Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 Well, we have less than four weeks to go. I remember back when I was saying "Eighteen months to go!" Time has gone SO fast and it has been WONDERFUL seeing Hogwarts go up and seeing the aerial shots of construction. I haven't been THIS excited about an opening since TDS, almost TEN YEARS go(WOW!!!). I have to thank dshyates for his work here and elsewhere with the information and HEAPS of great pictures - your dedication has been above and beyond the call of duty and I hope when you get to go you will LOVE it! We expect DETAILED reports from you, in lieu of many of us not being able to get to Orlando for a while. So, it's Saturday 23/5(Hell, HP is English so I will go with the UK/Australian dating version!)in the US, right now and that means we have....... 3 WEEKS 6 DAYS until the official opening. Anybody have a time turner handy to speed up this last little bit of wait?
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 That should be "Saturday 22/5". I got mixed up because I am actually writing this post from Australia, in which it is Sunday 23/5. It's a burden being in the future, having to adjust for you backwards yesterday people! ; )
Originally Posted By dshyates I expect soft opens to start this week. And on the 28th (Friday) people start showing up who have purchased the Harry Potter vacation packages. So I feel confident that it will be in softs At that point. I will be going on Thurs (27th). I'll will report back my findings.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo We look forward to the coverage Dave, thanks (another poster in the future)
Originally Posted By SuperDry I'm at the Las Vegas Airport as I write this, and just saw a Virgin Atlantic 747-400 taxi by the window whose whole rear half of the fuselage had been repainted as a promo to WWoHP. At the bottom of the artwork where the dual logos of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Universal Studios. So, I think this tells us that there is going to more than a little promotional push for WWoHP, and that there is a co-marketing effort between Virgin and Universal, presumably to encourage people from the UK to travel to Orlando (on Virgin of course) to see it.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Knowing that planespotters are as obsessive about their hobby as Disney fans, I was almost certain that someone had taken a picture of this unique aircraft and posted it online. Sure enough, here it is as seen 3 days ago at the Manchester airport: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/23bymt4" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/23bymt4</a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros In all fairness, I saw a plane last fall in Seattle (Horizon/Alaska Airlines) that was decorated to advertise DL's 50th. It was fun when it happened, but a little goofy later on. Not to say that it's not a great way to hype people up about something (especially in a place where they aren't expecting it), but it just seems strange.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 I was just about to say I cannot believe there is a planespotters' site on the internet, then I realized those people would probably be JUST as surprised there are several Disney park websites/forums. Every hobby/obsession is weird, unless it's your own.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< In all fairness, I saw a plane last fall in Seattle (Horizon/Alaska Airlines) that was decorated to advertise DL's 50th. >>> Fail. To me, that sounds like the airline deciding at the end of the promotion that they don't want to pay to have the aircraft repainted. Kind of like keeping the wand in place even though nobody likes it because there's no money in the budget to depreciate it <<< Not to say that it's not a great way to hype people up about something (especially in a place where they aren't expecting it), but it just seems strange. >>> I think it's a great way to promote something. To have a major aircraft at a major carrier repainted like that is very prestigious among a certain set, and isn't done every day. <<< I was just about to say I cannot believe there is a planespotters' site on the internet ... >>> It's a *huge* hobby. I'm not a planespotter in terms of staking out airports with a big camera and taking pictures myself, but I think I can appreciate the hobby. Myself, I was sitting in the airport working on my email for a couple of hours, and plenty of airplanes were taxiing past the window I was near. But when the above aircraft went by, I saw it out of the corner of my eye and it turned my head. Not because of the WWoHP special livery, but because of the aircraft itself. It's unusual to see such a large aircraft in Las Vegas (in fact, looking it up just now, that daily Virgin flight to London that I saw is the only 747 service left to/from Las Vegas). And then to see it with the special WWoHP design, well, that was quite a sight.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros In a curious move, it appears that ABC Family is showing a Harry Potter marathon over Memorial Day weekend. It looks like they're doing one movie per night, showing the entire series. Normally I wouldn't think too much about it, but since they are owned by Disney, it seems strange that they are helping the Universal hype. I guess they might be thinking that it will get more tourists in Orlando, which means more tourists to WDW, but it's a little confusing why they didn't just go for an anything-else-marathon for the weekend.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance They always do Harry Potters marathons, especially around holiday weekends. I've often wondered why myself, but figured they probably just have some deal worked out with Universal. Actually it use to get my hopes up before TWWOHP was announced, I use to hope that since ABC Family played Harry Potter movies, that maybe meant a Disney theme park would eventually have a Harry Potter themed attraction.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 NBC will be running a 30 min TWWOHP special on June 6th. A look behind the scenes and the groundbreaking technology behind its major attraction. I remember when another theme park giant used to do things like that.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 Thanks for that sj - I'll have the "special antenna" primed and ready to go!!!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "NBC will be running a 30 min TWWOHP special on June 6th. A look behind the scenes and the groundbreaking technology behind its major attraction." Aren't Universal and NBC owned by the same company?
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I think so. There was a lot of discussion when Universal and NBC became one that the theme parks would see an infusion of tv attractions (Fear Factor) but that didnt seem to happen.
Originally Posted By brotherdave ^^Currently, anyway. Comcast is waiting for shareholder and FTC approval to buy Universal and NBC.
