Comments on: Rumor round-up for April 11, 2014: Diagon Alley’s soft openings, King Kong’s secrets, and Universal Orlando’s new ride (literally)

By: Chattanooga Ghost Tours Inc

Chattanooga Ghost Tours Inc — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:54:10 +0000

Rumors that NBC’s Today Show cancelled their scheduled broadcast from WWOHP Fri. :/

By: Chattanooga Ghost Tours Inc

Chattanooga Ghost Tours Inc — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:27:33 +0000

I think I was off a day in my predictions- last time, it opened on a Friday, and the Friday of the week I predicted is June 20, not 21. NBC will be broadcasting from Universal this upcoming Friday, and the grand opening date will almost certainly be announced then. So you only have a few more days to get your predictions in!

By: CaptainAction

CaptainAction — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 23:42:17 +0000

I’m rooting for Spongebob land. Spongebob could replace Barney and Curious George. Need a Spongebob dark ride too.

By: Flo Rida Uni Versal

Flo Rida Uni Versal — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:15:49 +0000

I would love a Marvel themed hotel, even though Disney might buy out the rights to Marvel rides, *sigh*. Lost Continent should become a Lord of the Rings or a Hobbit Land, although they shouldn’t get rid of Mythos and I am not quite sure how that will fit in. Skull Island will be cool up in IOA, will it be considered a new island? Suess Land will get the Lorax Dark Ride, should be okay. Toon Lagoon might be safe for a while longer consodering the new Popeye movie coming out. Not sure where the Phase 3 of Potter Land will go… Maybe the fourth park? The third park, the water park, may just take over Wet’n’Wild? The Twister ride in USF needs to be turned into a different ride…. same with Shrek 4D. Woody Woodpecker coaster will probably not be destroyed, but just refurbished considering the new Woody Woodpecker movie coming out. Or maybe they should move it to a different location… Toon Lagoon? KidZone could go four ways in my opinion. It could become Supper Silly Fun Land, A Dreamworks Zone- with How to Train Your Dragon, revamp of Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, etc. or a Snoopy Charlie Brown kind of zone. The fourth one is my favourite one, Bikini Bottom. It could have Krusty Krab, Chum Bucket, Mrs Puff’s Boating School ride and Glove World. Last thing, SPRINGFIELD NEEDS TO BE BIGGER!!! WE NEED THE SIMPSONS STREET, POWER PLANT, BARNEYS BOWLARAMA, ETC

By: CaptainAction

CaptainAction — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 12:01:18 +0000

All the great information here at Orlando Informer helped me get my family of 5, from Texas, in with the first 200 guests at Transformers! It was so great. When I say first 200, I mean after the construction folks, Universal folks, and their families.
One of our truly great family memories. We might have been in the first 100 because we just had to estimate. You folks at orlando Informer are VERY accurate. Thanks again.
I think familes in the near future will join our family in making the decision to skip or GREATLY minimize WDW in their vacation plans. It’s just too expensive at WDW to spend vast amounts of money to take a family to a theme park museum (I coined this term by the way). Just nothing to get excited about at WDW for the last 10 years. That was enough patience for our family.
We just hit Universal and WDW water parks but now Universal is going to fix the water park situation so good bye Blizzard Beach.
WDW plans are to TRAP guests with Magic Handcuffs (I coined this too) and free bus rides.
Universal is ATTRACTING guests with over the top attractions, resorts, and experiences.
This difference cannot be overlooked.

By: Brittani Blades

Brittani Blades — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 01:39:09 +0000

I was hoping to make a trip up there again the week of the 22nd but I want to be nowhere near that place when Diagon Alley opens! lol

By: DragoHarley

DragoHarley — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:34:42 +0000

I see what Disney is trying to do with Avatar at Animal Kingdom, create an immersive environment, but it’s just not going to be as good or as appealing as the Potter projects at Uni. The only thing that could match Potter is Star Wars at Disney. If Disney actually stopped being so cheap and lazy and went to the effort of building a Star Wars land as intricate and as immersive as the Wizarding World then Disney would have something incredible. Avatar will be interesting, for sure, and I am sure they will do a nice job…but it just won’t be mind-blowing. It will, however, achieve Disney’s goals of keeping people in DAK longer and having them say into the dark. That’s really what Avatar is for, making DAK a full day park.

Will they ever build Star Wars? I don’t know anymore. As a fan of seeing cool things get built, I’ve kind of given up on Disney at this point. Nothing they are doing right now excites me the way the Potter construction and soon the Jurassic Park construction is exciting. Universal having a monorail is a psychological game-changer. That really makes it on the level of Disney. It also will make Disney look bad for not having a monorail go to all its resorts and all its parks.

