Stars, Heat, Chaos, Mayhem & HUGE Crowds As The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter Opens
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Jun 18 2010, 2:06 PM
At long last the much anticipated "LAND", The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened today at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure Theme Park. As expected, by everyone except for Universal, thousands of people showed and by 6am there were 5,000 people waiting to get in. The park reached capacity by 11am with people only being allowed in as others left. We also had reports of wait times being quoted of anywhere from 6 - 16 hours to get to the Harry Potter area in the park. There was also a report that the main Forbidden Journey ride glitched with the local news crew on board. However, theme park fans know that this is nothing unusual during the first few months of any new attraction.
With many of the films' stars present for the past few days including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick), Bonnie Wright
(Ginny Weasley), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Tom Felton (Draco
Malfoy), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Rupert Grint
(Ron Weasley) and Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) the media events and the opening have generated an unbelievable buzz. J.K. Rowling herself was present at Wednesday's event, but she stayed in the background, while John Williams conducted the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.
As one of the fortunates who has attended many of the soft openings and previews, I can attest to the beauty of the area and the fantastic job that Universal have done with the task of bringing Hogwarts and Hogsmeade to life, but they are really going to have to rethink their strategies for crowd management, especially as the temperatures rise throughout the summer.
I am glad I did not have to be there today, but I can't wait for my next trip ... Butterbeer is addictive.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Thousands of people waited in line for hours Friday to get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando on its opening day, as Daniel Radcliffe and other stars from the movie greeted fans at the minipark.
Aerial photos of Universal Orlando showed thousands upon thousands of people in line. The park was admitting guests to the 20-acre Wizarding World area in waves, so it did not appear overcrowded from the inside. But the line to enter the Wizarding World backed up through Universal's Islands of Adventure park, where the Harry Potter area is located, all the way to the Universal entrance at City Walk, according to Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com.
"It's absolutely jampacked," said Niles in a phone interview. "The entire Islands of Adventure theme park and City Walk are just one long queue to get into Harry Potter. The number of people here for this is clearly in the tens of thousands. These are passionate fans."
The Wizarding World brings the popular Harry Potter books and movies to life with rides, shops and detailed reproductions of the fictitious village of Hogsmeade, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the steam-belching Hogwarts Express train.
via www.google.com
At long last the much anticipated "LAND", The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened today at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure Theme Park. As expected, by everyone except for Universal, thousands of people showed and by 6am there were 5,000 people waiting to get in. The park reached capacity by 11am with people only being allowed in as others left. We also had reports of wait times being quoted of anywhere from 6 - 16 hours to get to the Harry Potter area in the park. There was also a report that the main Forbidden Journey ride glitched with the local news crew on board. However, theme park fans know that this is nothing unusual during the first few months of any new attraction.
With many of the films' stars present for the past few days including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) the media events and the opening have generated an unbelievable buzz. J.K. Rowling herself was present at Wednesday's event, but she stayed in the background, while John Williams conducted the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.
As one of the fortunates who has attended many of the soft openings and previews, I can attest to the beauty of the area and the fantastic job that Universal have done with the task of bringing Hogwarts and Hogsmeade to life, but they are really going to have to rethink their strategies for crowd management, especially as the temperatures rise throughout the summer.
I am glad I did not have to be there today, but I can't wait for my next trip ... Butterbeer is addictive.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Thousands of people waited in line for hours Friday to get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando on its opening day, as Daniel Radcliffe and other stars from the movie greeted fans at the minipark.
Aerial photos of Universal Orlando showed thousands upon thousands of people in line. The park was admitting guests to the 20-acre Wizarding World area in waves, so it did not appear overcrowded from the inside. But the line to enter the Wizarding World backed up through Universal's Islands of Adventure park, where the Harry Potter area is located, all the way to the Universal entrance at City Walk, according to Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com.
"It's absolutely jampacked," said Niles in a phone interview. "The entire Islands of Adventure theme park and City Walk are just one long queue to get into Harry Potter. The number of people here for this is clearly in the tens of thousands. These are passionate fans."
The Wizarding World brings the popular Harry Potter books and movies to life with rides, shops and detailed reproductions of the fictitious village of Hogsmeade, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the steam-belching Hogwarts Express train.
via www.google.com
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