Tron Lightcycle Power Run, one of the most popular attractions at Shanghai Disneyland, may be coming stateside to Walt Disney World, if current rumors and speculations are true. A lot of these rumors began to rear their head when talk of a Tron sequel/reboot featuring Jared Leto started stirring, which is said to be in the very early stages of development. If accurate, this would allow Disney time to design and prepare a Lightcycle Power Run clone for one, or both, of their parks stateside.

For those of you not familiar with the ride, it is a launched motorbike roller coaster where guests board a lightcycle-themed coaster car and are launched into the world of Tron. The attraction opened alongside Shanghai Disneyland in June of 2016 and features both indoor and outdoor sections and a top speed of 60 MPH.

The biggest question is where could Disney build this massive launched roller coaster. There were, originally, several rumors floating around that it would be placed in Epcot, starting with Ellen’s Universe of Energy, which would meet the wrecking ball. But with the newly-refurbished Test Track, which has a very Tron feel to its theming, sitting next-door to Universe of Energy, this would most likely not be a perfect location for the attraction.

Enter Tomorrowland Speedway at Magic Kingdom. The Speedway attraction and the surrounding area of Tomorrowland are still sitting in 1971 and are in desperate need of some sort of makeover, and a Tron roller coaster would be a fantastic way to kick it off. Even though Disneyland’s Autopia recently received a facelift by its sponsor, Honda, Disney’s Tokyo and Hong Kong resorts have closed their variations of the Speedway, leading us to believe that Magic Kingdom could easily close theirs, as well – not to mention that the brand-new Shanghai Disneyland opened without any sort of Speedway attraction in their Tomorrowland at all. And let’s face it – Tomorrowland Speedway is not the most cost-effective ride to operate (all of those cars need to be fueled on a daily basis). It also sits on a fairly large plot of land, one that could be utilized for a bigger and more “futuristic” ride.

As far as Disneyland is concerned, the only possible location for this attraction would be to remove Star Wars Launch Bay after Star Wars Land opens in 2019 and build it there. There is also the rumor that Tron could come only to Magic Kingdom, with Disneyland getting a completely new ride based on this platform. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! is rumored to be just the beginning of a whole land dedicated to Marvel inside Disney’s California Adventure; we could possibly see this technology re-purposed from Tron into something Marvel-themed. With Avengers: Infinity War coming out in 2018, now would be the perfect time to build an attraction based around Captain America and his team.

With things wrapping up on Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and construction kicking into high gear at Star Wars Land at Hollywood Studios, could the next big project be a facelift for Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom? It is also interesting to note that Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary is fast approaching – 2021, to be exact – and surely Walt Disney World has some major plans up their sleeves for this major milestone.

A Tron roller coaster could definitely be one of them.

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That such a carryover from the cinematic franchise would occur isn’t much of a surprise, given that the films were still in production when the ride was being developed (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, the penultimate movie, released five months after Forbidden Journey bowed), and it wouldn’t, therefore, take much to have all the wardrobe and necessary props be carried over to Universal’s soundstage. In this way, Harry’s theme park presence is as congruous as possible with his narrative ones.

All this changed, however, when it came time to expand the Wizarding World with Diagon Alley. Arriving almost exactly three years to the day Deathly Hallows, Part 2 came out, the core actors were more than eager to move on with their careers – or attempt to, at least – and of the main three leads, only one was willing to don his robes once again for the land’s two new attractions: the Hogwarts Express and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (which explains the terrible Hermione voice that guests are forced to endure on the former). This is at least part of what necessitated Universal Creative to focus Gringotts on the tertiary (at best) character of Bill Weasley.

But here’s the beauty of the ride: by making a side character the protagonist, Universal presented a fresh angle on a well-trodden narrative (unlike Forbidden Journey, Escape from Gringotts’s story is lifted directly from the book and film), thereby enhancing the guest’s experience instead of detracting from it. It’s a subtle-but-impressive feat, and one that is only possible thanks to the main trio’s presence in the background, both literally and figuratively; if Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn’t make an appearance at all, would the ride still be as engaging and worthwhile as it is? Would visitors still flock to it during all hours of the day?

It’s actually not a rhetorical question – as we get closer and closer to Dragon Challenge‘s replacement attraction, which will open eight years after the movies’ conclusion, will any of the original cast be willing to pop back up? If not, then the new roller coaster has three different tacks it can take.

1. Side character takes main stage

Call this first option the Escape from Gringotts scenario: just as Bill Weasley, who barely registers in any of the films, can be made the centerpiece of the ride (hey, the man does work for Gringotts Bank, so it’s not that much of a stretch), then there is a whole plethora of other fringe characters who can be given their turn in the spotlight. If the new ride is set in the Forbidden Forest, why not follow the centaur Firenze or Hagrid’s giant half-brother, Grawp? If primarily based in Azkaban prison, then Barty Crouch, Jr. – or, yes, even the biggest of all the side characters, Sirius Black – could be the way to go. Then there’s the Malfoys, Nymphadora Tonks, Argus Filch, Cedric Diggory (if Universal wanted to keep the Triwizard Tournament theme going), or the Longbottoms to consider, as well.

Once again, the danger here is that guests may feel so far removed from the likes of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, that the ride experience would feel tacked on and forced instead of congruous and organic, even if Universal pulls yet another page from Gringotts’s book and hews closely to a specific episode from the source material. Another, related possibility: the difference could be split and one of the main recurring faces be used instead (think Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, or, even, Lord Voldemort himself), which is actually the option that author J.K. Rowling has opted to take her brand-new film franchise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in; the five-movie story is all about Gellert Grindelwald, the original Voldemort, though, once again, she is working with the safety net of having both Dumbledore and Newt Scamander present, two characters who hail from the progenitor series (to one degree or another).

2. A brand-new protagonist

This is the riskiest of all of Universal’s options, though it’s also one that has the biggest possible reward, as well.

Should the company decide to work with Rowling and her filmmaking team to create a new protagonist from scratch, fans would either be immediately turned off or instantly magnetized to the new attraction; it would either be laughable or a must-do experience, depending upon who the character is, how he or she is positioned in the mythology, and what kind of future enthusiasts could expect for him.

There’s actually some precedent for this seemingly-way-out-there scenario: in the queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, guests are treated to the very first – and, so far, only – appearance of the four founding members of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (well, if one excludes the “trading cards” that come with the gift shops’ chocolate frogs, that is). And 2016’s stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, moves the action some 25 years in the future, following the adventures of Harry’s second son, Albus Severus Potter, and all his new friends and nemeses as he takes his turn at Hogwarts – something which Warner Bros. is rumored to be very interested in fashioning a whole new series of movies out of. When combined with Rowling’s recent dabbling in the short story format for her personal site, Pottermore, the sky’s well and truly the limit for whatever new character and whatever new premise that she might come up with for Florida’s Wizarding World.

3. First years, this way!

Yes, this is something of a cheat, but it nonetheless wouldn’t require the presence or involvement of the main three cast – call it a win for both Universal and the actors.

Let’s say the new attraction is set within the Forbidden Forest, given its geographic proximity to Hogsmeade Village. One of the most memorable incidents to have occurred in the location is from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the inaugural novel/film, when a possessed Professor Quirrell hunts down and murders a unicorn in order to drink its blood and help nourish his master, Voldemort, back to corporeal health. To incorporate such a story for the new ride, Universal Creative could feature 11-year-old versions of Harry, Ron, and Hermione and ask you to explore the even-larger and even-more-terrifying forest with them; archival footage could be combined with some computer-generated trickery in order to provide the new performances, which is exactly the method that Universal employed in order to include Harry and Hermione in Escape from Gringotts.

And this first-year theme could be extended well beyond the woods’ borders, as well, including scenes around, say, Hagrid’s hut or other nearby locales – maybe riders will even be expected to help the fabled trio complete the gauntlet of challenges in order to reach the fabled Sorcerer’s Stone deep within Hogwarts Castle. (Seeing as how the Wizarding World’s placement in the Potter timeline is already so schizophrenic – Escape from Gringotts occurs during the last movie, while all the rest of Diagon Alley is set somewhere in the first half of the series, just as one for-instance – having a ride version of Sorcerer’s Stone wouldn’t at all be a problem.)

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Which path do you think Universal, Warner Bros., and JK Rowling need to take? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook group.

And, in the meantime, for the latest news and tips from Universal Orlando, Walt Disney World, and other Orlando attractions, be sure to follow Orlando Informer on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUUbHGBUgSE

This may result in an ever-changing landscape for vacationers to lose themselves into, but it also has a drawback: for every one project that gets approved and eventually realized, there are several others that were on the drawing board at one point that subsequently got deep-sixed. Some of these concepts are genuinely engrossing, and they would’ve easily made some of the most intriguing themed attractions around. (If this is the case, why wouldn’t Universal have gone ahead and greenlit them? There is a whole host of factors that could’ve altered the company’s decision-making process, from the lack of merchandising opportunities to a disagreement with a property holder.)

Having been around the Orlando Informer block for a while now (five years this month!), and having covered rumors for the vast majority of that time, I’ve come to collect in the back of my nerdy mind a stack of these half-whispered rides that never quite managed to materialize. Call them Universal’s greatest hits that never were – I’d pay good money to experience these in one form or another, and I’m betting most of the Universal faithful feel the same exact way.

Here are the top five.

5. Mt. Crumpit

Seuss Landing has seen very few changes since it first opened to the public along with the rest of Islands of Adventure all the way back in 1999, but what few attractions were rumored to arrive at one point or another – especially now, in the post-Wizarding World of Harry Potter days, when the resort is awash with attendance and revenue growth – have all been noteworthy for their attempts at continuing to flesh out Dr. Seuss’s whimsical world.

The most promising of these was a Mount Crumpit coaster, which would’ve been themed to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, of course, and would’ve been located on hitherto-unused real estate, stretching down towards CityWalk. There seems to be some disagreement about whether the 1966 animated classic or the 2000 live-action Jim Carrey vehicle would’ve been the basis for the ride – if the latter, word had it that Universal Creative wanted to line up Carrey himself to provide his voice – but all accounts seemed to agree that it would’ve provided a slightly more older-skewing attraction for the definitely-younger Seuss Landing.

The real kicker here, however, was the idea that Universal was apparently toying with that would’ve had the coaster leave its station at Seuss Landing in Islands of Adventure and deposit riders off at another brand-new location at Universal Studios Florida, possibly where the Blue Man Group theater is currently situated. I have absolutely no idea how, exactly, this would’ve worked, but we can see how the company was already keen on repeating the success of the Hogwarts Express – an idea that has supposedly been recycled for the upcoming Super Nintendo World next decade.

4. Universal purchasing SeaWorld

This was, in hindsight, a development that was never going to happen, given just how profoundly SeaWorld continues to be hurt from the 2013 Blackfish controversy. (And, even if there were some truth to these rumors, one can only assume that Universal and Comcast are only too happy that the deal didn’t end up going through.)

Still, the possibilities of the hypothetical situation still send chills down my spine: at one point, some three or four years ago, it was whispered that Universal wanted to move in on its significantly-weakened rival, SeaWorld, and scoop up its three Orlando parks – SeaWorld, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove – to make up the elusive Site B that Universal has been attempting to cobble together since the mid-‘90s (and which it just might have finally done late in 2015). In this way, the company could have a direct, if more aquatic-skewing, answer to Disney’s Animal Kingdom without having to invest all the hundreds of millions of dollars in construction.

Considering that SeaWorld is currently in the process of setting itself up as the value option for Orlando tourists, and considering its multi-year plan of transforming itself from an orca-based performance park to a more Universal-like collection of thrill rides, a merger is not quite out of the picture just yet, though the company’s stock price is still down considerably. Who knows? Maybe if SeaWorld can somehow successfully finish its painful transition process, Universal could come sniffing around again (just imagine what Mako would be like with Comcast money behind it!).

3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Land

It’s no secret that Universal has been going from attraction to attraction in its Florida parks to see what needs to be replaced with Potter-quality theming, and it’s also no secret that both Toon Lagon and, more especially, The Lost Continent are in the most desperate need of being overhauled.

Just what would replace one or both of the areas has been an open, ongoing question for Universal Creative; ideas have reportedly ranged from The Lord of the Rings to World of Warcraft. But none got me as boyishly excited as the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rumor, simultaneously bringing my childhood dreams to life and conjuring visions of Wizarding World-esque exclusive culinary delights.

Once again, there’s some confusion as to what, exactly, this proposed land would have entailed – would it be the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder (yes, please!) or the 2005 Tim Burton-directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? – but let’s be honest: most of these considerations are moot. Wonka’s magical playground, no matter its exact contours, is one of those few golden (no pun intended) concepts that could result in an instantly-legendary theme park land – certainly one of the best in the entire world.

This is an even bigger no-brainer than either the Wizarding World or Nintendo, and that’s saying quite a bit.

(Our consolation prize that Wonka Land never came to glorious fruition? Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen, which approximates the chocolatey delights of a fantastical world, replete with steam-powered robot.)

2. The Ministry of Magic

When The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley opened in July 2014, rumors swirled that Universal deliberately positioned it next to Fear Factor Live in order to eventually allow the latter to become an expansion pad, an area that could be gobbled up and made part of the new Potter land. (The fact that Diagon Alley’s backstage area directly points to the Fear Factor stadium, allowing the two to potentially connect seamlessly, was only seen as further proof of this scenario.)

Alas, it is nearly three years later, and there’s been absolutely no movement on this front. Universal Studios Florida’s weakest stage show still stands, and its supposed replacement, the Ministry of Magic – which is also located in downtown London and which is the last major location from the Harry Potter mythos that can be realized in theme park form – is nowhere to be seen.

Just what would the Ministry bring to the attraction table is unknown, but one’s imagination positively swims with all the possibilities; new dark rides, eateries, and gift shops (which are the true flagship experience of the Wizarding Worlds) are all possible, and all can easily fit within Fear Factor’s footprint. My personal money is on some type of confrontation between Professor Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort, like from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I’ve actually written all about it right here – but I would be equally as happy with a quick jaunt through the Department of Mysteries.

We might not have gotten the Ministry of Magic add-on, but the wizarding rumors haven’t stopped churning. The most recent magical scuttlebutt has Dragon Challenge being torn down, probably sometime this year, and replaced with one or more brand-new attractions. While not a whole new area to explore, they would nonetheless offer fresh ways to interact with the Wizarding Worlds – count me in.

1. Hogwarts Hotel

What many Universal diehards would consider to be the ultimate themed experience possible has absolutely nothing to do with rides, merchandise, or overarching areas. It’s a hotel.

Being able to walk around, explore, and even sleep in Hogwarts Castle would be a dream come true for many millions of people across the globe. It would also prove to be a money-printing machine, likely raking in millions of dollars in revenue. Why it hasn’t happened, many believe, goes directly back to author Jo Rowling, who has defended her intellectual property like a hawk, although there may be other factors to consider (such as investing the large sums necessary to design, build, and then manage a hotel, which Universal likely wouldn’t want to do on the back of a licensing agreement that could theoretically change in a rapid fashion).

What would a Hogwarts hotel have consisted of? The only specific detail we heard revolved around the inclusion of actually-moving staircases, though this sounds like an idea from a blue-sky design phase and not actual blueprints or anything else that more closely resembles the nuts and bolt of the really real world. And then there are, of course, all the other hallmarks of the castle as it’s been depicted both on the page and on the screen, including many of the same locations that guests can quickly walk through in the queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

The only ray of hope here is that Rowling has slowly, carefully been loosening her death-grip on Potter, allowing small Christmas decorations to go up here in Orlando, for example, and permitting a Halloween celebration to be held at Universal Studios Japan. Maybe her trust in Universal Creative’s abilities will increase to the point where she finally does greenlight what would be one of the most lucrative hotels in the entirety of human history.

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For the latest news, tips, and more at Universal Orlando, Walt Disney World, and other Orlando attractions, be sure to follow Orlando Informer on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Update 3/30/17: More permits have surfaced yet again giving us even more pieces to the puzzle in regards to the rumored gondola system coming to Walt Disney World. These new permits detail six specific locations throughout Walt Disney World, all of which are in close proximity to Pop Century Resort, Disney’s Boardwalk and Boardwalk Villas, and Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. There is also one location that is near Disney’s Hollywood Studios’s parking lot.

New permit filed today related to “gondola” WDW rumor. Permit for “foundation & building infrastructure” includes 6 locations (see map): pic.twitter.com/n2ynDpq6Bv

— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) March 31, 2017

When we looked up these addresses in Google Maps, it was to get a definite location; however, four of the addresses line up in pretty close proximity to our original map drawing, which can be seen below, which could possibly be the four major hubs for the rumored gondola system. The other two addresses could possibly be substations, major intersections or some other sort of building. Our map is the rumored layout of the four main hubs for the gondola system.

We will keep this article updated with any new developments in this story.

Update 3/9/17: Disney World has filed permits with the South Florida Water Management District for a new overlook located on Hourglass Lake between Disney’s Pop Century Resort and Art of Animation Resort. The permits call for a 10,000 square foot building near the bridge that connects the two resorts, and a new boat ramp located at the north end of the lake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEXHWxn2dU4

The location of the overlook matches up perfectly with one of the rumored locations of one of the gondola stations, which can be seen in our image below. Also, if the theme park resort was going to build a gondola station, it would make perfect sense to build it between these two resorts for easy access.

Could this new building be the beginning of the rumored gondola system? No one knows for sure. We will have to wait and see once it starts construction.

Update 3:04PM: Shortly after publishing, a source familiar with the matter reached out to confirm that a gondola system is indeed coming to Walt Disney World. However, some of the details previously published, including the map circulating, is not entirely accurate. We have updated this article and the map with the latest information from the anonymous tipster.

An interesting new rumor has popped up that could be the next big mode of transportation for Walt Disney World. The resort currently hosts a variety of options to get from one point to another within the resort, such as the monorail, boat, and bus, but this new rumor suggests that Walt Disney World could be looking into building a gondola system that would connect Epcot (blue) and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (red), along with a few of the surrounding resorts.

The news that triggered this rumor are some permits filed by Disney that show a variety of structures being built around the area of these two parks and resorts, which can be seen as colored squares in the above image. If the gondola rumor is true, one could only assume that these buildings would house the stations for the gondola system. The two resorts that would also be part of this rumored gondola system would be Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (orange) and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort (red).

If this rumor was to come to fruition and be built, it would certainly help the transportation infrastructure at Walt Disney World and would quite possibly relieve a lot of stress of the ever-aging monorail system. It would also be the right time to build a new transportation system for Hollywood Studios, with all of the new and exciting things happening at the park, including Star Wars Land coming in 2019, which is guaranteed to draw in the masses. This rumored gondola system would provide another method of transportation to that park which is not part of the current monorail system. It has been said that expanding the monorail would not be cost effective, especially since Disney would have to expand to two parks, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Not to mention all of the on-site resorts they would have to update to accommodate the monorail system.

Of course, this would be a much larger gondola system than the Skyway attraction at Magic Kingdom, which ran from 1971 to 1999. The attraction gave guests a ride from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland.

This is all just rumor and speculation at this point and nothing has been officially announced by Walt Disney World. We will keep you up to date if we hear anything more.

For the latest news, tips, and more at Disney World, Universal, and other Orlando attractions be sure to follow Orlando Informer on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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On Christmas Eve, Screamscape gave everyone a slightly early Christmas present by dropping a sizzling new rumor onto the themed online scene: a new nighttime show at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade “may be in the works” for as early as 2017.

Now that the wizarding cat is out of the Muggle bag, we figured it would be as good of a time as any to go ahead and make it official: there is no “may” about it – Universal is currently developing the show, and it is going to bow in the new year. We here at OI HQ have been hearing whispers about this exciting new development for the past several months or so, and while we’re happy to finally share some of these details with you, we do have to add one important caveat to the mix: we don’t know everything that is currently on the drawing board, and, even if we did, there’s the big likelihood – knowing Universal – that things would change in the final months leading up to opening night.

So, with that mind, let’s go ahead and lay all of our Hogsmeade cards on the table, shall we?

What is the new nighttime show?

The as-of-yet-untitled Harry Potter nightly show at Islands of Adventure will take a cue out of the opening celebrations for both Orlando’s and Hollywood’s Hogsmeades and use the iconic Hogwarts Castle as the canvas for a short projected film. Called projection mapping, Disney has been using the technology to great effect for quite some time now, doing such magical things as encasing Cinderella Castle in ice for its Frozen-themed performances.

While we don’t know what, exactly, will be displayed on the castle, we do expect the effect to be similar in spectacle, if not necessarily in tone; our best guess at the moment is that the symbols and mascot of each of the four Hogwarts houses will wrap themselves around the structure and the rockwork it sits on, much like what was seen at the Hollywood kickoff earlier this year. We suppose there is the potential for clips from the eight Potter films to be cut together in an exciting or uplifting fashion, much like guests already see at the Universal Cinematic Spectacular lagoon show over at Universal Studios Florida, but probably not for new footage to be shot or otherwise created (such as using computer-generated imagery with the original cast), as that seems like an awfully big expense for an application that probably won’t generate new ticket sales – at least, not in the way that a big, new attraction, such as Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, would (although, it has to be said, the potential for Hogwarts Express-esque upgrades to park-to-park tickets is huge).

There’s one more unknown that has to be added to the list. There have been many rumors of a holiday-themed Harry Potter event of some sort, which the recent Halloween and Christmas additions over at Universal Studios Japan have only added to, and this type of projection mapping would seem to be a natural fit for such festivities. Unfortunately, we have received no word one way or the other whether this will be the case.

What will the performance schedule be like?

This is where things start to get really interesting. As anyone who has been to either of the Wizarding Worlds during the busier times of the year knows, neither area is particularly well-suited to large crowds – which is doubly true for the back area of Hogsmeade, where both Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff are located. Should Universal go ahead and publish showtimes, wouldn’t that little area around Hogwarts Castle reach capacity in no time flat, and probably stay that way for at least a half-hour before the performance even starts?

This is why it seems like Universal is currently leaning in the direction of having randomized times each and every evening, with there being several performances to help compensate for the unpredictability. Think of the Tree of Life Awakenings at Animal Kingdom, which consist of short, little vignettes projected unto the park’s central icon and which follow no published schedule (although Disney likes to say that they occur roughly every 10 minutes – an interval that Universal, more than likely, will not be emulating).

Oh, yeah – we should probably back up for a moment and add that the Hogwarts Cinematic Spectacular (note: this joke title is definitely tongue-in-cheek) will premiere sometime during the first half of 2017, most likely during the early summer months, and is currently expected to last until the third quarter of the year… although we can certainly see the company revisiting this decision and extending it through the last stretch of ’17, should popular demand warrant it.

Surprise: Work has already started in the area

We mentioned already that we had been hearing murmurs of the project’s development for a good little while now. What we failed to add is that we’ve also been tracking physical, tangible evidence of the nighttime show for the past few months, as well.

Let’s jump back to sometime in the middle of October. While the rest of the theme-park-going world was enjoying the many wonderful spectacles of Halloween Horror Nights, we were busy taking pictures of Hogsmeade and the neighboring Jurassic Park land, where preparations had just begun – a number of trees that were planted to help provide a (admittedly porous) border between the two islands had been quietly chopped down, as can be seen in this photo:

Compare the above picture to this one of the castle prior to the landscape change:

This is for two purposes. Firstly, it’ll allow the projectors that will seem to magically envelope Hogwarts Castle with splendid (albeit unknown) imagery a clear line of sight to the building, and, secondly, it’ll provide a little bit more in the way of viewing space. The removal of the greenery is an unfortunate development, but it’s also a necessary one – call it the cost of progress, even in the wizarding world.

Can you tell me anything else?

Why, yes! Since you asked so nicely and all…

The original performance, back during Hogsmeade’s opening at Universal Studios Hollywood, was produced by an outside design and production agency called the Thinkwell Group, and it’s likely that it’ll return to produce this new show. The projectors to be utilized will probably be manufactured by Christie (thanks to Universal’s recent partnership with them), and the media that will play out on the castle just might be handled by Moment Factory out of Canada, another returning vendor from earlier this year.

Christie is also hiring more developers to produce projection mapping solutions for #UniversalOrlando.

— Taylor Strickland (@WTStrick) July 21, 2016

The Orlando and Hollywood opening moment featured a temporary setup for all this fancy equipment, using scaffolding strategically placed around the area, but Florida’s permanent show will require a permanent solution – all of the several projectors will be housed in structures themed to the area, so that they blend in. We should expect to see these being erected over the course of the next few months.

Why add a new show in the first place?

The Harry Potter nighttime show will be Islands of Adventure’s grand addition for 2017, taking its place alongside Universal Studios Florida’s Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, Cabana Bay Beach Resort’s 400-room expansion, and that small trifle known as Volcano Bay water park. The idea here is not only to keep adding a little something extra to both of the pre-existing parks, in order to prevent attention from being dominated by all the other sectors of Universal Orlando Resort, but to also keep filling in all sorts and types of experiences for guests and their families; Disney has long mastered the art of shows and parades, and while USF has recently joined the fray with such (upgraded) fare as the Superstar Parade and the Cinematic Spectacular, Potter will mark IOA’s very first such offering.

There’s also the trend that Universal has worked very hard to instill in the Wizarding World’s short seven-year lifespan: the near-constant addition of new experiential items without being forced to resort solely to building new rides. New Butterbeer varieties (hot drinks, potted cream, and, most recently, fudge) and the insertion of interactive wand locations have been the name of the game thus far in Orlando, while holiday parties (replete with prowling Death Eaters and giant, interactive Christmas trees) have been added to the docket over in Japan; a Hogwarts-centric performance is a natural progression of such an approach.

Finally, this new show just might signal something of a grand resurgence for Hogsmeade – if certain recent rumors are to be believed (and it’s looking increasingly likely that they should), then there should be a second development befalling the area next year: the removal of the long-lived Dragon Challenge coaster. If so, expect its replacement attraction(s) to arrive in the following years, solidifying a whole new era in the first Wizarding World’s existence.

What would you like to see in this new nighttime show? How do you think crowds should be handled? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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You may already know all about Skull Island: Reign of Kong, Hello Kitty, and all the other big developments for this year, and, yes, you may already have a pretty good idea of what 2017 has in store, too (Volcano Bay! Fast & Furious! Jimmy Fallon!), but what about 2018 and beyond?

Hello, Hello Kitty!

For a company that can literally open several new attractions a year and which has just purchased an additional 474 acres of land, the future is bright and expansive, promising untold treasures. We just need to know what, exactly, those riches are.

We’ve heard stories about the recently-delayed Nintendo Land, the seemingly-disappeared Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, and several hotels that may or may not end up in the plot of land currently occupied by Wet ‘n Wild Orlando. Well, now Screamscape has done its thing and stepped forward with a few new tantalizing tidbits between this year and 2020, helping to fill in a few of those mysterious holes – for now, at least; just as quickly as Universal can erect these new rides, it can change its mind (even at the last minute!) even more quickly.

Let’s make like Doc Brown and jump into the (possible) future, shall we?

2016/2017: Expanded holiday offerings

Screamscape states it’s been hearing that the Macy’s Day Parade, which takes the various balloons from that year’s parade in New York down to Orlando for an encore appearance and which has been running at Universal Studios Florida for well over a decade now, might finally be on the chopping block.

