The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade (Orlando): Part 2

[WAJAS]

They had a single rider queue through the team member walkway I don't think we've ever had this happen.

 

[Viator]

They had a single rider queue through the team member walkway I don't think we've ever had this happen.

That's what happens when you have wait times for the park going above 100 minutes on multiple attractions..

 

[shiekra38]

@Alexshow is on track for the most helpful/creative award....Those drawings are sweets! And I've never seen that layout before

 

[Viator]

@Alexshow is on track for the most helpful/creative award....Those drawings are sweets! And I've never seen that layout before

The tweet's aren't mine, and the designs of the Forbidden Journey Layout in those pictures of the tweets are actually from USH themselves..

But, I do appreciate the love.

 

[WAJAS]

That map is in the team member hallway that was being used for the single rider line.

 

[shiekra38]

With thinking through about it, I have more of what I would personally want to see out of a Forbidden Forest expansion..

To explain the Great Hall and the E-Ticket..

Great Hall

To explain why I placed the entrance/exits of the Great Hall away from Hogwarts is very simple and in a few ways..

A.) In Deathly Hallows part two, it is showcased in a scene that there were at a time before Deathly Hallows multiple passageway's that led from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. It can be purely explained as simply put, they needed to find a way to bring people to Hogwarts with more ease without going to the castle itself from the FJ entrance; so, they use the passageway's to allow them to travel to the castle with not that many issues

B.) It'd be a situation like Carkitt Market. They simply would need to just have the entrance to the dining experience without having it all at one situated location; and that it could potentially add a bit more little lore to the Wizarding world in a sense of adding more to the Forbidden Forest; just like how the Market has done that for Diagon Alley.

As for the experience, I'd say it'd be like a dinner-experience on the vein of a Dinner theater experience with various acts exclusive to the experience as apart of it; allowing changes for various periods of the year (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, E.T.C.) while offering somewhat of a higher quality of meals and drinks that are all inclusive to the experience when reserved to divulge in. It'd be a high end experience that would be a one-of-a-kind type offering that Universal Orlando can pull off for the park.

The Dark Forest E-Ticket

This one, is more easier for me than anything.

It'd feature a high-octane indoor/outdoor thrill-coaster with the ride vehicles being based off of Ford Angelica's with it being an attraction that is on the scale of thrill similar to Big Grizzly Mountain and Expedition Everest with interactions with the area surrounding it along with it being a mixture of a terrain coaster (artificially) and an inversion coaster that has multiple launches throughout.

It'd be either a Mack Mega coaster with custom trains, a Gerstlauer Family coaster (in the track and trains) or something similar to what Vekoma has done at Disney.

It'd also be a coaster that reuses concepts unused from the Japanese Dark Forest concept that was canceled with new features along the way from it, culminating in a brand new E-Ticket attraction for the area.

__

While this isn't my best, it's a quick one that I wanted to bring out..

The tweet's aren't mine, and the designs of the Forbidden Journey Layout in those pictures of the tweets are actually from USH themselves..

But, I do appreciate the love.

I was referring to you FF expansion art...I could totally see this happening

 

[Scott W.]

Posted in the wrong thread.

I thought I'd tidy this idea up a wee bit. I tried to figure out a way to worm a way through the queue to the great hall but poor memory of what's what and how confusing it would actually be made me think of an alternative route. There's enough room at the side of the green house to add a tunnel or walkway themed to the interior of the castle that should easily take you round the side and into a large enough area for the Great Hall.

I like it! The Fake tunnel that's actually above ground could also serve as a berm. Theme the outside of it to a hill or rock face and put some trees and bushes on top, so you got yourself an almost completely obscured view of the castle from JP.

 

[epcyclopedia]

*sigh* Their doodle isn't right - where they think they came up to the second floor into the queue is physically impossible to do so.

I'll doodle on the map all the landmarks so you can orient yourself. Give me a few minutes.

 

[epcyclopedia]

So, step 1 - how the lower level is laid out, roughly.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Upper level of queue with key to help orient yourself:

 

[LJGonz]

View attachment 3506

The white squiggly line going through the middle would be the pathway.

I know the Discovery Centre is loved but my god is that place dated now. Keeping the facade is an entry for the ride would make sense and it would make a great show building.

Hopefully the added foliage will hide the great hall and the green house, I know that's irked a lot of people. Moving the JP sign back should help the recent issues too around Hogwarts with the tree removal.

If you thought of this idea, this is the greatest idea you've ever had. A lot of people have spit out ideas, but this is a perfect clean idea that is realistic and very possible. I hate seeing FJ line from JP, and the discovery center is super old. You idea of a great hall restaurant right behind the Greta hall facade is amazing. It fits perfectly without eliminating anything important. The Great Hall restaurant can be Universals be our guest. It's all too amazing, and even better would be redesigning the JP area. Great work, this is really impressive. Especially how you got the podcast to explain everything.

 

[LJGonz]

@Marni1971 ya think this would be helpful for a future vid?

It seems the only major difference between the two is where the maintenance area is. USH has it in the same building. IOA does not.

Express???

 

[epcyclopedia]

The queue marked "Express" in my doodle is called that by everyone who works there. That's what it was meant to be - it's used for "accommodations" and castle tours, but that's too darn long to say.

Also, the maintenance spur and loop is in the same place at IOA. Holds 16 vehicles.

IOA also has a little garage across the walkway from it to work on vehicles while they're completely off the track.

