Originally called "Dueling Dragons," this two-tracked Bolliger & Mabillard inverted racing coaster was one of two attractions to survive the transformation of part the Lost Continent land into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (Flight of the Hippogriff, formerly The Flying Unicorn, was the other.) As the original name implied, the two coasters used to duel, with several near miss elements throughout their run. Due to several incidents of guests being hit by possessions from riders on the other train, Universal years ago altered the train dispatch timing to stop the dueling. The incidents also eventually led to Universal's current policy of requiring guests to clear their pockets and stow all possessions in lockers before riding major coasters.
While the concept of riding a dragon fit well within the theming of the Harry Potter land — and the well-decorated queue won favorable reviews from fans — the bare roller coaster tracks looming over the village of Hogsmeade detracted from the otherwise exacting look of the land. Even the stars of the Harry Potter films — typically ebullient with their praise for Universal — took passive-aggressive shots at the coaster's look. (At the Diagon Alley event, several people lauded the second Wizarding World land by noting the lack of visible "roller coaster track.") So many observers long had marked Dragon Challenge for removal.
Universal announced that Dragon Challenge's replacement will open in 2019 and will "be unlike anything we’ve ever done before and it will be fun for the entire family."
Other clues from Universal: "The new attraction will be one of the most highly-themed coaster experiences we’ve created. It will combine a new level of storytelling with an action-packed adventure…and a few surprises along the way."
And, "This ride is going to redefine the category and transport you to thrilling places, drawing you into even more exciting adventures within the wizarding world."
Put that together, and we should be looking at a ride with a lower height restriction than Dragon Challenge's 54 inches, a better themed, if not completely hidden, coaster track, and some sort of hybrid ride experience that combines a roller coaster track with other ride, or at least decorative, elements. Universal's been filing a slew of patents for innovative tracked ride experiences, so we'll see if any of them end up becoming the new Wizarding World ride.
The new ride should help make 2019 an even wilder year in Orlando, as rival Disney opens its Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge land that year. And the announcement finally provides us with our answer as to what Universal would be adding for 2019, following the openings of the Fast & Furious ride and Aventura Hotel next year.
Tweet
But I'm also glad I've got one more trip planned to USO before September 4th.... I'll want to make the most of my last chance to ride my favorite side -- Fire :-)
I sincerely hope that this isn't being replaced with an attraction that requires 3D glasses.
Another great bites the dust. RIP.
The new attraction sounds promising, but I wish they could also keep Dragon Challenge (yes I know, space is at a premium, especially in Hogsmeade). Not only is it two quality coasters for the price of one, but it's also smoother than Hulk and RRR. And the timing sucks; we'll be at Universal in November.
Internally, Universal Creative points out Comcast brass dictated the current ad campaign highlighting the Universal Orlando resort offers thrills vs Disney's kiddie fare. And now Comcast brass are following in Disney's footsteps by adding family friendly rides.
Morale at Universal Creative is running low after the ride portions of Kong and Fallon were poorly received. Knowing FandtheF was poorly received at USH and a duplicate is being built at UO. And, most of all the AMAZING buzz coming out of D23.
They are still pushing Comcast brass for more money to begin a program of plussing their poorly reviewed rides. Their using the success Disney has achieved with their plussing program as ammunition.
Upcoming at Universal:
- Fast and the Furious
- Nintendo Land
- New Harry Potter attraction (replacing Dragon Challenge)
The real question is -- what's next ;-D
"What I do NOT want to see is stand-in actors for any of the characters. That is the only thing bad about the Hogwarts Express. Go ahead and pay for the talent."
For some actors, it's not about money. I'm sure Universal was willing to throw a boat of cash to Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. However, they simply may have been too busy or had no desire to do anything Potter-related anymore.
"The General Public still have not forgotten the disappointment of Gringotts."
Interesting, they must keep forgetting every time I visit and Gringotts has at least a 45 minute wait.
Anyway, while today is not a good day for "Big Boy" coaster fans, the fact is that Dueling Dragons has been a shell of itself for a couple years now. So we look to the future, and while I am skeptical that this new family ride will redefine anything, I am hopeful it will be a fun, repeatable coaster for everyone, including people like me who aren't Harry Potter fans. We'll see.
Gerslaur?
Mauer's new winged system shown at IAAPA?
Intamin launch system like Wave Rider at SWSA?