Is Universal sure it wants to give up this?

While that is literally the entirety of the site’s report, it is one backed up by Universal’s recent holiday surveys it’s sent to select guests, listing a huge number of possible improvements or replacements for the various seasonal offerings it has on hand for both parks. Although these surveys don’t specifically mention replacing Macy’s, they do float (no pun intended) the possibility of a different holiday parade, along with a special “glowing nighttime” processional, which could very well end up being the new centerpiece of USF’s festivities.

It’s also important to note that this new nightly proceeding, whether the successor to Macy’s or not, isn’t the only new holiday offering that Universal has on its mind. A special Christmas-themed edition of the Cinematic Spectacular is specifically mentioned, but so is – much more excitingly – a whole raft of Wizarding World of Harry Potter possibilities: a nighttime show using 3D projections on Hogwarts Castle, special holiday performances by the Frog Choir and London Street Buskers, a hard-ticketed holiday party in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley that would include “delicious holiday treats and beverages,” and, finally, the famous Yule Ball from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

2017/2018: Jurassic Park World

Jurassic Park getting an expansion is something that has literally been talked about since day one, when Islands of Adventure opened in 1999 (in fact, the plot of land where Reign of Kong is being inserted was originally earmarked as, first, a jeep ride from the original Jurassic Park and, later, a themed hyper coaster). And while the only new developments to come to fruition are the land’s recent infusion of carnival games and the Raptor Encounter, it appears as if Universal Creative continues to blue-sky new concept ideas.

So long, old friend

So, what might be on the drawing board now? Smaller projects that “enhance” the area instead of major new arrivals – although Screamscape points out that it believes Camp Jurassic and the Discovery Center could potentially be razed in order to make room for several of these new experiences. Here’s what’s purportedly on the docket:

• Roller coasters – a long-rumored addition, this current iteration would be two smaller-sized coasters, possibly wooden or steel, in order to appeal to the kiddie market (much like the pre-existent Pterandon Flyers, though possibly skewing older).
• Flat ride – a family-friendly attraction, along the lines of Kang and Kodos’s Twirl ‘n Hurl.
• “Dinosaur Vet Paddock” – essentially an upgraded cross between Raptor Encounter and the Triceratops Encounter that it replaced, this would allow meet-‘n-greets with several different types of dinosaurs.
• Gryrosphere ride – lifted directly from last year’s Jurassic World, this would allow guests to roll past and observe different dinos. Presumably, Indominus Rex wouldn’t be involved.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, given Jurassic Park’s long and sordid history with cancelled projects, that the likelihood of even just one of these new attractions arriving is infinitesimally small. We’ll be sure to keep our T-rex forearms crossed, however.

2019: The Secret Life of Pets

The news story that we originally broke, a throw-back dark ride imbued with audio-animatronic figures instead of 3D screens based off of this summer’s Secret Life of Pets film has been caught between two different locations at Universal Orlando: Toon Lagoon’s long-unused amphitheater, which would be bigger but provide some thematic inconsistency with the rest of the land, and Shrek 4D, located in Production Central, which would be more cramped but offer a complimentary experience to next-door Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem (Illumination Entertainment has created both SLOP and Despicable Me). Screamscape says the current thinking over at the upper echelons of Universal Parks and Resorts favors Islands of Adventure over Universal Studios Florida, though it stresses this is still very much up in the air.

Secrets exposed!

Here’s the skinny on the attraction: The Secret Life of Pets will be a family-friendly ride that relies on a pretty impressive amount of animatronics to recreate the story of the film – which is about, well, what secret lives pets lead once their owners vamanos – something which marks a huge departure from Universal’s recent theme park offerings, from Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey to Transformers: The Ride – 3D. It is expected to be a port from Universal Studios Hollywood’s attraction, which is currently scheduled to drop a year early, in ’18; here’s to hoping that Universal will expand or otherwise enhance the experience on its way across the country, just as it did with Hollywood’s spruced-up versions of Despicable Me, Springfield, USA, and Forbidden Journey.

2020: Nintendo Land

Ah, poor Nintendo Land. What was originally a shoe-in for 2018, to replace nearly the entirety of the woefully-outdated Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone, has since become the victim of Universal’s own success; as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has opened (or is about to) in both Japan and California, bringing in hordes of new ticket and merchandise sales, the company has opted to try and round out its two formerly second-citizen parks as much as possible. This means that Nintendo Land will open first in Osaka (Nintendo’s home office is just down the shinkansen in Kyoto, after all) in 2018 and then hop on over to Hollywood in ’19 before finally arriving in Orlando in ’20.

The gang’s all here… in Osaka-shi

While this is a bigger delay than what was originally expected – for a little while there, we thought that maybe the new area would still show up by the summer of ’19 – Screamscape also has a pinch of good news to counterbalance the bad. Universal Studios Florida will, of course, have the biggest of all three versions, consisting of at least two major attractions along with several smaller kiddie ones (the site thinks one of these might be a retheming of Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster); compared with USJ’s small handful of rides and USH’s singular one, that’s not too shabby. (Rumor has it that the Japanese will receive a large number of character meet-‘n-greets and photo ops, which may or may not make the transition over.)

Even better, though, is word that this third iteration of the land will take all of the lessons learned from its predecessors and bring them to bear in what will be the most superlative version of them all. We suppose we can wait an extra two years for that.

Sound plausible to you? Think Universal should be concentrating on something else post-Volcano Bay? Chime in below with your thoughts… and maybe we’ll mention them on the next Orlando Informer Podcast.

The post 4 BIG Universal attractions by 2020 appeared first on Orlando Informer.

There’s been a lot of work progressing behind the scenes – and, yeah, occasionally out in the open, as well – at Universal Orlando these past few weeks. This isn’t out of the ordinary, given the absolutely huge amount of construction work that seems to be endlessly flowing across the resort’s 890 acres. What is of note, however, is that a number of these current projects are teeny, tiny updates that most guests probably wouldn’t even blink an eye at, while others promise to be huge alterations to Universal’s lineup of attractions that all and sundry will most certainly notice.

As the world turns…

Also noteworthy: they all (well, almost all) come from the same source. If you’ve ever been to the Orlando Informer Community Forums, you might’ve noticed a dark, disturbing presence that goes by the nom de plume of Unknown. This cheery chap has been known to drop well-placed morsels from deep within the bowels of Universal onto everyone’s plates – including on Twitter now, too, given that he just signed up last week. It may be hard following all these juicy tidbits and attempting to compile them all together, so we thought it might be worthwhile – and certainly neighborly – to do it for you.

Marvel Super Hero Island

As The Incredible Hulk Coaster continues to make good progress on getting most of its track put back together, it would seem to be rather obvious that, after all the rumorin’ and speculatin’ and daydreamin’, the roller coaster is going to employ the exact same layout as it had before, although it’ll certainly be a smoother ride – and a fancier one, too, as the queue will be completely bulldozed and rebuilt from the ground up, of course.

Hulkstruction! Image © Universal

Except, well, Unknown has a few things to say about that expectation. Although the track is exactly the same as before, the coaster will be faster, making for a more aggressive ride experience right off the bat. But don’t think this means the attraction’s running time will be decreased; on the contrary, our slippery friend maintains, it’ll actually be longer, thanks to an expanded story that riders will be exposed to via on-board audio. Will this tie into the new queue? Your guess is as good as ours, as the line’s waiting area is entirely unknown (heh) to us.

Well, except – perhaps – for this little tidbit: the metal detectors that have since become a permanent part of Hulk’s façade will be getting an overhaul, making them tie into the ride’s newly expanded theming. (OI’s resident rumor-monger also says to keep an eye out for similar redos on Dragon Challenge’s and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit’s detectors, as well.)

The Dippin’ Dots counter will finally succumb to Doc Ock’s sustained attack

While that’s the big development to chew over, here’s one of those smaller ones we promised: what has long been a “Frozen Ice” quick-service stop – it’s actually a Dippin’ Dots stand – will soon be torn out and made into an Auntie Anne’s pretzel counter. If the move seems weird, particularly in a themed area such as Marvel Super Hero Island, well, it is, but it’s also indicative of a growing trend in the theme park world: corporate franchise inclusion. Starbucks has already sprouted up at both Islands of Adventure (in Port of Entry) and Universal Studios Florida (in New York), and, indeed, there’s already an Auntie Anne’s positioned in CityWalk.

Not even superheroes, it seems, are impervious to giant corporations.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong

Next up: we have a little something to exclusively report on Skull Island: Reign of Kong.

Kongstruction! Photo by Chuck Plagmann

We say “little” because little is precisely what this brand-new “island” at Islands of Adventure will be. Yes, yes – the ride itself is all sorts of massive and epic and larger-than-life, and it’s sure to be one of the biggest E-tickets in town for the foreseeable future. But whereas all the other lands at the park consist of multiple attractions, eateries, and stores, King Kong’s new digs will be just the one ride. Surprising, ain’t it?

Actually, that’s not entirely true – there will be two kiosks perched on the periphery of Reign of Kong’s land, both of which are designed to look as if natives to Skull Island had built them; their theming consists of crates and bamboo (in a nifty twist, the carts’ drainage pipes will be disguised as rather large shoots of bamboo that empty into barrels) and even extends right down to the drawers of the cash registers. As Unknown himself put it to us, the level of detailing will be “rather impressive.”

Expect the kiosks’ theming to match this perfectly

What will these carts sell? That we’re not quite as sure of. We do know that is that, on the left-hand side, right next to the ride’s entrance, refreshments will be sold – and that this kiosk’s theming will be expanded to include burlap sacks, trunks, a rusted water tank, and a vintage fridge – while merchandise will be off to the right (you’ll pass it on your way out of the attraction). We also know, thanks to a quick description of the equipment that’s required for the food and beverage cart, that some of the refreshments will include turkey legs, pretzels, ice cream, and, of course, Coca-Cola (as a number of the weathered crates will have the ubiquitous company’s logo emblazoned on them). While Kong may not have some culinary offering themed exclusively to him – unlike Springfield’s or The Wizarding Worlds’ bevy of proprietary menu items – at least explorers will be able to get their fill on comfort food.

Quick hits: Hollywood and cars

Consider this one a quick post-script. We have two little nuggets that are just that – little and nugget-sized, but which are still guaranteed to satiate the rumormonger’s hunger.

First up, from Twitter maestro TheNJBrandon, we’ve now learned that Pennsylvania-based Spitz, Inc. has been contracted to install projection screens at a price of $1.48 million for Project 620, otherwise known as Fast & Furious: Supercharged. (Spitz, in case you were curious, is the same company that is doing the same exact work on the Soarin’ overhaul over at Walt Disney World). While it may come as no surprise that Universal Studios Florida’s version of Supercharged will be at least partly screen-based – that’s what the original experience entirely consists of over at Hollywood – it’s nice to have some confirmation of the ride’s details beyond what its purdy queue will look like.

Purdy queue

Much more excitingly, however, is the revelation from Unknown once again that, following Universal Studios Hollywood’s recent soft openings for its version of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – and all the money that the land’s grand opening this April is sure to rake in – the company is currently furiously in the midst of designing and prepping a second theme park. Where would it go? What would it consist of? These are questions that we just don’t know as of right now, but one thing’s a surefire guess: if true, expect a copy of Diagon Alley to be the centerpiece of the new park.

The post Rumors! Kong, Hulk, and Fast & Furious appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Only a small portion of Nintendo’s immense lineup.

While it’s still happening, the latest rumors hold that Florida won’t be getting it first, at the least, and that its American debut may be delayed, at the most.

Scary? Yes – but it might not be as bad as you think…

The original plan

In case you don’t recall, let’s plunge quickly into what Universal Creative and Nintendo had in store for Universal Studios Florida – or, at least, what rumors had suggested they had lined up.

Woody Woodpecker’s (aging) KidZone.

Nintendo Land was – and still is – scheduled to replace Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone, an area which hasn’t seen a major upgrade or facelift since its opening in 1998. The only (more or less) confirmed attraction is themed to the long-running racing franchise Mario Kart, with at least one or two additional rides believed to be based on the Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and/or Donkey Kong series. It was also rumored that the land would have a central entry point (maybe a giant warp pipe?), very much along the lines of how the London waterfront hides/transitions to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley beyond.

Although not commented on one way or another, it’s almost a no-brainer to assume that not only will Universal have a series of themed shops strategically located throughout Nintendo Land, offering exclusive merchandise, but also that there will be plenty of food and beverage establishments likewise featuring proprietary dishes; this is, after all, the business model that both Wizarding Worlds came up with and which, in turn, has fueled all further construction, including The Simpsons’ Springfield, USA (itself a repository of scrumptious, exclusive eats).

What’s (possibly) happening now

According to Screamscape, once Universal Studios Japan finishes its current project, the brand-new Flying Dinosaur roller coaster at its (mini) version of Jurassic Park (which will hold the world record for the longest track and deepest drop for a flying coaster), it will turn its attention over to building its own version of Nintendo Land. The only rationale given for having it debut in the Land of the Rising Sun instead of the US is that Japan is, of course, Nintendo’s home turf (the company is headquartered in Kyoto), but there’s also the little fact that since the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter there in the summer of 2014, attendance has soared, causing NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast, to purchase the majority of the park’s ownership and to look into opening a second park there, possibly in the resort area that is Okinawa.

Universal Studios Japan.

The site goes on to say that it has no intel at all about what the size or scope of the land may be – indeed, it says, the development could just be a single attraction instead of an entire themed land. If it does end up being just one ride, it could conceivably go anywhere, most likely in the Universal Wonderland section, which consists of several kiddie areas (Snoopy Studios, Hello Kitty Fashion Avenue, and Sesame Street Fun World). But that wouldn’t preclude USJ from devoting an entire “land” to just one attraction – Amity Village consists of Jaws and the Amity Boardwalk Games, while Jurassic Park is just River Adventure all by its lonesome.

Still, let’s say that Nintendo will be getting several different attractions, whether full-fledged rides like Mario Kart or stage shows. Where would this be going? Given that expanding is almost completely off of the table – Hogsmeade used up an entire parking lot, and there really isn’t that much more surrounding real estate left over for further assimilation – the only remaining possibility is the closure of one section and its rehabilitation into Nintendo, much like Woody Woodpecker in Orlando (or much like how Universal Wonderland itself took over the Land of Oz four years ago). The most likely culprits here are, ironically enough, the areas or attractions that have either already closed in Florida or which are rumored to be shuttered in Hollywood for the two Wizarding Worlds: Amity Village and Waterworld (which, yes, is the only stop in the Waterworld corner of the park). Heightening this possibility are the lands’ location, which is right next to the two other brand-new areas, Hogsmeade and Wonderland.

Is this really a delay?

With the breakneck speed of behind-the-scenes activity going on up until recently, many insiders predicted that Nintendo Land would open at Universal Studios Florida sometime in either 2018 (if Universal were feeling especially ambitious) or 2019 (a more reasonable assumption). Demolition of KidZone, obviously, never started, which means that timeline is, more than likely, pushed back – something which would make complete sense if Universal Studios Japan is getting the property first.

Japan’s Flying Dinosaur coaster, which really should come to Orlando, as well.

But when should guests expect to race alongside Mario Stateside – or overseas, for that matter? With The Flying Dinosaur scheduled to open in March 2016 (just in time for USJ’s 15th anniversary), we can expect to see construction activity sometime shortly thereafter – assuming that all attractions have already been designed and approved and are simply awaiting for everything else to catch up, that is. If so, an opening in 2018 is certainly possible, given that the Japanese Wizarding World was officially announced in May 2012 and opened its doors in July 2014. (And, yes, Hogsmeade may be a clone, significantly cutting down on the development and construction time, but it’s a far bigger and more complex ordeal than what we currently expect the Japanese Nintendo Land to be.)

But here’s the thing: just how long does the window of exclusivity need to be in order for Universal Studios Japan to have the honor of getting the land first? America could open its own version the very same year, just a few months later, in order to honor the company’s (assumed) obligation to Nintendo – although, should real estate confinements and rumor prove true, having Japan’s version be upstaged by a bigger, better, more immersive counterpart a short while afterwards may not be the most desirable situation. Let’s, then, give the two areas at least a year apart – say, summer ’18 for USJ, and summer ’19 for USF. That still lands Nintendo in Florida in approximately the same time period as was originally expected, and it still allows Universal plenty of time to start the demolition of Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone.

The legendary Mario Kart.

Then again, just for caution’s sake, we should throw an extra year in there, either to give the Japanese more time to build Nintendo Land or to extend their window of exclusivity. This marks the summer of 2020 as the new themed section’s opening, which is still a fast turnaround – and which still allows the land to sneak in before Disney’s mammoth development, 2021’s Star Wars Land – but which, nonetheless, constitutes a delay.

Here’s the good news, however: should Nintendo’s arrival be postponed by any (appreciable) length of time, you’d better believe that Universal would prep another new, immersive, breathtaking development to help tide audiences over in the meantime; Comcast, after all, has pledged one new attraction a year for the foreseeable future, and goodness knows that Universal has more than its fair share of future projects in the mix (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, anyone?).

The post Is Nintendo Land being delayed? appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Fear not – while 2015 might have been more of a rest-and-recharge year, 2016 looks to once again blow the theme park community’s socks off. New attractions, new hotels, and new dining experiences (well, we think) are right around the corner, looking to significantly expand not only the amount of activities available at the resort, but also the amount of time that guests will be required to invest in order to soak it all in.

Since it’s never too early to start planning your next vacation, let’s dive right into the many glories that ’16 looks set to bestow upon us.

1. Skull Island: Reign of Kong

What about Skull Island: Reign of Kong isn’t impressive?

Type: attraction (dark ride)
Location: Skull Island, Islands of Adventure
Expected opening: summer

It’s hard to underscore just how exciting King Kong’s grand arrival at Islands of Adventure is. First there’s the little fact that Reign of Kong marks the beast’s grand return to Universal Orlando; his original ride, the appropriately-named Kongfrontation – which was an opening-day attraction at next-door Universal Studios Florida – closed in 2002 to make room for Revenge of the Mummy, and the outcry of diehard fans for his return has been pretty consistent in the decade-and-a-half since. Then there’s the tidbit that Skull Island represents an expansion at Islands of Adventure – only the park’s second since its opening in 1999 – bringing its grand total of themed lands up to eight (and none too soon; with all the love that USF has been getting over the course of the past four years, it’s nice to see its sister park receive some major upgrades, as well).

But, arguably, the biggest element is, of course, the attraction itself. Featuring impressively large ride vehicles, a queue that is said to rival the likes of Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts’s in terms of detail and scope, an outdoor section that can be skipped over in inclement weather (how inventive!), and, supposedly, a larger-than-life audio-animatronic that may even have an impressively large range of motion, it’s hard not to get all hot under the collar for Universal’s newest E-ticket.

2. The Incredible Hulk Coaster

Hulk smash… soon!

Type: attraction (roller coaster)
Location: Marvel Super Hero Island, Islands of Adventure
Expected opening: summer

The Incredible Hulk Coaster is, by far, one of the – some even say the – best roller coasters in Orlando, thanks in no small part to its wildly exciting first hill and its subsequent seven inversions. Such a thrilling experience, however, was starting to get undermined by its increasingly rough performance; year-round operation in the harsh Florida weather isn’t the most conducive to smooth operation, which is why the ride has been shut down and every inch of its 3,700-foot-long-track is being systematically replaced.

But here’s where things get really exciting: since Hulk was going down anyway, it seems like Universal couldn’t resist the temptation to do a little more fiddling with the iconic coaster. Rumor has it that brand-new train cars will be installed, along with a rebuilt-from-the-ground-up queue that should feature a way more lavish, in-depth intro to Dr. Bruce Banner’s latest attempts to free himself from the Hulk’s curse.

And since this is now the second attraction at Marvel Super Hero Island to get the grand makeover treatment – after The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man back in 2012 – it seems more and more likely that the land’s two other minor rides, Dr. Doom’s Fearfall and Storm Force Accelatron, might also be in line for a substantial facelift… or, perhaps, a complete replacement.

3. Hello Kity

Ain’t she cute?

Type: store/character meet-‘n-greet
Location: Hollywood, Universal Studios Florida
Expected opening: spring

Originally announced as a 2015 project, the Hello Kitty experience – or whatever it’s going to officially be called – has since become one of that rare, nearly-mythical breed: a delayed Universal attraction.

If “attraction” seems like too strong a word, it really isn’t. Based on what we officially know – and a little of what we have gathered unofficially – the store will feature some interactive elements, character meet-‘n-greet opportunities, and, of course, exclusive merchandise. Going in the space formerly inhabited by Lucy: A Tribute (one of the very last opening-day attractions in the park, though hardly a popular one as the years have gone on), Hello Kitty looks to do exactly what Universal has become a master of across the past four years: maximizing space, cramming as many details and experiences as possible into every square inch. There should be enough here to warrant at least one visit from nearly every swath of the visiting public.

And even if there weren’t – even if Hello Kitty’s sudden appearance in the park will have absolutely no impact upon your itinerary – the hallowed property’s presence is nothing but good news for you. With yet another hugely recognizable brand at Universal Orlando, and with a more girl- or family-focused attraction to help make everything more well-rounded, the likelihood of increased attendance (and increased revenues!) is all the greater. This, in turn, means NBCUniversal’s and parent company Comcast’s interests in continuing to invest in new rides remain high.

See? Hello Kitty makes everyone’s future all the brighter wherever she goes.

4. New dining venue

A whole restaurant like this? Yes, please!

Type: restaurant
Location: CityWalk
Expected opening: fall

This may be the only entry on our list to just be a rumor, but it’s a really good one.

Here’s what we know: NBA City was closed this past August and has since been getting completely gutted to prepare it for a brand-new dining venue that is expected to open at some point in 2016 (how do we know? Elementary, Watson – Universal has indicated that it’s interested in renovating one new restaurant in CityWalk a year since the area’s massive facelift in 2014, and there aren’t any other tenants that have recently been kicked out).

And here’s what we think we know: Universal is busy cooking up (pun certainly intended) a dessert bar of some sort, landing one of the very last types of culinary experiences left unrepresented at the resort. Rumors originally had this being a Cheesecake Factory location, but now it seems it’s going to be an original creation, along the lines of Red Oven Pizza Bakery or Antojitos Authentic Mexican Food.

While Universal hasn’t offered any official date (obviously, since it hasn’t even acknowledged the new venue’s existence yet), we currently expect it to follow the pattern established in the last few years at CityWalk: The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar didn’t open until December 2014, and NBC Sports Grill & Brew didn’t bow until October 2015. Don’t expect the dessert oasis, then, to open anytime before Halloween Horror Nights starts up next fall.

5. Sapphire Falls Resort

This is just the lobby…

Type: hotel
Location: in between Cabana Bay and Royal Pacific Resorts
Expected opening: summer

Universal Orlando Resort, according to Comcast, is woefully underserviced when it comes to hotel rooms. The only solution? Build more, of course – in this case, 1,000 more, revolving around a Caribbean “island jewel” theme.

And it’s this theme that provides the bulk of our excitement for Sapphire Falls Resort, the newest on-site venue. Its main dining option, Amatista Cookhouse, overlooks the giant waterfall that cascades down into the property’s majestic lagoon. The Strong Water Tavern features daily rum tastings, replete with a rum specialist overseeing your selections. And even the hotel rooms’ bathrooms are decked out in tropical fun, featuring splendid little touches.

But there’s actually quite a bit going on with Sapphire Falls beyond its meticulous theming. This will be Universal Orlando’s second Preferred Resort, meaning mid-tier prices and water taxi access to CityWalk – but, unfortunately, no complimentary Express Passes (guests are still treated to Early Park Admission, of course). It’s also being built specifically to target the conventioneer demographic; with Cabana Bay Beach Resort capturing the value market so incredibly well, Universal is keen to expand upon its hotel-staying audience. Not only does Sapphire have one of the biggest convention spaces available on-site, it also will connect to the next-door Royal Pacific, its sister property, in order to allow the maximum group/meeting experience.

And did we mention it’s absolutely gorgeous?

The post 5 big Universal developments in 2016 appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Fast & Furious: Supercharged was announced just two months ago (you can see all of August’s many major announcements here), but already there’s a fair bit of information leaking about what the new ride may or may not entail once it arrives in Universal Studios Florida’s San Francisco section.

A lot of this rumored intel points to the Floridian version having a lot to do with its predecessor/progenitor over in Universal Studios Hollywood, which debuted as the Studio Tour’s new grand finale three-and-a-half months ago. (Not familiar with the Studio Tour? That’s the iconic tram ride all through the backlot, including several themed stops.) Needless to say, this has caused many a Universal aficionado to become worried, at the least, and outright hostile, at the most.

Why? Here are the four big reasons.

1. The (original) story

To understand why Universal Orlando possibly receiving a port might be alarming, we need to first take a quick ride on the original version of Supercharged.

Throughout a good portion of the Studio Tour, little narrative breadcrumbs are sporadically dropped – guests spot Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) 1970 Dodge Charger, security is called, and Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) commandeers the tram, telling the tour guide to head to the Fast family’s secret garage to hide out; it turns out that Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), criminal mastermind extraordinaire, has located a government witness on the tram and will stop at nothing to take him out.

The garage, of course, doubles as Supercharged’s queue, where one tram can wait and admire the supped-up vehicles there while the previous trams can cycle through the attraction. Here, Dom and Hobbs are joined by Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), all in holographic form. They’re throwing an after-race-day party… which quickly gets raided by the FBI, who herds the scantily-clad dancing girls out and attempts to arrest the outlaw racers.

That doesn’t matter, though, as Shaw manages to trace the witness to the family’s crib – good job, Roman, using your cell phone! – and everyone is forced to race out and through the Los Angeles highways to escape death and destruction.

This is the actual ride portion of the attraction, where guests don their 3D glasses and the windows double as projections along the lines of the Hogwarts Express or (more appropriately) USH’s own King Kong: 360 3D. Speeds of up to 120 miles per hour are simulated thanks to the combination of the video, the hydraulic rocking of the tram, and a few interactive effects, such as smoke and water. The action unfolds on all sides – cars flip, machine guns fire, buildings explode, Dom grabs on to the bottom of a helicopter and flies away, and a missile narrowly misses the tram.

The climax has the tram activate its nos, launching it across a river and delivering everyone to safety.

2. Hollywood’s Supercharged is poorly rated

All of that may sound like a wonderfully, appropriately cheesy rendition of the Fast & Furious film franchise, but it turns out there’s actually quite a bit that’s been keeping the attraction’s ratings quite low and its reception muted; a quick look at Yelp, where Supercharged has only 2.5 out of five stars, is a quick testament to that.

So what are the major points of contention? Let’s tackle them in short order:

• Wooden acting – the video up above says it all. The film actors look as if they’re simply there out of a contractual obligation or a sense of boredom during an off day of Furious 7 filming.
• Blurry ride video – the footage looks fuzzy in all YouTube videos because, of course, it’s meant to be seen with 3D glasses on. However, a common complaint heard is that it’s just as blurry in person, even with the glasses on. As one Yelp reviewer put it, “the screen looks the same with or without the glasses.”
• Low-quality CG work – Supercharged, according to many riders, looks fake. One reviewer commented that it actually possesses the same level of quality as the previous tram experience, King Kong, but that it’s meant to recreate real cities populated by real humans, making it stick out like a sore thumb. The fact that animations like Dominic’s jumping out of his moving car and up to the helicopter look completely inauthentic certainly doesn’t help.
• The length – while the whole attraction may last something along the lines of five minutes, the actual ride portion – where guests race down the streets with the Fast crew – is only some 90 seconds long.

