Shellemonster

Cool stuff cutebutpsycho96. The only thing I am enlightened about is really how there is no more room for expansion and everything is laid out nicely. Looking at that wonderfully large version of the owl's eye view, and connecting the name with the architectural models we have seen earlier... the Owlery looks structurally like it is meant to divide the path. You can see most people have gone to the left of the building, but a good many are walking along the right, and apparently down a ramp to a small building. I have no idea what that is. Perhaps King_K can post that picture of the owlery so others can tell what building I'm talking about?

Those facade photos are awesome! I bet it's going to be a challenge to get those transported. I don't understand why they're building some things off site, although I'm sure it works into the plan somehow. The construction seems to be quite extensive, too much so to just be samples. Haunted Mansion works to me because it's easy to imagine yourself within the building facade. Obviously you couldn't fit the whole ride inside the mansion, but rooms like the one where you go past the large glass window that can also be seen from outside, add to the illusion. (I don't know a better description for that room, sorry) Point being, that is a very large building in both footprint and height. I think it would be exceptionally easy to accommodate rooms inside that could resemble what is seen on the outside that we the public won't know about until Universal deems it time to make an announcement. It doesn't make much sense to build a giant structure when they could have saved money by building certain sections higher as need be. Let's trust that Universal will deliver on an excellent experience. Besides, when the general public comes to the park and sees "Hogwarts" they are going to be mightily disappointed if they find out they cannot go inside. I sure would be.

Cool view from the coaster. There is a great view during the interlocking barrel rolls, although i doubt we could ever see a shot from there.

^It's enough of a secret. That Picasa album went down pronto as soon as Screamscape posted the bit of information about the architectural models. While similar information and pictures live on in this thread and have continued to for a good while. We don't do anything illegal to gain our information and therefore it can stay up. We just capitalize on other people's mistakes.

Update: May 18, 2009 So, um, Harry Potter, yah. In today's edition of through the fence holes, I use the last day of my Heroes pass, steel city gets higher, concrete is sprayed on the entrance, universal starts paying the electric bill for their big box, and my hope that the castle is going to be huge are dashed by a simple realization. I'm just going to cover the important things today and let the pictures say the rest. Let me start this off by saying, "man was I wrong". If you look back a few pages past the very civilized argument, you will see a picture of what I thought were Harry Potter tunnels. Uh, not even close bud. The lights were on, yes bright and on, lighting up the whole big box building from the inside and giving me a great but limited view. Apparently what I thought were tunnels, were actually two hemispheres. White in the center and black around the shell. It may be hard to tell in the pictures, but these things are huge, probably 30ft diameter. I can't see how they are supported either so this is a big mystery. Does anyone recognize what these are? They look very important since they are about the only thing in that area. Put some thought into it guys and gals, they could be quite important. I should say that steel work has begun on the top of the building, but nothing that looks like a building, only walls and ladders. There is bad news though, and I sure hope someone can prove me wrong or think of something else, but I don't believe there is any reason to think that the castle will be large or extend any further back than just that front area that was built off the "bridge side". It's ironic that I would consider this while on Dr. Doom, but I finally got a seat on the side overlooking the central lake and the whole park. At the top of the tower, I noticed the HP building has a ton of AC ducts and vents covering the top of all of the original box. You can't build a steel structure over that! There wasn't even any work being done up there, only the front area. Maybe someone can get a good picture to corroborate this? What do you guy think? The entryway in now sprayed and sealed with concrete. Unedited view. What the alien spaceship? Photoshopped to look better. It's very cool in person. That is one tall building.

Update ... Check! This was the last day of my Heroes pass so I decided to come back and enjoy one last, nasty rainy, day. The rain and daylight prevented any test runs of HRRR meaning this ride was actually "delayed" due to a run in with a vampire. Quite a lot can happen in one week. There was more landscaping, more painting, more railings and walkways, and more concrete posts. The cranes are gone (hopefully only temporarily because that big sign needs to still go up) and the railings on the lift are in place. Topped off one could say. There was one area of extreme interest though... and I didn't get any pictures of it... the backside of the building break through (aka fail) now has a full construction crew. A large steel girder marked "project rumble" was erected and attached to the building along with the face of the building being covered in electricity lines with exposed wires waiting for something to be hooked up. There should be something good there soon... intrepid photographers, use the Twister queue to get pictures! Apparently the cars just sit in the station while the workers work all day. Concrete posts. There were actually a lot of these going up at different areas around the station. Naked metal for all you walkway enthusiasts. Painting fail #2 Painting fail on the right. It was originally painted yellow at one time. Pretty There's a really bright light up there.