Something similar to premier rides' system used for the Mummy?
RMC's Raptor track?? (I know , I wish!=)
KUKA Generation III which is like the one (KUKA Generation II) used for HPFJ except the ride vehicles are on a roller coaster track.
In any case, I think it will a launch coaster
I am also going to stop by Six Flags New England this summer (due to a business trip), but that's it for the Rao Family in 2017.
As for the ride itself, I am thinking/hoping it will be based off Fantasyic Beasts and Where to Find them, under the story of Hagrid using that book to teach us about wizarding beasts. So the loading area would be Hagrid's hut, and he'll have you ride some sort of magical creature or thingamabob, and then things go wrong on the way because of course they will. Characters from the new movie could be in portraits (as they'd be dead before this rides story takes place of course).
And when will seaworld learn to fill the niche of becoming orlando's thrill park (six flags style) now that it's not cool to breed whales anymore. They only have 3 coasters, clearly need about 3 more to be called a thrill park. I believe if they do that they can save their brand and attendance from plummeting even further.
How does the Hulk coaster fit in Marvel Land? There is an abundance of track.
I think Universal let Dragon go the crap and now taking it down like this is some grand move on their part.
In an alternate reality, Disney is celebrating its 19th year of Dueling Dragons, Disney's first true roller coaster.
I expect we are in for something epic.
I expect we are in for something epic.
The last time I rode Dragon Challenge about a year ago, it wasn't very enjoyable. The short line is proof that this ride has run its course.
It's time to replace it with something more modern that fits in with the theme better. After all, this is a theme park!
Let's face it. Dragon Challenge has been on the chopping block since WWoHP opened, and fans of the B&M inverts should be glad they lasted this long. Universal retained the coasters as a cost control move, and now that they've got "proof of concept" in the Harry Potter theme park idea, they can go back and fix the parts of the original WWoHP where they cut a few corners. I wouldn't be surprised to eventually see Flight of the Hippogriff go one day too, and at some point the Lost Continent will be absorbed by Harry Potter theming. However, those thinking Poseidon's Fury will be the first to go, look at an aerial photo of the park. The Poseidon's Fury building is pretty far from Hogsmeade (essentially in the USF backlot, and as close to the Rip Ride Rocket track as it is to the WWoHP entrance). If anything were to go to make way for a Harry Potter expansion in IOA, the Sinbad theater (right next to the Hogsmeade Station) would be the first to go.
People use Hulk as an example for their logic, but they're wrong. Every piece of ride equipment ages differently. The ride experience hasn't suffered like Hulk either. I've argued that they would keep Dragon Challenge around a little longer because they've apparently put some serious money into maintenance in the past couple of years. However, what seems like a significant investment, is in fact a small expense at Universal, in comparison to operators like Six Flags or regional parks, like Silver Dollar City or Kennywood.
I believe this decision comes down to the following…
Dragon Challenge is a leftover of the original park and was never created for The Wizarding World. It's a logical next step to remove it since Universal wants to continue to invest in this IP.
I could argue that Dragon Challenge is the biggest B&M roller coaster failure of all-time. It's never been popular.Lines were largely non-existent when it was part of the Lost Continent and while Harry Potter increased ridership, lines have remained short for an attraction of its size. The fading of the number 5 on the wait time sign reflects this fact. The majority of the year the line 5 minutes.
I'll be sorry to see Fireball go, but I will never miss Horntail. Sayonara Dragons.
The dueling is what made the roller coaster, but another flaw is the fact that the dueling effect really only worked well for the front row. Riders views are so impaired in an inverted train outside the front row that they largely missed the dueling unless they were looking at their feet. A dueling B&M flying coaster would work a lot better for visuals.
The queue itself is so long at Dragon Challenge, plus all the space where the two coasters take up is a great opportunity for Universal to create a new E-ticket ride (Hopefully). Given the past great attractions FJ and Escape from Gringotts, I am sure we will all be excited for something new and hopefully different.
They already have it planned since this closes early September, therefore plans have to be in place and approved, we just need to wait a bit for the planned leaks to begin…
I would agree with "unique and good", but in the Pantheon of B&M inverts, it's in the bottom third of their creations (granted almost half of them are BTR clones or mirror clones).
