Harry Potter officially coming to Islands of Adventure

So that release says a lot without really saying anything at all.

I'm not a Potter fan at all but, this looks very cool. If the area looks anything like the artwork it will be amazing.

I can also see why Disney didn't want it. This is going to be a whole new land, Disney's not going to build HaryPotterLand. They have enough problems keeping up Tomorrowland.

So now where are they going to put a whole new land in IOA? *** This post was edited by ExJPranger 5/31/2007 5:37:15 AM ***

Looks like it could give Disney Imagineering and Magic Kingdom a run for it's money, if the artwork is any indication. I wonder what Disney will counter with?

The Sentinel has a lot more details on this. Sounds like the northern (?) part of the Lost Continent (the part with Dragons and Unicorn) will be made into the Harry Potter land, while the area with Sinbad and Mythos will reman the Lost Continent. My guess is the new part of the land will be between Unicorn and JP - there is a nice bit of land right there. All in all the area will be 20-acre... which seems to be a pretty big area of land.

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Universal plans a 20-acre "Wizarding World," a little bigger than the average size of its themed "islands" at Islands of Adventure. Part would be carved away from what is now "The Lost Continent" island, and the rest would be land now used for employee parking and park support, outside the back fence.

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Here is the full story.*** This post was edited by Andrew 5/31/2007 6:44:12 AM ***

WOW...if done correctly, this could be the biggest and most important thing that the Universal theme parks have ever done...

Harry. Potter. Prints. Money.

This is fantastic as I am both an IOA and a Harry Potter fan. I cannot wait to see what attractions they put in. I wonder how they could incorporate Quidditch into a ride...

I agree with others, this may be the biggest licensing score by a park, ever.

I had the same thought, Jeremy. A Quidditch ride (either a coaster, or a Spiderman/DarkCastle type sim) would be an excellent anchor ride for this new section.

Awesome.

Another Mini-site

The Orlando Sentinal has a video that states that Dueling Dragons and Flying Unicorn would be adapted to the land.
*** This post was edited by eightdotthree 5/31/2007 9:39:27 AM ***

I guess I know when I'm going back to Orlando.

Okay... I've got my bearings on where this is.
If this picture
http://www.screamscape.com/html/ioa_-_project_strong_arm_0.htm
is accurate, the Brown coaster below the 'H' in Harry is the Flying Unicorn. The bridge on the left hand side is the existing bridge leading to Jurassic Park. That places Hogwarts between Flying Unicorn and Turkey Lake Rd. The structure to the right of the Flying Unicorn, then, is the castle entrance to Dueling Dragons, The buildings along the left will take the place of the enchanted oak tavern, and the buildings on the right will be where the current entrance to DD is. SO, based on that image, the only real estate they're really adding to the park is the plot of land for Hogwarts itself (Which I'm assuming will contain the rumored Kukla robot arm attraction)
What's interesting to me, then, from a theme standpoint, is that only people arriving from the Lost Continent/Seuss Landing side of the park will get the 'full' experience the way Rowling wants them to, where they enter past the Hogwart's Express and make their way through Diagon Alley. People arriving from Jurassic Park will just be dumped right below Hogwarts. I wonder if Rowling intends to demand a mandatory 'Counter-Clockwise park traffic route' in order to make people experience her world correctly?

So I'm also very curious how in the world they're going to integrate Dueling Dragons. The ride is fine, obviously it's no challenge to have Dragons in Harry's world, but the castle itself and the storyline (especially all the knights in the queue) are just so arbitrary when placed into a Potter themed-land.

That could have just been a mistake by the Sentinal. I will wait to see the final designs to make any judgments.

If you Check out this map it would appear that if they take from the Flying Unicorn over to the JP learning center they could fit in a lot. I dont know if they would plan on making the new land its own area, and keep it out of the flow of the park to keep the experience the same as ThemeDesigner pointed out. Can't wait to see though.

Although, after looking again, if they cut off the Lost Continent at Dueling Dragons they could probably do a lot more without loosing some of the cooler aspects of it.

I am supposed to go back sometime this summer, hope the construction doesn't start until after. :)

Very nice arial shot. What attractions am I looking at here, can't identify. And is the grey area all walkway or is the grey where the new island is to be installed?

I also wonder what the big Potterland attraction with be? Flying coaster might be Potter's Flying Carpets? Excelent opportunity for a new haunted dark ride ride me thinks...

Very cool news. When was this supposed to be completed?

The Dueling Dragons are in the upper left, green and red, and the Jurrassic Park ride is just below that a bit.

Its amazing looking at that over head view at all the land they still have. There is a nice sized parcel to the left of Dudley's ride and to the right of the JP lift building.

Then I assume that all the land over the highway is theirs too. Thats enough land for an entirely new theme park. You see it when you are leaving the resort.

They also mention taking over employee parking, so maybe they are going to take it right around DD and into the parking lots back there.

I just scribbled on top of Live Local's view of the section of the park with what I feel is going to go where. I'm no expert but this is what I see happening, at least in a rough sense.

It looks like an amazing addition to an already amazing park (imo). I'm sure the theming will be insane, I hightly doubt J.K. would have had it any other way.

Mike

Well thanks, Mhammer.. if I'd known you were doing that I wouldn't have bothered with this http://www.uploadjpeg.com/viewer.php?id=bwy1180629394u.jpg but I did, so.. there you go. Yours looks better.
*** This post was edited by ThemeDesigner 5/31/2007 12:54:04 PM ***

A project of this size is going to cut off a large portion of the park for quite a while. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end but a pain in the meantime.