Very smart moves by Universal in all this.

By: Johnny Paduani

Johnny Paduani — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:29:12 +0000

I’m just hoping I can get on the Hogwarts to diagon alley with the expected crowds.

By: Joren LeGoullon

Joren LeGoullon — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 23:48:45 +0000

I hope it is something better than king kong.

By: Charlotte Beardmore Beck

Charlotte Beardmore Beck — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:54:59 +0000

Not sure if it’s any help but we were there totally by chance for the soft opening of Harry Potter World. We hovered around the gates chatting to the staff about when it was opening etc and the next thing we knew we were took through. It was fantastic.

By: DanandWic

DanandWic — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:47:26 +0000

Eeee, how exciting! We’re visiting May 6 through May 20! Thank you for another great post ^__^

By: noelballantyne

noelballantyne — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 20:29:05 +0000

Excellent news, we will be there last week June, first week july. there is a very excited ron weasly fan that cant wait.

By: Marshall Green

Marshall Green — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 19:32:04 +0000

Looks like we will be there right when the madness is going to begin. Miranda Seaman Green Lea Ann Gallant

By: Scott Hartman

Scott Hartman — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 18:23:44 +0000

I am now following on twitler because I need to know the second soft openings start. I will leave work and drive over there to check it out.

By: OrlandoInformer

OrlandoInformer — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:24:46 +0000

@HelenB I’m expecting the Diagon Alley grand opening announcement right around the end of April or the first days of May (which, by the by, is the same time they announced the grand opening date for Transformers last year, which also opened in mid-June).

I’m also thinking that Universal will do some sort of buildup to the Diagon Alley announcement, so we may very likely hear that the press have been sent invitations or something along these lines in the next week or so.

By: Chris Sanders

Chris Sanders — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:22:48 +0000

Forget potter what has me excited is 2020 just the possibility of four parks is awesome

By: Melanie Eckroth

Melanie Eckroth — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:16:14 +0000

Finally some idea of a date. Excited but not looking forward to the crowds!

By: HelenB

HelenB — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:12:13 +0000

I am so relieved by this post! We will be at Universal from July 21-23 and I had been worried by your recent predictions of Diagon Alley opening on July 1. Seems like we should have some opportunity for soft openings at least during our visit, with a possibility of being there opening weekend!

So…. any thoughts as to when an official announcement of opening day might come?

By: Shannon McLain Holden

Shannon McLain Holden — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:04:12 +0000

We will be there may 5-6.. Maybe we will get lucky

By: Louis Prizzi

Louis Prizzi — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:55:08 +0000

I’ll b there may 20th… hoping for small crowds so I won’t b too upset if its not up and running….

By: Ian Nagle

Ian Nagle — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:12:50 +0000

The future certainly looks promising for universal studios!!
Can’t wait to see diagon alley in September!

By: Sylvia J Sievers

Sylvia J Sievers — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:11:32 +0000

Thanks! You guys rock!

By: Christina Nikolajevs Voies

Christina Nikolajevs Voies — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:09:11 +0000

Amber looks like we picked the right days to miss the madness!

By: Christina Nikolajevs Voies

Christina Nikolajevs Voies — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:08:40 +0000

Yay! We will miss it! We are florida residents and while we like the HP movies and area we are by no means die hard fans so avoid in the crowds is great!

By: Charlisse Wilson

Charlisse Wilson — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:03:02 +0000

If they open on the 22 June I will miss it by 8 days 🙁 I’m staying at the hard rock hotel so fingers crossed we get a chance of a ‘soft opening’ very exciting stuff

By: BrianArmstrong

BrianArmstrong — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 15:57:16 +0000

Universal studios from day one has wanted to match and beat WDW. It beats it in thrill rides no doubt. There are two kind of trips when you go to Orlando, an Orlando trip where you hit several places or a Disney Trip (self explanatory.) Universal now has the resources with Harry Potter World income to expand as much as they can in size. We all know about WDW amount of land and the Avatar expansion (which I can see being their thrill ride additions) but Universal is just expanding in leaps and bounds. There goal has been and looks to be on track to add a third type of trip to Orlando, a Universal Studios trip. Diagon Alley will break all records, nothing new I am stating, what it does though is it adds a major surplus of income into the company that will be put back into the park to create more trips. Now I just can’t wait till May 2015 so I will be down there.

By: Bethany Bro

Bethany Bro — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 15:52:46 +0000

Awesome! I sure hope they pick annual pass holders for a soft opening or two!