The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hollywood

[Ryan]

Friend of the site HateToFly is also alluding to these insanely early soft rumors: https://twitter.com/hatetofly/status/664474946689753089

I'm dead set with the fact that USH won't hold a grand opening til March, so this would give WWoHP a gigantic three to four months of softs. Holy snapple.

 

[Freak]

^That would be pretty insane! I'm concerned this will blow up on social media if it happens though.

 

[Ryan]

Again, it'll work only if Universal opens when peak crowds start rolling in. That's mid-to-late December, so the rumors so far support that. Rethinking about it, the rich Potter diehards who could afford to do the "Potter Watch" in Orlando last year must have been able to afford a ticket and go visit WWoHP at UOR in the last five years, so that may not be a huge issue.

Obviously the second that it does soft open, the parks will easily close to capacity within mere hours. And that's not a thing Universal should be worried about: they're expecting just slightly lower than that turnout in the same timeframe anyways.

The worst, unexpected things that would be happening during that time would be outside of Universal. Expect insanely gridlocked traffic for people to find out they can't get in. My advice to tourists is to get there early: your park experience won't be affected much other than what it was going to be, but if you don't arrive on time, you may not even get in at all this time around.

What I just thought about that did not occur to me: team member previews. I don't recall Hogsmeade or Diagon having them, but it's an even larger tradition at USH for their employees. I wonder if, like Orlando, that won't occur. The timeframe and location make setting one up particularly difficult. Hmm...

 

[Allen The Actor]

But the parks are going to be packed no matter what, Potter diehards or not. If you open in the middle of the insane crowds at an unexpected time, then at least there's nobody just blocking paths for an unopened land, and capacity will be swelled already. It'll run Potter thru the ringer with the normal theme park audience. Of course some diehards will worm thru, but around the holidays most are either on vacation already or concerned with their families. Social media or not, it's a strange time of the year where that sort of thing gets tossed out the window. It's such a perfect idea to catch them off-guard, in a time where you literally have to be INSANE to go to the park. (especially since you aren't guaranteed entry)

And, yes, some will try, fail or not USH will get that money. Happily, I may add. But it prevents the overswelling that might happen in the early winter months as a result of keeping the land closed.

I guess I was just comparing Orlando VS LA. When something soft opens at USH or Disney, locals swarm, word gets out fast, and with Potter fans I think it'll be even more intense in Hollywood than Orlando believe it or not.

I totally get what you're saying though. It'll be chaos either way cuz it would be during Grinchmas crowds.

And like I mentioned before, a great positive to it soft opening is that it would allow the USH team and all its networks have months of practice of dealing with crowds they've never seen before and have it at least partially smoothed out for the grand opening.

And early food and merchandise sales...can't forget that

Gahhhh....I'm trying not to get too excited that it might soft open next month, but I can't help it. I'm beyond giddy. Can't believe we're so close.

 

[JaySalahi]

I will say about 2 months ago I heard from a top top source not to be surprised if HP opens in December. The Merch sales would be massive and ready to go. Plus attendance in Jan/feb will be huge. All kinks will be out by spring and summer.

Ive been saying for a while..... I know I'm nobody to you guys, but my friends dad helped design IOA and recently did the Shrek queue redo, he hit me up on Facebook in April and said his dad told him December. Looks like he might have been right...

 

[chris.g]

You guys may want to visit the park Dec. 18 and onwards just in case something turns up.... Just in case... 

 

[happinessishere]

Oh my goodness so much exciting things to talk about... I was looking through the past couple of photos and noticed somethings.... Are you guys sure greenhouse is finished?? It seems like they need to finish half of the white window tops bc the rest are a yellowish color and the others are bright white... Hmm I was noticing it before and thought they would finish it later but I guess not? Also Im not sure if I've touched upon this before but since we are getting closer to opening date I wanted to bring it up again... Has anybody gone on the 3D version of FJ? I'm so worried about it bc I feel as if there are so many unappreciated physical effects that people find hard to see on their own and I feel like it's going to be way harder w glasses on since 3D glasses tend to make things look more dark and dull... Has this been an issue at all in Japan?

I rode it in Japan in 3D and hated it. The 3D in the film segments was just alright (not up to the level of Minion Mayhem at USH or Spider-Man at IOA) and not great, and then it made seeing the rest of the ride much more difficult. It's already very dark and the glasses made the actual scenes a lot more distanced. I ended up removing my glasses every time we got out of a dome so I could see the actual ride. Super annoying.

 

[HereWeGo]

Why specifically December 18th? Just curious.

 

[Wesker69]

Well.... December 18th IS the day that Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out and you know that 99.9% of the world will be at the movie theatres seeing it multiple times... soooo in a way, it would be the perfect distraction for USH to soft-open WWOHP. That probably isn't the actual reason why, but its the one I am going with haha

But yea, honestly December sounds pretty plausible.. I asked how Hogsmeade is coming along and was told it is pretty much in the "finishing touches, some painting, & cleaning up" phase. Not much of an update, but eh...