I don't know about you, but when I'm riding a B&M invert outside of row 1, I'm usually looking at my feet anyway, even if I'm in an outside seat. IMHO, the only element where sitting in the front row had any advantage on Dueling Dragons was the head-on dueling loops (and the castle wall approach on Ice before the cobra roll, but that's not a dueling element). All of the other near miss elements were equally effective from the back row as they were from the front, particularly the airtime hill on Fire over Ice.
I agree Brian, that queue might be the most unnecessarily long roller coaster queue in the world. It was very cool in there, but with a line that rarely extended beyond the station, most people just zipped by, even after the HP conversion. If it didn't take 5 minutes just to walk back there, and more of the coaster was viewable, I think more people would have ridden Dragon Challenge.
Instead, we now have Disney lording it all over Florida, when 7 years ago Universal had them backed into a corner.
How times change.
Universal is a THEME park based largely on MOVIES. What in the world makes you think they shouldn't use movie-related IP to theme their parks? You enjoyed an old ride that went well past its prime!
Clackers = troll. Don't feed the troll.
Give me a nice family ride (does not translate into being boring) - because Universal does lack some family rides.
And please make an attraction without bloody screens !!!!!!
As anything gets more popular, planners have to stop catering to niche markets and appeal to the lowest common denominator. Big boy roller coasters, for as much as it pains me to say, are a niche market, and Sea World's choice to double and triple down on this niche is proving to be their undoing. For as much as some of us LOVE intense, long, and highly theme roller coasters (theming being the departure from our local Six Flags, Cedar Fair parks, and independent parks), they just don't appeal to the masses (even with Marvel or Harry Potter theming, or with the ability to listen to nearly a thousand different songs along the way) in a tourist destination geared towards family attractions with wide appeal with recognizable stories and characters. There's also something to be said for attractions that have outlived their usefulness, and with Galaxy's Edge coming in 2019, Universal had to respond.
James, you do realize that's true for every theme park these days?
Don't fret, though, my opinion is irrelevant since I won't be back to Universal until they stop charging an extra $55 to ride the train.
I like dark ride/coaster mash-ups. 'Revenge of the Mummy,' 'Dwarf Mine Train,' 'Big Thunder,' et al.
And there sure is a ton of space currently devoted to 'Dragon Challenge.' And it's pretty much wasted on a coaster that only lasts about 1:15.
I'm sure the the team at Universal Creative will maintain its standing as a fearless organization that consistently delivers groundbreaking work.
Still won't catch Disney ... But they will continue to attract millions of guests every year.
Also Gringott's is a masterpiece.
In unrelated news: EPCOT's 'Mission Space' will have new films added and open in August! First small step toward the 50th.
(Chuckle)
Back in 1999 and before, a park didn't necessarily have to "theme" a land based on an IP which is why the Lost Continent at IOA existed. It had a basic story and the rides and the architectural elements blended together well. If you ever had a chance to attend Halloween Horror Nights between 2004 and 2007, you saw how this area was incorporated well into that event as well. The Terror Mines house is still very memorable to me.
Flash forward to post 2005- people in the U.S. are finally traveling again for vacations and Universal finds an IP that will give it a shot in the arm for attendance. In fact you could almost argue that Universal set the stage for IPs being used for full lands that we see today. After HP we received Cars Land, another Harry Potter area, Avatar (meh), and the most anticipated land to arrive – Star Wars.
I believe IOA was originally conceived as a thrill park. Seaworld only had a coaster or two in the early 2000’s and Disney had a couple of tamer versions like Hannah Montana’s Rock’n Roller Coaster. IOA technically had three coasters, a high-tech advanced dark ride, and a clone of a boat ride from California. There wasn’t anything like that in Orlando in 1999. Universal also embraced the notion that it was the “older” kid’s park. Many had the idea that Disney was meant for young kids and teenagers went to Universal. I think after the Harry Potter areas were built, especially with Diagon Alley, Universal realized that it needed to go after the “family” audience in order to drive more attendance. You’re not going to be able to rely only on folks that are over four feet tall for revenue. You need to go after the shorter ones as well. Whether this was something that came from the creative division or an order driven down from the Comcast corporate overlords is anyone’s guess. The parks are driven by revenue and turnstile spins so it makes sense to go this direction now. It’s not going to be popular with a portion of their audience, but they are only driving a small percentage of the attendance to the parks.
