The coaster trains are now on track at Universal Orlando's new Harry Potter coaster. Who's ready for a ride on Hagrid's motorbike?
Twitter user @bioreconstruct, who specializes in aerial photography of Orlando-area theme parks and attractions, has posted from fresh images of the Harry Potter coaster construction site at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park. In the images, we can see the coaster train, covered by white plastic.
Aerial overview of the Harry Potter roller coaster. pic.twitter.com/mDoDfTwFwW
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) December 17, 2018
Numerous details to zoom in and see in this aerial view of the Harry Potter roller coaster. pic.twitter.com/U0zn2GpJzI
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) December 17, 2018
Aerial look at a train (covered in protective plastic) on track in the Harry Potter roller coaster. pic.twitter.com/hFZig2hzIi
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) December 17, 2018
Despite the covering, zooming in on the train image shows an outline that looks a lot like a series of motorbikes, with sidecars attached. Remember this from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?
Universal Orlando's new Harry Potter coaster ride replaces Dragon Challenge in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure. The ride will feature a drop track and will reverse direction at one point on course, and will feature several themed show elements during its journey through the Forbidden Forest. It will open sometime in 2019. (Best guess? Summer.)
Universal still hasn't announced a name, an opening date, or confirmed any of the elements for the attraction, but its teaser campaign promised a reveal of at least some of that information in "early 2019."
TweetThere are a LOT of trees on order to arrive before this opens, BTW.
Please note that both the motor and side car will be regular seats (no Tron like vehicle). Only the exterior will be different and the motor side will be a bit higher to have a better view of the show scene's that are dominantly on the left side (side car location) of the ride.
Reason is the fact that this family coaster needs head support (due to the vertical spike).
Thanx OT, although I was looking forward to the different ride/visual experience based of the initial train design concept, I'm still just as anxious due to the immersive theming.
OT makes a good point not only from a safety perspective, but also from a logistical perspective. I can only imagine the flood of guests slowing the loading of trains down because they either can't decide who wants to sit in each seat, but also guests of unusual sizes that might be able to sit in the bike seat, but not the sidecar seat (or vice versa). I think you'll probably still get some jockeying between guests wanting to ride on one side versus the other, but it won't be a completely different riding experience, limiting deliberate last minute seat swapping.
The real question is will Universal keep Hagrid's bike in Diagon Alley and put a second one near the front of this ride, or will the photo prop be moved over to IOA closer to this coaster? I would suggest the latter since the bike clutters up an already crowded area and wouldn't make much sense from a continuity perspective once the new coaster opens. It's hard enough to get a clean photo of the bike without guests wandering into the frame trying to get a better view of fire-breathing dragon, so not only would it save Universal a few Galleons on creating another themeing element for the new coaster, but it would make for a much better photo opp.
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Wow this looks like its going to be totally immersive. A lot of the coaster tracks are in a show building or in a trench blocking the outside view.