It’s easy to see how these points eat away at Supercharged’s foundation, leaving behind a mixed bag, at best.

3. The basics

Thanks to a patent being filed with the South Florida Water Management District last month, we now have some basic information to work with in compiling a profile of what Orlando’s version of Fast & Furious will look like.

Most excitingly, we now have an exact dimension for the new show building’s footprint: 2.82 acres, which is almost exactly the space that both Disaster (which is now closed) and Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue (closing within the next two months) currently reside on. Just for the sake of comparison, that’s at least one acre larger in size than most of Universal Studios Florida’s major attractions, including Revenge of the Mummy and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.

Bigger than this…? Oh, boy.

And in terms of the show building itself, it looks to be approximately 85,000 square feet, which means it’ll fit snugly in the current line of San Fran facades that line the area. (Sorry, all those people hoping for a general facelift for this older, mostly-untouched area of the park.)

4. The rumors

Now we get to the good stuff – well, maybe.

Word going around on many themed enthusiast sites, such as Orlando United, is that the attraction will be, for all intents and purposes, a clone of the USH version – meaning a short, 3D, screen-based experience that simulates speed instead of actually delivering it, such as Epcot’s Test Track or California Adventure’s Radiator Springs Racers. The idea here is that the actors were already filmed for their parts – both the hologram pre-show and ride footage sections – and that reconvening them, along with converting brand-new footage to 3D, wouldn’t be worth the extra expense. (There’s also the supposition that Universal filmed everything with the foreknowledge that it would be using it for all subsequent versions of the ride all across the world.)

If this is true, then why build such a large building to house it in? The answer is potentially easy: multiple theaters will have to be built in order to accommodate huge crowds – much like Diagon Alley’s Ollivander’s Wand Shop or, even, Shrek 4D – and each theater takes up a lot of room. When added with the cavernous queue (or is that post-show?) area(s) seen in the concept art, that’s a huge space requirement.

In Universal’s press release announcing the East Coast version, it makes reference to “specially-designed vehicles” that passengers will board. Should the “cut-and-paste with enhancements” hypothesis prove correct, then these ride vehicles will be similar to Hollywood’s tram, encasing guests with the large 3D “windows” while still making it look like a cool, supercharged F&F car.

What else can we gleam from the rumor mill at this incredibly early stage? Other users at Orlando United have chimed in with the belief that the upcoming Skull Island: Reign of Kong ride vehicles will be repurposed for Supercharged, that its queue will be the largest in the resort (and, possibly, all of Orlando), and that new scenes will be “added to bridge the preshow to the main theater and main theater to [the] unload [section].” If true, the core experience of the attraction – the 3D race down nondescript Californian streets with craziness unfolding all around you – could still only be a minute-and-a-half long.

We’ll just have to wait and see when Fast & Furious: Supercharged opens at Universal Studios Florida in the summer of 2017.

What do you think? Will Fast & Furious be dead on arrival at Orlando? Let us know in the comments below.

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We love rumors here at Orlando Informer HQ. And we certainly should – we’ve reported on what seems like almost every single one of them over the past three years, and we’ve even spread a few of our own (including “Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts” being the name of that fancy new ride in Diagon Alley and, much more recently, Konami and Universal executives having been in talks with one another about a theme park alliance).

Still, with that said, there are a few whispers that have made their way around the mill that are… well, shall we say suspect, at best, and outright fanboy wish fulfillment, at worst. They’re still a barrel of laughs to go over, however, so we decided it might be the perfect time for a bit of levity – what with Halloween Horror Nights starting today and all – by listing our top five favorite ridiculous Universal Orlando rumors.

Ready to have your socks be blown off? Here we go…

#4 – Skull Island being delayed and/or cancelled

In case you haven’t heard the news from last week, Legendary Pictures is taking its upcoming Kong: Skull Island away from Universal Pictures and moving it on over to Warner Bros. (the distributor where Legendary originally had set up shop, ironically enough). The change is happening, from what we hear, purely for legal and advertising efficacy – Warners already owns the distribution rights to Godzilla, another Legendary production, and we’ve known for some time now that a shared-universe crossover film between the two cinematic titans has been the end goal for Legendary Pictures. Having both of those properties under the same filmmaking roof would make for a much smoother development and marketing process.

Still, the news hasn’t stopped many a themed enthusiast’s heart from beating out of its chest and making her fear that the upcoming Skull Island: Reign of Kong attraction at Islands of Adventure would be getting delayed – or, even worse, getting the axe. It turns out King Kong has been in the public domain for quite a while – meaning that even if Disney were working on a rival Kong ride at its parks, it wouldn’t impact Universal’s plans in the slightest – and, besides, Reign of Kong and the filmic Skull Island have very little, if anything at all, in common; the former is set in the 1930s while the latter takes place in the ‘70s, for instance, and that’s just for starters.

So calm down, internet. Universal Orlando’s tentpole experience for 2016 isn’t going anywhere.

#3 – Discovering a new Discovery Center

Rumors about a new attraction going into Jurassic Park are practically as old as the theme park land itself. And for good reason, it so happens – there’s a rather large expansion pad that was deliberately built into the area, with the original intention that, at some point down the road, a Land Rover-esque tour through JP’s dino paddies would be erected.

Although one would think that slice of real estate going towards Skull Island’s construction would be enough to stop most of these rumors in their tracks, there’s been another, perhaps unforeseen development that has only increased the clamor for brand-new Jurassic Park experiences: a little movie called Jurassic World, which has gone on to rake in $1.6 billion at the box office, becoming the most successful movie of the year to date (yes, even blowing Furious 7 out of the water). And Universal’s seemingly last-minute response – installing a brand-new raptor meet-‘n-greet at the old Triceratops Encounter attraction – apparently just isn’t enough to sate fans’ colossal appetites.

Enter the rumor mill’s rather preposterous response to fill in the void: the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, which was loosely meant to imitate the main building from the first film 22 years ago, will be razed to the ground and built from the ground up to be an exact replica, featuring fully themed exhibits for visitors (including that neat DNA explanation “ride”!) and, perhaps, a tie-in or two for Jurassic World 2, which is due to arrive on June 22, 2018.

Suffice it to say that the Discovery Center as we know it today isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – and, even if it were, there are a whole multitude of other, better replacements that Universal Creative would be more than happy to implement.

#2 – Harry Potter and the never-appearing hotel

We’re sure this one is going to break many a theme park fan’s heart, but – alas! – it’s true: it’s never going to happen.

We’re talking about the possibility of Harry Potter being allowed to move out of his theme park digs, of course, and setting up shop on the periphery of Universal Orlando as a themed hotel. Author J.K. Rowling has been rather insistent that her creations remain off-limits from the normal grind of theme park operations, such as character meet-‘n-greets or parades, and, unfortunately, hotels would fit right into this category.

Still, it’s fun to entertain the notion, particularly as it would not only be one of the most highly themed places to stay anywhere in the world – eat your heart out, Art of Animation Resort – it would also easily be one of the most profitable, making Cabana Bay Beach Resort’s endless booked weekends look mild by comparison. And the whispers out on the themed web only reinforce this sold-out scenario; a hotel has supposedly been designed by Universal Creative as part of a blue-sky process, theming it to Hogwarts Castle and even having it feature moving staircases in its main lobby.

Then again, maybe we should learn to say “never say never” – it wasn’t that long ago that getting a high-quality stage show in one of the two Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter was deemed an impossibility, thanks to Rowling’s initial reluctance to engage with Universal Creative on this front, and, even before that, just getting any theme park land based on Harry’s wondrous world was seen as a long shot, as well. (Although I still think the moving staircases would be a ridiculous expectation – the safety concerns alone could choke a Thestral.)

#1 – Comcast buying SeaWorld

Now, this one takes the ridiculous cake.

A little over a year ago, Comcast was riding high, thanks to its unprecedented annual investments in Universal Parks and Resorts (the theme park division of Universal, of course), and the sky truly seemed the limit for whatever NBCUniversal wanted to do next. SeaWorld, meanwhile, was just hitting its post-Blackfish-crisis nadir (Blackfish being, in case you aren’t aware, the documentary that purported to expose the marine park’s repeated abuses of its orca whales), with its stock price falling below its initial public offering that happened just a few years before. When combined with the news that something big was going to be announced by SeaWorld to help staunch its systemic bleeding, many sites started putting two and two together and came up with a sum that seemed to make sense, if not be totally plausible.

That big unveiling that SeaWorld ended up having, of course, turned out to be its Blue World Project, which aims to nearly double the size of the killer whales’ tanks while also investing $10 million into research and conversation programs, among several other smaller initiatives. (Just in case you’re curious, Blue World hasn’t helped much over the past 12 months, and, yes, the park is still facing problems on this front.)

In hindsight, would it have been better for Universal to have made the acquisition? That’s still a tough one to answer, especially considering that the value of the proposition is so heavily dependent upon what Universal would’ve done with SeaWorld Orlando and its two sister parks, Aquatica Orlando and Discovery Cove (which is not to mention the nine other properties SeaWorld owns across the country, including the Sesame Street-themed Sesame Place). Many permutations of the rumor had the company transforming the nearby trifecta of parks into a massive third gate for Universal Orlando, with an emphasis on water attractions (though, presumably, not marine-based ones).

With Volcano Bay already on the way, however – and looking mighty fine, we might add – such a move might not have been the wisest use of resources.

What are your most ridiculous rumors? Share them in the comments below.

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All the recent talk of Steven pielberg possibly returning to Universal Pictures – and of his maybe resurrecting rides based off of his classic properties of Back to the Future and Jaws – has gotten us to thinking about all the other unbelievably exciting attractions that Universal has already gotten lined up for the foreseeable future; there’s just so many to keep track of, and it’s so easy for newer announcements to knock the older ones temporarily out of our consciousness, it’s great to line them all up together in a neat little row.

We know we keep saying it, but the sentiment keeps getting underscored seemingly every other month: there’s never been a better time to be a theme park enthusiast, generally, or a Universal fan, specifically. And here are the top seven reasons why.

7. The Jimmy Fallon Experience
Status: rumored
Type of attraction: simulator/dark ride
Location: New York, Universal Studios Florida
Expected opening: summer 2017

The response that most individuals, whether they be themed fans or not, make when first hearing that Jimmy Fallon – and, possibly, his Tonight Show – might be making an appearance at Universal Studios Florida in the form of a new ride is one of incredulousness. And, to be fair, it’s easy to see why: a talk show? As a ride? Settled amidst all these killer thrill rides?

It turns out, however, that the light-hearted comedian just might end up being the perfect conduit for a family-friendly, Disney-esque experience. It also turns out that comparing it to Disney just might be apt, as rumors have long swirled that Soarin’ at Epcot will be the basis for the ride vehicle, with New York being the location and Fallon serving as guests’ wise-cracking host.

The possible ride also underscores one of the biggest challenges facing Universal as it continues to mature as a must-visit resort: the necessity of having different attractions for different segments of its consumer base. In this way, Jimmy Fallon could be the perfect counterpoint to the kiddie Kang and Kodos’s Twirl ‘n Hurl.

6. Fast & Furious: Supercharged
Status: announced
Type of attraction: dark/thrill ride
Location: San Francisco, Universal Studios Florida
Expected opening: summer 2017

Okay, let’s be honest here: the Fast & Furious movies are not the best pieces of filmic entertainment. But they certainly do deliver on the visceral, action quotient, and that’s precisely what leads to some of the most fun – and most immersive – theme park attractions around. When combined with the franchise’s particular penchant for ridiculous stunts and edge-of-your-seat races, it’s hard to see how this ride won’t be a blast.

And there’s actually one final element going in Supercharged’s favor: the little fact that the two attractions it’ll be taking over, Disaster and Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue, together have a rather substantial-sized footprint in the park, leaving an incredible amount of room for whatever ride that the maestros at Universal Creative will be dreaming up. Let’s just hope it involves a physical layout of track and delivers the next generation of Epcot’s Test Track or California Adventure’s Radiator Springs Racers.

5. The Incredible Hulk Coaster, version 2.0
Status: announced
Type of attraction: roller coaster
Location: Marvel Super Hero Island, Islands of Adventure
Expected opening: summer 2016

One of the best roller coasters in Orlando getting a much-needed overhaul, smoothing out its ride experience and upgrading its ride vehicles, instantly makes the Incredible Hulk Coaster’s lengthy refurbishment an exciting prospect.

What makes it positively divine, though, is the potential that its revamped storyline will receive. We know that the queue is essentially being torn down and built anew from scratch, replacing the big, bulky ‘90s TVs with flat-paneled modernity – but will the nondescript, cartoony world that the coaster’s Bruce Banner exists in be replaced with the live-action (near) perfection that is the Avengers movies? If so, it’s not much of a stretch to see the rest of Marvel Super Hero Island being converted in the very near future to reflect more of the all-encompassing Marvel Cinematic Universe – a dream come true for both Marvel and themed fanboys.

4. Skull Island: Reign of Kong
Status: announced
Type of attraction: dark/thrill ride
Location: Skull Island, Islands of Adventure
Expected opening: summer 2016

There is so much about Reign of Kong that screams “epic!” from its mammoth façade to its ride vehicles, from its concept art to its highly themed queue (perhaps Universal’s best yet?). And then there’s the rumored giant audio-animatronic King Kong himself, which promises to not only be the biggest robotic figure that Universal has ever made in its 40 years as a theme park operator, but also be one of the biggest action set pieces seen in a themed attraction yet.

And all of this is on top of the fact that Skull Island will end up being a brand-new land at Islands of Adventure, the first “island” to be added to the park since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade back in 2010. While it may be the tiniest yet – it is, in all actuality, unused property from the neighboring Jurassic Park – it still portends more giant-sized adventures to come.

3. Volcano Bay
Status: announced
Type of attraction: water park
Location: next to Cabana Bay Beach Resort
Expected opening: summer 2017

A brand-new, fully-themed, and possibly revolutionary water park would, under normal circumstances, easily top a list of the most impressive upcoming attractions. The fact that it’s coming in at third on our litany is testament to how insanely good Universal’s current roster is – and that should really tell you something (especially if your name is Disney).

While not much in the way of official details have been offered, the concept art looks positively lavish, and the flow of unofficial information has us all salivating quietly behind the scenes. The finalized lineup of attractions may include dark ride elements being inserted inside of water rides and a nighttime show that just may be able to rival some of Walt Disney World’s fare – maybe.

2. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic
Status: rumored
Type of attraction: dark/thrill ride
Location: World Expo, Universal Studios Florida
Expected opening: summer 2018

After the home-run successes of both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, it’s hard to not instantly get excited over a third addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – especially when it’s rumored to be on a location from Jo Rowling’s universe that is already so detailed and so immersive (but is there really any other kind?). Just thinking of the possibility of walking down those iconic hallways, facing off against (even more) Dementors, or witnessing first-hand a duel between Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort is enough to give us goosebumps.

Then again, it’s appropriate to keep our expectations in check here. Rather than being a full-fledged land like either Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade Village, the Ministry expansion would be just that – an expansion, adding on an additional building (and several further attractions) to Diagon Alley.

Still, if you want to see just what Ministry of Magic could look like in theme park form, be sure to check out my full-blown thoughts.

1. Nintendo Land
Status: announced
Type of attraction: theme park land
Location: Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone, Universal Studios Florida (rumored)
Expected opening: summer 2018

As great as the experiences on this list are, the vast majority of them are single attractions (yes, even Skull Island, even though it’ll have a brand-new land dedicated to it). Nintendo Land will end up being the first new full-fledged theme park area added on to Universal Orlando since Diagon Alley replaced the former Amity area in 2014 – and, chances are, it might be every bit as detailed and fully-fleshed-out as Harry’s wondrous new world.

Rumors continue to trickle in that several rides (based off of several Nintendo properties, including, we think, Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda), restaurants, and merchandise locations will soon be installed where Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone currently sits, offering state-of-the-art ride experiences and environments that will stand up to the self-imposed Harry Potter litmus test.

Given the vast and rich tapestry of experiences that Nintendo has snuggled away in its 38-year-history as a videogame developer, Nintendo Land topping the list is a no-brainer.

Agree with our assessment or disagree with our rankings? Let us know in the comments below.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
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Before Universal Studios was a theme park, it was exactly what it sounded like: a film production studio that has been in the business of making movies for over a century now. While the filmmaking division (which is actually called Universal Pictures, just for the nerd record) has had less and less to do with the parks over the past decade and a half – particularly in Orlando, which has, by now, completely dropped the whole “working film backlot” angle for its attractions – it still manages to have some sway, and, therefore, it still is necessary for theme park aficionados to pay attention to.

Such is the case this past week with Steven Spielberg, whose current negotiations with Universal would normally be reserved as behind-the-scenes Hollywood reporting but have suddenly exploded into the themed spotlight… including the vaguest but most tantalizing of hints at future attractions for the ever-more-expanding Universal Orlando Resort.

Let’s just take this one step at a time, yes?

DreamWorks
DreamWorks is a production company that was originally founded in 1994 at the behest of Jeffrey Katzenberg, a long-time studio executive who was responsible for jumpstarting the still-running-to-this-day Star Trek feature film franchise before moving over and becoming the head of Disney’s motion picture division for a solid decade (during which time he managed to turn around the in-last-place studio, creating such disparate hits as The Golden Girls, Good Morning, Vietnam, and all those “Golden Age” Disney animated movies, from The Little Mermaid to The Lion King). After having a falling-out with the then-CEO of the Disney Company, Michael Eisner, Katzenberg quit and approached David Geffen, a music mogul, and Spielberg about the possibility of crafting their own multi-media empire to rival the Mouse House’s.

That dream never came to fruition; all of the non-film endeavors would ultimately either be sold off or shut down. But the movie division kept rolling onward, surviving near-bankruptcy crashes and new alliances with the traditional players, including, ironically enough, Disney itself. Along the way, Katzenberg ended up departing when the DreamWorks animation division did, leaving Spielberg in the captain’s chair and allowing him to focus the company’s efforts into the traditional role of a production company. In 2009, DreamWorks inked a 30-movie distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, after negotiations with Universal Pictures ran aground.

That, apparently, is when the studio’s recent troubles started: the previous leadership left shortly after making the deal, and current CEO Bob Iger instituted a new policy of not investing in non-Disney films any longer. Hand in hand with this development, Disney’s attention has increasingly been devoted to its recent spate of corporate purchases – namely, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm – which some DreamWorks employees have quietly been complaining has caused their latest slate of films to suffer. (Some of the biggest supposed casualties? 2011’s Cowboys and Aliens, 2013’s Delivery Man, and 2014’s Need for Speed).

Back to Universal (maybe)
With DreamWorks’s 30th film scheduled for release next summer (that’s Roald Dahl’s The BFG, for all those playing along at home), it’s time for Steven Spielberg to start casting around for a new deal – which has led him directly back to Universal, thanks in no small part to the absolutely dominating box office that this year’s Jurassic World brought in (unsurprisingly, a sequel’s already being developed); the director/producer is still making a lot of money for Universal, and the company is only too happy to have him back in its fold.

And here, finally, is where the theme park connections start to come into play. Just take a look at this very telling quote from The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story a few days ago: “Spielberg, 68, who was a hands-on executive producer on Universal’s Jurassic World, is essential to future dinosaur movies (the next already is dated for June 2018) as well as associated theme park attractions.”

The immediate conclusion to jump to is that Universal is, of course, interested in expanding the newly resurgent Jurassic Park franchise in its various parks around the world (yes, every Universal Studios has some variation on Jurassic Park: River Adventure), but the scope of the possible DreamWorks deal is far, far bigger than just that. Among the family-friendly movies scheduled for release across the next several years, for example, is a little sci-fi trifle known as Ghost in the Shell, a live-action adaptation (starring Scarlett Johansson) of the 1995 seminal anime that is responsible for influencing the Matrix trilogy, among many other pictures. This one film alone could provide ample fodder for edge-of-your-seat thrill rides, let alone shows or character meet-‘n-greets.

On an even broader level, Spielberg still, to this day, has quite some pull with Universal Parks and Resorts, particularly with Universal Studios Florida, a park he consulted on (and which houses his pet project, E.T. Adventure, a 25-year-old ride that he absolutely refuses to let be torn down or remade). Given his far-reaching influence, he would have input on everything from Skull Island: Reign of Kong to Volcano Bay to Nintendo Land – an exciting prospect.

What’s this about a new Jaws and Back to the Future?
There is one small tidbit in the Hollywood Reporter story, essentially a throwaway line, that has gotten quite a bit of traction in the press over the past few days. Here it is in its entirety:

[Spielberg] also is key on potential reboots of other Universal franchises, such as Jaws and Back to the Future.

It’s easy to see why such a fervor has been stoked – not only are those two of the most classic movie series ever made, there have been consistent calls for reimaginings in some die-hard fan corners. And given Hollywood’s current predilection toward remakes as opposed to original fare (Disney’s own Tomorrowland, from this past summer, was the latest non-intellectual-property-based flop, and it’s only reinforced the studio’s growing fear of not using pre-existent material), it’s easy to see how the publication could take two and two and put them together to make four.

Still, even if the musing was only an idle one in a film context, in a theme park lens it becomes less speculation and more prognostication. Universal is still in the middle of its nearly-decade-long building spree, investing up to half a billion dollars a year in Universal Orlando to create a vacation destination that truly can rival Walt Disney World’s huge array of attractions and experiences; if the company can go back to the well with Skull Island, bringing King Kong back to the park after a several-year hiatus, why can’t it do the same for Back to the Future (which closed to make way for The Simpsons Ride) or Jaws (which is now The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley)? And why can’t these be every bit as thrilling as the new Kong or as wonderfully immersive as the Wizarding Worlds?

There has been much talk recently of a third theme park being built in time for Disney World’s 50th anniversary in 2021, with most of the speculation going towards it being based on videogame properties. Rather than games, however, Universal just may be considering an alternative plan, one based off of its stable of in-house properties…

It’s important to note that Spielberg hasn’t yet signed a deal with Universal Pictures – he is still only in the negotiation stage. Still, given such little details that the DreamWorks production offices have never once left the Universal lot across the past two decades, it’s not that much of a stretch to see their filmmaking stars aligning once again.

And if they do – well, if the future looked golden before, it positively beams now.

Do you want to see a new Jaws or Back to the Future? Let us know in the comments.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
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• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
  – Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Packages
  – 2-Park Getaway at Universal Orlando

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UPDATE: Universal Orlando has announced Toothsome Chocolate Emporium! Learn the details here.

On August 16, NBA City – one of Universal CityWalk’s very first tenants – closed its doors. While we know that it’s preparing to make its move over to the competition down the street, becoming the NBA Experience at Walt Disney World, what its replacement is has remained a mystery ever since the development was first announced, nearly three months ago (and, really, for the year before that, when rumors were heavily circulating that NBA City was on the chopping block).

Information is still sparse on this front, but we here at OI HQ have been hearing some things, particularly from our friend Unknown, who likes to haunt our community forums and drop cryptic prophecies from time to time. While the picture is still very much coming together, it already appears to be a worthy addition to CityWalk and yet another must-do experience that Universal has been so good at unleashing on its poor, unsuspecting guests over the past several years, ever since a certain Boy Wizard landed in Islands of Adventure.

Want a taste of the future? Read on…

Past is prologue

Although CityWalk has long been the most popular spot for Orlando nightlife, it hasn’t been until just recently that Universal has been giving the area the amount of love and care that it not only deserves, but that is also usually only spent on the theme parks and hotels. Finally adding some more entertainment to the dining/shopping/entertainment complex, Universal unfurled Hollywood Drive-In Golf in 2012, followed by the advent of “CityWalk 2.0” in 2014 – including such venues as Vivo Italian Kitchen, Antojitos Authentic Mexican Food, and, but of course, The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar – which updated the area’s aging aesthetic and established a new standard for quality cuisine at the resort.

And work on the area has continued to trickle ahead, albeit in a piecemeal fashion; this fall, we’ll be receiving NBC Sports Grill & Brew, an updated sports bar that throws in such flourishes as an incredibly expansive menu (over 100 beers!) and open fire grills, which allow guests to watch their food be cooked in front of them. Oh – there’s also some 90 flat-screen televisions scattered all throughout the interior and, even, plastered all over the exterior, giving CityWalk something of a post-(theme park) modernist touch.

NBA City’s replacement looks to very much continue this trend, further giving CityWalk a glamorous touch while also continuing to fill in the resort’s culinary holes (with the recent advent of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley and the always-booked Cabana Bay Beach Resort, more people than ever before have flocked to Universal Orlando, mandating food options that are both plentiful and robust).

What we don’t know

Before we can dive into what is known, we first have to cover what isn’t – and it, unfortunately, is a rather big swath at the present moment.

The name is the biggest blank as of right now, although it seems that Universal is currently veering towards an original property (like Red Oven Pizza Bakery or Bread Box Handcrafted Sandwiches) rather than a pre-existent brand (like Cold Stone Creamery or Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt). We also don’t know what its overall ambiance or design ethos will be – though we have a few good guesses in this regard – or what the breadth and depth of its menu will entail.

Oh, just to add insult to injury, we also have no clue when its opening window will be, though if NASCAR Sports Grille’s closure and NBC Sports Grill & Brew’s opening are any kind of indication, this time next year is the most likely candidate.

What we do know

Now on to the fun stuff.

First and foremost, it looks as if Universal is electing to keep NBA City’s layout almost exactly the same, electing instead to redo the interior instead of demolishing and rebuilding the exterior. This actually makes a lot of sense, as not only does it mean a far shortened (and significantly cheaper) construction period, but the previous layout is spacious and inviting enough to fit practically any theme or ambiance.

Yes, this is the best pic of NBA City’s interior we could find.

The operating word for the new venue is “upscale”; Universal is angling to make this something of a posh dining experience, something more along the lines of, say, Emeril’s Orlando than Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Expect a color scheme of white theming with black, which should do much to up the elegance quotient. And the finishing touch in this regard is the one major alteration being done to the interior: the inclusion of a brand-new grand staircase. Although it will more than likely lead to nowhere, it will still establish a certain mood and grandeur.

What will the culinary focus be? Why, dessert, with chocolate (and, possibly, wine) being inserted everywhere one looks. The term “chocolate pots” has been used extensively in our conversations with our sources, which leads us to believe that the new restaurant will be at least something of a fondue joint.

Just to round out the picture, it looks like NBA City’s gift shop will be getting an overhaul to become a chocolate lover’s paradise – so much so, in fact, that plans might even call for its (slight) expansion.

We expect the latest culinary sensation at Universal Orlando Resort to be announced sometime in the very near future, probably within the next month (though the company has a rather spotty, last-minute reputation for such things, as yesterday’s Fast and Furious: Supercharged announcement has more than shown).

Do you think Universal is right in landing a fancy dessert location for CityWalk, or is it missing another giant hole it should be filling instead? Sound off in the comments below.