I’m a fan of Dueling Dragons, er Dragon Challenge, or whatever it’s going by this week. I remember being incredibly dizzy and nauseous after my first ride in 2004. I would keep going back to ride and I enjoyed it. I give Universal major props for keeping it open when they were building the first HP land. You had to walk a crazy walled path to get to the entrance, but hey, the ride was still working. After HP opened though I knew that the ride wasn’t going to be around for much longer. I’m surprised it lasted this long. The wait times for it dropped significantly after HP opened and it was basically a walk-on any time of day. The ride isn’t something most families visiting Universal are inclined to ride. I remember the good times when it used to “duel” and you could trash talk the other train as you travel up the lift hill together. I wasn’t happy with the elimination of this feature or the fact I had to empty my pockets of everything (except glasses for some odd reason), but I would still ride a couple of times per a trip.
The timing of the announcement was a bit odd and it almost seemed to have a feel of, “hey guys! Don’t forget about us! You still like Harry Potter, right?” I don’t doubt that Universal could have a new ride up and running before Star Wars opens even with Disney being slightly faster with construction now.
If you want roller coasters, by all means, go to Sea World. Nobody else is. It might not be there within five years. I went last October to ride Mako. I was amazed that on a Saturday I found myself walking alone in many areas of the park. The wait times were low as well. It was nice from a crowding standpoint, but I know from a business perspective that this is incredibly bad. By the way Mako was a great ride too. It’s amazing that it’s the only hyper coaster in Florida. You would think they would build one at Busch Gardens Tampa (Williamsburg has one). Maybe coasters could be a position Sea World could take, but I think it is already too late.
Anyhoo, those are my thoughts. By the way Rao, based on the topic I knew you would mention the train once in the comments, but twice? You might want to take the “Frozen” perspective on it. :o)
(Guffaw)
That statement is so short sighted and ridiculous. Despite the struggles, SeaWorld Orlando is still one of the top attended theme parks in the country. Based on your statement one might wonder how parks like Holiday World, Silver Dollar City, Waldameer, and Seabreeze, who do a fraction of SeaWorld's attendance, manage to stay in business.
SeaWorld is not going to close. October is not a representative month for their business. Come back on a Saturday in December.
If Universal had known how successful The Wizarding World would be prior to building Hogsmeade I'd bet they would've taken Dueling Dragons out from the get go. There was hesitation whether this investment would pay off...and it did big time.
As for the Hogwart's Express (don't they have a salve for hogwarts yet?), I'll stop critiquing Universal's ridiculous upcharge policy when the greedy bloodsuckers institute the round trip ticket that should have been put in place as soon as the initial wave of fanatics died down to the very manageable level of crowds visiting the train today.
Those parks do not have juggernauts like Disney and Universal as their immediate neighbours
RE: James Rao
If you are going to criticize Universal's ridiculous upcharge policy, then you might as well criticize all the upcharge events that keep mushrooming at Disney such as those upcharge fireworks viewing parties taking up all the prime viewing spots.
Now, if Disney ever decides to upcharge for an attraction in this fashion (like has been rumored for entry into Galaxy's Edge) then they will face the same ire. However, at this time, Disney World does not have any upcharge "rides" of which I am aware. Nor does WDW have an upcharge on their monorail which provides a round trip option for those who do not have park hoppers and just want to experience the attraction.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize Disney for their pricing policies, but in this one case they are exempt (at this time).
Just like Disney, they charge more for park to park tickets than a 1 park per day..
I really wish you would get the facts correct... I enjoy different view points, but the facts are relevant in this case.
We bought 2 days worth of tickets and got 2 days free in May at Universal, what a value....
As much as I love Universal over Disney I am realistic that they will never catch up to Disney. I highly doubt that anything Disney does comes into the equation when Universal decides on new rides. Both parks however benefit from each others expansions since a lot of people visit both.
The new rides at Universal were also not failures and if anyone doubts this simply visit tripadvisor reviews and you'll see nothing but good from the general public. Theme park enthusiasts like us I find are a bit too critical when it comes to new rides.
For the Star Wars area I doubt they will charge extra for it but since its Disney I'm sure they'll start taking reservations in 2018 so make sure everything is planned out to the minute.
James get over it! You come across like a disgruntled fan boy. Universal is better enjoyed over multiple days and with a park hopping ticket. The train is a transportation ride, not a major attraction. What they've done is priced the Harry Potter experience at a premium, which fans have proved they'll pay if they're only visiting for a single day.
