Rob Niles uploaded his 3rd TPI weekly podcast which focuses on Diagon Alley, WWOHP for Osaka, and WWOHP for USH. It's a good and a very specific/detailed podcast (esp. for Diagon Alley) and I think it's worth listening to if anyone's interested. I apologize for the block format.
Here's a sparknote transcript from his podcast (all that's below was stated by Rob Niles)
Diagon Alley: (Likely July 2014 opening)
-The new Diagon Alley will have more sidewalks/sidestreets/corners/streetspace than Hogsmeade
-Won't see Diagon Alley from the rest of the Studios Florida. It will be hidden behind the facades of Grimhold Place, Wyndhams Theater, and other real western end London landmarks.
-Lester Square Station will be the secret enterance into Diagon Alley. Nightbus from HP POA movie will be parked in the London promenade and according to plans it will feature interactive talking heads as seen in the film.
-Once you're inside Diagon Alley, The Leaky Cauldron will be the areas big restaurant and first big structure you see. After looking for refreshments beyond TLC, wander down the alley and turn left at Gringotts bank to find Florian Fioritudes (not sure on spelling here) Ice Cream Parlor.
-You'll find another version of Ollivanders Wand Shop which will be much bigger/larger scale than the current shop in Hogsmeade. Multiple theaters for the Ollivanders wand picks the wizard show and other shops will include: Madame Mals shops for altifrications and Wizers Wizarding World Equipment (gift shop at the exit of the Gringotts bank ride). There are plans for a Weasley Bros Joke Shop like the one seen in the HP HBP film which will be located near the lands exit.
-Nocturne Alley (1/3 of Diagon Alley) will have a Borgin and Bourke's walk through attraction as its centerpiece and it should include a prop of the Vanishing Cabinet as seen in the 6th film.
-Universal is working on creating next gen/interactive souvenir wands that will have capabilities inside the park and even additional use at home/outside the parks (version 2.0 feature). Other interactive elements include Suits of Armor, self stirring cauldrons, and something with Skeletons (didn't reveal that one cause he wanted to leave it as a suprise).
- Gringotts Bank much more of a roller coaster than FJ and FOTH (Hagrid ride as he stated), however it's still best described as a dark ride experience with heavily themed and elaborate show sets (which is what @
Disneyhead'71 alluded to a week or two ago). Very much like Revenge of the Mummy in terms of its physical style. Free rolling coaster segments but mostly dark ride elements will be present. More focus on story than kinetic ride experience.
Scene by scene of ride:
First you walk up to Gringotts Bank facade and go through the front door. Then you head into a shaded cover area that's outside the bank. Next you re enter inside into the Great Bankers hall as seen in the movies. Once you go through the banker's hall, the room you'll approach will be the Vault display. After the vault display, you approach the reading room. From there, you next enter into the Office hallway before you reach Bill Weasley's Office. After that, we take elevators up a level to cross over the ride tracks to enter into the center/main load area island. Two load channels for the ride on either side of the island (load in center, unload on the outside). The ride vehicles are twin 12 person open air cars arranged in three rows of four and each row of the car seems to be placed higher than the row in front of it which creates albeit of a stadium seating type effect. The look of the cars is going to be very victorian with individual lap bars and six dolby speakers per seat for the on ride audio (auido such an important ingredient for this attraction). After the load platform, the two load channels merge to the south. Each twin car element will dispatch one at a time into the merge point then they'll bear to the left and enter into the first scene of the ride which is called the turn table. In this scene, you'll face a brick wall with two tunnel enterances to the left and the right. But before you proceed into those, the track below the two twin cars will appear to drop (actually dipping at a 40 degree angle facing downward). Then what happens is the track underneath the trailing car that's gonna start to lift up to match that 40 degree downward angle so when it's all the way up the two cars will be directly linked to one another and facing 40 degrees downward. At that point, the two cars will drop in tandem into a third tunnel below the tunnel on the right (basically a vertical teeter totter like track switch) which sets the coaster up for the initial drop. So from there you're dropping into scene two called dark tunnel, a kinetic ride section with a set of small money pots and then a right turn into a block brake before you prepare for