In the meantime, read even more about what the future (possibly) has in store for Universal with both Konami and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.

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Universal seems to really be in love with videogames right now, which, one can suppose, makes sense – they are the last main frontier for theme parks to conquer (film and television have been conquered long ago). After signing a deal with gaming legend Nintendo with much fanfare, rumors immediately sprung up that the company was then busily drawing up plans to make its long-awaited third gate solely based off of videogames.

The jury is still out on just how accurate that last story is, but we can reveal that we’ve been hearing some chatter from our sources that will add another stick to the gaming fire: Universal just may be currently in talks with Konami to bring its massive slate of franchises to Universal Orlando Resort.

Yes, that’s right – Solid Snake, Pyramid Head, and friends just may be coming to a theme park near you in the not-too-distant future.

Who is Konami?
For all you non-gamers out there, Konami has long been a household name in the videogame industry. After originally being founded as a jukebox rental and repair company in 1969 in Osaka (my former stomping grounds!), the company metamorphosed into a gaming publisher and developer in 1973, releasing a string of popular arcade games, such as the ubiquitous Frogger.

In the ‘80s, the company devoted the bulk of its efforts to console systems (most notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, making this story come full circle already), creating some of the most iconic properties of the period – and on to the present day: Castlevania, Contra, Dance Dance Revolution, and, of course, Metal Gear. Today, it is best known for the Silent Hill, Pro Evolution Soccer, and Metal Gear Solid franchises, which continue – to one degree or another – to dominate the market.

Troubles, they are a-brewin’
Despite all this success, Konami has actually been the focus of some controversy over the past several months. In March, Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear franchise and one of the most famous game designers in the industry, was downgraded from a full-time employee to a simple contractor – along with all the rest of his Kojima Productions staff – and all marketing materials were scrubbed of his name. It has since come to light that there was something of a power struggle with Konami’s new corporate leadership, and that Kojima and his 200 employees will be severing all ties with the publisher once their contracts expire at the end of the year.

In case Konami losing such a high-profile, 29-year veteran of the company weren’t a big enough blow, its latest entry in the highly popular Silent Hill franchise, which “starred” Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead (yet another Universal connection, as Welcome to Silent Hill was one of the mazes in Halloween Horror Nights 2012) and co-directed by horror film legend Guillermo del Toro and Kojima, was cancelled a month later – at almost exactly the same time the company took itself off the New York Stock Exchange (don’t worry, all you investors – it’s still being traded on the Tokyo and London exchanges).

This may very well be what has led Konami executives to consider the expansion into themed territory, just as Nintendo, a former juggernaut in the gaming business, has had the worst console sales of its 32-year tenure as a hardware manufacturer and, as such, has been forced to branch out into new markets (including the mobile phone space). If true, the videogame publisher’s loss will once again be Universal’s (considerable) gain.

What could be on tap?
Befitting the company’s long and storied history, there are actually quite a few viable options out there – perhaps not as many as Nintendo’s insanely large roster of characters and titles, but certainly more than nearly any other publisher out there. Here are four to get your design gears spinning and to pump your anticipation level way high.

First and foremost, returning Silent Hill – which originally started off as a Resident Evil clone in 1999 but has since established itself as one of the most terrifying properties (the terrible film adaptations notwithstanding, of course) – to Halloween Horror Nights would be a no-brainer, and not least because the first attempt three years ago was marred by its status as a last-minute replacement, being saddled with a maze layout that was designed for another license entirely (you can hear all about that sordid backstory on the Orlando Informer Podcast). The second iteration of the franchise could not only feature entirely new characters, creatures, and designs, it could even – in a sweet bit of poetic justice – feature the likeness of Norman Reedus, a way for fans to scratch the Silent Hills itch that they’ll now never be able to in digital form and for Universal to stick it to Walking Dead owner AMC, who never allows the likenesses of the actors to be in the annual event.

Castlevania, which has had nearly three dozen installments across the past 29 years, is one of the highest-rated videogame franchises of all time and would be a horror-infused property perfectly suited for traditional attractions instead of haunted houses. A Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey-esque experience, plunging guests into a series of Gothic environments while attempting to escape Dracula and his hordes of undead minions, seems almost too good to be true.

Being a “tactical espionage stealth” game, Metal Gear Solid would seem to be a rather difficult attraction to design, but the game series’s insane character designs (particularly for the Metal Gears themselves, which are a combination of giant mechas and mobile nuclear missile platforms), already-immersive locations (particularly Shadow Moses Island, a nuclear disposal facility located in the Fox Archipelago), and a storyline that spans from the Cold War-centric 1960s to a technologically advanced version of 2018 would all make for an extremely intriguing experience. If handled correctly, it would be a ride not to miss.

Finally, Zone of the Enders – yet another Hideo Kojima-supervised series – follows humanity’s efforts to colonize the solar system using mechas; the action elements, political intrigue, and space setting have already led the franchise to expand to other media, most notably anime, which would, in turn, provide a terrific foundation for a thrill ride. Transformers: The Ride – 3D would provide a terrific starting point, but incorporating the physical thrills of The Incredible Hulk Coaster would really put this over the top – particularly if the track would wind between giant, dueling mechas as the civilian population has to be evacuated below.

Where, exactly, would this go?
This is the main question, should the rumor prove to be true and Konami will be opening the floodgates on its many properties. Bundling it with Nintendo’s forthcoming attractions would seem to be the most logical approach – “Videogame Land” not only has a nice ring to it, it would more than be a worthy successor to Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone – but such a move poses many difficulties, starting with the possibility that Nintendo may not be too keen on sharing the spotlight and ending with the fact that Nintendo Land already seems to be a done deal (not to mention that there is only so much acreage available in that particular corner of Universal Studios Florida).

The next best option would be to look over at Islands of Adventure, which has at least two out-of-date or otherwise weakened areas that are primed to be replaced (Toon Lagoon and The Lost Continent, respectively). While this would certainly offer a far bigger slice of real estate to work with, it creates something of an awkward proposition: two parks and two different videogame-based sites (and two that wouldn’t be able to be connected either figuratively or literally, as the Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter are).

The least probable but, perhaps, most optimal scenario involves that now-legendary third gate, which would be able to use Konami – and, just maybe, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft – as the basis of the park and build out from there (using our suggestions as a guide!).

Given the extremely short amount of time between Nintendo’s contract being signed and the announcement of the deal, it may not be that long before we’ll get some answers to these questions…

Excited for this possibility? Still not sold on using videogames as the basis of the next park? Tell us in the comments below.

In the meantime, read even more about what the future (possibly) has in store for Universal with both Fast & Furious and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.

Next up, read about what to expect from Nintendo at Universal Orlando.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
Want to skip all the work and just price out a vacation to Universal Orlando? We’ll find the best deals for you – for free (seriously.) Learn more, or check out some of the current deals:

• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
  – Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Packages
  – 2-Park Getaway at Universal Orlando

The post EXCLUSIVE: Universal’s possible next big partner appeared first on Orlando Informer.

You’ve heard the rumors: Universal is maybe, just possibly seeking to make its long-awaited and oft-delayed third theme park based exclusively off of videogame properties. Is it improbable? Yes. But is it still endlessly fun to speculate on? Absolutely.

It also, it just so happens, results in a surprisingly compelling themed lineup, one that would actually result in a park that would turn heads, get fanboys’ tongues wagging, and, just maybe, be the envy of the industry.

Don’t believe me? Here are four videogame properties that put the proof in the pudding, possibly knocking Universal Studios Florida down a peg or two and putting Disney’s Hollywood Studios in its place.

(Just don’t expect to find either Nintendo or Blizzard IPs here; the former is already going into Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone in USF, making its inclusion remote even in this most unlikely of hypothetical scenarios, and the latter has already been rumored to have its place in the imaginary third gate, in the form of the insanely popular World of Warcraft.)

#4 – Final Fantasy

Publisher: Numerous
Developer: Square Enix
Original release: 1987
Exclusive? No

This is, at once, the easiest and most confounding choice.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Final Fantasy is one of the most revolutionary and influential series in all of gaming; beyond establishing many of the concepts, practices, and tropes that still dominate roleplaying games, it is likely the most crowded series in the industry’s history – between the main entries, spinoffs, and remakes, there are easily some three or four dozen titles out there. What’s more, each of the games takes place in its own alternate reality, whether it be more fantasy-, science fiction-, or steam punk-based (which, I suppose, is how it can still keep the “final” in Final Fantasy).

And with a surprisingly wide diversity of different genres out there, including strategy and massively multiplayer online roleplaying (not unlike World of Warcraft), the sky is almost literally the limit for what themed experiences could be rolled out in a park. Restaurants? Roller coasters? Parades? Dark rides? Meet-‘n-greets? With the diversity and scope of its characters, creatures, and locations, FF could, without question, furnish its own series of theme parks, let alone one tiny section of one single park.

As long as there are the obligatory Muggles and airships, we’d be happy with any or all of those options.

#3 – Uncharted

Publisher: Sony
Developer: Naughty Dog (primarily)
Original release: 2007
Exclusive? Yes – to Sony PlayStation systems

Uncharted may be the new kid on the block (at least, compared to all the other venerable franchises that reside on this list), but it’s easily one of the best out there, and it’s already grown to become something of a multimedia empire: since 2007, five entries have been released for various Sony PlayStation systems, with a sixth set to debut early next year for the PS4 – and that’s not to mention the novel, comic book miniseries, board game, and, oh, the film adaptation, which has been mired in development hell but will more than likely see the light of day, sooner rather than later (the current release date is June 30, 2017, in case you’re curious).

And all of which doesn’t even address what makes the franchise so insanely popular and highly acclaimed in the first place. Imagine a modern-day Indiana Jones, traveling around the world to collect long-lost treasure, ranging from the depths of the Amazon to chateaus in France and castles in Syria. Instead of fighting Nazis, however, Nathan Drake – the supposed descendant of the legendary explorer Sir Francis Drake – has to fend off a seemingly never-ending series of pirates and mercenaries, leaving a significantly bigger stream of bodies in his wake than old Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. ever could dream of.

Exotic locations, incessant gun play, incredibly witty dialogue, strong dashes of history and mythology, well-defined and -rounded characters – it’s almost as if Uncharted were created specifically for theme park attractions, especially those designed by the thrill-hungry maestros at Universal Creative.

The icing on the cake? Not only would it be as if Universal were swiping Indy right out from under Disney’s nose, it would result in something infinitely more compelling than a simple themed bar.

#2 – Halo

Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Bungie/343 Industries
Original release: 2001
Exclusive? Yes – to Microsoft Xbox systems

There are few IPs in our popular culture that have left as indelible an impression as Microsoft’s Halo series of first-person shooters (and real-time strategy games, which are chronically, tragically overlooked); legendary comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis (a fellow Clevelander!) has famously compared the series to Star Wars in its appeal and lasting impact – no small compliment.

And it’s easy to see why. In the 26th century, humanity is in perpetual war with the alien collective known as the Covenant, which is hellbent on wiping out those pesky humans due to religious reasons. In the middle of the conflict, an ancient, all-consuming parasitical species called the Flood is released, threatening to nullify all sentient life across the entire galaxy. Think of the whole thing as James Cameron’s Aliens meets something out of The X-Files – war and spookiness, action-adventure and survival horror. The possibilities in a theme park setting are essentially endless, as the experience can practically go in any direction, both figuratively and literally.

The franchise’s multimedia reach, as it turns out, is just as endless. A full list of Halo releases makes the Uncharted expanded universe look positively anemic by comparison: 11 videogames (and counting!), 17 novels/novellas, eight comic book titles (either one-shots or miniseries), a direct-to-video anime collection, several webseries, and countless numbers of toys, action figures, board games, and, even, Mega Blocks playsets. Still not impressed? Halo has already been around for 14 years, and Microsoft just recently made plain its aims to have it stay for at least another 30.

Bring on the SPARTAN supersoldiers.

#1 – Super Monkey Ball

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Amusement Vision
Original release: 2001
Exclusive? No

Amidst all the shooting, violence, and hyper-realistic settings, there needs to be something a little on the lighter side, something not only designed for the entire family to enjoy, but also to let the adults’ batteries get recharged before their next deployment on the virtual battlefield.

But this isn’t the only reason why Super Monkey Ball is on this list – it just so happens to be a richly imagined, infinitely engrossing, and all-around fun experience. It’s also one of the most well-rounded titles out there, providing a challenging, strategy-based single-player game (think Marble Madness, but with cartoony monkeys in balls instead of boring old marbles) and literally one of the best multiplayer experiences.

It’s here where the whacky nirvana of the game takes hold. Monkey Bowling (including gyrating, pulsating lanes), Monkey Target (hang-gliding out to a series of waterborne targets), Monkey Race (replete with Mario Kart-esque weapons), Monkey Fight (giant boxing gloves on floating islands!), and, arguably the best of them all, Monkey Golf (it needs to be seen to be believed – really) are the highlights of the breadth and depth of the offerings, but there are several other game types, as well. The out-of-this-world level design, bright color palette, and so-cheesy-it’s-great music all practically beg for a real-world representation. (As noted on the Orlando Informer Podcast, I’ve long vowed to design and construct Monkey Ball Land, should fate ever be dumb enough to make me a multi-millionaire.)

With roughly a dozen entries in the Monkey Ball series – some fashioned exclusively for the motion controls of either the Nintendo Wii or smart phones/tablets – there’s actually plenty more for gamers of all stripes, which means it has a built-in versatility that puts every other theme park entry to shame… yes, even Harry Potter (sorry, kids).

This is one possibility that every guest of every age should be hankering for the most. Seriously.

Still not sold on using videogames as the basis of the next park? Think we missed a major franchise? Sound off in the comments below.

In the meantime, read even more about what the future (possibly) has in store for Universal with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
Want to skip all the work and just price out a vacation to Universal Orlando? We’ll find the best deals for you – for free (seriously.) Learn more, or check out some of the current deals:

• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
  – Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Packages
  – 2-Park Getaway at Universal Orlando

The post 4 videogames Universal NEEDS for its next park appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Then, of course, everything changed. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter made the resort an instant player on the global theme park stage, and Comcast stepped in as NBCUniversal’s corporate parent just in time to enjoy the windfall and order the most aggressive expansion in the industry’s history.

It’s enough of a Cinderella story – to quote Caddyshack – to even make people believers in the third gate proposal again. Check out this post that was made last year by theme park forum poster Disneyhead: “Universal had a solid 10-year plan in 2012. We are two years in. So now it is an eight-year plan. And it includes three more hotels and caps off with the third gate.”

A third theme park by 2022? Given Comcast’s spending spree and Universal’s glee – and given the fact that both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure will be significantly upgraded, with the former being an almost completely different park – it’s within the realm of possibility, though there are many questions swirling around such a development. Where will it go? How will guests be easily and efficiently transported to it if it’s located off-site? How would it differentiate itself from the older theme and new water parks?

And, most importantly of all, just what intellectual properties would it use as its subject matter?

The latest rumors: More Nintendo

This Is Infamous thinks it has the answer: the site just last week filed an exclusive report claiming that Universal is angling to make its third gate videogame-based.

On the one hand, if true, the decision would make a lot of sense – it instantly sets itself apart from the film-centric USF and literary-based IOA. On the other hand, however, there are a number of problems with the development, not the least of which has to do with the comparatively limited audiences that the IPs would bring.

And that’s not to mention the little matter of the site’s claims that Nintendo will form the backbone of the new park. Common consensus in the themed blogosphere holds that Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone will be the site of Nintendo Land, featuring the likes of a Mario Kart and Legend of Zelda ride (and, presumably, plenty of retail and food and beverage options). How can the same license go in two different parks?

This Is Infamous has two different possible explanations for this: either the totality of the previous rumors are wrong and Nintendo’s manifold characters will never set foot in USF or Universal will once again pull a Harry Potter and force guests to visit multiple parks in order to attain the full Nintendo experience. To quote its article:

A Mario Kart ride is certainly in the works, but I’m also hearing Pokemon and something Legend of Zelda would be created. So while they’re all Nintendo, they’re all distinct brands that may end up getting their own immersive worlds – and that cannot be done in the kiddie area alone.

If there’s any other IP in the world with which to do a Wizarding World, it would easily be Nintendo, with its 36-year history in the videogame space and its knack for creating some of the most successful franchises the industry has ever seen. Conversely, Universal would have no possibility of connecting the two areas together, like it does with the Hogwarts Express for the Harry Potter lands, and there’s no “real-world” geography at play to reinforce the division (i.e., Scotland’s Hogsmeade Village and London’s Diagon Alley).

(And, besides, we’ve already concluded that Pokemon is unlikely to make its way to any of Universal’s parks.)

World of Warcraft

The only other property that This Is Infamous lists as reportedly being on the drawing board is World of Warcraft, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game that has been around for an unbelievable 11 years and which is part of an even bigger and more popular franchise (Warcraft, which will be celebrating its 21st birthday later this year).

Beyond its unprecedented success and depth of material to mine for theme park environments, there’s actually more weight behind WOW’s involvement: the rumors behind Universal’s supposed interest in the IP date back to a few years ago (we originally reported on the possibility of the game taking over either Toon Lagoon or The Lost Continent back in October 2013), after Universal and film studio Legendary Pictures signed a distribution deal on the movie front and a strategic partnership in the theme park arena. (Oh, yeah – Universal is releasing the Warcraft film next summer, which is helmed by Duncan Jones [David Bowie’s son] and starring Dominic Cooper [Iron Man’s father in the Marvel Cinematic Universe].)

Opening date?

The website claims that Universal is keen on having its new park open by 2021, and for a very good reason: that’s when Walt Disney World Resort turns 50 and will have a veritable cornucopia of new attractions and events to celebrate the occasion, including, just possibly, a complete makeover of Hollywood Studios. Universal, the site reasons, will want something to fight back against all that spotlight-hogging (just as it is opening Volcano Bay at the same time Animal Kingdom will finally be getting its Pandora: The World of Avatar expansion).

How plausible is this scenario? The truth is we just don’t know as of this moment. While a 2021 debut certainly fits with the aforementioned 10-year plan that was purportedly drafted back in ’12, it would mean that Universal would have to start construction rather soon, and with Sapphire Falls Resort, Volcano Bay, Nintendo Land, and the new off-site hotels (located over at the Wet ‘n Wild property) all currently on the docket, such a coordination of construction may be too much even for the likes of the mighty Universal to handle.

Then again, it could always employ every contractor in the tri-county area and have them work around the clock…

Location?

This, unfortunately, just may be where the whole report goes off the rails.

Opposed to speculating that this new theme park would be built off-site somewhere, This Is Infamous hypothesizes, “My understanding is that they are in the process of acquiring the necessary land surrounding their currently-developed areas, with these parcels being a done deal in order to realize their designs on something bigger.” That’s a pretty tall order; with both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure taking up approximately 110 acres, a third park would assumedly need roughly that much room, as well – a tall order for the mostly-fully-developed real estate directly bordering Universal Orlando.

Image source.

(Yes, Universal could conceivably take a page out of Disneyland Resort’s book and do a smaller park, something along the lines of 85 acres [Disneyland] or, even, 67 acres [California Adventure], but that would, obviously, significantly compress the amount of theming possibilities, not to mention limit the number of attractions, as well.)

Rumors have been flying of late that Universal may be building on either undeveloped or backstage tracts of land for the upcoming Nintendo Land, something which it did for the original Wizarding World. Could it be that the author’s sources mistook that possibility for the third park project? Or is Universal so concerned with transporting its guests and maintaining a contiguous footprint – despite, y’know, the existence of that rascally Wet ‘n Wild plot of land – that it will bite the bullet and potentially sacrifice immersion for a next-door development? Or is the whole story a significantly early April Fool’s joke?

Given the ridiculously aggressive timetable Universal has been on as of late, we actually won’t have to wait long to find out.

What do you think about Universal’s inevitable new park? Tell us in the comments section below!

The post RUMOR SPOTLIGHT: Is Nintendo Universal’s third park? appeared first on Orlando Informer.

In case you’ve been safely tucked away in the land of the Muggles for the past few years, there’s been this little rumor making its way around the wizarding community that Universal isn’t quite done with the boy wizard. An additional two phases are said to be currently under development at Universal Creative: one likely being a set of new interactive wand experiences at both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, and the other entailing yet another theme park land, which is most likely to be none other than the Ministry of Magic, the seat of the wizarding government in the United Kingdom.

Welcome to the Ministry of Magic.

While it’s true that these plans might never leap off the drawing board, as happens to so many other blue-sky concepts, there’s actually quite a bit already pointing to their having some serious legs, particularly in regards to the new expansion. The Fear Factor Live building – which may or may not be home to Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue soon – is literally right next-door to Diagon Alley, and since the Ministry is also located in London, it’s not much of a stretch to see how the two could connect. Furthermore, reports of journalists getting a preview tour before Diagon opened last July included the little tidbit that the massive back-stage doors near the Celestina Warbeck show were open, revealing a utility road that went directly in Fear Factor’s direction. And, finally, there’s the little nugget that went around last summer that Alan Gilmore, who was the art director on the first four Harry Potter films and on the two theme park lands, would like to tackle the Ministry of Magic next.

So if we are, indeed, getting a third Harry Potter-themed area, what would it entail? Rumors here are practically non-existent, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t provide my own little wish list of what the main attraction should be…

Layout of the land
Unlike either Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, Ministry of Magic is likely to be just one building, given the narrative and real estate requirements both (in the source material, the Ministry is a subterranean structure, completely hidden away from the prying eyes of Muggles). Just what, exactly, the exterior of the building will be is anyone’s guess, although it would probably just be an extension of the London waterfront that sits literally next-door – unassuming and completely thematically congruous.

The “exterior” of the Ministry.

All the attractions, shops, and restaurants being indoors does make for a nice variation on the other two pre-existent areas, and since this is just an expansion instead of a brand-new land (think of it more along the lines of Hogsmeade Station at the first Wizarding World), it would be a perfectly acceptable occurrence. However, this does make for some difficulties, significantly reducing the total amount of stuff to do, see, buy, and eat… though, then again, given how large Diagon Alley is in this regard, everything would probably balance out nicely – and might even be what Universal originally had in mind in the first place.

Harry Potter and the Duel of Fate
Hogsmeade has Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which remains, five years later, one of the best rides ever conceived. Diagon Alley features Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, a more family-friendly take on the franchise. Ministry of Magic, of course, will need its own headlining E-ticket attraction, something that will force theme park enthusiasts of all stripes to brave the long lines to the new building to experience it.

What do I think it should be? As it turns out, I have a few ideas – but we need to lay out the ground rules first, those unavoidable facts that Universal Creative and Warner Bros. will have to contend with when/if they tackle the project in the really-real world.

First of all, Universal will want to keep it a (largely) screen-based attraction, and they’ll want to do this for two reasons: (1) author J.K. Rowling has mandated that only the film actors portray their characters, meaning that Disney’s meet-‘n-greet approach is completely off the table and the possibility of deploying audio-animatronic figures is hugely decreased; and (2) there are a number of spectacular magical elements that special effects (i.e., practical illusions) would have a hard time replicating but which visual effects (e.g., computer-generated imagery) can do without a hitch. And then there’s the little trifle that the Ministry, as a specific location as opposed to a general narrative concept, barely ties into the Harry Potter mythos – at least, nowhere near as much as either Diagon Alley or, obviously, Hogwarts Castle. This means, of course, that the number of recognizable assets, from characters to sets to plot points, is much more limited.

There’s one last item to take into consideration before we get to my pitch: whereas Forbidden Journey was a straight mash-up of “best of” scenes from all eight movies and all seven novels, Escape from Gringotts was an attempt to lift a storyline directly from the source material and intertwine a new experience around it. While there are a number of narrative errors or minor glitches with its end result, it still, I think, is representative of the future of themed attractions, specifically the Universal ones. This is the direction that the company will almost surely be forced to take, anyway, given that dearth of material to work with that we mentioned just a moment ago.

The Hall of Prophecies.

So this is what we’re left with. The setting is the fifth film/book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry is led to believe this his godfather, Sirius Black (yes, that’s the nice bloke in the wanted poster outside of The Three Broomsticks), has been taken captive at the Ministry of Magic by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters (who have secretly returned to power, though the wider wizarding world is still in denial over it). Harry and his friends, who together make up the so-called Dumbledore’s Army, rush to the scene – only to discover that it was an ambush, an attempt to have Harry retrieve a prophecy made about him so that Voldemort may, at long last, have access to it. As the kids try to escape, Albus Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix arrive, and all hell breaks loose, headlined by a duel-to-end-all-duels between Dumbledore and He Who Shall Not Be Named.

This ride will function on the premise that guests, eager to help Harry and Dumbledore convince the rest of the wizarding world that Voldemort really is back, have signed up to join Dumbledore’s Army (yes, Harry and the gang are so desperate, they’re even turning to Muggles for assistance). That means that they, of course, tag along to the Ministry, and they’re caught in the middle between all the dueling witches and wizards. As events get out of hand, riders are ordered to evacuate the building (maybe Dobby the house-elf is charged with this particular task, making for a neat cameo), but they only end up being caught right in the middle of the epic fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore – maybe even being used as a pawn in the battle, another way for the greatest dark wizard of them all to try and get the upper hand. By the end, guests return to safety and are triumphant in having helped expose Tom Riddle’s return.

The ride vehicle here would probably work better as a variation on Forbidden Journey’s Kuka arm instead of Gringotts’s more traditional track design, but either method would be a good fit for the frantic, high-energy chase through the Ministry’s various rooms and the subsequent war that follows. And the queue could cover all those environments that the ride proper wouldn’t allow people to have access to, such as the inquisition rooms in the basement that are featured in the beginning of the movie/novel (it would also allow guests to see the main entrance hall, where the final duel takes place, before it’s utterly trashed by the contest). The highlight here may even be a ride through the Ministry’s special elevators, replete with enchanted paper airplanes that dart to and fro.

Let’s call it Harry Potter and the Duel of Fate (cheesy? Yes. But does it match “Escape from Gringotts”? Absolutely). And let’s get crackin’ on its construction.

What do you want from the next Wizarding World? Tell us in the comments section below!

The post The ONE ride I think we NEED in the next Wizarding World appeared first on Orlando Informer.

As Universal continues its multi-billion-dollar overhaul of Universal Studios Florida, moving from area to area and replacing all of its lackluster or otherwise threadbare attractions with brand-new and highly immersive rides, there has been one rather large omission that has generated a lot of coverage in the theme park blogosphere: San Francisco’s Disaster: A Major Motion Picture Ride… Starring You.

Disaster has managed to accumulate so much hand-wringing thanks to a few special circumstances: it’s one of the few remaining opening-day attractions (even if it received a facelift into its current form back in 2008); it’s seen continual downtime over the past several months; and it has a huge footprint in the park, meaning that a potential replacement could be on the rather large side.

The Disaster and Beetlejuice show buildings.

It’s been largely accepted in the rumor mill that Fast & Furious, which just bowed at Universal Studios Hollywood’s tram tour to much fanfare from Universal (and, unfortunately, much criticism from guests), is the most likely candidate to take over Disaster’s well-used residence. What’s just recently made a new ripple in the themed pond, however, is a report from Orlando Theme Park News stating that the inclusion of Fast & Furious will actually precipitate a whole new round of construction that has hitherto been unconsidered, resulting in two major changes to the entire park.

