Universal Orlando Resort Tuesday morning revealed more details about Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, the centerpiece attraction at the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley land, opening soon at Universal Studios Florida.
We first reported an overview of the story and effects on this new roller coaster dark ride in December 2011, and expanded upon that post with a detailed scene-by-scene description of the ride in February. Warning: Spoilers abound at those links!
Here's the (relatively spoiler-free) TL;DR — You'll meet goblins and Bill Weasley in the Gringotts Bank offices in the queue, before descending into the caverns below, where you'll board motion-base roller coaster trains for a ride through an underground battle between Harry and his friends and Voldemort and his allies. Trolls and dragons add to the mayhem in an immersive experience that blends film with a wide variety of practical effects.
If you'd like to win a trip to the Grand Opening of Diagon Alley, NBC's Today Show is taking entries all week, giving away 25 trips for up to four to the grand opening. Visit sweepstakes.today.com to enter, starting Tuesday morning at 8am Eastern. You can get the answer to the entry form's daily question by watching Today, but don't need to provide the correct answer to enter to win. You can enter just once a day, but can enter again each day between now and Sunday for additional chances to win.
For a complete summary of all of coverage of Universal's four Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter, in Orlando, Hollywood, and Japan, please visit our Harry Potter page at themeparkinsider.com/wizarding-world-of-harry-potter.
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Also no word yet about a team member preview. There was a team member event in Hogsmeade but it was mainly just a pep rally. No real info on Diagon alley.
Disney is and will continue to be the big dog in the Orlando market, but Universal Orlando is crushing them in the attraction development and public relations fields.
Someday, the development of the Universal theme parks and their battle for market share will be used as a case study on how an upstart should take on an industry giant.
Disney had their moment in the sun at their media event last week, now it is Universal's turn. Next it will be Disney again when SDMT actually opens at the end of the month, then Universal when Harry Potter Part Deux (Electric Boogaloo?) actually opens (late June?). Somewhere in between they'll be other parks like Busch Gardens (Falcon's Fury) and Six Flags Great America (Goliath) that make a few smaller waves as well. Us enthusiasts are like honey bees bouncing from flower to flower, blithely unaware the the rest of the world probably couldn't care less. And TPI regulars are the worst of the bunch since we know all the "news" two years before everyone else!
Well, that's a real bummer. I feel a bit cheated now. Shucks. I knew it was too good to be true.
So kudos to Universal Creative for good video editing if nothing else, I guess.
Here's a youtube link if you care: HP 7 Pt 2.
Still not sure how Robert got his hands on those such a long time ago, but I am convinced the "leak" must have been intentional where they hand picked Robert to break the news.
Either way, it just lends more credibility to TPI. Congrats, Robert.
On one hand, I now find the video to be misleading and disappointing, but on the other hand, I fully expect the ride to be wonderful and amazing and am probably happier without the spoilers.
However, I agree that the video is fairly useless in that it just not give you any real information. The creators talk about how great it is, and then we get a couple seconds of actual moments from the ride. It's just a lot of puffery.
Doesn't make me any less excited about the ride, but the video doesn't add much.
With the bones in place, I wonder if they should update the ride itself with new sequences. Did you know that Harry Potter lives on?
http://time.com/#98465/harry-potter-spinoff-film-fantastic-beasts-release-date/
The first film of the planned trilogy is set to release on Nov 18, 2016.
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I think you can allow yourself a slightly self-satisfied smirk right now :) Well done!