The contest starts Tuesday, May 13 at 8am Eastern and runs through Monday morning, May 19. Entries will be accepted via the Today Show's website. The entry form will ask for an answer to a daily clue, given between 8 and 8:30am on each morning's show, but you don't have to provide the correct answer for your entry to be considered. U.S. residents ages 18 and older may enter once per day, for a total of six entries. The deadline for all entries is 7:59am on May 19.
NBCUniversal will award 25 grand prizes, each of which is a trip for four to Universal Orlando Resort for the grand opening, including airfare, three nights' hotel, and Universal, Wet n' Wild, and Blue Man Group tickets. The official rules do not say when the opening will happen, only that if you can't make it for the opening, you forfeit your prize. A Comcast representative recently told Wall Street analysts during a conference call that NBCUniversal will open Diagon Alley in the second quarter, which ends June 30, so unless Universal wants to risk a Wall Street downgrade, the land will be open before then.
In Orlando this week, a massive crane stands over Diagon Alley as Universal prepares to hoist its fire-breathing dragon atop the Gringotts bank facade, putting one of the finishing exterior touches on the land. Team members also are training and preparing for a soft opening of the land. We first reported that the window for soft openings would open on May 14, but we're not expecting anyone to be allowed into the new land that early. The chances of a soft opening increase as we move deeper into May, but you'd better believe that there are a lot of people at Universal who would love to have Diagon Alley open, at least partially, on May 23 during Disney World's 24-hour party, to take much of the promotional buzz away from that event. Whether they can be ready by that date remains to be seen, however.
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