#1 – Bye-bye, Fear Factor
Beyond Disaster’s (purported) imminent closure, there is another attraction that is now rumored to be on the chopping block: Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue, the next-door show which has also been a long-standing staple, in one form or another, since its debut in 1992. Yes, that’s right – nearly all of San Fran will be leveled to make way for just one ride.

Image © Universal

But Universal isn’t ready to sacrifice two attractions just for the sake of one new one, even if it may be one of the biggest – and, possibly, one of the most expensive – in the company’s history as a theme park operator. According to Orlando Theme Park News, the long-lived show will be kicked out of San Fran and will make its way around the lagoon to World Expo, taking up permanent residence in the Fear Factor Live theater.

Although wholly unexpected, the move does end up killing several birds with one well-placed stone. Beyond the obvious salvaging of Beetlejuice itself, it manages to finally oust Fear Factor, a show which has somehow outlasted (and outplayed?) its television progenitor; whereas the series ran from 2001 to 2006 (and was later revived for a short-lived seventh season in 2011), its theme park counterpart has been operating continuously, albeit seasonally, since 2005 (which, interestingly enough, seems to continue the tradition of that theater being used to host to a production that long overstays its welcome – The Wild, Wild, Wild West Stunt Show initially ran there from 1991 to 2003).

And Beetlejuice, as a concept and production both, is more at home in the rather nebulous catch-all that is World Expo’s premise, righting a thematically-incongruous wrong that has plagued the show since day one. (Why would a movie that is set in the ethereal location known as Connecticut be dumped into the San Francisco section of the park?) Although admittedly a quibble in the grand scheme of themed things, it is nonetheless the sort of minor detail that Disney long ago nailed and which helps to cement a guest’s belief that she has truly been transported to a different time and place – something which Universal will have to absolutely master if it wants its Orlando resort to be a viable alternative to Walt Disney World.

There is one last thought to be added to this possible round of musical chairs. Should the totality of previous rumors hold true and Universal really is going to knock down Fear Factor Live’s theater in order to make way for the third Wizarding World of Harry Potter (that’s the Ministry of Magic, for all those Muggles confused at home), that means Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue itself isn’t meant long for this world; should Diagon Alley’s construction cycle be more or less replicated for Harry’s third phase, visitors should expect only roughly another year of the Ghost with the Most at USF. Is that too short a time to justify all the hassles associated with the move, and does this mean that Universal won’t be pursuing the Ministry of Magic, after all? Or will it simply relocate Beetlejuice to a third home?

Only time, of course, will tell.

#2 – San Francisco will be replaced by…
Poor San Francisco. It was never meant to be an individual land, standing by itself; right from the word go, it was amalgamated with Amity, the former home of Jaws – “San Francisco/Amity,” it was officially called.

Once its better half was shuttered in early 2012 to eventually make room for Diagon Alley, however, it was left just as “San Francisco,” and Fear Factor Live was kept part of the land as a disjointed afterthought. That mistake wasn’t remedied until two years later, when FFL got grouped with World Expo, and what was once the park’s single biggest area got trimmed down even more, to just the two attractions and a small handful of food options. The land, for all intents and purposes, was a wasteland of forgotten concepts and progressively-more-broken-down rides.

Fast & Furious, of course, affords the opportunity to change all this – a brand-new ride with one of the most popular film IPs in history and one of the single biggest footprints in any of Universal’s parks around the world. It also provides Universal with the perfect excuse to give the entire land (such as it comparatively is) a breath of fresh air, a coat of new paint, and, even, an entirely new name.

That’s right – say goodbye to San Francisco, the continually-shrinking land; say hello to Los Angeles, the home base of Fast & Furious.

Image © Universal

Word on what this makeover will actually – and structurally – entail for the area is non-existent, so all we can do, at this stage, is guess. First up are the four food establishments, strung out all along the waterfront: Lombard’s Seafood Grille (full service), Richter’s Burger Co. (quick service), San Francisco Pastry Company (quick service), and Chez Alcatraz (bar). The last two can simply be given a new name and be considered more or less rebranded, but the first two will actually require a bit of retheming, if not a full renovation into something entirely different and more appropriate for the southern Cali location. (For a more in-depth discussion on this particular point, be sure to check out the latest episode of the Orlando Informer Podcast.)

And then there’s the general ambiance of the streets and buildings themselves. Once again, should Universal choose to go cheap on the theming (and instead save all that cash for Fast & Furious itself), there is much that can simply be repainted and be considered thematically competent, though the likes of Ghirardelli and the Wharfside Cannery – two Bay-based landmarks – will need to be replaced by LA mainstays. On the other end of the spectrum, however, Universal could opt to demolish all of the present architecture and start anew, perhaps with towering skyscrapers and other SoCal flourishes that could conceivably complement its sister land across the lagoon, Hollywood. It all depends on just how much of a jolt the company thinks bringing its storied film franchise to the park will generate.

How long will it take for us to see if this report has any veracity behind it? Not that long at all, actually – late next month or early September is Orlando Theme Park News’s stated timetable for Disaster to close, which would, perhaps not coincidentally, make its demise line up with The Incredible Hulk’s protracted refurb.

Yes, sir – it’s looking more and more like (yet another) brand-new day at Universal Orlando Resort…

Do you think San Fran should be getting the axe? Is LA a good replacement? Let us know in the comments below.

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In case you didn’t hear – and, really, you should’ve, given that we discussed this very point in some depth in the very hip and happening Orlando Informer Podcast – The Incredible Hulk Coaster is getting something of a major upgrade, and sometime in the very near future.

The news came courtesy of those master sleuths, Parkscope, after they recently dug up three permits for the mysterious Project 611 calling for the demolition and renovation of a pre-existing structure’s interior and for a new trailer for the work, which typically only happens for the bigger or more involved construction gigs.

What does this mean for your favorite coaster in Orlando, and when is it most likely to be finished by? We have the answers to these burning questions – plus lots more.

Hulk smash!

What’s this about a refurbishment?
Unlike the typical refurbishments that Orlando’s many attractions undergo (usually at the beginning of the year, the slowest period for the parks), which tend to be for simple maintenance upkeep, Incredible Hulk’s downtime will be for actual construction and renovation. Since Universal itself has yet to officially announce either the ride’s impending (and temporary) closure or the nature of its upgrades, all we have to go on is what’s been rumored over the past several months.

All of which is to say that, while we’re sure the info that’s been floating around out there is in the general ballpark of what eager new riders will be seeing next year once the construction walls have come down, be sure to keep the rumored portion of the intel in mind. It can save a coronary infarction or two.

What’s (probably) changing: The ride experience
While the actual physical layout of the track may not be getting altered in the slightest (don’t worry – those zero-g and cobra rolls, vertical loops, and corkscrews won’t going anywhere), the dynamics of the ride experience seem to be, in the immortal words of Walt Disney, getting “plussed.”

Firstly and, by far, most importantly, is that most (in)famous of first hills, which features a 150-foot-long tunnel out of which riders are launched to simulate their transformation into the Hulk himself. According to our friends at Pixels at the Parks, Universal is finally going to pull the trigger and update the mechanism that makes the ride vehicle go from 0 to 40 miles per hour in two seconds flat.

Originally, Universal and the vendor, MTS Systems, settled on using a series of drive tires to propel trains up that beast of a hill. The always-useful Wikipedia notes that while drive tires are typically utilized for braking on roller coasters, they can also be deployed for sudden accelerations, though usually only for lower speeds – such as five to eight mph – and never up an incline before Universal was crazy enough to try it.

Now, however, it seems likely that Universal will be switching from the tires to a linear synchronous motor (known as “ILMs” in the biz), which shouldn’t be that noticeable to riders but which provide a significant boon behind the scenes. Given my utter lack of an engineering degree, I turned to an expert on this matter, Steve Alcorn, who used to be an electrical Imagineer (he helped create Epcot) and who now writes a ton of books on the subject. This is how he explained it for my simplified brain:

In general, the incentive to change from drive tires to linear induction motors is strictly a maintenance one. There is virtually no preventative maintenance or wear-and-tear on LIMs, while tires need constant replacement, with significant materials and labor costs. The only reason LIMs aren’t used exclusively is that there is less total potential instantaneous transfer of energy available, which means less rapid acceleration, and LIMs require very close proximity to the vehicle, so they don’t work well on curved surfaces. When the first LIMs were installed on the Disney World People Mover back in the late ‘70s, they did not have sufficient power to move a vehicle up an incline, but since that time, they have gotten much more powerful and now make great launch canons for coasters.

Long story even shorter: if Universal is spending less resources on Hulk, that frees up more money and energy to spend on other, newer experiences – the best possible outcome for guests.

Other ride elements, meanwhile, that are rumored to be getting an upgrade include on-board audio (which may or may not tie into the attraction’s new story – more on this in a moment) and lighting, which just may make the track pulsate different colors during different parts of the day.

What’s (probably) changing: The queue
This is where things start to get really interesting.

As we’ve discussed before, the true heavy lifting of a themed attraction is done in the queue, where guests are transitioned from external reality to the internal dynamics of the story at hand. While Incredible Hulk’s technically does that – ushering riders into Dr. Bruce Banner’s science lab and showing his efforts at reversing his Hulk-prone condition via animated sequences on ubiquitous television screens – it only does so in the most basic of ways, with very little in the way of ambience, atmosphere, or, indeed, immersiveness (though it does feature a killer soundtrack the entire way through).

That’s why the single most exciting prospect of Hulk’s incredible refurb is the complete replacement of the queue. It’s probably too much to expect something along the lines of Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, which includes holographic renditions of the movies’ actors and pseudo-elevator rides down into the depths of the Earth, but, still, there is much that can be done: imagine Banner’s lab, but after it’s been destroyed by a rampaging Hulk, hinting at the danger of the ride experience that is to come. Or maybe the lab will be destroyed while guests are in it. Or maybe the military is attempting to evacuate a civilian area before the green behemoth arrives.

Whatever form the new – or, simply, expanded – narrative takes, don’t hold your breath to see Mark Ruffalo, the actor who portrays Bruce Banner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, pop up; although one can surmise that there is some level of cooperation between Disney, Marvel’s corporate parent, and Universal in redoing the coaster, it’s highly unlikely that Uni’s competitor wants to let some of its most valuable assets used in anything but its own endeavors.

The craziest rumor of them all? No shoulder restraints!
Given all those crazy inversions – and this should come as no surprise – Incredible Hulk has some pretty mighty over-the-shoulder restraints to make sure that you don’t fall out of your seat and into the Great Inland Sea during your rampage. The only problem with this scenario is that it tends to make guests feel boxed in, and it can, for certain individuals, make their heads do a painful impersonation of a ping pong.

Image © Universal

The solution? Why, a new, lap-bar-only restraint, of course, which the manufacturer, Bolliger & Mabillard, has apparently been working on for the past few years. There’s actually already a number of coasters that feature shoulder-less restraints, including Shock Wave at Six Flags over Texas (which, just for the record, was designed by Anton Schwarzkopf). A combination of lap bars, seatbelts, and that friendly by-product of nature, G-forces, all help to keep riders safely in their seats, in case you’re curious about the science behind the magic.

While this may not, on first glance, seem like a major change, the difference in experience can’t be overstated: the amount of freedom to move or, even, just look around would be unparalleled, and the contest to see who can keep his arms up the most during the coaster’s loops and corkscrews would instantly become the newest pastime at Islands of Adventure.

When is the refurb scheduled to take place?
The Incredible Hulk Coaster could be going down as soon as next month – it’s already been opening an hour or two later than the rest of the park the past few weeks, and will probably continue to do so for the next few – and it’ll stay down until sometime in November or December, just in time for the busiest period of the year: the holidays (when all attractions need to be up and running in a feeble attempt to process the crowds as much as humanly possible). Common consensus seems to indicate that Hulk would then close again in January for a much longer period, and then go fully operational just in time for the summer (and for the arrival of Skull Island: Reign of Kong across the park).

If true, expect the track-related upgrades to most likely be done in the first phase, and the more involved queue replacement to be handled in the second.

Do you think Hulk needs fixing in the first place – or that these changes will be enough to generate some new excitement in this decidedly old section of the park? Sound off below.

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The post Is the Hulk Coaster about to have a complete makeover? appeared first on Orlando Informer.

We spoke a few months back about Disney’s plans for Hollywood Studios, which included the much-fabled Star Wars Land taking over all of Echo Lake and Pixar Place (which currently consists of just one [highly popular] ride) expanding to include all of the Backlot Tour’s former area. This Is Infamous has just last week followed up with an exclusive report of its own, and while the vast bulk of its scoop corroborates this game plan, it also goes a few steps further, detailing what to more exactly expect from the makeover and, even, adding one further killer intellectual property to the list of future offerings: Indiana Jones.

All told, the site says that the Disney Company’s board of directors has just greenlit an unbelievably massive budget for the park’s makeover: $3 billion. Just to put that in perspective, Universal won’t spend that much money on Universal Orlando resort until 2018 or 2019 – and the company has been spending a lot each and every year to put in a whole slew of new rides, hotels, and, even, a water park. If this is an accurate estimate, then Disney isn’t fooling around with what would be the most expensive – and expansive – theme park construction job in history.

(It should be noted – as we extensively did on this week’s Orlando Informer Podcast – that there are a great many across Internet Land who have taken issue with This Is Infamous’s reported price tag. For a full discussion on why I think the exorbitant price tag isn’t that far-fetched at all, be sure to give the podcast a listen [or watch!].)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFTJ4OhTKxk

So, what does six years’ worth of Universal-level spending get you? Let’s find out.

First, what’s leaving?
Of Hollywood Studios’s current roster of attractions, the latest rumor has a huge percentage of them getting the axe – about 7 out of the current 14 (and, no, this doesn’t include the Magic of Disney Animation tour and gift shop, which will both be shutting down by the end of next month). This definitely includes Muppet*Vision 3D and the park’s twin stunt shows, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, attractions which have long been rumored to be on the chopping block (even out on the West Coast, in the case of the Muppets).

Just what, then, is supposedly staying? In addition to the likes of Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage and the ever-popular Fantasmic, the main leftovers include:

• The Great Movie Ride (which opened in 1989 and is located in Hollywood Boulevard)
• The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror (1994, Sunset Boulevard)
• Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Starring Aerosmith (1999, Sunset Boulevard)
• Jedi Training Academy (2007, Echo Lake)
• Toy Story: Midway Mania (2008, Pixar Place)
• Star Tours: The Adventures Continue (2011, Echo Lake)

(An important caveat to Jedi Academy’s inclusion on this list: unlike all of the other entries, this show is, as has been consistently rumored for the past three or four years, purportedly going to be getting a transplant to a new [indoor] location and a major facelift in the form of new special effects and, even, a next-generation Yoda audio-animatronic.)

Just to put this in better perspective (literally), Screamscape has mocked up a photo of Hollywood Studios, with all the red areas representing the currently-closed attractions (no, not including the newly rumored ones) and the yellow areas showing potential zones of future expansion or construction.

Star Wars Land
The long-in-gestation theme park land to end all theme park lands will, according to This Is Infamous, consist of an additional two experiences to the two already-in-place attractions – although the site admits it has no idea what these new rides will entail. (Other rumors from other publications have ranged from everything from a speeder bike chase through the forests of Endor to a walk-through recreation of the Millennium Falcon, replete with a Chewbacca meet-‘n-greet.)

The most intriguing Star Wars nugget, it turns out, has nothing to do with the potential rides and everything to do with the land’s theming. With literally dozens of planets to choose from within the SW canon, the biggest question surrounding the project has been just what type of framework would Walt Disney Imagineering choose to erect for the new area. (Which is assuming, of course, that the company would opt to emulate the Universal/Wizarding World approach of taking one specific environment to painstakingly recreate; the other option being, obviously, to take the more time-honored route of simply doing an everything-jumbled-together-into-one mash-up overlay.)

Now we just may have an answer: Dagobah, the swamp world where Jedi Master Yoda lives out his many years of exile, is reportedly going to replace both Echo Lake and Gertie the Dinosaur. If accurate, it’s an admittedly strange decision (why not the gleaming towers of Coruscant, the very center of the galaxy? Or the sandy dunes of Tatooine, the most visited location in the SW mythos? Or the exotic beauty of Felucia?), although it may have more to do with matching the current park geography than with any creative considerations.

Of course, given the site’s further claim that there will potentially be a ton of dining and shopping options arrayed all around the area, it may very well be that Dagobah will simply be yet another attraction – a giant photo op and meet-‘n-greet location, for instance – and all the other planets (and movies!) will be getting their time in the twin suns, as well.

(The newly expanded) Pixar Place
This Is Infamous similarly doesn’t have any specifics on what new attractions will be added next-door to Midway Mania, but it does say that there will be three of them. Screamscape goes one step further and offers a list of previously rumored possibilities: a Finding Nemo-themed Crush’s Coater and a Monsters, Inc. “door coaster” (or, possibly, dark ride). Given the current success of Inside Out and the recent start of development on The Incredibles 2 – coupled with the Disney Company’s undying emphasis on multimedia synchronicity – there are many, many more possibilities on hand.

The only other tidbit offered by the site in this regard has to do with the possible mini-revelation that construction on these new experiences has already begun, snuggled safely away in the former territory of the Backlot Tour, hidden from public view. If this is true, don’t be surprised if the revamped Pixar Place will be the first new section of the park to open to guests, with Star Wars Land following some 12 or, even, 24 months afterwards.

Indiana Jones
The third and final new land will, the site says, be dedicated to Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. This is actually the skimpiest of all the reports, unfortunately, but it just may also be the juiciest: an updated version of Indiana Jones Adventure, which has long been considered one of the best dark rides in theme park history, is purportedly going to be the centerpiece of the new area.

Just what form these upgrades will take (a new ride vehicle? A bigger thrill element? An all-new queue to compete with Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts?) is entirely unknown, but should IJA be coming to the very same park with Star Tours, Tower of Terror, and a Pixar-themed roller coaster, Disney World’s weakest section could very easily become one of its very strongest.

Confirmations and intimations
All of this is, of course, quite a bit to take in, and, as mentioned before, many have received this report with the greatest amount of skepticism possible. It turns out, though, that we shouldn’t have too long to wait for an official confirmation: This Is Infamous reports that Disney’s $3 billion, ten-year overhaul will be revealed during August’s D23 Expo.

We’ll just have to wait to see what – if any – of these details are true until then.

Do you think all these plans will be enough – or that they’re even true? Sound off in the comments below.

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The post Disney’s biggest theme park expansion ever appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Just a few short days ago, we analyzed the full haunted house lineup of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, but there’s still so much more to talk about – including some exclusive information.

It’s a lot to take in, but that’s okay – this is going to be, by far, the biggest HHN in the event’s 25-year history, and huge, heaping helpings of information are to be expected (yes, even this early in the game).

A sneak peek at HHN 25’s scare zones
Although Universal Art and Design has put a lot of effort into keeping a consistent level of eight haunted houses over the past few years, its corresponding record on scare zones has been markedly more hit or miss. After several years of six zones – the biggest number in the event’s history – 2012 saw an experimental effort to shake up the Horror Nights status quo: not only was there a park-wide scare zone (which had actually been done five years earlier), the scareactors were allowed to move freely around Universal Studios Florida instead of being confined to specially designated areas. Universal promised such a move would heighten tension – “Unlike in years past,” its marketing read, “there are no boundaries. No safe zones. No one escapes.” – but, instead, many guests complained that it led to a watered-down experience (with a ridiculous low actor-to-space ratio) that lacked one of the event’s signature hallmarks: theming.

Perhaps because of this – or, perhaps, simply in an effort to pack the park with more people than ever before – Universal opted to devote all scare zones to just one theme the following year: The Walking Dead. While an intriguing premise, the move quickly proved to essentially be a one-trick pony, and in more ways than one; the theming pendulum might have swung all the way to the other extreme, offering five areas of highly authentic detail and various vignettes that played out between survivors and walkers, but the scare zones were more re-enactments of the show than actually scary. Die-hard veterans that tend to flock to nearly every night of the event soon found themselves skirting around the areas altogether.

(Be sure to check out our recent analysis of The Walking Dead’s return for more on its history at Horror Nights).

2014 saw a return to form in many regards, but the number of zones dropped to a long-time low of just four – and, what’s more, half of them were based off of intellectual properties instead of original concepts. Such a move simultaneously engendered praise and consternation (as is perhaps par the course for the event now), but it also paved the way for this year’s current efforts.

This go-round, Art and Design seems keen on very nearly perfecting its scare zones, particularly considering the milestone anniversary that 2015 represents – and the first step in this attempted restoration of glory is to expand the scare zones’ numbers back to its record-high of six (the first time in four years this has been done, it should be noted).

The first of these zones has already been revealed by the super-secret (and super-knowledgeable) forum user named Unknown over in the Orlando Informer community forums (he’s been keeping his main post updated as the community continues to successfully uncover his clues and solve his riddles, and it’s certainly worth taking a gander at). It’s not only a doozy, it’s also representative of what Universal is looking to accomplish with this year’s lineup.

Mel’s Die-In (a temporary name, at best), which will be located around Mel’s Diner in the Hollywood section of the park, looks to answer a perennial demand from the fanbase to incorporate Universal’s huge stock of classic movie monsters into the annual event. Several of these legendary characters – which will presumably include Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Phantom of the Opera – will be roaming the area, dressed in such a fashion as to mimic their original black-and-white depictions from the 1920s and ‘30s. And, as an added bonus, clips from their various storied films will be projected on big screens throughout the area.

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The kink in the plans
Talk of having an unprecedented nine houses is appropriately grand, given the nature of this celebratory year, but the actual likelihood of them all coming to fruition is, sadly, something of an open question, at best. Above and beyond the typical raft of last-minute changes from Marketing and deals that fall through thanks to disagreements with the various license holders, there’s one little item that is entirely out of all the usual parties’ control: the possibly imminent closure of Disaster.

Here’s the low-down: Disaster hasn’t been running within normal operational standards for the past several years, and, over the past few months specifically, the ride has been down for an extended time at an alarmingly consistent rate. Then there’s the attraction’s advanced age (it originally opened in 1990 with the park itself and got a re-skin in 2008) and entirely out-of-date theming and scope both (ever since 2010’s opening of the first Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal has been engaged in the slow process of either updating or entirely replacing all those rides that don’t live up to the very high standard of Harry’s wondrous world[s]).

So what’s a theme park operator to do? Why, tear it down, of course. And this is exactly what Universal seems to be at least contemplating, given the presence of construction flags (the obligatory precursor to construction work starting) all along the areas next to King’s Cross Station, on the one side, and, on the other, next to Disaster’s extended queue – which is precisely where the line for the temporary HHN house would be placed. Should work commence before the advent of Horror Nights later this year, Art and Design will be short one site, and since space in USF is already at a premium – particularly this year, with its bigger-than-ever plans – it’s up in the air if we’ll see a replacement spot being picked out.

If this does, indeed, turn out to be the case, which haunt would be the most likely to get cut? The biggest culprit would seem to be RUN, given its status of being an original house (which isn’t as likely to bring in the foot traffic that the licensed ones do) and one that, moreover, would be a repeat showing (twice over, in fact).

There is also a secondary question that, of course, must be asked: just what would be replacing Disaster? Although a wild stab in the dark on our parts, the most likely answer would be Fast and Furious, given the remarkable box office that the latest installment, which just opened three weeks ago, has raked in (it’s already at $1.1 billion, currently making it the seventh-highest-grossing movie of all time), and the fact that Universal Studios Hollywood is opening its own tie-in, entitled Fast and Furious: Supercharged, on June 25.

Your guess is just as good as ours as to what, exactly, a F&F-themed attraction would like in USF, but given Disaster’s enormously large show building and the fact that it’s located in the San Francisco area of the park (for now, at least), the sky is well and truly the limit.

Bonus: How HHN 25 has changed already
Now that we’ve seen how ongoing projects around the park can disrupt Halloween Horror Nights’s plans (an eternal source of consternation for Art and Design), let’s take a quick look back at how the plans have already been changed since the first brainstorming sessions began right after last year’s event concluded.

As HHNRumors.com reported last week, the initial pitch for 2015 included ten houses, with the last one being a premium experience that would require an additional fee to enter. While our own sources are able to confirm this was, indeed, talked about at one point in time, we actually don’t have any concrete info on just what, exactly, this up-charge house would have entailed — although, based upon similar experiences at such events as Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa, smart money would be on a scarier, gorier event that would most certainly not be meant for younger or otherwise more susceptible audiences. (There’s also the chance that it would’ve incorporated interactive technologies, such as what was seen at last year’s top-secret Legendary Truth experience.)

There’s just one last tidbit to share: not only were Universal’s designers intent on expanding the lineup to a record-breaking tenth house, they were also looking to blow it open to both parks – Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, which hasn’t been done in over a decade.

Oh, what could’ve been – and just what might be for Halloween Horror Nights 2016…

We don’t have plans for any more HHN articles for a bit, but join the discussion in our forums and check out our complete insider’s guide in the meantime.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
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• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
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The post Furious success shakes up Horror Nights 25 appeared first on Orlando Informer.

We may have shared Universal Art and Design’s current intentions of bringing both An American Werewolf in London and The Walking Dead back as part of Halloween Horror Nights’s haunted house lineup this year, but the ghouly guys over at HHNRumors.com went above and beyond and disclosed the list of all nine houses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uw6QPThCqE

Let’s stop right there and tackle the most blatantly obvious part of that sentence first: yes, current plans call for nine haunts, which will make this year’s event bigger than it’s ever been before (particularly when one factors in the full [and quite impressive] lineup of scare zones, as well). As previously mentioned, this could be just because HHN has become so incredibly popular over the past several years, allowing Universal more resources to lock down more properties and erect more mazes, or it could be an attempt to try and more effectively handle the always-increasing crowds, getting the haunts’ two-to-three-hour lines down to something more manageable.

However, as was also previously mentioned, it’s important to note that while Art and Design may be currently aiming for the biggest roster yet, there are a number of factors that could work against all nine locations actually coming to fruition. We’ll discuss this in some depth in part two of this article.

For the time being, let’s dive right into the full list:

HHN 25’s houses, part I: The IPs
Just as with last year’s lineup, 2015 will see five intellectual properties being deployed around Universal Studios Florida, with two being return licenses, two being brand-new subjects, and one being an import from Universal Studios Hollywood’s Horror Nights.

Here’s the list, including each maze’s probable location (which our own sources were kind enough to provide for us):

• An American Werewolf in London – soundstage
• The Walking Dead – the parade building
• Freddy vs. Jason – soundstage
• Scream – soundstage
• Insidious – tent

Beyond its obvious horror premise and potential both, Freddy vs. Jason is an interesting choice, given the fact that no new franchise installments will see release this year (although, according to [semi] recent reports, the likelihood of a sequel to the 2003 mash-up film is good). This makes the license the somewhat obligatory throwback house, a role that Halloween (the 1978 film, not the generic holiday) played in last year’s event, and An American Werewolf in London fulfilled the year before that.

