In the video, Universal Creative exec Mark Woodbury walks through the waiting area for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and shows off the portrait gallery, featuring some of the school’s founders’ paintings which come to life.
There’s another look at Headmaster Dumbledore’s office, and a peek inside the defense against the dark arts classroom, where riders will see Harry, Ron and Hermione emerge from underneath an invisibility cloak.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is the centerpiece of the new themed area at Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park. The Wizarding World also includes a new restaurant, shops and a couple of pre-existing rides that have been re-themed to fit the Harry Potter vibe.
The grand opening for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is scheduled for June 18.
Walt Disney World is testing a system that would ask guests to ditch the lines and wait in a holding area at some of its most popular attractions.
Tests inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Tuesday and Wednesday assigned group numbers to those wanting to ride the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
These tests appear similar to a concept for a revamped Dumbo ride in Walt Disney World’s upcoming Fantasyland expansion project. Disney has said that rather than waiting in line, guests will be invited to play carnival games and enjoy entertainment in the air-conditioned circus tent in the renderings below, while awaiting their turn to ride the flying elephants.
Studios Central says that the test at the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster worked like this: Guests were assigned the group number, then led to a tented standby area where there was a DJ and video games (such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero.) There was also merchandise on sale in the standby area, which is not surprising. This is Disney, after all.The waiting system that was tested this week isn’t a scheduled appointment to ride where you could leave the ride and come back later. You are expected to stay in the designated waiting area. Signs warned that if you weren’t there within 5 minutes of your group being called, you would lose your place in the queue.
The test also did not replace Disney’s “Fastpass” system, where you do obtain a ticket with a certain time assigned that allows you to come back and ride popular rides with less wait. Fastpass was still running at the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. But there is no Fastpass for the Dumbo ride’s current incarnation.
Keep in mind, this was a test. The ‘queue-less’ waiting system that is installed when the Fantasyland expansion is completed in 2012 or 2013 could be totally different.
I guess the advantage is the entertainment and freedom to sit down or move around a bit when you would otherwise be standing in a line. But I don’t think this system actually reduces wait times. I do think it will be a boon to parents. It’s hard to corral kids in a hour-long line. What do you think?
The new Intimidator 305 roller coaster has opened at Kings Dominion theme park in Richmond, VA. The coaster, named in honor of the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, has ride cars that look like Earnhardt’s famous black Chevy. Earnhardt’s daughter Taylor visited the park last week to open the ride.
The Intimidator 305 screams along at 92 miles per hour, thanks to a 300-foot drop at the start.
Kings Dominion says that makes it part of a new class of giga-coasters – “complete-circuit coasters with a height of 300 feet or taller.” You can now check “add a word to my vocabulary” off today’s to-do list. You’re welcome.
Universal requires 4-night stay for Harry Potter packages (Orlando, FL, USA)
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens June 18, and if you want to book Universal Orlando Resort’s vacation package to go see the wizard, you will be staying in Orlando until at least June 22.
Universal tells the Orlando Sentinel that the package was designed as a 4-night experience when it was introduced in February, but the minimum stay requirement was just set this week.
The Orlando vacation packages include a hotel stay, Universal Orlando tickets, breakfast at the new Three Broomsticks restaurant and early admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.Coney Island Cyclone opens for 83rd season (New York City, NY, USA)
The landmark Cyclone roller coaster has re-opened for its 83rd season on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.
It costs $8 to ride the combination wooden and steel structure that cost $175,000 to build in 1927. Although the thrill ride is on the National Register of Historic Places, it is still listed among coaster enthusiasts as one of the best current roller coasters in the country – both for its great views of the Manahattan skyline and its 60 mph hairpin turns.
Nearby, the new Luna Park is set to open its 19 rides on the Coney Island shore on May 29.
Great Wolf Lodge tries for water-slide world record (USA)
3,651 miles. That’s the distance that bathing-suit clad visitors slid at 11 Great Wolf Lodge indoor water parks last weekend, in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record.
The Great Wolf Lodges each kept one water slide open for 24 hours and asked sliders to donate to the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. The charity event/publicity stunt resulted in 47,660 trips down the designated water slides.