If your referring to what I think you are, that would be the cherry picker that was in the way. Diagonal across the middle of the picture? Good eye though, sharp minds are always welcome.

It's actually a lot of fun to find these picture spots. It's like a game almost. I take a picture and realize that's were everyone else has been taking theirs. The pictures also make me realize how bad of shape the flying unicorn is in. It looks to be rusting badly! Steel city indeed! I obviously wasn't going to take a picture of this, but someone opened a big gate to go backstage, and the view was incredible. You could see most all of Hogsmeade going up. Thanks again Lennaapple!

Awesome indeed. My friends tell me I say inadvertently sexual things often. There really are a lot of spots that require painting. You can see the scope in the picture with four guys all painting in one spot. On that note, I didn't upload a good picture of this on accident, but some of the track joints now have this gray paint applied. I have no idea what it would be for, but you can see the picture below. Agreed. The envelope does curve up and away from the track on second look. Thank you! I appreciate the encouragement.

The rain stopped me from taking more pictures, so I don't have much variety here. I got to Citywalk waaaay early, we were the second car at the gates, so I had plenty of time to find creative angles. Palm trees, sod, and medium woody trees are the stars of this report. There was also a worker painting some unattached metal supports behind the new stage that I couldn't figure a location for. On the way out, I peaked into the station and the lower line area looks finished with fans and all, but I didn't see any special music selection screens which are most likely upstairs. Pictures... Okay, I was confused. I loaded THESE pictures in reverse on accident. I was doing a Wizarding World of Harry Potter update and i thought I had to load pics in reverse... point being these are actually in reverse order. Turn your computer upside down and try again. Great view... Not a soul around. This element is going to be tight and intense. Look at that green! They leashed the tree to the fence so it wouldn't run away. Standard landscaping so far, nothing inspired, but it fits in the area. This picture hole is super sketchy. Can you spot all four people painting in this picture? I had to add my picture at this place... This ride is crazy curvy. I'm going to vote that the fail has yet to be fully fixed... unless losing your left arm is now acceptable practice. This was in the morning, but it foreshadowed what came later.

Hi Everyone! This is my first real construction update of any sort so I hope I do well. Update from May 12, 2009 Lots of cool stuff going on. I used panoramas to give better views of many of the construction areas where sticking cameras up, over, and around can't capture the whole view, so those pictures will look pretty jagged for the most part. Okay, coolest part first. I went to my favorite spot at the great black hole on the back side of Potterville and was able to actually see something of significance and get some grainy photos. In the blackness I could see some supervisors discussing this big grey object. Later I realized there were two, but peering through the fence cracks makes viewing difficult. At first I thought they were some wonked out reach envelopes but that wouldn't make too much sense this early on, but the more I looked at it, the more three dimensional these objects looked. I believe they are actually tunnels that the ride moves through and they angle DOWN towards underground sections. Perhaps someone else can verify this on a trip because it really was tough to see. The line area is coming along well, and I am happy to post a world's first! Below is an exclusive up close look at the Harry Potter water fountain drain and water line alcove thingy! Remember you saw it here first folks. Something that's actually worth mentioning though, the big box walls are mostly finished, and they include an emergency exit stair/ramp that is very high up on the walls. As in, high up enough to be for a courtyard and definitely above where the line should go. The area where the beloved dueling dragons statue formerly stood is now, and has been for a while under major construction. There is a cinder block building with harry potter archways that is receiving a finishing coat like the big building box got. It's quite low to the ground, almost inset, but it's hard to tell and the one picture I got was from far away. I would guess it's for the new line leading to DD. The main building has lots of short metal posts sticking out at different location and heights along the surface. They look almost like tables and could hypothetically be used to attach decorative towers on the sides. Most were inline with a row on top and row on bottom except for one set where the middle two were higher. Of course, steel work on all the Hogsmeade buildings has continued at a rapid pace. Lots of cranes and welders working through the hot days to keep this project on track. On to the pictures... Final look... Another view A little more work on the entrance. Wooden caps and some coverings. There was a lot of repainting in the area as well, new colors in some places, but most was just sun fading work. I thought this was interesting, there's a steel frame for some sort of walkway going through this building. This bridge connects the two work areas. It was being heavily used as not illustrated here. Hogsmeade work in W I D E angle. I got excited because I saw a ladder by the Flying Unicorn.... and that ladder is in the middle of nothing. I can't upload a good enough of this, but that ride also had a red height marker on one of it's concrete support bases. I know no more, but it was interesting. Specifically, these are the posts I am referencing in case you were still wondering. This building is generally where the Dragons statue once stood, looks cool, what is it? A view of the whole site. On the left of the building, you can see the emergency exit stair/ramp structure directly behind that lighting rig. Along with that, the reddish metal posts are clearly visible in this shot. Panoramic view of the future line. You can see into the building somewhat here. Notice the sweet fountains? Also it appears like there are electrical lines already run for lamp posts that will fit on those little cutouts on the walls. The awesome lower fountain holder! (There is another one up higher that HATETOFLY photographed earlier actually, but didn't point out.) See the tunnel like thing? It has reflectors on the upper edges, and the supervisors are the short things with reflectors on their helmets. The cherry picker was slightly in the way for this one. Edit: looking at the picture again, what I thought was a reflector is actually just the flange sticking out. The first attempted Harry Potter picture of the day. Under a fence, fail.

