Wizarding World of Harry Potter Preview Review

WWoHP is pretty amazingly detailed-- lots of references to the movies and fun kinetics around the whole area (owl popping out on the 1/2 hour, wizards chess pieces battling in a store window, sheet music whipping around an upstairs music room). Capacity (as most expected) is definitely going to be an issue, the quaintness that defines the area is also it's biggest hurdle.

Hopefully most of Universal's original "theme park within a theme park" marketing has been forgotten at this point, let's be clear, this is a land. If you're expecting more you'll be disappointed. But what the area lacks in scale in more than makes up for in detail. 

Let's hope Uni's marketing team hasn't pulled another "Universal Escape" debacle and the area does extremely well (and pushing all their competitors to innovate).

HPatFJ-- continues to be troublesome (brokedown while I was in line) but the queue is amazing, particularly the talking portraits. I don't know if the area is completely landscaped yet but they need a few large trees (or something) to hide the large unthemed portioned of the gigantic show building.

Hippogriff-- never rode it in it's original incantation but the theming is well done including the Buckbeak animatronic and Hagrid's hut (including the sound of growling Fang)

Dragon Challenge -- wish they had done at least a minor update to the ride vechicles and finally made the effort to conceal backstage equipment. The new queue is much better lit and is very well done (though the original was excellent also). Best parts of the queue are the TriWizard Cup, the floating candles from the films, and some great views of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts on the way in.

Food -- Three Broomsticks had the exquisite detail found in the entire area but as they were only serving breakfast for the preview we skipped it. I can't wait to come back when the fish and chips are being served. The menus are done in the same style as the newspapers from "Prisoner"... very clever. The Butterbeer is not something I expected to like as I'm not into sweets, but was very pleasently surprised. Cream soda-y with a carbonation that helps cut the sweetness ($8.50 in a souvinir glass)

Wand Shop-- very fun little performance, the theming is superb and kids will love this (there were lots of operations people about timing the display and counting guest numbers). You exit into the gift shop where you can purchase a ~$30 wand (I had to ask as there aren't any prices on boxes). What happened to the MagiQuest-like features? Was that just fan speculation? I was really looking forward to that as it would have been brilliant.

I'll be back tomorrow to hopefully ride FJ and try the pumpkin juice.