Wizarding World of Harry Potter (theme park) - Sneak Peek (pics)

Hello all,

Well, we lucked out, and our gamble paid off. We stayed at a Universal hotel on the off chance we'd get to see the new Harry Potter theme park before it officially opened (we were in Orlando anyhow, so figured we'd try), and we were lucky enough to see it!

They did a great job capturing the look and feel of the films, and here's some pics to show it.

Hogwarts: Inside the castle, is the main attraction of the new park, an interactive ride through Harry Potter's life. Kind of like the Spiderman ride, but much better, where you'll see spiders, dementors, a Quidditch match, be chased by a dragon, etc.

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Honeydukes: the candy shop from the films. Unlike when the candy first came out, the candy here looks just like from the movies, even down to the chocolate frogs and holographic wizard cards.

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Hogsmeade: A good shot of the village, taken from the Hippogriff ride

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/480911828995.jpg[/atsimg]

Olivander's Wand Shop: neat interaction here, and the wands are reasonable and high quality (about $30)

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Hagrid's Hut: Inside the Hippogriff ride (you can hear Fang inside)...

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Mirror of Erised: inside Hogwarts, on the way through the line of the ride, you'll see many iconic rooms and images inside the castle (even the moving paintings)

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The Dragon Challenge: roller coaster (formerly the Dueling Dragons)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/037340cf75a7.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 1-6-2010 by Gazrok]

Am so jealous! looks so good I just wanna go now!

WOW! That looks awesome. I was in Disney last Friday. Hope to make it back up there before summer. Just a two drive for me.

Thanks for the pics

Just got back from the Grand Opening. That was insane....people were waiting for hours, just to get in that part of the park...then in lines even to go into shops!

We still had fun though, and could take it a bit more in stride as we had seen everything during the soft opening.

Still, Universal dropped the ball on their handling of it though (the crowds, and the opening)....so many things they did wrong.

The addition itself though, is amazing, and was done well.

That looks awesome. I cant wait to go and see it in person.

Great pics! Thanks for sharing. We took our kids to Disney around the time you posted the pics. Star Wars weekend was going on. Wish we had went over there for a day now!

reply to post by clementsian


I wish I could have made it to Disney for the Star Wars thing... Really wanted to, but real life interfered... (we even have 4 day passes without an expiration date)...

Very cool

I'm hoping to go back in the winter, which should be fun, coming right off the next movie coming out this month. (and the robes will actually come in handy against the chill then, hehe...instead of making me sweat).

We actually just came back from there. It was pretty cool.

reply to post by bronco73


Glad you liked it. Hope the lines have died down...