 

[WAJAS]

If you thought of this idea, this is the greatest idea you've ever had. A lot of people have spit out ideas, but this is a perfect clean idea that is realistic and very possible. I hate seeing FJ line from JP, and the discovery center is super old. You idea of a great hall restaurant right behind the Greta hall facade is amazing. It fits perfectly without eliminating anything important. The Great Hall restaurant can be Universals be our guest. It's all too amazing, and even better would be redesigning the JP area. Great work, this is really impressive. Especially how you got the podcast to explain everything.

I agree with you up to a point. The Discovery Centre may be old, but it is the defining feature of the land. It's what connects the land to the movies. Also, if IOA ever gets a nighttime show on the lagoon, then that water front area on the opposite side of the centre is necessary for viewing space.

I propose that the centre itself stays, but...
1) The whole thing is completely refurbished. Update the dino nursery/egg area with newer technology. Keep the skeletons.
2) The bottom floor exhibits on the west and south exhibits are torn out and turned into space for the new E ticket, its queue, and its entrance. The E ticket itself is located party in these spaces, the backstage areas behind them, and the Triceratops Encounter area.
3) The top floor is simply reorganized. Part of the area on the south side is turned into space for the E ticket. The shop and quick service are switched. This shop turns into the exit for the ride, so you exit the E ticket on the second floor.

Also, by moving the paths around more space can be made for the E ticket.

Lastly, the path that leads to the secondary bridge should be more welcoming and more obvious to attract guests away from the main bridge. Currently it is hidden away. This can be accomplished through simply signage and slight path relocation.

EDIT: Think about The Land pavillion at Epcot, and how Soarin' works in it.

 

[LJGonz]

The queue marked "Express" in my doodle is called that by everyone who works there. That's what it was meant to be - it's used for "accommodations" and castle tours, but that's too darn long to say.

Also, the maintenance spur and loop is in the same place at IOA. Holds 16 vehicles.

IOA also has a little garage across the walkway from it to work on vehicles while they're completely off the track.

Oh, cuz whenever u ask if there is express they say no.

 

[WAJAS]

IOA also has a little garage across the walkway from it to work on vehicles while they're completely off the track.

I wonder why USH doesn't need that extra garage space while IOA does.

 

[LJGonz]

I agree with you up to a point. The Discovery Centre may be old, but it is the defining feature of the land. It's what connects the land to the movies. Also, if IOA ever gets a nighttime show on the lagoon, then that water front area on the opposite side of the centre is necessary for viewing space.

I propose that the centre itself stays, but...
1) The whole thing is completely refurbished. Update the dino nursery/egg area with newer technology. Keep the skeletons.
2) The bottom floor exhibits on the west and south exhibits are torn out and turned into space for the new E ticket, its queue, and its entrance. The E ticket itself is located party in these spaces, the backstage areas behind them, and the Triceratops Encounter area.
3) The top floor is simply reorganized. Part of the area on the south side is turned into space for the E ticket. The shop and quick service are switched. This shop turns into the exit for the ride, so you exit the E ticket on the second floor.

Also, by moving the paths around more space can be made for the E ticket.

Lastly, the path that leads to the secondary bridge should be more welcoming and more obvious to attract guests away from the main bridge. Currently it is hidden away. This can be accomplished through simply signage and slight path relocation,

I totally agree, I'm gonna add some photos of what I want the new VC to look like, but I'd never want to tear it down and not rebuild one.

 

[epcyclopedia]

And to explain what you're seeing in the tweets with the single riders...

It appears Hollywood is experimenting and routing singles through the "Blue Hallway" - which there is painted black apparently. In orlando it was meant to be backstage but then it turned out guests saw it pretty often so they replaced the fluorescent lights with blue lights to hide it a little.

Long story short - you get on the ride and dont fit or freak out, they pull you off. Well, it's a moving belt - walking back is a struggle - so they pop you out a curtain in the wall and into the blue hallway. You go down it and the childswap person, who is wearing a headset, knows you're coming and has the grouper put you back on to try again or explains that you cant ride and sends you to the exit.

So, there's a door that comes out right the grouper position from the hallway. Single riders runs right up to the corner where the doorway is. Hollywood appears to have just sent their singles down to enter through the curtain and be added to empty seats. Whereas in Orlando (and hollywood previously presumably) the grouper splits up groups into the parties of 4 and fills the holes with the single riders.

Which honestly didn't work great. If you have 3 people, a single, another group of 3, another single - the singles if together will try to just take a bench of their own and regroup in the short walk between the group and stepping onto the belt.

There's two curtains, an early and a late exit. I guess if they're calling on the headset to a person controlling the singles they can just pop them in during that gap, but it seems risky. Go too far beyond those curtains and the harnesses arent down and the vehicle tagged-for-show and the whole ride will stop.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Also, empty seats because people don't fit or freak out is a big concern for management. It takes a toll on the capacity. They count the number of removals per hour and track it.

So if singles can fill those empty seats it makes the numbers look much better - and with the grouper situation they cant preemptively put a single behind a party (though honestly i've seen it done when they know they wont fit but the guest is insistent on trying.)

 

[epcyclopedia]

And thinking on it - it's probably because Hollywood has the people who were dealing with the glasses before. They were right where this new single rider thing is being done. With Orlando's current staffing it seems like a terrible idea, but if you had extra people on the belt it's doable.

Also, vehicles get skipped because people forget how to walk. They think the vehicle will come to them or they get to the edge of the belt and just panic. So this line of singles can fill those empty benches too.

Assuming the singles don't argue they're a party of 5 or have to ride together - which they do, constantly.