Scream is easily the biggest unknown of this portion of the list, as it could be based on the original 1996 movie (or any of its three sequels, for that matter, which hit theaters from 1997 to 2011) or the upcoming MTV television series, which debuts on June 30. Smart money would be on the latter, given (1) the fact Freddy vs. Jason already seems to be the “classic” entry, (2) last year’s similar double-property, From Dusk Till Dawn, skewed to the newer TV incarnation, and (3) Universal seems keen to always cross-promote with new releases.

Despite Scream’s current ambiguity, Insidious – which, true to HHN form, has its third installment bow on June 5 (since, apparently, June is the new October) – is actually the most intriguing of all the IP entries, and not because of its source material; an Insidious house, subtitled Into the Further, made an appearance at Hollywood’s 2013 event, and, unlike, say, The Walking Dead, it featured the full cooperation of the filmmakers and, intriguingly enough, appearances from some of the films’ characters.

There’s also the little issue of attempting to stuff such an experience inside of a tent, something which has historically been difficult for Art and Design to pull off, given the rather impermanent nature of the structure – although last year’s Halloween house may represent a turning point in this regard, as it was universally hailed as a tent haunt that felt and scared like a soundstage one.

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HHN 25’s houses, part II: The original entries
This, of course, is where things would ordinarily get incredibly nebulous, given the original nature of the houses, but it just so happens that, for this year, all four of the non-IP entries will actually be based off of previous concepts, to one degree or another. Whether this proves to be a popular move with audiences or not, it allows us, at the very least, to get a pretty good idea of what to expect, if only on a broad level.

• Alice in Wonderland 3D – tent
• The Hallow’d Past 2 – soundstage
• RUN – Disaster’s queue
• Blizzard – soundstage

Alice in Wonderland, beyond being the mandatory 3D house, revisits one of the event’s most revered scare zones, Asylum in Wonderland (from HHN 2008), and gives it the full house treatment. The premise behind that zone, according to the Halloween Horror Nights Wiki, revolved around the characters from Lewis Carroll’s books “look[ing] into the mirror of the event’s icon, Bloody Mary, and [going] mad.” Or, perhaps it should be, going even madder.

The Hallow’d Past 2 is, as the name would imply, something of a “greatest hits” maze, just as its predecessor was back in 2010. For that first appearance, guests entered the parade building in order to take a tour of Horror Nights’s prop warehouse. Once inside, of course, things go horribly wrong, with the props and sets coming to life and forcing visitors to relive key moments from HHN’s previous 19 years. Despite such a strong premise, the house received only lukewarm reviews, thanks in part to its heavy reliance upon the most immediate years leading up to 2010’s event instead of stretching all the way back to the early ‘90s. Here’s to hoping that Universal opts to take a more even-handed approach to all 25 of Halloween Horror Nights’s years, and not just an emphasis on the past five.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Aq_m18JQJk

RUN will become one of only a small handful of properties in the event’s quarter-century history to make an astonishing third appearance. The first installment, way back in 2001, cast guests as contestants in a game show whose sole prize was to make it out of a makeshift labyrinth populated by chainsaw-wielding maniacs alive. RUN: Hostile Territory showed up in 2006 and offered a slight variation on the theme: taking a cue from Hostel (which actually appeared in the house’s queue in clip form), individuals are able to watch others be tortured and killed – for a hefty fee, of course. The pretty obvious twist involved the selfsame chainsaw freaks deciding to turn on the would-be observers, once again chasing them through a maze and out of the building.

That this third iteration will be yet another take on this premise is pretty much a shoe-in; what has left the HHN faithful wondering thus far is whether Eddie, a recurring character (and icon, in fact) who was featured in both of the previous haunts, will be making his long-awaited and triumphant return.

RUN: Hostile Territory’s very graphic queue video. (If you’re squeamish, move along. Seriously.)

Blizzard, according to the latest churnings of the rumor mill, will be something of a mash-up along the lines of Freddy vs. Jason. On the one hand, the infamous Body Collectors, who have been featured in two haunted houses and four scare zones over the past decade, will make their first appearance since 2010. On the other hand, Shady Brook Rest Home and Sanitarium – infamous for constantly being overrun by its inmates – will return after having been absent for the past five years; from 2003 to 2010, the setting was something of an HHN mainstay, primarily taking residence in the PsychoScareapy series. The Great Blizzard of 1888 will provide the backdrop, offering an intriguing change of pace for humid Orlando.

But wait… there’s more
All nine houses may have given us much to chew on, but there’s still plenty more to dissect: the first leaked scare zone (which was divulged on our very own community forums), HHNRumors’s teasing mention of an initial tenth haunt, and a surprising twist that may cause the lineup to be cut back down to the normal eight mazes. We’ll cover all this – and more! – in part two, coming Sunday night.

Until then…

Does this year’s Halloween Horror Nights’s heavy reliance on past concepts make you more or less excited for the event? Sound off in the comments below.

And, in the meantime, be sure to check out our complete HHN 2015 guide.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
Want to skip all the work and just price out a vacation to Universal Orlando? We’ll find the best deals for you – for free (seriously.) Learn more, or check out some of the current deals:

• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
  – Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Packages
  – 2-Park Getaway at Universal Orlando

The post HHN’s full house lineup exposed appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Our super-secret friend, Unknown, in the Orlando Informer Community Forums has been continuing to tease this year’s Halloween Horror Nights lineup (and he’s even managed to keep updating the same post, just to make it easy on everyone. What a nice chap!).

His first revelation – that An American Werewolf in London is, for at least the time being, on the roster once again – was shocking enough, but it’s this second one that will really divide HHN’s wide spectrum of attendees (probably along the lines of die-hard fans and the more casual Halloween goers):

The Walking Dead is currently slated to return. Yes, for its fourth straight year.

There’s obviously a lot to cover in this bombshell, so let’s take it one step at a time, yes?

The history of the Dead
After premiering to mammoth ratings success on Halloween day 2010, Universal swept in to lock down the nascent franchise for Halloween Horror Nights 2012, which kicked off just a few weeks before the show’s third season debuted, to be its headlining haunted house. Based upon the popularity the haunt enjoyed, the company negotiated The Walking Dead’s return for every single year since, with 2013’s event even taking the unprecedented step of devoting all five scare zones to the intellectual property.

The list of houses thus far looks like this:

• 2012: Dead Inside (based off of seasons one and two)
• 2013: No Safe Haven (season three)
• 2014: The End of the Line (season four)

And, just to be thorough, 2013’s scare zones looked a little something like this:

• The Fall of Atlanta
• Woodlands
• Survivors’ Camp
• The Farm
• Clear

(All of which isn’t, of course, including Universal Studios Hollywood’s Horror Nights, which featured slightly different versions of the houses in 2013 and ’14.)

Whither 2015?
If it seems like it might be something of a stretch to have the same exact property be entering its fourth year at Halloween Horror Nights, you’re not that far off from the challenge that has been handed to Universal Art and Design, the department responsible for crafting the annual event. Yes, each season brings with it a plethora of new environments to recreate in soundstage form – Hershel’s farm, the prison, the long and treacherous road to Terminus – but there’s also a considerable amount of restrictions handed over with them, including the inability to utilize the show’s cast (besides the occasional extra, like No Safe Haven’s Penny Blake [that’s the Governor’s daughter to you], or the even rarer cameo, such as Hershel’s severed head in End of the Line).

Yep, that's Hershel's head at #TheWalkingDead maze @HorrorNightsORL. pic.twitter.com/T4BmYVojgD

— Dalton Ross (@DaltonRoss) October 16, 2014

(This subject is actually strong – and peculiar – enough to warrant a brief tangent. If the drama’s main strength lies in its actual drama, in the relationships between its diverse cast of characters as the horrors of the external world threaten to corrupt their internal ones, one may very well ask what the point of [continually] adapting it to haunted house form without its heart is; it would be like doing last year’s Halloween maze without Michael Meyers or Dracula Untold minus Vlad. Without any meat for the walkers to chew on, the houses simply become a series of jump-out-at-you boogeymen whose repetition quickly undermines the mazes’ efficacy at scaring guests.)

There just may be, however, a silver lining here. Although smart money is on Universal continuing the trend and basing this year’s house off of The Walking Dead’s fifth season, AMC will this summer be debuting a spinoff show – imaginatively titled Fear the Walking Dead – which will be set at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse all the way on the other side of the country, in Los Angeles. Although the premise isn’t that far off from the progenitor show’s, and although the typical ban on incorporating the cast of characters will presumably still stand, that at least gives Universal a certain amount of wiggle room to attempt something fresh and, hopefully, scary. There may even be the opportunity for the company to merge both properties into one cohesive experience – after three solid years already, the ability to take risks with the source material should be strengthened, not weakened.

That may indeed be the biggest advantage to sticking with such a tried-and-true property… although, should Fear the Walking Dead be selected as the focus, it does come with a new possibility: with AMC having already picked up two seasons of the new series, Universal just may be inclined to stay the course next year, too.

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The compounded problems of an elongated presence
Of course, more importantly than what will be shown in a fourth Walking Dead haunted house, there’s the little matter of how it will be shown.

In an attempt to justify the IP’s third appearance at Halloween Horror Nights – and, presumably, to nab as many HHN virgins as possible – last year’s End of the Line was literally the size of two houses, both in terms of its square footage as well as its scareactor count, combined into one super-sized maze. It’s pretty hard to imagine just how, exactly, Art and Design will attempt to top this. Will it add on a third haunted house in duration? Or will it attempt to go in the exact opposite direction, going for a smaller, more intense experience that will shake up the status quo? When taken with the aforementioned lack of characters that can be imported into the maze, Universal’s options look increasingly constrained, reinforcing the idea (or is that the hope?) that a fundamentally different approach will be attempted.

But the uncertainties don’t stop with the prospective haunt’s contents – they actually spill out and swirl around the entire event, as well. When combined with An American Werewolf in London, HHN 2015 is suddenly looking very heavy on returning licenses. While, on the one hand, this may be appropriate for a 25th anniversary year, on the other, it raises questions about just how often and how long these IPs can be sustained, particularly across several consecutive years. And even beyond the creative considerations, the amount of negative fan feedback has already hit an almost exponential acceleration, particularly after 2013’s controversial decision to devote all of Horror Nights’s scare zones to The Walking Dead; how will the HHN faithful react to two reused licenses possibly sitting side by side in the lineup?

(On the flip side, however, for every enraged hardcore follower, there’s at least one or two newbies who are drawn in by their favorite television series headlining this Halloween thingie, and they, in turn, just might end up falling in love with HHN and form the next generation of devoted fan – otherwise, why keep bringing the franchise back?)

The aftermath
Even more importantly, however, is this one little inexorable fact: at some point, sooner or later, there will have to be a stop to The Walking Dead’s presence at Halloween Horror Nights, even if it’s only when the main series goes off the air, after all 12(!) of its planned seasons run their course.

The first official image from Fear the Walking Dead.

That’s the most interesting question of this entire leaked house list, and the one that potentially has the biggest ramifications for Halloween Horror Night’s future – on both coasts. There’s little doubt that the event’s current phase is one of dependence (or is that addiction?) to IPs, generally, and Walking Dead, specifically; what does Universal do once that crutch is removed? Will the ballooning attendance numbers drop? Will another property be selected to be the next five-year icon? Is there another horror franchise with the same cultural imprint or pull as AMC’s flagship series? And, finally, what happens when all those top-tier licenses are exhausted?

It’s no exaggeration to say that The Walking Dead can make or break the future of Halloween Horror Nights – and that the final outcome’s shape can start to be seen this year.

We’ll have lots more on HHN’s lineup of houses and mazes over the course of the next several weeks. Until then, be sure to check out our insider’s guide to start your plan of attack, read about the first leaked house here, or leave your comments and questions below.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
Want to skip all the work and just price out a vacation to Universal Orlando? We’ll find the best deals for you – for free (seriously.) Learn more, or check out some of the current deals:

• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
  – Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Packages
  – 2-Park Getaway at Universal Orlando

The post The second rumored house for HHN 25 is… appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Okay – we said that Halloween Horror Nights 2015 is already right around the corner, but even we didn’t realize just how quickly it would start to arrive.

Over in the Orlando Informer Forums, the mysterious and shadowy figure known only as Unknown has been dropping clues about what haunted houses are currently on the docket for this year’s event. (We say “currently” because, due to the nature of working with other companies’ intellectual properties, the final lineup can be decidedly different, with “front-runner” houses being ix-nayed for whatever reason and back-up concepts being trotted out – sometimes at, literally, the very last moment – to replace them.)

The most interesting one thus far? An American Werewolf in London, a haunt which may literally herald a brand-new – and, but of course, extremely controversial – era for HHN.

Here’s why.

Return appearance

With the sole exception of The Walking Dead – whose three-year run, according to industry scuttlebutt, was the result of Universal’s Marketing department continually forcing the phenomenally popular franchise on the event in order to maximize guest turnout – American Werewolf will mark the first time in Halloween Horror Nights history that a very similar maze will return from a previous year: it originated in 2013 at Universal Orlando Resort, and then, interestingly enough, migrated westward, showing up the following year at Universal Studios Hollywood (one of the very first times in HHN’s 25 years that such a feat occurred).

The reason behind the property’s already-well-established longevity is short and simple: the brainiacs at Universal Art and Design, the division responsible for crafting Horror Nights each and every year, are all long-time, die-hard fans of the film and have long tried to get their favorite IP in the lineup; 2013 actually marked the third time A&D attempted to bring the house to life, which is why it earned the working codename of Trinity that year.

(Here’s a little HHN trivia to impress your friends with while waiting in line this Halloween: the ultimate fate of 2012’s proposed American Werewolf maze was to be changed at the last minute to Welcome to Silent Hill, which explains SH’s extremely similar layout to what we would ultimately see the following year.)

The real reason for AWIL’s resurrection may actually have less to do with the designers’ unquenchable enthusiasm, however, and more to do with the near-universal acclaim that fans from both the East and West Coast treated the final product with; it consistently ranked among the very top of the various best-of lists from its respective years, and its usage of puppets for the titular werewolf is still considered to be among the most striking effects yet seen in the event’s history.

Should the property be making a comeback appearance, it may very well be one of the few instances in (modern) theme park history where quality over branding wins – and wins decisively.

The downside of winning

But the fact that Universal Art and Design (possibly) manages to win yet again in its perennial battle against Marketing’s desires to stock Halloween Horror Night’s roster with the biggest and most recognizable names in popular culture carries some risk with it – namely, the precedent that both The Walking Dead and An American Werewolf in London’s showings recently could be creating for the next 25 years.

There is already a small-but-steadily growing segment of the HHN-going populace that rather vocally dislikes the diminishing role of original content at their favorite Halloween event. Forget the fact that AWIL is an intellectual property – the fact that it’s a returning one (and one that, presumably, comes organically from within A&D) ups the ante in such a fashion that could pave the way for any popular license to endlessly be cycled in and out. Yes, that American Werewolf was both a fan- and designer-favorite certainly bodes well for the return haunt’s quality, but there is also something to be said for the effect that the incessant push to create new houses for new subject matter has on one’s creative output.

Of course, such considerations completely sidestep the giant gaping unknown that is sitting at the core of the situation: we have absolutely no idea whether the new American Werewolf in London will be an entirely new take on the subject matter (kind of like how 2013’s Havoc: Derailed was a sequel to 2010’s Havoc: Dogs of War) or if it will contain the same layout from its predecessor but contain a few wrinkles or new twists just to keep everyone on his toes (kind of like how the video game Resident Evil: Director’s Cut remastered the first Resident Evil to throw a bone to the original’s legion of hardcore fans [just to keep the analogies somewhat related to HHN here]). Which approach is taken, of course, will have immediate and quite substantial consequences for how the new maze will be received, in the short term, and what kind of precedent it’ll set, in the long term.

(The one thing we do [seem to] know at this incredibly early stage: the haunt will not be based off of An American Werewolf in Paris, the 1997 sequel to the 1981 original film.)

Saving money > spending money

It’s no secret that HHN is slowly but inexorably reserving more and more of its haunted house lineup to IPs, and since IPs require money – and, typically, lots of it – it necessarily follows that more and more of the event’s budget is being tied up by securing these big-name media tie-ins. As such, dredging up An American Werewolf in London from the vaults may have less to do with allowing the creatives their time in the sun and more to do with the cold, hard reality of attempting to penny-pinch.

How would AWIL’s resurrection save Universal time and money? Easy. With all the props and (extremely expensive) puppets already fabricated, there’s huge amounts of cash that won’t have to be spent right off the bat. Furthermore, with the house’s production design already being completed once before, the amount of time and resources needed to whip up the next one is significantly reduced. Of course, this is assuming that Art and Design will be fashioning a brand-new taken on the well-trodden material; should it decide to instead slap together a retread of 2013’s maze, then the windfalls are, obviously, even greater.

While such a proposition may, on first blush, come across as being rather crude, it could actually end up being one of Universal’s more ingenious moves – if the money that was saved ended up being allocated to land bigger-than-life properties, or should American Werewolf end up being the first-ever ninth haunt (a possibility), then having a repeat trip to a maze that is already considered to be among the best of the best would be seen more as icing on the cake than a stale leftover. And since so many more guests are now flocking to the annual event than ever before, you better believe there’s a whole swath of the ticket-buying public that would kill (no pun intended) to make up for their lost chance at experiencing one of HHN’s hall of famers.

Remember how Universal played around with the idea of doing a running “Urban Legends” series of houses a few years back? Replace that with “Greatest Hits” or “Legendary Returnees,” and it’s hard to see how Universal – and, of course, Disney, as well – may not be on to something here.

It’s worth repeating once again that, at this extremely early stage of the game, it’s not only incredibly likely that the current slate of houses will change by the time Halloween Horror Nights 2015 bows, it’s also very probable that An American Werewolf in London will be the first on the list of dropped concepts.

Nonetheless, the very fact that Universal is even considering bringing back a previous IP is an important shift in its thinking on and approach to its most popular annual event, and it is, therefore, absolutely critical to start analyzing – and, possibly, coming to grips with – the development as soon as possible.

We’ll have lots more on HHN’s lineup of houses and mazes over the course of the next several weeks. Until then, be sure to check out our insider’s guide to start your plan of attack, or leave your comments and questions below.

The post The first rumored house for HHN 25 is… appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Let’s get started.

Halloween Horror Nights 2015
For all those who didn’t know, the perennially popular Halloween Horror Nights doesn’t start in September – it actually begins in March.

It’s never too early to start practicing your screaming pose.

At least, that’s when all the news starts to break, and all the rumors really begin to heat up, as well, as Universal is in the process of negotiating with various intellectual property holders and has broken the drawing boards out to start visualizing what the proposed haunted houses will look like.

And this year, being HHN’s 25th anniversary, looks to be full of even more signs and portents than usual:

Codenames

Codenames may have always been used internally by Universal Art and Design as placeholders for the finalized haunt titles – since the finished product was typically something that would be subject to (continuous) change by Marketing in its ceaseless efforts to fine-tune that year’s overall messaging – but their rather on-the-nose nature has been forced to change in recent years, as various journalists and die-hard fans have realized that tracking them down would serve as an early reveal of the event’s lineup. Now, codenames are deliberately opaque, if not downright vague, as Universal is only too happy to publicly confirm.

They’ve also become useful tools of pre-pre-release hype, helping to whip all the HHN faithful into a frenzy; Universal Studios Hollywood has made the announcements of the working titles into something of a grand event, presenting them as a series of clues and puzzles that the general public could then spend hours – if not days – analyzing and dissecting.

Now, for 2015, Universal Orlando Resort has officially jumped on the codename bandwagon.

For all those catching up.. Code Name Blizzard… It's an original. #nodairyqueen #notbasedonfreezingcartoon

— Halloween Horror Nights (@HorrorNightsORL) March 15, 2015

Blizzard, of course, could practically refer to anything – how I would kill (no pun intended) for a Blizzard Entertainment-based house, such as StarCraft or Diablo (yes, yes, I know this is an original haunt) – but Behind the Thrills takes its best stab at puzzling out what it might be referring to. The site’s best guess? We might be seeing a yeti-themed maze, replete with blasts of frigid air. It could not only be a great deal of fun, it would also be a welcome variation on the standard shocker fare.

A man can dream, right?

Number of haunts

For the past eight years – with the sole exception of 2012, just to keep us on our toes – Halloween Horror Nights has featured eight haunted houses, being split between a number in soundstages and ride queues, one in the parade building, and two in tents. For 2015, however, it seems as if Universal will be looking to shake up the status quo a bit.

A user at Horror Night Nightmares has found some interesting evidence that a third tent might be erected this year: an area of Universal Studios Florida, which used to be a storage bunker for fireworks, is apparently being cleared out and possibly being prepped for construction. Given the relative scope of the work and the general belief that has apparently pervaded the theme park blogosphere that Universal may be looking to make HHN bigger than ever before, the poster concludes that this will be a third tented haunt.

Last year’s lineup.

If correct, there are two possible explanations for the move. Firstly, it could be that Universal is looking to expand its lineup to nine houses for the very first time in the event’s 25-year history, either to celebrate the milestone anniversary or to simply expand on the event’s recent and unprecedented success (as it becomes more and more popular, of course, the handling of bigger and bigger crowds becomes an issue of paramount importance – something which an extra maze may help with). Secondly, it could simply mean that Universal is shutting down one of its previous house locations – for whatever reason – and looking to replace it with the new tent.

(March is also a good month to start making one’s initial plans for attending Halloween Horror Nights. See our top tips, tricks, and secrets for this year’s showing here, and then be sure to stop by Universal’s official site here.)

Universal and the never-ending crusade for security
For several hours on Wednesday, March 25, a series of metal detectors and portable wands were deployed in front of Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (as was so gently pointed out in our forums that day). Officially labeled as a test by Universal, all potential riders were asked to go through the new security precautions before proceeding on to the queue, with all those who declined either being barred entry to the coaster, at the least, or being expelled from the park, at the most (although it should be noted that there were no reports of either of these scenarios happening).

Keep all your possessions to yourselves up there, please.

This idea of stricter ride protocols is nothing new for the resort – last December, additional team members were stationed at both Rockit and The Icredible Hulk Coaster in order to more strenuously check that all oncoming passengers had no loose articles – yes, even wallets and cell phones – on them. Although it is obvious that Universal’s concern was in preventing these items from possibly falling and striking strolling guests below, it remains unknown to this day whether such incidents had recently happened or the company had suddenly, inexplicably become paranoid about such an occurrence.

Of course, there is certainly precedent to injuries being sustained from the parks’ high-flying coasters. Back in September 2011, Universal infamously shut down Dragon Challenge’s dueling nature (the main draw of the ride), instead having the two trains “chase” one another – a move prompted, according to reports, by two riders that previous summer being struck by loose objects, which even resulted in one individual having his eyeball be removed. (Dragon Challenge’s sister attraction, Battlestar Galactica, over at Universal Studios Singapore has also been shut down since July 2013 for presumably the same reason, though the company refuses to officially comment there.)

I challenge you to a duel, sirs.

While it is heartening to note that such stringent security precautions at Universal Studios Florida are all temporary “tests,” it is important to be mindful of their (admittedly nascent) increase in both quantity and severity. And the mere fact that they are continuing is enough to suggest that bigger – and, perhaps, more permanent – moves are being contemplated for the resort; the last thing Universal wants as it stands on the precipice of becoming a major player in the themed industry is a slew of high-publicity personal injuries (and, of course, their attendant lawsuits) to hijack its momentum.

The only plus to possibly come of all these Transportation Safety Administration-level security checks for law-abiding guests who just want to get on their favorite rides? The mere idea that the company might actually implement such measures for Dragon Challenge, allowing the attraction to be restored to its original, unblemished nature.

How Disney plans to become more marvelous
Forget the news that Frozen Summer Fun is returning to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the second straight year – the real development of note is happening down the resort’s road a stretch, at the still-under-construction Disney Springs (which, in case you weren’t aware, was formerly called Downtown Disney). Screamscape is reporting that it’s been hearing of a brand-new store that will replace the current FIFA World Cup location and which will carry a large assortment of various Marvel Entertainment-branded items, presumably running the typical gamut from t-shirts and figurines to comic books to, of course, MagicBand accoutrements.

Maybe…

If true, the legal ramifications of such a move are, obviously, essential to take note of, as it not only means that Disney is, at long last, finding some wiggle room out of Marvel’s pre-existent contractual agreement with Universal to not allow huge swaths of its IPs to pop up at any other theme park east of the Mississippi, but that the company is hell-bent on integrating one of its newest brands in its most profitable resort. (The catch here? The name “Marvel” apparently won’t appear in the store’s name; it’ll instead use the far more generic Superhero Headquarters.)

This is absolutely something to keep an eye on in the coming months and years.

Tell us: will Halloween Horror Nights be better than ever before? Are Marvel’s days at Universal Orlando numbered? Sound off below.

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There has been lots of new Universal projects and news sweeping the internet the past month, ranging from the official announcement of King Kong’s Skull Island to the refurbishment of Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent (and, even, a leaked look at what Disney has in store next for its ambitious Next Gen initiative).

With so much constantly-breaking hoopla, it’s easy to overlook all the previously-revealed projects, the ones that will be opening in the immediate future (and beyond) and which will help keep us occupied while all the new stuff keeps coming into more and more focus. And it turns out that, given their steady rate of progress behind the scenes, there’s actually quite a bit to report. As such, we’ve developed this handy, dandy litany, summing up the latest developments and also sneaking in a few new tidbits here and there to further whet your appetite.

Oh, okay, fine – what fun would it be if we didn’t also tease the bigger, badder projects, as well? Look for a few good Kong snippets in our update – our cherry on top of the great big Universal sundae, if you will.

Garden of Allah Villas – 2015
Good ol’ Screamscape recently ran an update on the ongoing construction work being done at the long-vacant Garden of Allah Villas building in the Hollywood section of Universal Studios Florida. Its source wrote in to tell the site that the interior is “being remodeled into a series of conference and special event rooms,” with each room being outfitted with several wall-mounted monitors.

This is just the latest confirmation of what has pretty much been an open secret floating about the rumor mill over the course of the past several weeks (if not longer): the idea that an USF museum would be erected inside the long-standing façade, celebrating the park’s 25th anniversary this year, is erroneous. So what, then, is actually going to open to guests this summer? The newest NBCUniversal Media Lab, if the recent scuttlebutt – such as the ongoing conversation at Orlando United – is to be believed.

The Media Lab, according to Universal’s official site, sounds suspiciously like a think tank (just to continue the political analogy a little more) designed to work with various individuals and organizations from several different fields of study, running the gamut from academia to Hollywood. Orlando will actually be the fourth such location – with its predecessors being based in New York, Los Angeles, and London – but, somehow, it seems likely this one will be more for show than for actual brainstorming, which, of course, would befit its theme park setting.

If expectations of seeing the latest innovations in film, television, and theme parks are right on the money, then this would make Garden of Allah’s newest attraction, ironically enough, somewhat similar to its previous occupant: AT&T at the Movies, which ran from just 1998 to 2001, had an array of various interactive exhibits, including touch-screen games, video phones, and robotic arms. It’s perhaps best to let the attraction itself explain what it’s all about:

You’re in for a lesson in nostalgia and hilarity as AT&T and Universal Studios give you a look at the history of film like no one has ever seen before. From the first silent movies, to the neighborhood talkies, to the blockbuster hits of today, you’ll see rare artifacts like the Vitaphone, which brought synchronized sound and magic to the silver screen. Then catch a glimpse of the future playing games even the Jetsons wish they had. There’s even a six-foot telephone that lets you call home.

