ThunderPup44

Went back to WWoHP yesterday (Sunday June 20th). Arrived at IoA at 8:30 am and park gates were open. Because of crowding and to avoid the fire marshals closing down the park, there is a line to enter the WW; it starts at the Jurassic Park entrance and winds down through JP, Toon Lagoon and Marvel. The attendants hand out serially-numbered tickets to those waiting in line, and the line moves fairly quickly. The wait time for FJ grew from 90 to 120 minutes and stayed at 120 minutes until I left at 2:30pm. Since I had previous done the long queue, I did single rider line only yesterday. Single rider was only 10 minute wait until 1:30 pm, when it grew to 30 minutes. With every ride on FJ, I notice more detail. Also, the ride is a different experience depending on which seat on the bench you take and whether you're in the first or second bench in each pair. Two benches are positioned close to each other, then there is a space and then come the next two Enchanted Benches. I also felt that the motion grew more intense as the day progressed; whether this is perception or reality I have no idea. Note: on a busy day, there is a line to get into ALL stores, not just Ollivanders (which had a 30-45 minute wait for its 5 minute show). The line to get into Honeydukes and Zonkos (which are linked together) took about 15 to 20 minutes. The line to eat at the Three Broomsticks was 30-45 minutes. The line to enter the Hogs Head Bar took about 10 minutes, which is a lot shorter than waiting for a butterbeer at the big outdoor wagon and it's in the shade to boot; also, if you have a Premium Pass, you get a 10% discount on the price of a pumpkin juice or butterbeer or real beer. You can also get a pumpkin juice on draft for $3 (less the 10%) vs $5.99 for the bottled pumpkin juice. I prefer the regular butterbeer to both the butterbeer slushy and pumpkin juice, although all are delicious; the staff have told me there is no one who loves both regular or slushy -- people are coming down as love for one or the other. Also, beware, the shops are SMALL. Jo Rowling insisted that they be appropriately sized, and so they are. Which means they're like the Tokyo subway at rush hour. Hopefully this will settle down over the summer, but truthfully, there are not enough shops. The TriWizard Spirit Rally is a terrific 10 minute outdoor show; lots of acrobatic and rhythmic gymnastics, and runs on the hour every hour; the Frog Chorus runs on the half hour. I think they could take the entire Dragon's Challenge queue and turn it into a gorgeous shopping experience, and use the downstairs corridor for the DC queue because the ride wait time is 5 - 10 minutes -- which is a shame, because the two coasters are running faster and more intense than they ever have.

Here's the Wizarding World Schedule for the next few days per Guest Services : Wednesday Evening - WWoHP closed to Public - Worldwide Press Event Thursday Morning - Open only to Hotel Guests; rest of day closed to public due to Worldwide Press Event Friday Morning 7am - 10:30 am - closed to public due to Today Show live broadcast and official opening ceremonies Friday 10:30 am (approximately) Open to public until 10pm Saturday and rest of June: 9am - 10pm

Everybody feels there is just too much Spider time. Would have liked more Quidditch time. NOTE TO THE EASILY QUEASY: you do get a touch of motion sickness on the ride, mostly when you're moving forward while on your back (shades of the Vekoma flying coasters). When I spoke to some IoA execs, they told me they did a lot of testing to set the ride to take riders right to the edge of motion sickness

Not upside down. Flipped on your back and face down, but not upside down so far as I could tell. But then I only got 2 rides in last Thursday before they closed the ride for further adjustments. Going back Thursday of this week.

Robb - You should get on a plane immediately. The Forbidden Journey of Harry Potter is the most advanced dark ride experience yet created. Take Spiderman, mash it with Soaring, Shreck 4D theater effects and the Haunted Mansion and put you on a seat at the end of Kuka robotic arm on a track (where because of the design you are NOT aware of anyone around you) that can thrust you right in the middle of an Omnimax screen on your back, then swing you face down to meet an animatronic dragon right in your face, then drop you into a scenic of a spider's lair, then flying high over a Quidditch field -- every single person who comes off the ride says the same thing: AWESOME! Plus the queue is extraordinary. And Butterbeer is addictively delicious!

Actually, in checking out more photos from the RCDB link, it does look more like Goliath, but the one shot http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig4005.htm?picture=24 looked like the trees in the bg of the commercial.

Actually, from the photos posted, and the sparse background in the commercial, it's Behemoth - because the landscaping behind Goliath is much more lush. Thanks for the replies, I knew TPR would know!

Anybody know which Coaster is the one they're riding in the FreeCreditReport commercial? It's a B&M hypercoaster along a river and it looks like the only ride in the entire vicinity. And from the wintry background, it looks like it's up north somewhere. Anybody know?

Hi All! I finally joined TPR! I've been on over 700 coasters in my life, including the The Bobs and the Flash and Flying Turns at Riverview, the incredible NAD double down-double up coaster at Edgewater Park and the coaster at Jefferson Beach in Detroit when I was growing up; I've even been to Freedomland in the Bronx (Google it). I've ridden coasters and explored theme parks in Europe, Japan and China as well as all over the US. Tokyo Disney Sea, IoA Disneyland Paris and Busch Gardens Williamsburg are the most stunningly designed parks I've been to. I live 5 miles from WDW; 15 minutes from SeaWorld and 20 minutes from Universal and I play RCT3 excessively. My non-geeky thing is I co-founded a bleeding-edge software company and Fortune Magazine named me one of the top 24 Technology Innovators of the Year -- oh wait, that makes me REALLY geeky and an egomaniac as well to have mentioned it. See ya in the parks! T-pup