 2:21:

I thought that was what you were talking about.

Ah, with you now. No, on Simpsons the image goes full circle (by default including upside down), but the ride cart doesn't - or we'd all fall out.

In FJ, the ride car=t actually tips you backwards - like you said earlier, just beyond horizontal - which gave ME the feeling that I was being put upside down. Perhaps I'm being every so slightly melodramatic, but bear in mind - I don't do rollercoasters because I don't like that feeling and I don't really do sims because I can get dizzy and disorientated. Quite how I managed FJ I guess is testament to just how well the ride is put together, because there was only one time I felt I could look at the screen (dome) because I started to get dizzy.

Will be back at IOA later this week and it's the first ride I'm heading towards. Then will try and ride again later in the day, love it!

--- Update ---

Ahhh shoot! I just discovered the thread for "reviews" of HPATFJ. It may be an idea for a kind Mod or Admin to move my review and the couple of following replies into that thread if that's OK.

My bad, sorry.

 

[mantaguy]

there was only one time I felt I could look at the screen (dome) because I started to get dizzy.

It's not the quidditch scene is it? That part always makes me queasy.

 

[AndyP]

It's not the quidditch scene is it? That part always makes me queasy.

Jees, you know, I just don't remember. It's all over so quickly I don't remember which bit it was that made me queasy. It could well be the Quidditch scene because that was a particularly wild bit of flying.

 

[Teebin]

Teebin, a question if you're able to answer:

Are they finally moving forward with something now that the question of ownership has been answered?

Sorry that I missed this question. Just like the original WWOHP project it is all very blue-sky until it isn't blue-sky. From what I can tell, the ownership wasn't considered an issue until/unless it had become an issue (meaning if shares had been sold to a third party). All of this has been going on long before the question of ownership came up and to my limited knowledge this hasn't gotten to the engineering design ($$$) phase.

 

[AcidPop]

Has anyone heard ANYTHING - even a new rumor - as to when possible expansions will take place? I'd be more happy with a when than a what, so to speak.

 

[Teebin]

Has anyone heard ANYTHING - even a new rumor - as to when possible expansions will take place? I'd be more happy with a when than a what, so to speak.

This will not be known until an announcement. There might be a few that will post that the announcement is coming a few weeks/months before. That said, it could be one year, two years before any announcement, or worse, never. Regardless, a large expansion will not grand open for 4-5 years based on my previous caveats.