Sounds positively futuristic – and a nice diversion on a hot summer’s afternoon.

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Kong: Skull Island – 2016
All this talk about the Media Lab got our mouths watering for even more new Universal happenings, so we hit the brush and shook a few trees to see what we could get out of our inside sources on the new Skull Island addition at Islands of Adventure. This is what we discovered:

Last November, the incomparable Robert Niles described what is surely going to be the hallmark moment of the new attraction, a long, uninterrupted encounter with a giant audio-animatronic King Kong as the ride vehicle makes a big right-turn past him. Although it may sound too good to be true, our sources confirm its existence, along with the little nugget that this will be the sole animatronic Kong in the entire ride. (Don’t fret, however – the king will make further appearances in the form of giant 3D screens, which will enable the action quotient to be pushed sufficiently high.)

Even more intriguingly, we got confirmation of another previously reported detail: Screamscape’s story from January that the initial outdoor section of the attraction, which is supposed to be set in the thick of Skull Island’s creepy, predator-filled jungle, can be completely bypassed when the weather is bad, allowing guests to remain indoors – and, thereby, dry and safe – during Florida’s infamous thunderstorm blitzkriegs.

(Worried about missing an integral part of the ride? Don’t be. While this prelude will be all sorts of atmospheric and immersive, it truly is a teaser, meant to set the stage being plunging guests into the thick of the action. Think of it more as the castle tour of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey rather than that first mad encounter with Harry, Hagrid, and the pesky dragon.)

Finally, we managed to get some original pieces of info from our bushwhacker sources, a few tasty morsels meant to foster an adequate appreciation of what Universal is attempting to accomplish with this larger-than-life attraction. There will be nine scenes total in the ride – that’s one less than the aforementioned Forbidden Journey – which will use 16 projectors and three huge screens to bring the king and all his behemoth adversaries to gargantuan life.

Image © Ken Storey.

Harry Potter, prepare to eat your heart out.

Volcano Bay – 2017(?)
Universal’s Volcano Bay – which, in case you didn’t know, just might be the best water park in the world – has been much in the spotlight the past two weeks, with a pair of developments indicating that the project is now moving forward full steam ahead.

First up: at a panel discussion called “The State of I-Drive 2015” that was held on the evening of Wednesday, March 11, a group of individuals hailing from the county and a number of new International Drive-based attractions – such as I-Drive 360 (home of the massive Orlando Eye Ferris wheel), the Skyplex Polercoaster, and a number of hotels – gave a talk about what they expect to see along the famous tourist corridor in the near future, which just so happened to include their nearby neighbor, Universal Orlando. Printed conveniently on a handout, their expectations included this little bombshell:

https://twitter.com/maxairmike/status/575816216926896128

A fall 2016 opening for Volcano Bay is significantly sooner than the previously expected summer 2017 date, which has been making the rounds since the water park project was given a greenlight last year. Then again, the expectations of the panel could be based more on educated guesses than on intel from within Universal, although the presence of the Orange County property appraiser may add a little more weight behind the date (we’re not holding our breath at OI HQ, however).

Secondly, the Orlando Business Journal just broke the story that the South Florida Water Management District has approved the “modification for construction and operation of a 38.99-acre commercial development known as Project 533” (which has long been established as Volcano Bay’s number designation). And just in case that news isn’t enough to get the juices flowing, the paperwork breaks down the land usage of the new water park thusly:

Overall size: 38.99 acres
Usable land: 33.74 acres
Pavement: 17.20 acres
Open space: 12.82
Buildings: 3.72

Although only half the size of its rivals down the street at Walt Disney World, that still leaves more than enough room for Universal to include a full roster of attractions – especially if the company packs ’em in the way it has been doing with Universal Studios Florida the past few years.

Which year will be the best for Universal (and theme park) fans: 2015, ’16, or ’17? When do you plan on heading back to the park? Let us know below.

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Last week, Wired magazine ran a rather in-depth feature covering the genesis and evolution of Disney’s much-touted MyMagic+ program, which, of course, has as its flagship feature the now-ubiquitous MagicBands.

But despite the almost singular focus on the MagicBands and the overwhelmingly cheery tone of the piece – which, incidentally, has led to some questioning whether Disney paid for the coverage as a type of infomercial – there are a couple of fleeting but absolutely tantalizing points included almost as an afterthought at the end of the article that clearly spell out the future not only of Walt Disney World’s four parks, but of all theme parks across the globe, as well.

After Tom Staggs, the former chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts and the current COO of the Disney Company, mentioned to the Wired reporter that airlines and various sporting organizations have already expressed an interest in replicating – or, perhaps, licensing – MyMagic+, he then hinted that phase two of its implementation at the resort is already being contemplated.

The magazine, however, one-ups him, speaking anonymously with the various Imagineers on the project who were only too happy to reveal that the next suite of features has already been designed, if not already in the testing phases behind the scenes (remember that MagicBands took several years of research and development before being slowly introduced publicly in the summer of 2013 at Magic Kingdom).

Here’s what they said:

1. The characters will find you
At the Be Our Guest restaurant in the recently-completed New Fantasyland expansion, sensors located within the MagicBands and in the ceiling triangulate diners’ positions, allowing waiters to know exactly where to deliver their pre-ordered food. Disney is, apparently, working on embedding such sensors throughout the entirety of their theme parks, which would expand the concept to an almost exponential degree; the possibility floated in the article hypothesized that the walkabout characters – say, the perennially popular Mickey Mouse or Princess Anna – would be able to seek you out on the spot instead of the other way around. And, of course, as part of the overall MyMagic+ technology, the actors portraying the characters would have the ability to instantly know your name and remark on how long it’s been since they’ve last seen you. It may sound borderline creepy, but it’s also unbelievably immersive.

It’s not terribly difficult to see how else Disney could apply the principle. Street vendors could spend their time delivering already-purchased Dole Whips or giant turkey legs (thanks to the phone app) to guests as they stroll about the park instead of being stuck at one spot, servicing long lines. If you’ve opted in for Disney’s PhotoPass service, photographers would be able to anticipate when you’re coming and set themselves up for just the right angle – or, even, stage the perfect photo-op, such as coordinating with Buzz Lightyear to greet your family as you enter Tomorrowland.

And then, of course, there’s the possibility for Disney to capitalize on this carefully choreographed spontaneity. Once you enter a gift shop, the clerks can quickly learn that you’ve just had a surprise – and thoroughly documented – encounter with Buzz and see that you’re moving on to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin next. Rather than have you waste your time idly perusing all the various junk in the store, the cast members could direct you to the appropriate selection of Toy Story merchandise – or the company could cut out the middle portion entirely and have the Buzz action figures brought out directly to you.

Anna’s been looking for you!

There is, admittedly, much opportunity here for having too many in-your-face encounters at nearly every turn in the park, but, if handled with restraint and – even better – with user-set preferences and controls, there is also a great possibility for largely eliminating wait times across the board.

It’s hard to think of something more desirable for any guest.

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2. Self-generating videos
The example of roaming photographers that can anticipate your every move and help capture them on film (or, rather, memory cards) is, it turns out, just the tip of the iceberg. Wired reports that Disney is actively researching what it calls the Story Engine, which utilizes all of the parks’ various cameras to tag and film your family. Once your day is done, the footage gets processed together into one seamless video, which tells the story of your vacation, day by day, attraction by attraction, meet-‘n-greet by meet-‘n-greet. Think of it as being the star of your very own reality television series, set at Disney World.

There are two main draws to such a set-up. First and foremost, it allows candid moments to be captured – those surprise (or “surprise”) happenings that are lightning-fast and catch the recipient off-guard. This, of course, not only increases the range of photographic material, but also its depth, potentially providing a diversity that would otherwise be impossible – and nowhere near as dramatic.

Secondly – and, perhaps, much more importantly – it eliminates the need for anyone in your family to constantly whip out his smart phone, let alone carry one of those old-fashioned video cameras. This not only reduces the stress that dear old dad has to shoulder during the trip, it also allows everyone to more easily fall into the candid moments previously mentioned. Disney obviously hopes this will be an irresistible one-two punch that would end up being its version of Universal’s Butterbeer – everyone will have to purchase it.

Even more, there are lots of obvious ways that the company can build on the platform and offer additional services or experiences. There may be the possibility to edit the footage yourself back at the hotel room (or, perhaps, on the fly on your phone, as you’re in the midst of the action) and then to share it – think of this as the Disney World equivalent of YouTube. Maybe other peoples’ footage streams can be spliced with yours, to create an ultra-edit, or Disney’s cadre of Imagineers and filmmakers could put their own special touch on your reality TV episode – for an extra fee, of course.

(It’s also extremely easy to see how such a technology platform can be used to create the next-generation of attractions, such as integrating the always-on video feature into Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom card game or inspiring a raft of personalization-driven experiences.)

3. Transforming negative experiences into positive ones
This is perhaps the most intriguing element of them all. Since Disney will soon be able to track your every movement and keep an eye on your general disposition, it’ll know when the magic starts to turn sour and will be able to immediately rectify it. Wired specifically mentions the possibility of a disgruntled family that’s waited too long in line getting emailed a coupon for free ice cream or an extra FastPass+ reservation slot, comparing it to how casinos comp beverages or shows to losing gamblers. In this way, that frown gets turned upside down, and guests will have even more incentive to stick around on property and take advantage of Disney’s ever-growing list of services.

This is how Disney views you.

The customer service aspect of your vacation immediately shoots through the roof with such a proposition. Forget about complaining to Guest Services after waiting an additional hour in line just to do so – Disney just might have found the way to make you happy before you even start to think about taking to the phone or, even worse, social media to vent your frustrations. And, even better from the company’s perspective, it’s also now able to verify that a bad experience has, indeed, happened, undercutting fabricated guest complaints (much like how call centers now record every single conversation).

It’s hard to see how consumers wouldn’t be happy with such instantaneous course-correcting – or how any theme park will ever afford to not engage in the practice.

Does the future look bright and shiny, or are you creeped out by the intrusion of technology into your vacation life? Sound off below.

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Yes, Universal’s mandate to open at least one new attraction a year has largely focused on Universal Studios Florida since 2012, and, yes, of all the lands inside Islands of Adventure, the one that has repeatedly gotten the short end of the stick is The Lost Continent (thanks to the ever-more-encroaching Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade).

But all of that just might be about to change.

By putting on our Carmen Sandiego gumshoe hats, we here at OI HQ have been noticing some sudden and otherwise inexplicable movement on the Lost Continent front, pointing to the possibility of revamped attractions, at the very least, or a whole new set of experiences, at the very most (though that shouldn’t be confused with replacing the island whole cloth – sorry, Harry Potter/Willy Wonka/Star Trek fans).

Before we get to the juicy details, however, it’s important, like the true theme park nerds we are, to put the possible development in its proper context.

The Lost Continent loses its way
One of the park’s six original lands, The Lost Continent not only was its biggest, it was also, arguably, its most prestigious; while Marvel Super Hero Island may have boasted the most advanced attractions at the time, and Jurassic Park had a hugely popular franchise behind it, Lost Continent featured an all-star creative lineup culled directly from Walt Disney Imagineering that had quit the Mouse House after their project, the proposed Beastly Kingdom land at the also-under-construction Animal Kingdom, was cut due to budgetary considerations.

Concept art for Animal Kingdom’s Beastly Kingdom.

(Just a brief – and somewhat ironic – history lesson: Beastly Kingdom was to have been the sole corner of the park that would have been devoted to mythical creatures, featuring such legendary beasts as unicorns and dragons [which should sound familiar to visitors of the original Lost Continent]. Once its plug was pulled, it was replaced by Camp Minnie-Mickey, which ended up becoming one of the very first manifestations of the modern Disney ethos: character meet-‘n-greets and stage shows over dark rides and other traditional attractions. Now, however, this particular swath of real estate has come full circle, as it will be the home of the upcoming Pandora: World of Avatar.)

The original version of Lost Continent – which consisted of the Lost City, Sindbad Village, and Merlinwood – stood intact for nearly a decade, before the last third of it was broken off and renovated into Hogsmeade Village. Most observers thought it would only be a matter of time before the phenomenon that is Harry Potter gobbled up the rest of the only island to not be home to a licensed property (with most rumors pointing to the area being devoted to the dark and dangerous Forbidden Forest that butts up against Hogwarts Castle), but it turns out they were only partially right; in 2014, when Universal opened up the second Wizarding World, Diagon Alley, next door at Universal Studios Florida, another slight tract of land was sliced off to make a kind of transition area from The Lost Continent to Hogsmeade (and, also, to allow passengers disembarking from the park-hopping Hogwarts Express to remain in-experience).

Despite the land’s continued survival, its relevance to both Islands of Adventure, specifically, and themed enthusiasts, generally, has been fatally affected; after the first Wizarding World claimed half of its attractions – Merlinwood’s Flying Unicorn and Dueling Dragons were transformed into Flight of the Hippogriff and Dragon Challenge, respectively – only the rather lackluster Poseidon’s Fury walk-through attraction and Eighth Voyage of Sindbad stunt show remain, and the fact that they are easily the worst attractions at the park has made Lost Continent something of a standing joke. The only reason to spend any sort of extended time at the island – besides admiring its breathtaking theming, of course – is to eat at the impeccable Mythos, which has largely been considered the best theme park restaurant since its opening 16 years ago.

If ever there was a time to fix the sinking ship, now would be it, with Hogsmeade having received an interactive wand makeover last year and the legendary King Kong moving in next-door to Jurassic Park next year.

Fortunately, it seems as if Universal agrees.

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Reworking Poseidon’s Fury
Just this week, we received a rather nebulous, but nonetheless very exciting, message from one of our inside sources that a reworking of Poseidon’s Fury is, well, in the works.

What, exactly, does this entail? Let’s be clear upfront: although we have yet to get exact (follow-up) information on this front, we’re extremely doubtful that Universal will gut the interior of the attraction and erect a wholly new one. And, indeed, if our assumption is correct, this wouldn’t be the first time that the company has gone back to the drawing board to tweak Poseidon’s pre-existent elements – although guests now get caught-up in the middle of a face-off between the evil Darkanon and the benevolent Poseidon alongside a helpless archeologist tour guide, original visitors witnessed a vengeful Poseidon being bested by the almighty Zeus (who just so happened to be your guide in disguise, but of course).

Another revision along these lines would be the most logical conclusion. And it may very well end up delivering the greatest bang for the company’s buck, financially as well as creatively – should a strong, dynamic, and less-cheesy story (and tour guide!) be installed to match the attraction’s meticulous theming and still-impressive special effects (highlighted by the sometimes-working water vortex tunnel), what is easily the most forgettable of Islands of Adventure’s stops could become the new flagship of Lost Continent, possibly even taking the mantle away from Mythos.

Re-staging The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad
Just to prove that Universal is serious about giving its most neglected theme park land a true facelift, it seems that a renovated Poseidon’s Fury will be accompanied by an overhauled Eighth Voyage of Sindbad stunt show. Although not as tinkered-with as its Lost Continent counterpart, the argument has long been had that it should be – when the fact that its beautifully impressive set was completed before its script was even written is combined with its action-over-story presentation, it makes for an experience that is even more hollow than Poseidon’s (and that’s saying a lot!).

With Universal posting an ad on its auditions site for male and female stunt performers who possess the “newly-added skills of parkour and the following martial arts forms: Cappoeira, Tae Kwon Do, [and] MMA” expressly for Sindbad – an ad, incidentally, that we were the first to spot – it would seem that this will, indeed, be another instance of retaining an attraction’s trappings and attempting to inject new (and, hopefully, more narratively fruitful) life into it.

Although perhaps not as exciting as, say, Skull Island’s or Volcano Bay’s imminent arrival, it does point to Universal’s continued commitment to upgrade or otherwise refurbish all of its attractions at both of its parks, presenting its guests with the most thematically immersive and dramatically satisfying lineup as possible. (It also points to the company keeping The Lost Continent around for at least the foreseeable future, which is a huge insight into its current state of mind in and of itself.)

And lest readers walk away too underwhelmed by Universal Orlando’s next top-secret project, we’ll be happy to leave you with this final nugget: given the nature of the renovations and the speed with which the company has tackled other recent developments, we wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the newly updated Lost Continent arrive as early as this summer, complementing the new Garden of Allah Villas attractions over at USF.

Is it about time that Universal tries to salvage its Lost Continent mess, or should it instead be focusing its efforts on creating a whole new theme park land? Will you make this area of IOA a must-do now? Tell us below.

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For all those unawares, on Wednesday, February 25, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts was unexpectedly closed when Universal Studios Florida opened that morning. It not only remained inoperational for the remainder of that day, but also for the next two days, not opening its doors again until just this morning.

It was a rather mysterious development, particularly considering that the ride hasn’t had any downtime of this magnitude since it opened in July 2014 (though technical glitches often plagued Gringotts in its early months, and occasionally thereafter, as well). And all that Universal would officially say is that it “just closed for some off-season maintenance and will re-open over the weekend,” though such a new attraction shouldn’t require adjustments of this duration until well later in its lifespan.

That leaves just a teensy question to be asked: what happened?

Well, we think we may know. (Brief spoiler alert regarding a scene in the ride below.)

Several inside sources have darted out of Gringotts’s shadows just long enough to inform us that some testing was being done on the ride Tuesday night, as is standard procedure for the various theme parks. Unfortunately, it seems as if an accident may have occurred involving Escape from Gringotts’s climax, in which Harry and his newfound dragon pal swoop by to help rescue guests from the clutches of Voldemort, removing a screen on a KUKA arm (yes, that’s the same robotic arm that powers the next-door Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey) in order to allow the ride vehicle to launch out of the giant, dead-end room. That evening, for some unknown reason, there appears to have been some sort of glitch that prevented the screen from moving out of the way in time, resulting in the vehicle smashing into it.

(Don’t worry, though – if Escape from Gringotts weren’t safe to ride, it wouldn’t have been reopened at all, let alone running even more efficiently than normal today.)

Obviously, nothing can be considered official unless Universal itself makes an announcement – and it most likely won’t – but the fact that the attraction has reopened today without the KUKA-powered screen can be considered something of a smoking gun.

We’ll update this article if and when more information, either public or private, continues to come to light – including whether Universal will re-implement the hallmark feature at a later date.

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What are your thoughts on Escape from Gringotts’s mysterious closure? Leave your theories and best guesses below.

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The future (and past) of Wet ‘n Wild Orlando
Just because providing a general overview of Universal’s upcoming built-from-the-ground-up water park, Volcano Bay, and pinpointing one of its 13 rides simply isn’t enough, this week Screamscape has reported on what its sources are whispering in its ear – and it’s quite exciting, to say the least.

Back in the late 1990s, when Universal was not only going full-out in expanding its single-park Universal Studios Florida into the full-fledged Universal Orlando Resort, but also in acquiring an additional 2,000 acres of land down south to convert into a second resort (you can get the full details here),the company’s goal was a simple, albeit daunting, one: reach parity with Walt Disney World Resort. Since multiple theme parks, a dining/shopping/entertainment district, several on-site hotels, and, even, various sporting complexes would be taken care of, there was still one final component that needed to filled – a water park. Rather than building one from scratch at considerable expense, Universal decided to do the next best (and far quicker) thing: buy one from another company.

Wet ‘n Wild Orlando, as it turns out, has a history that is nearly as involved and as momentous as is Universal’s. Created by George Millay, the driving force behind SeaWorld (which, ironically enough, started in California nearly a decade before moving over to Florida), Wet ‘n Wild was, at its opening in 1977, the first modern water park in the world, combining the formerly disparate elements of water slides, wave pools, and splash pads. (It also spawned its own chain of sister locations all across the New World, ranging from Texas, North Carolina, and Nevada to Mexico and Brazil.)

When Universal purchased the location in September 1998, it was the most popular water park in Orlando (yes, even more so than Disney World’s trifecta of River Country, Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach), which instantly qualified it as a successful competitor to Disney. Wet ‘n Wild’s performance since then, however, has proven to be middling, at best, as Disney has continued to invest in its water properties and Universal Orlando’s less-than-stellar attendance numbers throughout last decade caused the company to turn off the money spigot (just by way of comparison: in 2012, when Universal’s current building spree kicked off, Typhon Lagoon drew 2.1 million guests, Blizzard Beach received 1.9 million, and SeaWorld’s Aquatica Orlando nabbed 1.5 million, while Wet ‘n Wild only had 1.2 million visitors).

Now, with the arrival of a certain boy wizard having revitalized the level of spending and theming both across the entire resort, Universal is anxious to replace what has become a depressingly standard water park with a brand-new, immersively impressive one (a 200-foot erupting volcano? Yes, please), a decision which leaves a rather large question in its wake: what is to be done not only with Wet ‘n Wild, but also the 50-acre plot of land that it sits on?

This is where Screamscape comes in.

According to the site, the old park will be permanently closed once the new one opens in the summer of 2017, although, as has been speculated in the rumor mill before, a number of its newer, easy-to-transport rides – including Disco H2O, Brain Wash, and Aqua Drag Racer – just may be shipped up the road to Volcano Bay. (Screamscape also seems to think that several other attractions could additionally make the move, depending upon their condition and their ability to possibly be rethemed.)

What happens to the property Wet ‘n Wild sits on is a far more interesting – and open-ended – question. In June 2013, Universal decided, after 15 years of leasing the land, to purchase it outright for the somewhat staggering sum of $30.9 million, a transaction which also included several extra acres surrounding the park, its parking lot, and office space. Spending that much money is not a decision that corporations make lightly, and, furthermore, they tend to only buy real estate when they intend to do something with it (as happened in the ‘90s near the Orange County Convention Center, when Universal was drawing up plans for 18-hole golf courses and time-share units).

Although 50 acres is only a drop in the bucket compared to Universal Orlando’s 840 – or, for that matter, Disney World’s 13,000 – that’s still more than enough land to erect several more hotels on, which would obviously help the company on its current quest to double, if not triple, the number of hotel rooms it currently has on hand. And Screamscape goes one step further and suggests that not only could a “massive resort” be installed here, but also a “mini-CityWalk,” as well, providing the launching pad for Universal Orlando’s much-heralded second expansion.

Wet ‘n Wild’s location on I-Drive. At the top-left is Cabana Bay Beach Resort.

And, actually, this may very well be the point. In the site’s last piece of speculation, Screamscape notes that at least one of their sources has stated that Universal is actively looking for other parcels of land around the International Drive area, particularly on the other side of the road from Wet ‘n Wild. If true, the company may be going for a whole new theme park paradigm here, one that consists of little “islands” of resort property rather than brandishing one continuous expanse of land.

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Twister’s final twist (for real, this time)
Will Twister… Ride It Out be torn down, or won’t it? Will it be shutting its doors right away or later in the year, once some of the busier tourist seasons have subsided? Will its replacement be opening this year or next?

Twister has become one of Universal Orlando’s most convoluted ongoing stories over the past year, which is ironic, given the rather simplistic nature of the attraction’s design and the rather limited scope of its experience. And while we don’t yet have definitive answers for most of these questions – although more and more details are pouring in, both from other sites and from our own private sources – at least one of them can now be (more or less) put to rest. Take a look at this photo:

The only item missing from this “studio directory” sign is, of course, a reference (and corresponding arrow) to Twister, which has been there until just recently. If Universal is already taking down all signage dedicated to the attraction, then its demise is presumably just around the corner, perhaps as soon as within the next month.

Special thanks to Designing the Fear for tipping us off to the development and to Chuck, the good-natured community manager of our forums, for snapping the picture.

It’s everyone’s favorite time: annual price increases
When Disney unveiled its price hike for 2014, it surprised everyone for two reasons.

The first was simply its timing – instead of waiting for the traditional summer months (2013’s price increase occurred in June, for example), and instead of waiting for Universal to go first (which it had done in both ’13 and ’12), it hit the gates early, in February, which actually prompted concerns from some analysts (and guests!) that the company was preparing for a second rate bump later on in the year. That, fortunately, didn’t come to pass, preventing the company from upping its prices a record-breaking three times within a 12-month period.

But then there’s the price itself, which was the second reason that eyebrows were raised throughout the industry. The cost of a one-day, one-park ticket to Magic Kingdom, Disney World’s most popular destination, went up to $99.00, putting it on the very precipice of what has long been considered to be the do-not-cross mark, $100.00.

It looks like February has become the new price-increase date, as nearly every single outlet across the world wide web is reporting that Disney will once again take the charge and beat its competition to the dollar game this weekend. Expect Universal to follow suit sometime next week – if not sooner.

What will 2015’s dollar amounts look like? The truth is we can’t be certain, but we can make some educated guesses. Here’s a handy-dandy listing of the various prices for the big two Orlando resorts (specifically for a one-day, one-park adult ticket) across the past four years:

2014:
Magic Kingdom – $99.00
Universal Studios Florida/Islands of Adventure –$96.00
Epcot/Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom – $94.00

2013:
Magic Kingdom – $95.00
Universal Studios Florida/Islands of Adventure –$92.00
Epcot/Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom – $90.00

2012:
Magic Kingdom/Epcot/Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom – $89.00
Universal Studios Florida/Islands of Adventure –$88.00

2011:
Magic Kingdom/Epcot/Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom – $85.00
Universal Studios Florida/Islands of Adventure –$85.00

Seeing as how Universal has been rather consistent with its $4.00 increases, it’s likely that a one-day, single-park trip to either Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure will end up running $100.00 for the remainder of the year, which might be considered something of a “sweet spot,” given that it sits exactly on the triple-digit threshold. Disney, meanwhile, is probably eying $104.00 for Magic Kingdom and $99.00 for all its other parks, knowing that the general public will pay just about anything to enter the world’s busiest theme park while keeping its other three destinations just within double-digit territory.

Is it a mistake for Universal to expand in chunks throughout the I-Drive area? Will Disney World and Universal Orlando be too expensive to visit this year and on into the future? The comments await below.

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The post Universal’s Top Three Rumors – February 20 appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Since we’ve already taken a look at what Universal Orlando Resort will most likely look like at the end of this decade, it’s time to do the same for Walt Disney World, focusing first on what many consider to be the weakest link at the world’s biggest (and first) theme park resort: Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

It turns out that this is something of an ongoing obsession for themed enthusiasts, and not just because Disney’s design and construction schedule moves at a glacial pace (a calculated move on the company’s part, given that it ameliorates the cost as much as possible by spreading spending out across several fiscal years, thereby making the board of directors and shareholders alike happy). To understand why, one must head back to the very beginning, as is the case for so many other enterprises in human existence.

Back to the future
In the latter half of the 1980s, when Universal decided that it should take its first serious stab at this theme park thing by staking its own claim in Orlando, Disney went on the offensive, fast-tracking its own similarly-themed project to try and take as much of a bite out of Universal Studios Florida as possible. The result was a park that started off its life being considerably smaller than either Magic Kingdom or Epcot, making it Disney’s very first half-day park anywhere in the world.

