Universal's opening date for Harry Potter attraction sparks controversy

According to my calendar June 18th is still technically spring. I would imagine that there will be some sort of soft opening with most of the area open before June 18th. I'll be in Orlando from the 12-19th. I'm not a Harry Potter fan but three people in my party are. I'm just glad it's officially opening while we are down there for their sake.

Can we please stop calling this a Florida "park" and call it an area? This marketing and press it is getting has deceived too many people much more than the opening date.

What? A decent atlas or mapquest even can tell you exactly where the park is. If people are travelling out of state/country, one would think they are doing their research before they travel.

No, I think the point that he's making is that the press is largely painting this as its own theme park, instead of a component of just one. The park itself isn't doing much to alter that perception. I still find it odd that you never even see "Islands of Adventure" appear in any ad.

They're definitely blurring the line.

Whether or not that's good or bad is up for debate, I suppose.

Shrug, I'm gonna miss it completely by being there May 22nd. It irritates me, but I guess that'll be one more reason to go back...

The land should be open before June 18th; I would actually anticipate it being open by the end of May. The June date is for the Forbidden Journey grand opening. I'm still hearing that the land and shops/food locations will be open around Grad Nights/Grad Bash/whatever the heck they call it at Universal.

Well the very first sentence in this news item states:

Universal Orlando's "World of Harry Potter" theme park

It surely sounds like a new theme park. Actually my wife stated she would like to go to the Harry Potter park before our Disney Cruise in December. I had to explain to her that we have actually been to the park before and it is only a new themed land. They are definitely blurring the lines with this one.

Jeff is totally right on this one. I think there is a lot of confusion by the public on this one. I've been explaining to my mom that this is an addition to a park that already exists. She was under the impression that we were taking a chance on buying a ticket to a park that might not be open. I wonder how many people are going to think that Islands of Adventure is a completely new park.

Delays do happen....

Lord Gonchar said:
They're definitely blurring the line.

Whether or not that's good or bad is up for debate, I suppose.

IMO, it's not even debatable. I'm not exactly envisioning the SFDK birthday fiasco with "brgin a friend free"....but I'm not a fan of leaving potential customers in doubt as to what they're being offered, and what time/price guidelines they can expect...angry customers in this environment with media literally *everywhere* - not a good thing for a hospitality business.

When the new dark ride is ready, it will open. Period.

...and even after it opens there still no guarantee it'll be running on any specific day.

...so it's best wait until it's been running a while before booking a trip, hoping they'll have the bugs worked out.

I was there last month. They were about 95% ready, minus a few cosmetic issues. The dark ride is the signature attraction, and it would be a major downer to go, pay the $109.99 1 day hopper, and only see a huge castle with snow covered peaks, the same B&M, and some overstocked gift shops. People want this dark ride, and it will be worth it once it is de-bugged.

Cough ::Rip Ride Rockit:: Cough

Why are people shocked?