Guinness is still verifying the information before making the world record – which will be in the category longest distance water sliding in 24 hours in multiple venues – official. Oddly enough, there’s no previous record-holder for this very specific, new category in the company’s record books.
SeaWorld’s Aquatic water park opens new water slide (Orlando, FL, USA)
Orlando water park Aquatica has opened its new slide, the Omaka Rocka. The tube slide deposits riders in funnels designed to mimic the sensation that skateboarders feel in the half-pipe.
This is the third year for Aquatica, SeaWorld’s venture into the water park scene. Omaka Rocka is the first addition to the park since it opened.
Future questioned at Freestyle Music Park (Myrtle Beach, SC, USA)
The troubled Freestyle Music Park is facing foreclosure. The Myrtle Beach, S.C., park – which opened as Hard Rock Park in 2008 then underwent a brand change for the 2009 season – missed a debt payment deadline last week.
The Sun News reports that the theme park’s owners have not been able to find new investors and are facing bankruptcy or foreclosure. Owners are saying it is “unlikely” that the park will open for the 2010 season.
Six Flags releases iPhone app (USA)
The Six Flags Fun Finder, a free app, is now available in the App Store. Beyond the usual park maps and event listings, that app integrates with Facebook to help you find the exact location of your friends within any Six Flags theme park. The app is free.
Last week, Universal Orlando announced an opening date (June 18) for its Wizarding World of Harry Potter and offered more details about the big new ride in Harry Potter land. But the Orlando theme park also gave hardcore Potter fans a glimpse into another important aspect of their new mecca – the food.
First up, butterbeer – the drink of choice for all young wizards. The Orlando Sentinel’s Dewayne Bevil got a preview swig last week, and he describes the flavor as “shortbread cookie with butterscotch.”
It’s a foamy drink, which makes me think it will be smooth like a cream soda. But if it is as sweet as everyone says, it seems like it might be hard to finish the reported 16 ounces in a serving. It is non-alcoholic, and Universal says the recipe has been approved by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
There’s also pumpkin juice, which we’re guessing will taste like pumpkin pie.
And then, there’s the food. Universal chef Stephen Jayson has been using a lot of books in his menu development, but they aren’t cookbooks. MTV News says when Jayson was questioned about whether certain food items were mentioned in the Harry Potter novels, he “produced a heavily annotated stack” of Harry Potter books and offered to show the exact page where the food was described.
Much of the food in the Wizarding World’s new Three Broomsticks restaurant will be British pub fare such as fish and chips, pasties and shepherd’s pie. There will also be healthier choices like split pea soup and salads. Larger parties can order the “Great Feast,” a family-style meal of rotisserie chicken, ribs and sides.
Even if you haven’t stayed at the Walt Disney WorldSwan and Dolphin Resort, you have seen the convention hotel complex if you have visited EPCOT. The postmodern resort designed by American architect Michael Graves is visible from several places in the park.
The triangular hotel with leaves painted on it is the Dolphin, and the rounded one with waves is the Swan. Which seems to be the opposite of what they should be, right?
And thus, a Disney urban legend was born. It says that when the iconic sculptures on top of the two hotels were hoisted into place, they were put on the wrong buildings, and the names of the hotels had to be changed.
At Yesterland.com, Werner Weiss aims to put the urban legend to rest once and for all. Weiss recounts a conversation with Disney historian Jim Korkis, who has first-hand knowledge of Graves’ intent.
The real story, according to Korkis, is that the Dolphin hotel was raised up from the ocean bed by a volcano or earthquake, and the two dolphins on the roof were raised up with it. It’s an island now, which accounts for the leaves on the building. The swans on the companion building stopped to look at this phenomenon and were turned to stone.
Weiss has many more details, but among the other gems from the interview was the idea that Graves, who then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner handpicked to design the hotels, didn’t even like Disney. According to Korkis, Graves “freely admitted that seeing a four-foot mouse walking around in the parks was just ‘wrong’ as far as he was concerned.”%Gallery-86600%