The Harry Potter Theme Park

On Thursday I read an article online about the the new Harry Potter theme park that is being built within Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando. About two seconds later, my friend Nerdy P sent me the same article via email, and I'm sure thousands if not millions of similar emails were whizzing around amongst Harry Potter fanatics as the news spread. I will most definitely be first in line... I realize this may involve beating back thousands of pre-teens and maybe even pushing the occasional eight-year-old out of the way - but hey, whatever it takes!

I think the move is brilliant on Universal's part... the Islands of Adventure park is now ensured to be a cash cow for life. Think about it - parents can encourage their kids to read all of the books by holding the promise of visiting the theme park over their heads! "No kiddies, don't read these books for the pure enjoyment of reading - read them because you can then eventually be waiting in line for an hour to ride a fake broomstick or a fake Buckbeak!"

While I am truly excited about this latest addition to the theme park world, I am especially happy that its home is going to be in Islands of Adventure, because I went there last year and that place ROCKS. I have been to a lot of theme parks in my day, and Islands of Adventure is second only to Disney World, in my book. Currently it has a very large Marvel Comics area on its grounds that is absolutely amazing. I'm not even into comics and it blew me away, just with the attention to detail that they paid to every little decoration all around, not to mention that the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster and Spiderman interactive ride were each awesome. There is also a Dr. Seuss land and a "Lost Continent" area where there is a decent Jurassic Park ride as well as an extremely fun Dueling Dragons rollercoaster. Anything with dragons I'm going to like! The Harry Potter part of the park is supposed to be designed by the main creative director for the movies, so you know it's going to be good.

So whereas I would already have gone back to Islands of Adventure at some point in the future, now I know exactly when and why I will be going back. And of course I'll throw in visits to Disney World, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and a few others down there for good measure. I should probably just move to Orlando and get a job as one of the people walking around in character costumes just so I get discounts.

Until "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" opens, we have probably all three remaining movies and the remaining book to tide us over for our Harry Potter fix. Actually, now that I think about it - here is my prediction - they will time the opening of the theme park to the release of the final Harry Potter movie in either 2009 or 2010 (the official press release says the park will open in 2010 "but could open sooner). That may be a little aggressive, but we'll see.

Here's to hoping they have real invisibility cloaks for sale!

- e

6/4/07 - Changed "Animal Planet" to "Animal Kingdom"!