 

[HereWeGo]

Have they already gotten employees in to the land to start training yet for everything?

Also, do you guys think they'll do a "Celebration of Harry Potter" in Hollywood as well or is that going to stay an Orlando exclusive? 

 

[chris.g]

^ Employees have been training for months now. No idea why Dec. 18 and onward, but it's what was given to me and was told it would help with "crowd control". I'm really skeptical about going as I really want to visit, but at the same time I do not want to deal with what the crowds are going to look like. Also, keep in mind it's just a rumor right now, but i would not doubt this is true. 

 

[Wesker69]

As for "Celebration of Harry Potter" (seriously almost typed "Star Wars Celebration"), I wouldn't expect it in 2016, but 2017 is a possibility.

I know we have a thread for this topic... And as I said in there, the event in Orlando is actually rather small (compared to HHN), so it could easily be done at USH. And by "small", I don't mean not popular, but in size/content. For anyone not familiar with the event, it only uses 1 stage & 1 soundstage for everything, but nothing 'extra' in Hogsmeade/Diagon. So as I said, its a small event in that respect.

The only thing is, we really don't know what the park will look like in another year. But "if" we did get the Potter event here, going by what the park is like currently... they could really spread out the content Orlando has & expand upon it to make it bigger/better. Like I said, we do have a thread for this topic already, but yea, I can see the event happening at some point because USH needs more special events

 

[Aaron]

Well.... December 18th IS the day that Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out and you know that 99.9% of the world will be at the movie theatres seeing it multiple times... soooo in a way, it would be the perfect distraction for USH to soft-open WWOHP. That probably isn't the actual reason why, but its the one I am going with haha

But yea, honestly December sounds pretty plausible.. I asked how Hogsmeade is coming along and was told it is pretty much in the "finishing touches, some painting, & cleaning up" phase. Not much of an update, but eh...

Scenic is in the final stages for Hogsmead. Just a few storefront props that need to be loaded in (and of course merchandise). A mid-late December soft seems pretty likely at this point. 

 

[k_peek_2000]

Most of the annual passes are blocked from Dec. 19 - Jan 2. IF it were to open in Dec, that would be the time.

 

[Imdbman]

Most of the annual passes are blocked from Dec. 19 - Jan 2. IF it were to open in Dec, that would be the time.

That makes sense, do you think they'd be doing Annual Passholder previews at that time though?

 

[Chris]

I think that with USH's track record of having special events for specific IP's (Transformers and BTTF), it will be very unlikely for us to get Potter Celebrations.  Notice Transformers and BTTF were outside companies renting the park for thier event...it was not USH's dime.  Orlando seems to have this stuff down compared to our friends here in California.  No offense, but they are missing out on some great opportunities.

I have enough confirmation that the official opening date will be in April.  There is not a specific date yet, but the event is already being planned.

I can see a soft in December...just remember, they can close the land at any time if they have issues during a soft opening.  Supercharged anyone?

 

[chris.g]

Costco Season Passes are not blocked off until the 26th. Looks like I better make good use of my time then. 

 

[k_peek_2000]

That makes sense, do you think they'd be doing Annual Passholder previews at that time though?

No way, not for a soft opening. Annual Passholder previews would happen prior to the grand opening in spring like what they did for Transformers. It was soft opened for about a month, then when most of the kinks were worked out they had their AP previews.

 

[Allen The Actor]

I think that with USH's track record of having special events for specific IP's (Transformers and BTTF), it will be very unlikely for us to get Potter Celebrations. Notice Transformers and BTTF were outside companies renting the park for thier event...it was not USH's dime. Orlando seems to have this stuff down compared to our friends here in California. No offense, but they are missing out on some great opportunities.

I have enough confirmation that the official opening date will be in April. There is not a specific date yet, but the event is already being planned.

I can see a soft in December...just remember, they can close the land at any time if they have issues during a soft opening. Supercharged anyone?

USH quite literally stopped caring about its classic properties and taking advantage of hosting special events.

Might be different with Potter though, considering what kind of cash cow it is.

I visited the park today for a few hours, from 5 till closing, and they were doing a TON of lighting tests in and around the Wizarding World. They have blue mood lights lighting the entry arch now. And there were workers testing different fill light intensities on the Hogsmeade buildings, and most impressive was seeing them test the Hogwarts lighting with projection fill lamps with different funny patterns they kept moving and altering and blurring to get just the right mood and look for Hogwarts. Really feels close now.

 

[Wesker69]

^Well to be fair, they had the blue lighting on the entry archway during HHN via a spotlight, so that isn't really "new". Unless you mean a different type of lighting other than the spotlight style lighting.... :unsure: