People Waiting at WDW for Harry Potter?!

[Rush2112]

The problem that was written before is that people go thinking it's an actual park, when in fact it's a land in IOA. People as vacationers don't think logically and never will, because like the old expression, guest leave brain at home.

It's worth going but in sept when it's not 800 thousand degrees and a massive wait. Wait till August, september, let the tourist go home and then ride it.

 

[IHeartArt]

This is probably the best comment ever.

We got another year to milk that TTA spiel before we may see something new.

NOW APPROACHING: failure to compete

NOW APPROACHING: Attraction that makes you nervous to actually go in, sit down, and just watch.

... Now you get to guess which one I'm talking about. :drevil:

 

[Rush2112]

Mr. Locke, sorry you died in that Lost show but I disagree with the fact you think the movies are throw away or will be forgotten. I beg to differ on this, i'm no hard core fan or what not but outside of the first two films the rest have been above average movies. Do I think they are Wizard of Oz or even movies like Beauty and the beast and Toy story, no, but they will be remembered long after we're dead.

 

[Mouse Detective]

Universal created a ride that was going to have major demand WTHOUT express pass.

A lot of Universal rides including FJ have Single Rider express lines which allow express entry if you're willing to travel with strangers. It's likely that FJ will get an Express Pass line later but for now it opened without one.

To combat this, Disney needs to latch onto a franchise that can be themed to the same level of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, lends itself it to an E-Ticket attraction.....

Forget E-Ticket, I'm hearing that FJ is the world's first F-ticket! It's THAT incredible.

 

[RadioHead]

A lot of Universal rides including FJ have Single Rider express lines which allow express entry if you're willing to travel with strangers. It's likely that FJ will get an Express Pass line later but for now it opened without one.




Forget E-Ticket, I'm hearing that FJ is the world's first F-ticket! It's THAT incredible.

So there are more AA than in the haunted mansion?

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Ok, read what I said.. NO EXPRESS PASS FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE FORBIDDEN JOURNEY.... Where does that play into the park openin an hour earlier.. Disney does the same thing for people staying on property, but still gives fast passes for their most popular rides, and a few that don;t need fast pass... Universal created a ride that was going to have major demand WTHOUT express pass... That is what I said.. You brought up the whole entering the park 1 hour earlier as a response to me saying this was one of the failures on Universal's part.. I don't see where your post is a good response to mine, but then again, I am a stroker...

Yes you are. However your initial post seemed to be dismissing early entry for the sole reason was that Disney have it.

As for Express Pass Im sure Universal will be adding it on after the initial whoo ha given they charge for non resort guests, and I just cant see them ignoring extra income for long. Rockitt I believe also is devoid of Express at this time. Besides Im sure I read on this very site from experts that Fast pass is evil. Perhaps Universal took that on board.

In the last 10 years what has Disney really achieved other than a holding position. Thats great if your a shareholder not so great if you are a repeat visitor.

 

[meganw1985]

So there are more AA than in the haunted mansion?

I don't think there are any AA. I think they're all like 3d holographs or something. Like in the Star Wars movies.

 

[Goofyque']

Toy Story Midway Mania and other Disney rides have had over 4 hour wait times at some point, but I don't think any has had people waiting outside the park and stretching pretty far away from the park gates.

Part of this is the awesome way WDW handles crowds and queues. The parks are set up to dispurse crowds, they close at capacity, and reopen as crowds change. Would bet dimes to donuts the FL expansion will draw the same crowds, but you still won't see a 16 hour line. WDW fans would riot! :king:

 

[cslafferty]

I personally would HATE to see any attraction come to WDW that would bring huge crowds like this. WDW is crowded enough! All of those people are STANDING IN LINE for 16 hours - they're not shopping or eating or spending any more money than the price of their ticket. I think Disney made the right decision saying no to HP. I'm a big HP fan - read all the books, own all the movies . . . but there's still nothing like Disney!

 

[tinkerblonde11]

I highly agree with the poster above. We don't need anything that is going to draw a whole bunch of people for that one thing. At Dsney, I like to just sit back and take it all in. Ride, eat, ride some more, shop a little, ride more, maybe take a swim back at the hotel. I haate those massive lines.

 

[Thurp]

I don't think there are any AA. I think they're all like 3d holographs or something. Like in the Star Wars movies.

There are several animatronic figures through the ride. Spiders, some kinds of ghosts that follow you, a gigantic tree. And they all get amazingly close to you.

 

[PurpleDragon]

Wow the amount of drama in this thread is ridiculous. I think my IQ just dropped a few points reading some of the fanboi drivel that has been posted (on both sides). Many of you are so wound up in your own dream world, you are absolutely unwilling to look at the big picture or see things from another perspective.