scene 3. Now there are 3d projection screens throughout the ride embedded in the rockwork throughout the tunnel walls creating an illusion of open space on the rocks in which you'll be watching battles taking place similar to what we see in the new Transformers ride. Concept art for the first screen ledge scene shows a battle between wizards and giants. The plans also detail the shaker table underneath the track and there's a waterfall effect at the end of this scene which is achieved with a fog screen and water spitzers. There's a slight free drop and turn to the left as you proceed through the waterfall which leads to the downfall. Here there's some winded heat effects in this scene along with our first look at the Gringotts Dragon. There will be a Dragon AA inside the attraction as well as the fire breathing one sitting on top of the attraction as seen in current public concept art. Then you'll make a sharp left then right turn which immediately leads you into scene five Sirius Black's Vault. A fog blast will trigger before you enter the vault where you'll see an illuminated treasure head. The car makes a turn to the right where the physical show scenery opens up a bit with a large vulterian in front of you and the 3d projection screen on the far front right wall. You bear to the left at that point turning into scene six the ruins. We're curving into the right through the rubble of what looks like a collapse tunnel which leads into scene seven the castle. This is the big one! We're inside a large projection room coned for this scene which would involve a big battle between Harry, Ron, and Hermonie against some Death Eaters (one of which will be Voldemort). After the big battle scene, we'll launch into another dark tunnel which banks up and around to the left which takes us into the finale scene called Passage. Harry and company will bid us farewell before we return to the load/unload platform and after that we will exit the ride and into the gift shop.
-Uni has a space inside the Kings Cross Train Station in the Diagon Alley land so that visitors with single park tickets can upgrade to park to park tickets and ride the Hogwarts Express Train that will shuttle guests between the two wizarding worlds. Expect Big change in park ticket structure/prices at Uni Orlando once Diagon Alley is ready to open. Whether or not this will cause Uni to charge $100 admission remains to be seen, but most likely they'll raise one day admission tickets to $99 before DA opens. Bigger push will be put in place for selling more park to park tickets so guests can see both wizarding worlds.
-Two Hogwarts Express trains with a bypass in the middle of the track. Feature video windows that will display videos of the English and Scottish countryside to simulate the journey from London to Hogwarts. Journies/screens will vary from trip to trip which could include a possible dementor attack/effect.
-Teases of DA will be present at the HP Celebration event in January of 2014
-Contractors are scheduled to be working on this site until the middle of June 2014
-Most likely another soft opening situation like with what Uni did for WWOHP Hogsmeade in IOA
WWOHP USH: (Opening in early 2016)
- Built on a smaller space than the Orlando original was. Hogsmeade
-Hogwarts Castle will be bigger and will go where the current Gibson Amphitheater (which will be torn down this fall) is located. Will include a Forbidden Journey ride, a Great Hall dining locale/restaurant, and a defense against the dark arts live show being held within the castle walls itself. Bigger experience inside the castle than outside of it.
-Still will have wands for sale, plenty of merchandise, and butterbeer.
-Evolution plan for USH will be like what Disney did for DCA except this will have a bigger pricetag and focus on the resort more as a whole (new hotels, attractions, parking structures, and really remaking the whole thing)
-Hogsmeade will be where Curious George play area is
-Official ground breaking ceremony in the next month or so
-Already begun backstage, infastructure/design work on the project
-Takes about 2.5 years to construct a WWOHP
WWOHP Osaka: (Opening in later 2014)
-Most popular of Uni themeparks. Another Hogsmeade
-Didn't really explain much on this one
Highly unlikely a WWOHP gets built at Uni Singapore for the time being due to limited room for expansion (smallest Uni park), built in the corner of Santosa Island and surrounded by shipping channels. So really no room for the park to expand outward. If WWOHP would come to Singapore, something else would likely have to go (much like with USH).
*On a side note though, Uni Singapore will have a new family friendly ride/attraction debuting in late 2014/early 2015 that will be based off the hit Dreamworks animated franchise
Kung Fu Panda:
http://www.themeparx.com/miscellaneous-theme-park-projects/
