live2tell75 Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Thanks again everyone, glad you liked the report. I didn't go into details about the main ride, Forbidden Journey because I didn't want to give any spoilers to those who wanted to be surprised. But if anyone has any specific spoiler questions about the ride or anything about the area, feel free to PM me, I'll be happy to answer as best as I can. By the way, did you get to see the Hogwarts Frog Choir? I saw a video, it was great. Thanks for the TR! I didn't get to see the Frog Choir, but I did hear them when I was on Flight of the Hippogriff. There seemed to be a big crowd watching the show. That's one of the experiences I plan to check out on my next visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steelinwood Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Dueling dragons queue was neat, but I still liked the other coaster better! The castle looks great though. Also is the butter beer actually alcoholic or virgin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpengeist04 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 ^Virgin, but for the price it should be alcoholic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonskeep Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 The Wizarding World was open today until about 12:30. I got there early but I don't do the whole stampede thing so I took the Jurassic Park route, quite a nice stroll actually. I didn't see another person until...I was turned around by security and told the preview was for hotel guests only. I wouldn't argue with the guy but I really hoped he was wrong, sure enough a long walk back around the park and I strolled into Hogsmeade. The place looks great and it would be hard to find inadequacies with it theming wise. The area at night is going to be phenomenal, I loved Lost Continent at night so I am happy about that. I can say I had butterbeer once, and only once. It's been said before that the shops are small and they are indeed small, very small. The merchandise looks like it will sell well if folks get a chance to look at it. I can see them forming lines for the shops like they do at the wand shop. I hope the staff can remain as friendly as they were today, they were great! Forbidden Journey is a great ride. If you don't go into it expecting to find God you will have a nice time. Having the queue be a part of the attraction is an awesome idea that a theme park genius had. The ride vehicles are the next great thing in dark rides. Speaking of dark rides, how bout having Forbidden Journey and Spiderman in your park. Forbidden Journey will take the top spot for a while. Hippogriff was really done well and the views are awesome. Perhaps a must ride at night in the summer, beer helps it be a better ride. There was something else to ride but I seem to have blocked it from my mind. I hope they take all the money they are going to make and build a nice poppy little Intamin. Look 100 posts. Do I get a TPR bag-o-crap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpengeist04 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 The merchandise looks like it will sell well if folks get a chance to look at it. I was in line with a Dragon's Challenge TM last Friday and he mentioned that they had done $31,000 worth of sales the first hour on the first day of previews. I can just imagine how much they will sell in the summer months. ...A LOT. I just hope they bring in enough merchandise, because they were already running out of stuff during the first week of previews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DATman Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Also is the butter beer actually alcoholic or virgin? The bartenders can sell you shots to go with it, they just aren't allowed to pour them into the butterbeers themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 So I made the trek over to WWOHP on opening night. I entered IOA around 8:45pm. At work today I had seen the insane crowds and I was crazy enough to check out all of the excitement. To my surprise other than Harry Potter, all of the attractions were pretty much 15 minutes or less wait times. The park roped off the entrance into The Lost Continent at the Suess Landing bridge. This was to keep the traffic flow for exiting guests. And boy did I see agazillion park guests drag themselves out of there. So I turned around and headed over to Jurassic Park and caught up to the line to enter Potterland. The line started at the Jurassic Park River Adventure entrance. The line moved pretty good, I think I waited about 20 minutes and we were in. While waiting, I talked to people in the line and all had tried to get in all day, with no luck. One lady was at the parking garage at 5:30 this morning, Another family had waited about 3 hours to get into the land but gave up. I was glad we all got in. Rode Forbidden Journey tonight one time. The single riders line was closed as of 9:30, so I stuck it out and waited the 90 minute wait. I still love the ride, for me it is amazing! My main reason visiting the park tonight was to experience the land at night. It was pretty cool after getting off the ride around 10:45pm, they kept most of the shops in Hogsmeade open. The team members were still super nice and didn't rush anyone to get out. It was actually pretty nice and quite. I was able to check out all the animated windows without the sun's glare. This is an area that has to be visited at night, it really is gorgeous! I finally left IOA around 11:45pm. And I was back to my hotel. Here are a few photos from the night. Enjoy! Upon entering Islands of Adventure I came across a giant movie screen showing Harry Potter movies at the end of The Port of Entry.. Only Forbidden Journey had any kind of a wait. Hogsmeade is beautiful at night. I think I enjoyed Frozen Butterbeer more than regular Butterbeer. But they are both yummy! I was happy to find a pin that mentioned the new land and not just general Harry Potter themed pins. That's it for this update, thanks for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 So last night I hit up the new area once again. What a big change from Friday. There was no line to get into WWOHP. There was a good crowd though. A typical quick Florida thunderstorm came through around 6pm, so this may have scared a lot of people out of the park. We ate dinner at the Three Broomsticks for the first time, waited about 15 minutes to order. I had the Fish and Chips. It wasn't bad. The stores were kind of hectic, especially Honeydukes. We rode Forbidden Journey. My friend who was with me hadn't been before, so he wanted to see the whole castle. The wait sign said 75 minutes, we went in and the line was half way up on the ramps in the green house. This was a major difference from the night before. We ended up waiting only about 30 minutes. I guess the sign out front hadn't been updated. This ride is a real people eater! The line always moves. Once we got off it was exactly 10 pm, but we cut through the lockers area from the gift shop and back into the main queue, the team members said we just made it. Our second ride of the night was great and a walk on. As the night before, the area's shops pretty much stayed open at least till about 10:45 pm, no one was trying kick anyone out. This is a perfect time to see all the animated store front windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger01 Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 i love the way dragons challenge is lit up at night! I think there should be fire bowls beside the entrance to make it look cooler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPup44 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
live2tell75 Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 A quick update: This past weekend I made a return trip to TWWOHP to visit some great friends: Dave, Tim, Sue, Andrew and Nolan. It was great seeing them all. Once again I enjoyed the new area. By 10am their wasn't a wait to get into the area and FJ had about a 60 minute wait. Both coasters only had about a 10-15 minute wait. Longest wait: by 9:20am, a worker estimated that the line for Olivander's Wand Shop was about 2 hours! We skipped the wand show, but used the other entrance to get into the shop (about a 10 minute wait). The boys loved their magic wands. I think all enjoyed Frbidden Journey and the new area. Thanks again to Dave and the Risen family for such a great weekend! Here are a couple of photos from our visit. The boys loved casting spells with their new wands. Enjoyed a tastey lunch at The Three Broomsticks. Susan demonstrates the only way to drink Butterbeer is with a Butterbeer stashe. Thanks again to Dave and the Risen family for an awesome day - it was great seeing you all again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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