But there was more to it than just that, of course. Hollywood was still a mysterious, distant land 30 years ago, home to alchemists that presided over a magical craft known as filmmaking. Before the advent of DVDs or Blu-rays, which are, of course, replete with heaps of behind-the-scenes featurettes and directors’ commentaries, or the arrival of that disruptive format known as digital video, which literally put professional-grade equipment in the hands of novices the country over, creating a specific destination that would open up the mysteries of Hollywood held tons of potential.

(After all, if Epcot could have been commissioned on the premise of educating guests in the wonders of science and technology, doing the same with one of man’s newest art forms must’ve seemed like a no-brainer. Little did Disney know that, not even 20 years after both parks’ debuts, their original intents would be almost completely gone.)

More than just being instructive, however, Hollywood Studios was also meant to be immersive — literally. Just as with Universal Studios Florida, film and television productions were lured out to Orlando, promising guests to share in the wonders of shooting flicks or animating features. Disney thought that DHS would be like opening up the ultimate insider’s club, and that, furthermore, tourists would be beating down the door for a taste of the excitement.

Needless to say, this isn’t exactly the way things turned out.

The end of the line
After all filmmaking projects dried completely up (well, with the exception of wrestling and the occasional visit from a talk or morning show), Universal was ultimately forced to drop the pretense of being a hub of production, though it tried valiantly to extend the overarching theme as much as it possibly could. In what could roughly be called the park’s second wave of attractions (ranging approximately from 2000 to 2010), filmmaking was taken out of the limelight (goodbye, Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies!) and pushed to the side, to be used as an excuse for getting on the ride at hand (hello, Revenge of the Mummy!).

Not even that was deemed successful enough, however, thanks in no small part to a certain Boy Wizard whose Wizarding World ended up being a game-changer not only for the resort, but for the entire industry, as well. Hogsmeade opened the floodgates for the little theme park company that could, allowing it to completely abandon the “attraction in a soundstage aesthetic” (we’re looking at you, Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem) and go for entire themed lands (we love you, Springfield, USA).

Strangely enough, even though Hollywood Studios faced the same problem of having all productions cease, it never underwent a switch in personality or evolution of overriding ethos; the park today, despite several expansions and fresh coats of paint, is essentially the same one that opened back in 1989.

On the one hand, this is imminently understandable – unlike its counterpart down the street, DHS never attempted to take the filmmaking premise anywhere near as seriously (which is why guests could jump into the Star Wars universe on Star Tours or meander into The Twilight Zone via the Tower of Terror as easily as they could enter any story world at any of Magic Kingdom’s attractions). On the other hand, however, it’s somewhat baffling, considering the potential for Harry Potter-esque expansions.

Now, with Universal gathering momentum and the likes of Pixar and Lucasfilm in its pocket, Disney has decided to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war — and, as it turns out, it may very well make Universal’s long-term plans grind to an abrupt halt.

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Embarking on the Adventure
Last November, Best of Orlando ran a story looking into just what Disney has in store for its wayward park, and while it may be some three months old, it’s not at all out-of-date, and, indeed, it still provides a rather insightful sneak peek of the future.

Starting off with the interesting tidbit that Hollywood Studios was visited back on September 25 by a VIP entourage – consisting of Tom Staggs (the former chairman of Parks and Resorts and the just-promoted chief operating officer of the Disney Company), George Kalogridis (president of Disney World), Dan Cockerell (vice president of Hollywood Studios), John Lasseter (chief creative advisor for Imagineering), Bruce Vaughn (chief creative executive of Imagineering), and Kathy Mangum (vice president of Imagineering) – with blueprints in hand, author Jim Hill notes that the group was particularly interested in Soundstage One, which is the empty building next-door to Toy Story Midway Mania (and which was just recently home to Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post for the never-ending Frozen Summer Fun event). Even more interestingly, Disney last year filed permits for the soundstage’s renovation, using the name “Project Three” and noting that its construction would be overseen by the same company that built Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent.

What exactly is going on there? A much larger and (hopefully) more packed-to-the-gills Pixar Place, which will take up most, if not all, of the approximately 16 acres that was, until recently, dominated by the Backlot Tour. This expansion, of course, will be conducted in tandem with the park’s other, much-more-discussed project, Star Wars Land, which will be assimilating a giant swath of Echo Lake, including, just possibly, the just-closed American Idol Experience.

(Indeed, the most recent rumor, posted by WDW News Today, states that all of Echo Lake will be getting axed for Star Wars, including a number of opening-day stalwarts, such as Gertie the Dinosaur, Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner, and, even, the titular lake itself.)

Best of Orlando states that, according to its sources, Disney will not only be spending well over $1 billion on these two grandiose expansion plans, it’ll also be using them as the special occasion to rename the park (to Disney’s Hollywood Adventure) and to finally overhaul its stated mission goal: borrowing a phrase from Universal Studios Florida, guests will now be asked to ride the movies instead of pretending that filming is being held all around them.

The move is actually a deft one, and, considering that it will be powered by the all-star intellectual property roster of both Pixar and Lucasfilm, it’ll be a considerably potent one, instantly giving Hollywood Adventure the potential to overshadow Universal Orlando’s continually-growing attendance numbers – and its upcoming slate of attractions, as well.

The only dark cloud on Disney’s horizon? Timing. Prep is expected to begin sometime this year, with construction finally finishing up in 2019 (remember what we said about the Disney Company elongating its projects to mitigate their overall cost?).

Until then, Universal very well may have a ticking bomb hanging over its head…

Does Disney’s Hollywood Adventure really pose a significant risk to Universal Orlando, or will nothing be able to stop the resort’s climb to power? Sound off in the comments below.

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Lazy river, rapids ride, and a volcano with slides: Oh My!

Just last week our Contributing Editor, Marc N. Kleinhenz, asked the question: Is Universal building the best water park in the world?

Today both an “Early Works Package” and Stormwater Report were filed with the South Florida Water Management District. (Thanks to CatCatCat on Orlando United, who discovered these.)

This excerpt from within the document was immediately found, and we’ve highlighted some interesting portions:

The project is a proposed water theme park to be constructed to the south of the recently opened Cabana Beach Resort. The site is a vacant tract of land that occupies a plan area of some 25± acres. The site is generally triangular in shape, bounded by I-4 to the south, Turkey Lake Road to the west and the new hotel to the north. A generalized plan view of the area under consideration is included on Figure 1.

We understand that new construction will include slides and pools plus various recreational facilities. A tall “volcano” with slides will be constructed in the southern portion of the site. There will be a series of low-rise buildings constructed throughout the site with several containing equipment pits. The site is to be graded by cutting and filling, the full extent of which is not known to us at this time. We do however understand that some construction elements will be located several feet below the water table.

The largest below grade construction will be the bunker that is associated with the Volcano. The finished floor slab of the bunker is understood to be elevation +117 feet, some 20± feet below existing grade. Pool shells will also be located below grade with the deepest such feature being at the wave pool next to the Volcano equipment bunker. (pg 108)

However, Orlando Informer found another interesting nugget of information, which hasn’t been mentioned. Listed under the “Pool Underdrain Systems” section of the report is a “rapids ride.”

We recommend that the pool shells of the project including the shells of the lazy river and the rapids ride be provided with an underdrain system. (pg 119)

What might a rapids ride entail? We’ll have to wait and see. In its traditional form, a rapid ride would imply something in the realm of Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges at Islands of Adventure. With that being said, Universal may have something entirely different up its sleeve.

Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges, rapids ride at Islands of Adventure.

One thing is certain: Universal is going full speed ahead towards a third park, complete with rides, rapids, volcanos, and more.

If you’d like to see the layout plan, you may download the Stormwater Report and advance to page 135.

We’ll continue to update this article with any further information found in the new documents. In the meantime, you can read about some of the rumored features of the forthcoming water park in our previous article.

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The post Rapids ride at Universal’s new water park? appeared first on Orlando Informer.

It’s safe to say that we’re currently in the second phase of Universal Orlando Resort.

If the first phase started in 1999, when Islands of Adventure, CityWalk, and the first of the on-site hotels, Portofino Bay Hotel, all opened (and when the resort was temporarily – and confusingly – named Universal Studios Escape), the second and current one began in 2010, with the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade, and has continued on to the present day, encompassing a hitherto unseen level of expansion and construction in the theme park industry, starting with Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem and Transformers: The Ride 3D and going all the way to last summer’s Diagon Alley and Cabana Bay Beach Resort.

And as impressive as that lineup has been over the course of the past four years, the next two or three look to be even more staggering. After this summer’s smaller attractions debut, the mammoth Kong: Skull Island addition at Islands of Adventure and a new hotel, Sapphire Falls Resort, will bow in 2016 (along with, just perhaps, a few surprises along the way), followed in 2017 by the company’s first-ever built-from-the-ground-up water park, Volcano Bay (which is looking more and more to be a truly revolutionary experience all-around).

At this point, it’s natural to take a deep breath and wonder about what the next phase of the resort’s life-cycle will look like, especially considering that, by 2018, Disney will finally get around to enacting its own counterattack and unleash some much-needed upgrades and updates of its own to Walt Disney World: a Frozen ride at Epcot, the much-ballyhooed Pandora: The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom, and, just perhaps, Star Wars Land at Hollywood Studios, which has seen more than its fair share of delays (and, one can hope as a result, expansions).

While it’s way too early to nail down a huge number of specifics as to what Universal Orlando will be like come 2018 (Universal and its new corporate owner, Comcast, after all, have had a rather nasty habit of changing their minds at the last possible moment), there is actually a fair amount of scuttlebutt and corollary speculation to delve into – and what’s there already has us salivating in anticipation.

What’s on tap?
This is what we know – or, at least, what we think we know – at the moment.

Attractions

First and foremost, there are a few projects currently scheduled to open at both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure from 2018 onward. The best-known and most-talked-about of these is, of course, the third Wizarding World, the Ministry of Magic, which will more than likely take over Fear Factor Live and its corresponding area, including, possibly, an expansion pad that has been left unused since 1990. We also expect to see some continued upgrades to pre-existing attractions and areas all over the resort, not unlike how Universal added the interactive wand experiences to Hogsmeade last year.

Hotels

This is the one element that Universal has been the most upfront about. Once Sapphire Falls opens next summer, the company will be in the ballpark of having 5,200 hotel rooms on site, which is a fairly decent amount but which is still only halfway to its ultimate stated goal of (at least) 10,000. We should expect to see no fewer than three more venues popping up by the end of the decade, probably continuing the average of 1,000 rooms per property, although it wouldn’t at all be surprising if all 10,000 rooms were up and operational by 2020; considering that the company will have opened a staggering 2,800 rooms within a two-year period once Sapphire bows, the sky’s pretty much the limit here.

Although it is obviously too early to determine just what these new properties will entail, it’s probably safe to assume that an ultra-high-end luxury hotel, as has been talked about for the past several years in the rumor mill, will be the first on the list, particularly after Cabana Bay and Sapphire Falls will make over half of the available rooms thus far skew towards the value- or moderate-priced market.

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Third gate

The crown jewel of Universal Orlando’s phase three, however, will undoubtedly be a third theme park, which the company has been fantasizing about ever since the mid-‘90s, when Islands of Adventure and CityWalk were initially being sketched out. Although this mythical third gate has been talked about on and off again ever since, there is absolutely no word on what, exactly, it would consist of – although there are some clues from the historical record that may help us guess. More on that in just a moment.

Wait – how are they gonna pull all this off?
Doubling the number of hotels, cramming a dozen new attractions in, and tacking on a third 100-acre park sounds amazingly exciting, but just where would it all go? The resort has pretty much already tapped out its 840-acre footprint, especially once Volcano Bay opens in 2017, as our readers have already pointed out.

It turns out there’s actually a number of ways all these new expansions can be accommodated. One rumor that’s recently been floated our way suggests that Universal may possibly be looking into the removal of several backstage areas surrounding Universal Studios Florida (there’s a lot more clustered around it than at Islands of Adventure) to another location, which would then free up at least several more acres – and knowing how good Universal is at maximizing space, this could potentially serve as the ground for several new experiences alone.

But the real path forward here would seem to be what Universal had in mind some 20 years ago, when it first announced its plans for transforming its single theme park into an entire resort: building a second, far larger site down the road a few miles.

Back in 1998, anticipating that Islands of Adventure, CityWalk, and the on-site hotels would be popular enough to propel further construction, the company purchased a whopping 2,000 acres of land from Lockheed Martin close to the Orange County Convention Center. Here, it planned to build a second CityWalk, two 18-hole golf courses, a tennis complex, 700 time-share units, and an additional 13,000 hotels rooms (if not more). A third theme park was also to be housed here, aimed at families with children (it was envisioned as a direct competitor to Magic Kingdom), followed by a fourth park(!) by 2010.

The two fatal problems with this scenario were both financially based. First and foremost, Universal Orlando didn’t perform anywhere near the company’s expectations, causing Universal to turn off the money spigot on all future developments, no matter where they may have been located. Secondly, the newly-acquired real estate was originally used by Lockheed to test missiles, which resulted in over 80 tons of toxic waste accumulating on it – and cleaning it up was going to cost some $40 million, nearly twice as much as Universal had initially expected. By the time Vivendi broke the bank to purchase Universal (in 2000), it was looking for ways to recoup its investment as quickly as possible, and selling the 2,000 acres was one of the first things on its list.

While it may be nearly impossible to re-purchase that exact same swath of land, given its current set of owners and the continued need to clean certain sections of its hazardous materials, the idea behind the development is still sound – and, perhaps, necessary. The possibility of a second dining/shopping/entertainment district may be even more viable today than at the turn of the century, given CityWalk’s continued popularity as Orlando’s go-to nightclub spot, and even if the company were to settle for a parcel of land that is the same size as Universal Orlando, there would be still be more than enough room for several more hotels – and, even, the time-share units, should the company decide to try a third time for that particular piece of real estate (it was recently forced to drop the idea from its makeover of Universal Studios Hollywood, as well).

A theme park to rival Magic Kingdom’s familial magic? A variety of hotels that will cover every demographic and nearly every theme? Two areas devoted to the culinary delights of The Cowfish and Antojitos? And the possibility of Universal finally being able to make Disney feel its presence?

The future is more than bright – it’s positively nuclear.

What should Universal do over the course of the next five years? What do you think should be added to the plan? Sound off in the comments below.

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Since the first of the year, Universal has been moving very quickly behind the scenes to ready Volcano Bay, the brand-new water park that is being constructed on-site just south of Cabana Bay Beach Resort: permits are being filed, designs are being approved, and construction has even started, with mounds of dirt already being moved about in the plot of land.

It’s time to not only get caught up on the latest developments, but to also start to lift the curtain a bit and get a sneak peek at what Universal will have lined up for guests come the summer of 2017. Like recent offerings at the resort – The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, anyone? – Volcano Bay is looking more and more like it’s going to be rather revolutionary.

The first unofficially officially confirmed details
Just two short weeks ago, Park Journey got the scoop of a (theme park project’s) lifetime: the latest rounds of permits for the water park, which reference a conceptual master plan that’s dated December 9, 2014 and which has a number of specifics for the property. Although none of them include, say, any attraction names, they do start to paint a fairly complete picture of what Volcano Bay will entail.

The new permit found.

This is how everything is currently shaping up:

Location

In case the construction work wasn’t enough to give it away, the latest documents specifically mention the water park’s location as being “directly south of and adjoining Cabana Bay Beach Resort.” It’s important to note the usage of the word “adjoining,” as various rumors from the past year have suggested that Volcano Bay will end up using the hotel’s parking lot, at the least, and some of its rooms, at the most – and this just may be our very first indication that this is, indeed, going to be the case.

Size

The new park is officially listed as having a 34-acre footprint, which makes it just over half the size of Disney’s Blizzard Beach. Previous estimates have come in at 53 acres (which would make it just three acres smaller than Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon), and the discrepancy between the two could be accounted for by the presence of “backstage” areas, such as employee parking lots and offices. Or the previous number could just be wrong, of course.

Number of attractions

This is, by far, the crown jewel of the unofficial reveal: the new permit lists 13 “resort amenities” that range from 20 to 200 feet in height.

What, exactly, is a resort amenity? The short answer is that we simply don’t know; the term doesn’t have an exact definition, and, depending upon the speaker, the usage, and the context, it could mean anything from a water slide to a water coaster to restaurants to changing rooms. Furthermore, a height of 200 feet would seem to suggest that these possible features or attractions may have theming that constitutes more than half of their actual contents, as it seems rather improbable to think of a water slide going quite that high. Then again, Verruckt (German for “insane”), which just opened last summer at Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, is a staggering 168-feet-tall (that’s taller than the Statue of Liberty!) – and if a regional player can pull that particular feat off, it’s hard to imagine a global giant like Universal not being able to top them by a mere 32 feet.

Whoa!

(Although, to be completely fair, the much larger capacity demands that a park at Universal Orlando will face might factor in here, preventing a slide of this magnitude.)

And if 200 feet sounds like a somewhat arbitrary number, keep in mind that Volcano Bay’s rumored icon – a massive, regularly-erupting volcano, but of course – is also supposed to be that exact same height. Should other structures around it, whether decorations or rides, come even close to its stature, the water park is going to easily be one of the most impressive in the world.

The attractions
Assuming that these resort amenities are, indeed, mostly or all attractions, what can we expect from them?

Teebin over at Orlando United has some information that might spill the beans on at least a couple of the rides: two lazy rivers, one slow and the other fast, are currently on the drawing board – and, even better, both will include sections that will be set inside the massive central volcano. Given Universal Creative’s recent track record, ranging from the twin Wizarding Worlds to Transformers: The Ride 3D to Cabana Bay, the sky is almost truly the limit with just how detailed these “magma” scenes could be – and what kind of surprises might potentially be hiding around each corner.

Yeah, I can see a spot where two lazy rivers could go…

There are very few, if any, other nuggets to go off of for the water rides, although one can easily imagine that the lineup at Wet ‘n Wild Orlando, Univesal’s other (off-site) water park, may hold some clues, given their rather standard nature. (The differentiation between Volcano Bay and Wet ‘n Wild – and, presumably, Disney’s own offerings – will mostly lie within the theming and overall presentation departments, not in the ride mechanics of raft slides or wave pools. Then again, if Universal could somehow build the water equivalent of The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, that truly would be a sight to behold and would instantly land the park on the global map.)

Finally, Screamscape comes to the rescue with one final attraction that may or may not constitute one of the documented 13: a nighttime show, which could possibly include pyrotechnics of some kind. This may be one of the more telling details to have slipped out (even if it remains unconfirmed), as it indicates that Universal is looking to deliver a whole package out of its new park, replete with day and evening activities and peripheral experiences.

The best of the rest
All right – this is where things start to get really interesting.

We’ve “known” for quite some time now that Volcano Bay will be the first water park in the world to be divided up into different themed lands, as is the case with any standard theme park since the 1950s. What, exactly, these lands will be – and whether they’ll be based off of any intellectual property, like we see so ubiquitously at both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure – is a giant question mark at this point, but Screamscape seems to have some interesting guesses as to what at least one of them may entail.

Noting that recent rumors have been swirling around Universal and Nickelodeon negotiating a new business deal, one that would specifically target increasing SpongeBob SquarePants’s presence at the Orlando parks, the site speculates that part of this may come in the form of a Bikini Bottom Land at Volcano Bay.

Welcome to Bikini Bottom!

The potential for a whole slew of rides, attractions, and food (Universal’s new favorite) is certainly there, and it would establish a thematic litmus test for all other possible IPs that may be included. The company could certainly do much worse.

Even better, Screamscape has one final tidbit for all eager fans to mull on as the wait for the public announcement continues: apparently, the current plan is for each guest to receive an RFID-equipped wristband – yes, not unlike Disney World’s infamous MagicBands – that would double as a park ticket, credit card, and, most intriguingly of all, a Q-bot ride reservation system, which would (in theory, at least) eradicate all lines at all attractions across the entire park.

Welcome to the next-generation of water parks, indeed.

Tell us – will Volcano Bay live up to the hype, or will it be “doomed” to be just another water park? Leave your comments below.

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Whenever a Disney theme park hits a milestone birthday, you better believe there’s a shindig, and you better believe it includes singing, dancing, confetti (if not fireworks), and, but of course, exclusive, “limited-edition” merchandise that ranges from t-shirts to tchotchkes.

Perhaps the perfect – and certainly the most recent – example of this is Disneyland’s 60th anniversary, which will occur on July 17, 2015. Disney actually started celebrating its Diamond Anniversary on the park’s 59th birthday this past summer, ushering invited guests to a special reception and regaling them with an exclusive cookie, faux-diamond keepsake, and a limited edition FastPass book.

Image © Inside the Magic

And if kicking off the party a year early seems a tad much, it’s nothing compared to the fact that the Diamond Celebration itself will probably last for some two years.

Universal, meanwhile, takes the opposite tack and – well, barely acknowledges the occasion at all. July 15, 2014 marked Universal Studios Hollywood’s 50th anniversary, but guests that day (let alone those throughout the previous year) could hardly be blamed for not being aware of the event, as there were no birthday galas, no specially-whipped-up cupcakes, and not even any signs (well, save for one tucked-away corner that documents the history of Universal as a company).

This makes June 7, 2015, the 25th anniversary of Universal Studios Florida – a rather special occasion, given that the location is the first to have been designed from the ground up as a theme park for Universal Parks and Resorts – a somewhat muted date. Is it a milestone? Yes. Has USF come an incredibly long way in its quarter-century existence? Absolutely – it went from having rides that barely worked to being the basis of an entire resort to, now, having some of the most engaging theming experimentation the whole world over (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, anyone?).

But will Universal do anything to mark the milestone and revel in its progress? The answer is almost certainly a no, but there have been some hints over the course of the past year that just may indicate that the company will do a little something throughout 2015. Let’s take a look at what that just may be, and, given these parameters, what should be done.

What we know so far
The rumor mill has been churning about just what, if any, festivities might greet guests for USF’s celebratory year. Although only small and fleeting mentions – in fact, most of them haven’t even been heard from again for quite some time – these whispers point to three small but distinct possibilities:

Universal’s Superstar Parade

• Superstar Parade update – Universal’s Superstar Parade hasn’t seen a (major) update since it first debuted back in the summer of 2012. Although the rumors aren’t specific on what, precisely, would change, it could be as simple as adding a “Happy 25th Anniversary!” banner to the front and rear floats or as elaborate as redoing the entire experience, adding multiple characters from the many attractions that have bitten the dust over the decades.
• Cinematic Spectacular revamp – the impressive Cinematic Spectacular is already an anniversary-filled lagoon show, dedicated to Universal’s first 100 years of existence as a film studio. Even though the company is now pushing 103 years of age, the show’s been left untouched, so the summer of 2015 would make for an appropriate update regardless of the extra occasion surrounding it. And, yes, it would be particularly fun to see the subtitle change from “100 Years of Movie Memories” to “25 Years of Theme Park Magic.”
• USF experience – rumored for almost exactly a year now, the “museum” is reportedly headed to the site of the now-vacant Garden of Allah Villas and will include various memorabilia from all the current and former attractions at the park, ranging all the way back from Kongfrontation to the much more recent Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast (and, my personal favorite, Back to the Future: The Ride, but of course).

It’s not much – and, in fact, it really isn’t even as much as Disney does for its going-away parties for its doomed attractions (which can feature meet-‘n-greets with Imagineers) – but it is considerably more than what poor old Universal Studios Hollywood received last year or what Universal Studios Florida itself has ever before seen in its two-and-a-half decades.

What we should see

It’s easy to lob demands at Universal to sit up and act like its competition, but the simple truth is that the company is supremely unlikely to break its (theme park) lifelong predilections; much as with other marriages, a Universal Orlando fan must learn to live with them, if not ever fully understand them.

As such, it’s perhaps more instructive to explore the possibilities of what the company can do, even within the context of its idiosyncratic behaviors. As it turns out, there’s quite a bit that can still be accomplished.

The Garden of Allah Villas at Universal Studios Florida.

USF Preview Center

Let’s take a look at the museum concept again, which, in the most recent whisperings we’ve heard (both from other sites and from our own sources), will actually have far less to do with relics from the past and much more to do with glimpses of the future. Just as Universal set up a Preview Center in the late ‘90s during the construction of Islands of Adventure, offering sneak peeks of the upcoming rides and experiences, don’t be surprised to see the idea utilized again – only, this time, it would be devoted to a water park and, possibly, a potential third gate.

But why stop there? Much like Epcot’s Innoventions attraction(s), this walk-through experience could be used as a showcase for various technologies, companies, or related concepts, capitalizing on its premise of allowing guests to peek into various timelines at various levels of completion. Or why not introduce a display that allows guests to help Universal Creative design the next great ride that will cement the park’s next 25 years? Such hands-on activities would certainly give the Preview Center an extra level of depth that it would otherwise be sorely missing.

Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular, as enjoyed at Lombard’s.

Special dining

Thanks to the likes of Harry Potter’s butterbeer and The Simpsons’ various fast food offerings, USF has become the centerpiece of the theme park culinary world – so it would only seem natural if the company would tip its gastronomic hat to the special occasion and offer a small but fun series of birthday dishes.

Nothing would be able to be done with the licensed menus, of course, but that still leaves the likes of Finnegan’s Bar and Grill or the tragically-underrated Lombard’s Seafood Grille. Adding on, say, a Birthday Brew at the former or an especially decadent dessert at the latter would be short, simple, and highly effective.

This also opens the door to a greater possibility: throwing a special dining experience, such as the one that already happens at Lombard’s for the Cinematic Spectacular, particularly if the nighttime lagoon show gets a celebratory facelift of some sort. This possibility may be pushing Universal’s limits, but it would nonetheless still be a relatively small and reined-in event that is a far cry from Disney’s boisterous galas.

Back to the Future, Part II‘s legendary hoverboard.

Back to the Future

One of most extraordinary festivities the company can throw is actually based on a smaller – though certainly thoroughly unique – premise: Back to the Future’s future at long last arriving at the present. October 21, 2015 is the infamous date that Marty McFly traveled to in the second film to help his future son, witnessing the glories of flying cars, holographic films, and, most famously, hoverboards.

What better way to celebrate all things Universal than to make an event of the nerdtastic happening? It would be the perfect excuse to move some truly limited-edition merchandise while simultaneously playing up yet another element that Disney would never be able to pull off in its own parks. (And it already has many fans excitedly talking, as this thread in the OI Forums amply demonstrates.)

Have an opinion on what Universal can – or should – do? Let us know in the comments below.

Planning a vacation to Orlando?
Want to skip all the work and just price out a vacation to Universal Orlando? We’ll find the best deals for you – for free (seriously.) Learn more, or check out some of the current deals:

• – Halloween Horror Nights 25 Hotel & Ticket Vacation Packages
  – Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Packages
  – 2-Park Getaway at Universal Orlando

The post 3 Things to Expect from Universal Studios Florida’s 25th Anniversary appeared first on Orlando Informer.

Orlando Informer only wishes to give readers a glimpse into the future. Knowing that a countless amount of people work very hard on these projects, we will never publish full blueprints or every detail of an upcoming attraction.

Please understand that upcoming attractions and their details can change and often do. Occasionally rumors may have never been planned at all, only a result of hearsay and internet chatter. Orlando Informer and its contributing writers make no warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of the rumors described.

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