Diagon Alley Soft Opening Watch

[Badgeking]

I disagree. You can't pay for the press that showing a line going out of the park and wrapping around Citiwalk brings. they would gladly deal with the headaches of being well over capacity for a couple days to have news stations around the world showing the crazy crowds and lines for Universal's new attraction.

That's totally true...the press was great for the most part! However, I have a feeling there was a lot of people complaining and demanding a refund because of how long the wait was. With any good press also comes the bad press. I am sure a ton of those people that where there opening day where complaining to friends and posting on facebook/twitter while waiting in the line just to enter the park. What about all the people that didn't want to see Harry Potter (or know it was opening) and just happened to schedule their vacation during that time and were turned away because the park was full. If a family could only take one vacation every four or five years and they booked it a year in advance only to have it happen during HP opening and they had to wait for hours just to get into the park, Universal would be off the list of places to visit because of how poorly things were managed. You can guarantee they also told everybody they know about how bad the experience was.

Each option has its pro's and con's. You either cause a nightmare for everybody involved (guests and all TM's throughout the park including front gate, guest services, Diagon TM's, security, etc) but get some good press and a bunch of bad press from all the upset guests or you open it randomly and while you have basically every theme park and major news outlet at the park getting interviews from guests to create the press and announce that it is open without causing bad press because the parks are not seeing the HUGE crowds and causing people to wait for hours just to enter the park. Universal knows that people WILL come to visit no matter how they open it. The first phase proved this. The question is, are they going to go the same route and cause another nightmare for a week and get both good and bad press, or surprise the world and just throw open the doors causing a storm of good press without nearly as much bad.

 

[darkridelover]

I think they've design this thing with crowd control in mind. On opening day I see them directing Harry Potter crowds to make a right onto Hollywood and a right out the gate just past Boulangerie. The guests then will be directed around the perimeter road much like they do during HHN. Make a left at Parade float building and back towards the sprung tents. When you get behind MIB there will be switch backs and the line will re-enter the park near MIB and corralled around toward the return time ticket Kiosks. From there you will be free to roam the rest of the park with no obstruction whatsoever. When it's time for you to enter you will be granted access from the Grimmald Place side near the pillars. The small entrance on the waterfront side will be blocked off and the entrance on the amity side will be exit only. The rest of the promenade area is fenced off anyway. Once inside you're free to hangout in London, Diagon Alley or get on the Hogwarts Express. This method allows them to control exactly how many people are in the area. Starting off with smaller numbers and then adding capacity when the area can handle more until the get to full capacity at all times towards the middle of summer. Guests who just booked a vacation and don't want to do Harry Potter can just enter the park and enjoy their day normally.

For people that go to IOA first and take the HE over will have to exit the London area and join the back of the line at the Boulangerie gate to gain access back into the land.

 

[rhino4evr]

yeah, I could see them using the areas they use durnig HHN as overflow areas. Hopefully they will be able to keep most of the people in line out of the people's way. That being said, I would imagine that the rest of the park will be quite dead that day.

 

[freediverdude]

I disagree. You can't pay for the press that showing a line going out of the park and wrapping around Citiwalk brings. they would gladly deal with the headaches of being well over capacity for a couple days to have news stations around the world showing the crazy crowds and lines for Universal's new attraction.

Well I think as far as announcing the opening the day before it opens, while yes it might help day 1 crowds, by day 2 a lot more people will have made it there, and certainly by the first weekend it would look like opening week again. It would just delay the crowds for a day or two basically. Really the only way to not have those kind of lines would be to have reservations that you can make online, or walk up to kiosks in Citywalk to make a reservation to get in on another day, not same day. And limit the number of reservations. So basically it would become a lottery each day, whoever times their clicks just right on their browser or presses "refresh" the fastest, lol. Sort of like the Apple iPhone pre-orders.

 

[Obi Ubamba]

What are the chances there would be a soft opening on June 7th?

 

[Disneyhead]

What are the chances there would be a soft opening on June 7th?

My calculations, 63.27%

 

[Potterfreakbeisker]

Am I the only one that thinks that AP Holders should get first access on opening day

 

[natespf]

My calculations, 63.27%

This is way to important to round. It's 63.269415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336623518975766452164137679690314950191085759844239198629164219399490723623464684411739403265918404437805133389452574239950829659122850855582157250310712570126683024029295%

 

[soyouthinkyouknow]

Upon entering Hogsmeade on opening day I couldn't count how many men proposed to their ladies. I wonder if the same will happen at Diagon. I staked out at the train all day just to people watch. Pretty amazing...needless to say, I wonder if potential proposals are hold until it is announced.

