Softs opening of Harry Potter west

Pics?

None that are mine. Sorry

Yes, Wizarding World of Harry Potter is in technical rehearsals (Universal's term for soft opening) as of today. I didn't want to post this on the front page post just in case the information changes (as things may change daily during this period), but this is what I heard regarding the procedures for technical rehearsals of the area:

-The park will attempt to have some type of opening daily, but there is a possibility that the land may not open on any given day for various reasons.
-When the land is open, it will be 100% operational. If anything is not working, the land will not open.
-At first, the duration of openings will be limited and will be unannounced. The area will not necessarily open for the same hours on each day, and openings will last a maximum of 4 hours. Between now and April 7th, the park will slowly increase the operating time of the land, with the tentative goal of getting it operational for complete park hours by the start of Spring Break season.
-A queue will be available for those who wish to wait in case the area opens. This queue will be available daily even though there are no guarantees that the land will open.
-There will be a limited number of entry tickets to the land each day. These tickets will first be distributed to those in line and then any remaining tickets will be handed out first come, first served at the entrance to the land. The number of tickets available will be correlated with the anticipated duration of the opening (from what I've heard, around 1,000 per hour of opening), but do not guarantee entry as the land may close at any time. Depending on crowds, entry tickets may grant immediate entry or you may be asked to return at a later time.
-There are no in and out privileges. If you leave the land, you must obtain another ticket in order to reenter.

If you attempt to visit the area now, do not be surprised if some or all of the above is different. Also, if you do not have an annual pass I'd recommend waiting until the area officially opens before visiting the park if Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a high priority, as there are no guarantees it will be open on any given day before April 7th.

I filed a report on the home page and was posting photos live on my Twitter feed. Please follow @ThemePark on Twitter for all our breaking news tweets!

After distributing entry tickets to everyone yesterday who had been waiting in the designated holding area (some all day), Universal just opened the entry to everyone, with no special entry tickets needed. But that might not always be the case. The one rule with soft opens is that there are no rules. Be flexible.

I expect afternoon openings this weekend, with scattered availability for the rest of the month, before Universal settles into more regular operation in March.

The land opened earlier on Saturday, between 10-11am. Crowds were reasonable by late afternoon, from what I was seeing on Twitter.

Good news on the 3D Forbidden Journey. There's been a number of very positive reviews coming down from people on various internet sites that have seen the 3D, which greatly differ from the day one tech rehearsal reviews. What some of these posters are saying that the 3D now is very different from what they saw the first day. Evidently Universal is using tech rehearsal as they should be used, namely to tweek and perfect the attraction. One of those most recent posters, Allen on Orlando Informer, says, "I was at the first day of tech rehearsals and was a bit let down by the 3D quality. It was pretty blurry and low resolution. Returning for my third visit three days ago, I was absolutely blown away by the 3D this time. It seems like they're still tweaking the lighting and 4 K projectors, and the 3D was crystal clear sharp and updated. ....Kind of interesting it wasn't implemented from the beginning. But wow oh wow!.....it really puts the ride over the top, my all time favorite now. It really blends the physical sets/props and the screens so much more better this way, a lot more seamless. Beyond immersive. it's a truly incredible ride! The feeling of flight and range of movements thanks to the Kuka arm system is nuts! It's just such a beautiful combination of 3D and physical scenes."