The Bottom Line:

WWoHP is a wonderful new attraction at Uni, it will bring a large number of HP fans to Orlando as well as curious travelers who might make a special trip to check it out.

Is it a great thing for Universal? Yes!

Will it increase their turnstile numbers for the next few years? Yes!

Will it allow Universal to beat out Disney theme parks on annual attendance? Doubtful since even AK has a good 3 Million+ more visitors per year than Uni. WWoHP may bring that many more visitors during its initial opening year, but I don't see it generating that much in coming years.

Will the HP franchise be popular in the next 10 years? Hard to say, the books are aimed towards kids and teens and often times movies and books aimed at that demographic don't tend to last. While I will admit there are a number of adults who have read the books/seen the movies and fell in love with them, it doesn't mean that HP will have the same long lasting success as the SW series. However speculating on that at this point is rather futile since none of us can truly predict the future.

Will WWoHP have massive lines 10+ years from now? No! I'm sure many of you are calling me a HP hater, or some other stupid narrow minded insult, but look at the history of new attractions. They are blockbusters for the first couple of years and then once the newness has died down the whole "Been there, done that" concept comes into play. Since many of you have been comparing HP to SW, look at the SW ride in DHS, does it have massive wait times year round? No!

Disney was given the opportunity to obtain the license to the HP franchise but turned it down. There are many reasons this was done, first and foremost I would venture to guess was the money asked was way too much. Also its possible that the Disney execs didn't see the HP franchise having a long life span beyond its honeymoon stage (which we are currently still in). Disney usually invests in a franchise for its long term success, not short term gains. Case in point is the purchase of Marvel, Disney recognized the long term popularity of the Marvel franchise and its characters. With the seemingly infinite list of characters to choose from, Disney can profit from movies, attractions, merchandise, etc... for years to come. Since the future of the HP franchise is unclear, I would think Disney didn't feel comfortable paying exorbant amounts of money upfront for a franchise that may die out in the next 10 years.

A lot of you guys are saying that you think Disney is regretting not picking up the HP franchise, but for all we know it may be the other way around. Uni put themselves in further debt by putting all their eggs in one basket and dumping hundreds of millions into the WWoHP project. What if the popularity of WWoHP dies down before Uni breaks even or generates any sort of profit from this investment? Suddenly Uni is regretting taking on the project and investing so much money into it, since now they are further in debt and have no way out.

Will the opening of WWoHP have any direct visible effect on WDW? No!

Will people visiting WDW go to Uni to see WWoHP? Possibly, but given the masive wait times posted here, I don't think anyone in their right mind would drive to downtown Orlando to visit a park to stand in line all day, when they could just jump on a bus and visit 4 that have more reasonable wait times.

Will people visiting Uni go to WDW? Possibly, since Uni is only a one to two day park, if people took an entire weekend or even a full week vacation, they'd have a few days to kill aver visiting Uni, so they may go check out WDW or Sea World or Busch Gardens. No telling.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Part of this is the awesome way WDW handles crowds and queues. The parks are set up to dispurse crowds, they close at capacity, and reopen as crowds change. Would bet dimes to donuts the FL expansion will draw the same crowds, but you still won't see a 16 hour line. WDW fans would riot! :king:

Universal has improved their capacity tremendously. However, your point is very well taken with regards to this land. I get the feeling that J.K. Rowling was so concerned with the scale of everything that they overlooked the glaring capacity issues.

Look at Olivanders for example. 26 people per show and only one show can run at a time. I assume the Cinderella, Aurora and Belle shows will be a similar concept (in terms of an intimate "show") but they will have multiple shows going on at the same time. Would it have been difficult to have the "satellite" Olivander's shop set up a little differently? Could it begin with a bit of a hallway? Perhaps even have a bit of Carousel of Progress in the set up where part of the building rotates so that you can have a larger capacity?

Universal is making money hand over fist on this, but you have to believe that it's hurting them to be turning people away. Even if they're not explicitely saying "no, you can't enter", to many people saying "get in a 7 hour line" is basically the same thing.

 

[ptaylor]

So there are more AA than in the haunted mansion?

Harry Potter has no proper AAs in the actual ride. There are some animated props (like the spiders from Tough to be a Bug), but nothing that would be considered an advanced AA figure (such as Hopper from Tough to be a Bug). For me, the only thing that could maybe be called a proper AA would be the sorting hat in the queue area.

 

[ptaylor]

I don't think there are any AA. I think they're all like 3d holographs or something. Like in the Star Wars movies.

errrr no. Forbidden Journey uses movie screens and some real physical sets with animated figures and props. There are no 3d holograms or animatronics.