I would make love to Solidworks if it could do that kind of testing, but I'm sorry to say our current relationship is strictly business. Modeling a wooden coaster seems terribly daunting in both design and computation. More so than a steel coaster.

Hey everyone! I was at the park on Tuesday for a wonderfully uncrowded day. Pictures will come tomorrow, too tired to finish editing. Trains were in the transfer station, probably because of the impending rain. The biggest thing I saw going on was that landscaping has begun with a passion on the Citywalk side. Sod was going down, large palm trees had been planted, and lots of medium sized trees also had been planted. The trees seem really close to the track already, so they may be placeholders until later because when they grow, some will be IN the track. Although, that's what Universal has gardeners for.

I chose the whomping willow because I would love to see that in real life! On another note, I was at the park today (it's been a long while!), and I have lots of pictures to share, and some interesting information that I hope my pictures will back up when I look at them in detail! I'll have a good post tomorrow once I've rested up from my awesome day.

I'm going to Universal (both parks) tomorrow to use my heroes pass! The longer the lines, the more pictures I'll be taking and posting since I'm no fan of waiting in long lines. I'm shooting for them to open an hour early like my last visit, anyone know if that's been happening lately?

When construction first started on Terminator I thought the use of a wooden coaster was a bad idea. Now, I feel differently. The setting of Terminator Salvation is all in the future so the world is pretty beat up and apocalyptic. Being inside and around the support structures for woodies gives a similar sort of feeling. The supports tower over you and are a dense network of pieces that, to me, feels like being inside gutted buildings or around destroyed structures that still stand or even in trenches if you are inside a dense section. Strongest example I know would be Cedar Points Mean Streak. The coaster is going to be travelling through a tangle of supports, and wooden coasters have that bumpy feel and roaring sound which I think will translate well to the feel of the movie. That's my evaluation.

It's a shame you can't populate these parks to look like the real world counterparts, complete with 3 hour lines, in order to get that truly authentic feel! Your park looks spectacular. I'm am about to dive into the world of custom scenery and hope that it leads me somewhere half as awesome as your creation.

Nice find! Where was that mock up? I'm going next week and I would like to cover all bases when it comes to pictures.

I was thinking the same thing about the prosthetics. It must be the new fad in preventative measures.

Yah, I'm sure it's just soft opened now and all the TPR members who ride it are too embarrassed to relate their story because they discovered the true meaning of the "backyard bone" element.

Be sneaky on a school computer. That's the way to roll.

It's also of note that the "wand that chooses you" is currently butt-banging all the other wands. It is waaaay ahead. Long live interactivity.

They're good at sticking to the theme. That commercial starts with the soft sound and underwater views then melds the music to the rock themed coaster experience. Yay Busch!

Cool artwork. I do this when I'm bored in meetings and such sometimes. Never gets this far though. For criticism, I would say the curve to the heartline "lift" hill is ridiculously tight for how fast the car will have to go. On that note, you probably need more space for the cars to be straight for the launch. My question is, how have you managed to average almost 10 posts a day since you joined?! Crazy.

It's such a beautiful thing to see an entire land being created. I bet that camera serves a dual purpose of keeping any overly enthusiastic fans from wandering.