I thought splitting Harry Potter across two parks would cause problems- creating comparisons of which one is better and confusion over ticketing options. I was wrong. It's been a huge success for Universal affording them one of the largest single-day ticket price increases in history and people are shelling out for it. Genius move.
The park hopping option gives the guest much more than a train ride. You're also wrong about the lines for Hogwarts Express. They remain long, so Universal shouldn't include it for cheap one-day, one park visitors.
You can buy 1 park per day as I do when in Orlando..
Just the facts...
Universal is not interested in your one-day visit. They want you for multiple days and to stay on-property in one of their resorts. That's the goal. Disney's pitching the same stuff.
Universal Orlando is an exceptional park hopping experience, just like the Disneyland Resort.
And, Ultimaterollercoaster, exactly what attractions do I gain with my $55 besides the train? Can I not buy a multi-day single park pass and have access to every attraction except the train? You are the one extolling the virtue of enjoying the Universal resort over multiple days. Are you saying there are not enough things to do in one Universal park to occupy your time? That you must buy a park to park pass to have a good vacation? I disagree. I think there is plenty to do at either Universal park and therefore visitors should NOT have to jump from park to park to have a good time - unless they want to ride the train, of course.
Also, you really need to stop comparing Universal and Disney in this instance. The last time I checked, Disney does not force you to buy a park hopper to ride any of their attractions. Even the monorail is included with your single park admission.
But try to go to MK in the AM then AK in the afternoon without the upcharge for the park and let me know if you gain access..
Thx...
And Disney has all kinds of transportation between their parks - most of it free (except for the Minnie Van stuff).
You're mistaken…Disney does charge you extra to take advantage of park-to-park express transportation. It's priced at $19 per person. So they're doing the same thing as Universal, but I have to ask what's the point of using Disney transportation between their parks if you haven't paid the premium for a Park Hopper ticket? I'm sorry, you fell into your own trap.
Finally, you state I think there is plenty to do at either Universal park and therefore visitors should NOT have to jump from park to park to have a good time which implies that in your opinion you need more than one-day to visit both parks. Well… if you need more than one day then a two day visit would be expected.
The two-day ticket price with the park-to-park option is only an additional $3.50 per day over the single day, one park price. So basically that wipes out that premium you're trying to pitch as so negative. The train ride is then a measly $3.50 per day and you can ride it round-trip, all-day long..
There is nothing wrong with Universal having an up-charge, premium experience and for the price conscious few they give you generous options to avoid the park-to-park premium with multi-day tickets. Disney's two-day Park Hopper isn't priced with any generous discount.
Parks all over the country have experiences that require you to pay extra, like Skycoasters, zip lines, slingshots, go-karts tracks, shooting galleries and arcades. You don't have to like it, but Universal isn't doing anything new.
The attendance growth for USF & IoA speak for themselves and cannot be argued. In this instance, Universal conclusively won driving Disney to spend $billions in response.
"The train should not have a RT option." Your opinion. I disagree. I don't have a problem with a round trip ticket at all. Especially since it would save me $55. Further, Universal toyed with the notion of a round trip option in the beginning but greed took over. And since there are plenty of suckers willing to pay the upcharge - why not?
"Disney does charge you extra to take advantage of park-to-park express transportation." Never said they didn't. In fact I specifically mentioned that they did. However, Disney does not charge extra to ride their monorail, buses, or boats, all free methods of transportation available to any visitor regardless of their ticket type. And, as far as I know, Disney does not have any attractions that are exclusive to park hopping guests.
"The two-day ticket price with the park-to-park option is only an additional $3.50 per day over the single day, one park price." The two day ticket price on Universal's web site is $199.99. Whether you want to park hop or not, if you desire to ride the train you have to pay $254.99 (for the upcharge). $254.99 - $199.99 = $55.00 * 5 people in my party means, whether I want to park hop or not, I would have to pay an extra $275 to ride the train. Please explain where my math is incorrect.
"There is nothing wrong with Universal having an up-charge, premium experience". I agree. Never said they shouldn't. Just said I didn't like it and won't support it. The good news is that at least we now agree the Hogwarts Train is an upcharge experience. Whether is is "premium" or not, well, that's debatable.