 

[ptaylor]

Forget E-Ticket, I'm hearing that FJ is the world's first F-ticket! It's THAT incredible.

Nah, it's good, but not good enough to create a whole new category. I actually think that Spiderman is a better ride, as is Indy at DL. What you are hearing is the "newness" factor - a lot of early reviewers totally lose any sense of reality.

The queue is the best I have seen anywhere however.

 

[devoy1701]

Universal has improved their capacity tremendously. However, your point is very well taken with regards to this land. I get the feeling that J.K. Rowling was so concerned with the scale of everything that they overlooked the glaring capacity issues.

Look at Olivanders for example. 26 people per show and only one show can run at a time. I assume the Cinderella, Aurora and Belle shows will be a similar concept (in terms of an intimate "show") but they will have multiple shows going on at the same time. Would it have been difficult to have the "satellite" Olivander's shop set up a little differently? Could it begin with a bit of a hallway? Perhaps even have a bit of Carousel of Progress in the set up where part of the building rotates so that you can have a larger capacity?

Universal is making money hand over fist on this, but you have to believe that it's hurting them to be turning people away. Even if they're not explicitely saying "no, you can't enter", to many people saying "get in a 7 hour line" is basically the same thing.

agreed. I don't know if I would go back to a theme park that had a 7 hour line, or refused my admittance at the gate. Bad Show. Expecially if you took a day out of your vacation (or took an entire vacation) to go to Uni over the next couple months to please the young uns and you are greeted with wasting half of the park day just to get into the turnstyles.

That's interesting btw about the capacity number of Olivander's.

Btw, how are the crowd levels yesterday or today being that it's Monday and Tuesday and park attendence usually lags on those days. Are there still outragous waits?

 

[fosse76]

All I'll say is, it's a massive gamble on a property that isn't old enough to prove it's longstanding worth.

What's your point? They said that about Disneyland, too. You can say that about ANY attraction built at ANY park. If this had been built at Disney, no one on this board would be making any of these lame attempts at criticizing Universal for such a huge investment. No one seems to be criticizing DCA for Carsland, which has nowhere near the popularity that Harry Potter does. Is Harry Potter a generational fad? Who knows. But considering how well the films are doing, the franchise is pretty strong. Even if the hype subsides rapidly, if the attraction can stand on its own merit, then there aren't going to be any issues.

 

[slappy magoo]

Harry Potter is a very successful book franchise - I can't even think of a franchise written (at least in part) in the 21st century that compares. It made a whole lot of kids (and adults) interested in reading again. Libraries will recommend the books to children, older siblings will pass their copies down to the younger sibs, and the movies are always going to be around, just as the "Disney classics" - the ones that inspired many of the rides and attractions at WDW we enjoy - are still around. For people to claim that Harry Potter is a fad - well, if it is, it's a fad that shows no sign of going away. Dieing down isn't the same as going away, as Star Wars diehard fans can tell you.

To give Uni credit, not only did they raise the bar for theme park attractions, they had a hell of a marketing/advertising campaign. The hype for this would have to be comparable to what it would be like if, when the final Poter movie comes out, it were only released in one multiplex. Demand was bound to outpace capacity. How much will it die down? I'm no genius, but I'm going to guess that at its slowest, it's going to outpace the lines for Soarin' for a good long while. I'll also predict (and after 17 pages, I can't be sure I'm the first to say this), that the Harry Potter land will be the thing that sets up Uni hotels to start opening extra evening hours to resort guests. I know they're offering an hour of early access to HP fans at the Uni & Uni Partner resorts. That's bound to become a nighttime thing too, for a good long while, and set the stage for the rest of the park to remain open as well.

 

[RobGraves]

agreed. I don't know if I would go back to a theme park that had a 7 hour line, or refused my admittance at the gate. Bad Show. Expecially if you took a day out of your vacation (or took an entire vacation) to go to Uni over the next couple months to please the young uns and you are greeted with wasting half of the park day just to get into the turnstyles.

That's interesting btw about the capacity number of Olivander's.

Btw, how are the crowd levels yesterday or today being that it's Monday and Tuesday and park attendence usually lags on those days. Are there still outragous waits?

read my reports from yesterday... It was oacked in both parks... 7 hour wait to get into potter in the morning, by 5pm could walk in, but 2 hour wait for the FJ, 50 min for Dragons and lines for all the stores, food, butterbeer...

people are willing to wait, i talked with a lot of guests yesterday.. none were upset about waiting just happy to be there and talking about how awesome it was. Also they were spending LOTS of money. They ended up bringing out a Wand cart in front of FJ and it had a line almost as long as olivanders