 

[martymcflyy85]

Am I the only one that thinks that AP Holders should get first access on opening day

Yes. lol

 

[sierrak5]

Am I the only one that thinks that AP Holders should get first access on opening day

AP Previews would be much appreciated. I feel like the last good AP preview I attended was Mummy; open after hours with no lines.

 

[freediverdude]

Upon entering Hogsmeade on opening day I couldn't count how many men proposed to their ladies. I wonder if the same will happen at Diagon. I staked out at the train all day just to people watch. Pretty amazing...needless to say, I wonder if potential proposals are hold until it is announced.

OMG Universal is single-handedly keeping thousands of couples from getting married by not announcing the opening! Then just thinking of the consequences....all those weddings will then be delayed, then the birth of thousands of children being delayed, which means they won't get into the right pre-schools and then will have to flounder in the public education system, which causes some of them to miss out on being an important engineer or a senator or president, which then the whole country suffers 40 years from now with a weak government, and the person who was supposed to invent teleportation didn't get to do it because of inadequate education. So basically the whole country is screwed because of Universal's delayed timeline. Why Universal why??

 

[thrillseeker_97]

Although it would be nice to see an AP preview I highly doubt we will get one...Universal seems to have kind of faded away from AP previews

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I have no inside information, but doing a thought experiment, I do not think we'll see soft openings till RIGHT before the media/VIP event, or none at all. June 20th or bust.

 

[Badgeking]

I have no inside information, but doing a thought experiment, I do not think we'll see soft openings till RIGHT before the media/VIP event, or none at all. June 20th or bust.

I agree with you on this. Everything about this land and the way they are promoting it is very different than Phase 1. It seems they really want to keep the mystery of what is inside Diagon Alley a secret as long as possible. Sure they have released a lot of TV spots and done interviews, but most of it has been very carefully shot so it doesn't reveal the whole land. Heck, even in the "fly through" on the website, you can't access parts of the land.

I don't think they want a ton of people inside the land posting videos and images online to reveal everything. I mean, they even took a step to add to the constructions walls to hide an element that is shown in London! They might do a few small openings RIGHT before the VIP preview, but I don't think they will do a lot. I think it will be the VIP Preview which will then lead into the Grand Opening on or just before/after June 20th.

 

[ralphoutloud]

I have no inside information, but doing a thought experiment, I do not think we'll see soft openings till RIGHT before the media/VIP event, or none at all. June 20th or bust.

There's no way possible a theme park land of this magnitude will blindly open to a bum rush of media, VIPs and then GP without softs. No way.

 

[TylerDurden]

Based on what I have heard I have to agree with testtrack. You can most definitely open without first doing softs. Look at seasonal amusement parks who open new rides and restaurants in the off-season...all they have to practice with is media day and then opening day is right around the corner...they seem to manage just fine. Sure, maybe operations will be a bit slower than it could be, but the place is gonna be be packed anyway. Plus, this is Universal we're talking about...they know how to train their employees and have been putting a heavy, heavy emphasis on customer service lately. As long as the rides are testing and the media event runs relatively smoothly, I think lack of softs is possible. While it sucks for us, I dont think Universal has been counting on the delays they've run into (heck Nassal was in the area until at least 10 pm last night even though the place was supposed to be basically ready by now), and have accounted for making their HP money by a certain time. I guess we'll see.

 

[The_Bled]

Although it is a possible to operate that way, there would be no way they do that. Every major attraction they've opened on the past 6 years had some form of soft opening. Mummy, Disaster, Hogsmeade, Rockit, Despicable Me, Transfomers, etc. It's just the universal operations way. Not only does the president of the resort want to see it operate with guests and get feedback, but soft openings also help weed out the people who don't need to be anymore. More of a "...if you can't take the heat, get out the kitchen scenario." So if people can't handle it or don't like the job, they quit or transfer while the heat is not really on. Imagine just opening to the GP and 4 or 5 of your team just up and quits. Also the fact that if the ride breaks down during soft openings it's pretty much warranted. They're used to get the ride up to 100%. Now, will we see soft openings? Yes. Will we see them everyday? Probably not. Will there be a decent amount of them? I think yes. I'm more concerned about a grand opening date to be honest then a soft opening.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

My thought is that while last bits of decoration and effects are added and WB is approving things, mock operation will occur for a few days. My assumption is that WB will not allow guests in until sign off, but they'll allow TMs. So while WB is signing off, they can continue to test the operations.

 

[Ajstriker26]

I would be completely shocked if they legitimately opened without some sort of soft opening. I mean the TMs would get a bit of practice with employee previews and media day but neither replicates the magnitude of releasing the GP into the mix.