I get it though -- you're excited that Disney is finally investing in some new lands/rides, and you have every right to be excited.
Will Universal "catch" Disney? For some of us who have decided to no longer go to Disney on a regular basis, they already have.
James, missing out on the train shouldn't kill your enjoyment of the Universal parks. There are plenty of attractions to satisfy one per park per day. Why skip the rest of the good stuff because you can't do one ride (which is decent at best)?
Brian, it's James' right to pass on the train ride if he feels the price is unacceptable. The fact remains that Disney currently does not require guests with single-day tickets to miss out on any rides within said park (despite also charging a ridiculous amount for a variety of other offerings).
Can we move discussion back to the Dragon Challenge replacement, a move all of us should be happy about.
Price is determined based on supply and demand, not greed. As a Viacom shareholder I want the company to operate as a business, not a charity. Greed is such a misused and wrongly applied term!
Why should we all be happy about the Dragon Challenge replacement James? I don't think all need to be happy about the closure and replacement.
BTW, that $179 price you quoted is exactly $55 more than the one day one park ticket, and for $20 more than your ticket I could have two full days at the resort - an even better deal unless the upcharge train is a priority.
At WDW, park hoppers are very useful because of all the nighttime events, and to take advantage of fast passes booked in another park. Also, the extra cost for the park hopper is spread out over a greater number of days (since it takes a week or more to do WDW) making it much cheaper on a per-day basis.
We will be going to Universal for three days on our upcoming trip, but (again) skipping the train ride because we just can't justify the extra cost. I hate to miss out on a quality ride, but I won't let Universal force me into buying a park-to-park ticket for an upcharge when I just don't need it.
Park-to-park tickets existed for more than a decade already at Universal. You had to walk from park to park until they added the Hogwarts Express. The idea that HE exists so you have to buy p2p tickets is nonsensical. They existed long before the HE was built. HE is a beautiful bonus feature for those who already wanted to do two parks a day. We don't have to walk in the heat or to the front gates anymore to switch parks.
Complaining about it makes as much sense to me as complaining about early admission to a park for staying onsite.
I'll send you a check for $55 if you'll quit whining.
Let's say you're on a business trip to Orlando and you have an afternoon to visit just one of the parks so you purchase a one park pass and enjoy IOA or US. Several months later you're back in Orlando and you have the same opportunity, so you purchase a one-day pass and enjoy the other park. But you're confronted with a situation. Unless you purchase the park to park pass for $55 more, you won't have the opportunity to ride all of the rides in the parks. If you want to ride HE, you have to pay $55 more - just to ride 1 more attraction.(or 2 attractions depending on how you look at it)
This exact scenario has happened to me, and unless Universal allows the single park pass holders to do a round trip, the $55 is an upcharge plain and simple. In my case, I didn't mind because I used the park to park feature to catch some extra rides on my favorites, but if I hadn't wanted to go to the second park, I would have been really irritated.
Until Universal offers a round trip option on the single park tickets or they do away with the façade and get rid of the single park tickets and offer what I suspect is the majority of tickets purchased by consumers - a park to park ticket, Hogwarts Express is a $55 upcharge ride.
Yes, the Hogwart's Express is a pretty cool experience, but would any single person that's criticized or slighted James' argument here and elsewhere over the past 3+ years actually pay $55 for this single attraction (be honest now)? There's not a single theme park or carnival attraction on earth that costs this much, yet guests regularly walk up to Kings Cross or Hogsmead Stations and fork over the $55 to ride in a claustrophobic cabin with some TV screens, even if they had absolutely ZERO intention to hop between parks. I can ride a 550' tall ferris wheel in Las Vegas with all the alcohol I can consume during the ride for less than this silly train that doesn't even include a chocolate frog. This is easily the biggest ripoff in the theme park industry today. While I don't fight it with the vigor and vitriol that James does, nor do I boycott UO because of their $55 train, but it does irk me that I'm forced to buy something I may not want or need so I can experience a single ride that cannot be experienced any other way than paying the P2P ticket upcharge.
