Potterland?

[KI FANATIC 37]

I am going their in 2 weeks so I will have a great trip report and many many many pictures of the park and HPL... I will make sure u take some good pictures.

[bkroz]

I am going their in 2 weeks so I will have a great trip report and many many many pictures of the park and HPL... I will make sure u take some good pictures.

Well, no you won't, considering it opens in June... You'll be greeted with large, gray construction walls blocking the entrance. However, you can get some nice pictures of the entry arch rising up behind those walls, and of the castle from Jurassic Park.

[RingMaster]

The rumor is that Soft Openings begin April 9th, so given the fact that this is new technology they're dealing with, I would imagine they need a good month or two of people, both guest and worker, testing the Forbidden Journey and allowing people to walk through Hogsmeade.

Besides, the Grand Opening is mainly a media affair, one with the actors and creators of the movies (and JK Rowling), thus, I don't see park guests being anywhere close by the island until the media festivities are over with.

[bkroz]

Very true. The only thing I'm afraid of (as someone who tentatively has a trip scheduled for late May) is that The Forbidden Journey actually will open near or around the grand opening proper. Probably not because it would be senseless and unorthodox to have less than a month of "soft opening" for such a technologically advanced ride (as you said), but then again... maybe they want it to be that secret... :\ It would be alarming to think that the ride would be done and ready to open, but that it would remain closed for the sake of a grand opening... They wouldn't do that, would they?

And they certainly shouldn't go the way of Alton Towers... Build up secrets and hype and unbelievable whispers of what a secret weapon might be and when everyone is alllllll ready for it and pumped --- have a ride-through, with the lights on, on the news, three days before opening...

Whoever directed their marketing really should have their head examined.

So let's hope there will be no official, lights-on, on-rides of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey til well after people get a chance to experience it.

[RingMaster]

They've been done with the ride for months now; it's just the scenic pieces that are being finished up now. I would most definitely imagine they have been testing it every waking moment they have and are just now set to soft open it with actual human participants.

The only things that have been shown from the ride on the news are a few of the rooms of the queue line that guests will go through, along with two seconds of footage from one of the scenes of the ride that are projected on a screen. Everything else is still top secret until the Grand Opening...or whenever the first Soft Opening begins.

[XGatorHead 8904]

On The Celebrity Apprentice tomorrow night (9:00 NBC), the teams have to come up with a marketing idea for WWoHP:

The teams create a display to launch a new amusement-park attraction called "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter." But there are roller-coaster dramas when project managers are separated from their teams. Plus, one leader is unfocused and personal attacks create divisions among the ladies.

From the looks of the commercials, they may be going to IOA. They showed several shots of the contestants in rooms that look like they may be from WWoHP. But it's unusual for the show to leave NYC, so it may just be something set up there.