Harry Potter World for Los Angeles!

[KeithS]

Watch this space - it is believed that next week, Universal Studio Hollywood will officially announce a new Harry Potter world for its Hollywood theme park.

It is believed that it will be based closely on the Orlando version. As soon as there is more news, I'll post it here!

[mushu mama]

Whoa... -/ -/

[ajp]

This will be huge for the Hollywood property, which is already great. Big question is where will they put it, it would probably mean either totally reshaping the bottom level or maybe removing some of the backlot. I also wonder if it is a decision to help the Florida property cope with the load, or to try and increase the visitations at Hollywood? You would think that it will directly impact on, albeit minimally, on the numbers through Florida. It would only assist DL and other parks like Magic Mountain and Knotts.

[KeithS]

or to try and increase the visitations at Hollywood?

I would consider Universal Hollywood a one day park - we certainly got around there in that amount of time, including seeing all the stage shows and the backlot. But adding Harry Potter would make it a 1.5 - 2 day park, and that will change the dynamic of this theme park (and increase revenues for Universal - perhaps they'll add a new hotel nearby too?)

I don't know where abouts on property it could go - I just had a look on Google Earth and that land is already well employed. I guess they could know down a sound stage or two in the bottom lot, but that's a working studio. You could rip out Waterworld in the top lot - but that is a spectacular and popular show, so I don't see that happening either. Let's see what happens in the next week or so

[KeithS]

Well, HP World for Universal Hollywood was officially announced today and Micechat were there to grab some photos at the media event:
http://micechat.com/forums/universal-st ... 1am-2.html

Thereis very little detail yet on what will be built or where exactly it will go, other than it will be built within the confines of the current theme park.

I'll try and get the official press release and post it here later.

[Mel]

This is very cool news. Makes a short Disney trip (ie the West Coast only) a bit more tempting

[Tigger71]

Really I didn't think that HPW was all that great when we visited Orlando this year. It will not be on my list of must do places next year.

[churros]

I'm going to the exhibition this Friday. Has anyone been?

[KeithS]

I'm going to the exhibition this Friday. Has anyone been?

Not yet - we want to go in the New Year. Let us know what it is like!

[Mel]

I really want to go but don't think I will find the time now. Only three weeks til I am back at work and finding the time right now, sans kids, is near impossible.

[churros]

The exhibition was great! Probably not so interesting for littlies and some were a little bit scared by the life-size models of some characters.

The merchandise was ridiculously priced, $50 for a marauders map! Cheap if it really worked

[KeithS]

The exhibition was great!

Awesome! I can't wait to check it out!

Was it busy when you went? I'm hoping by February the crowds would have died down.

$50 for the Marauder's Map?? That's steep! You can get the wonderful 540 page Harry Potter Page to Screen book from Amazon for less than that!
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Page ... 848&sr=1-1

[churros]

We went to a 10am session and the crowds were ok but building by the time we finished. Titanic was much worse, you could barely get close to the display cases - that was an afternoon session. So what's lesson from this boy and girls?

[ajp]

My girls went yesterday, and whilst they really did enjoy it, they were disappointed with the time it took. They had planned around 3 hours, but it only took them just a little over an hour.

[churros]

Yes and we read everything and even revisited some things