Do you really think your $55 P2P upcharge goes straight into the HP budget? Just showing up and visiting on a 1 day 1 park pass and riding MIB all day puts the same percentage of internal UO finances towards Harry Potter as the most expensive pass with Universal Express. While UO undoubtedly keeps track of guests that ride HE and almost certainly knows how many guests get swindled into buying a P2P pass at the in-park stations, they probably don't have good data as to how many guests weigh the costs of a P2P pass over single park passes based solely on the appeal of HE. The dozens of guests they swindle every single day at the stations' gates outweigh any lost revenue to those who enter the parks with single park passes and full knowledge that those ticket media don't include a "major" HP attraction (while the ticketing website clearly shows that HE can only be experienced with a P2P ticket, there's no clear attraction description provided there, which may lead some to think HE really is just a simple train connecting the 2 parks like Disney's Monorail).
If I had never been to a Universal park in my life, I would immediately think that HE is just a lightly themed mode of transportation, not an intricately themed airport shuttle with 2 distinctly different shows. If I were visiting during a busy time of year and only had 2 days to to visit, I'd be likely inclined to forego a P2P pass knowing that there was more than enough to fill a day in each park, and that a $55/person surcharge would be wasted, especially for a simple train ride between the parks.
Let's not forget this surcharge was conceived by the same theme park operator that made 90% of America thinking the original WWoHP was its own theme park with a separate admission, which is probably why they felt they could charge $55 for a single HP attraction (and people, like Cole, seem to be happy to fork over every penny in their pocket, just like the Disney drones).
@DB I need $275 (there are five in the Rao Family), but I would seriously consider your bribe!
The way I see this, the HE is a bonus that comes along with a P2P pass. It's not an up-charge for a single ride -- it's an up-charge for an entire second park. No one wants to ride the HE and not get off at the HP world on the other side. If they do, they will be disappointed -- I consider it more of a integration of the two HP lands rather than a stand-alone attraction.
HE is the link that allows you to complete your HP journey. Go to Diagon, go to Gringotts, get your wand, have a meal, shop, take the HE to Hogsmeade, go to Hogwarts, play quddich, etc. I don't view it as a standalone attraction at all, nor as something that needs to be done for each park-to-park hop. We often skip it and do the walk instead.
I agree that HE is an extension of the WWoHP, and in some ways integral to getting full enjoyment of the two lands as a singular Harry Potter experience (despite some duplication). However, having to buy a $55 ticket to experience it is a complete ripoff. No ifs and or buts about it. You're paying extra for Universal not making HP it's own individual theme park from the get go. If WWoHP was marketed by itself, they would have plenty of guests that would just pay for those lands, and not want to pay for a P2P pass to experience the rest of IOA or USF. So Universal essentially has HP fans over a barrel, even if they don't care a darn about MIB, Transformers, Kong, Hulk, Spiderman, or anything else outside the Wizarding World. Universal is not selling a park hopper, they're selling a Harry Potter pass, and no matter how you slice it, they're gouging guests $55 for a 6-minute train ride. I can take Amtrak from DC to NYC for that, and watch 2 Harry Potter movies on my tablet along the way.
I suspect that Universal management wanted to sell more park-to-park tickets and this is what they came up with. It's pretty clever, and it worked, given how many people are drinking the kool aid. I wonder, how many of them would just get a one park per day ticket, if it wasn't for the $55 train ride? My guess is almost all of them. Honestly, I can't even figure out what you would do with a park-to-park ticket, unless you're switching to Volcano Bay in the afternoon because it's too hot in the theme park. But, of course, adding VB to your ticket comes at a premium, too.
P.S.: Cole Short, if you're happy to support Universal without getting value for your money, why not just write them a cheque right now, just cuz you love 'em?
I'd also note that we typically travel to Orlando in the fall, so HHN at UO is always a consideration, and having the ability to go between the parks on the same ticket (not only for me to be in USF before HHN starts, but for my wife and son, who don't like HHN, USF closes early on HHN nights, so it's nice to be able to get another couple hours of rides in at IOA). There's also something to be said to be able to go to Mythos if it was booked solid on the one day we had planned for IOA. So we view the P2P passes for more than just the HE. However, we are not "average" guests, and the P2P upcharge for the average guest would essentially be just to ride the train.
After which I noted the date had slipped to September. However, Disney announced yesterday that the opening date for the new missions (Mars and Earth) will be August 13th.
I gleefully stand corrected, Mr. Creative, since now I will be able to visit this revamped attraction as part of my upcoming Pandora trip!
Pardon the interruption...carry on.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Anyone know anything about the theme? The current rumor is Forbidden Forest, but that gets touched upon during Forbidden Journey.