Len Testa and Jim Hill walk through Universal’s Islands of Adventure, tracing how Port of Entry, Marvel Super Hero Island, Toon Lagoon, Jurassic Park, Seuss Landing, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter reveal Universal’s evolving approach to theme park storytelling. Along the way, they discuss the park’s Disney influences, the complicated Marvel rights situation, the rise of Harry Potter as Universal’s game-changer, and why Forbidden Journey set a new bar for immersive attractions.
Islands of Adventure and the Wizarding World’s Big Swing Transcript
Len Testa: Welcome to another edition of the unofficial guide Disney Dish podcast with Jim Hill. Today we’re at Islands of Adventure theme park with Jim Hill. We’ve just entered the park and welcome to all of you. Jim, how’s it going today at IOA?
Jim Hill: it’s going great because again, we’re in… Honestly, Universal’s, or to me, yes, the most ambitious Universal park. And to be honest, in a lot of ways it’s the most ambitious park here in Orlando. Really? I mean, think about it. We were just over in Universal Studios, which again, is a film studio. And as a direct result, because they were going to shoot movies there, there’s a lot of counterintuitive language. We’re here, right from the get-go. Island’s Adventure was supposed to be a theme park.
Jim Hill: You we are now in the retail quarter. This is their Main Street USA. But at the same time, it is one of the most densely packed storytelling Main Street USAs you’ll ever see. you know, as you wander around here, for example, we have the jail over here. And if you’re paying attention, you can actually see, you know, the ropes where prisoners snuck out and you can hear the audio loop. But no, just, this is a port of entry, literally is what it It says it is. It is, you know, you’re surrounded by ride vehicles whether, for example, looking at a bicycle cart here, we passed a rocket, know, all these adventurers came here to have…
Len Testa: So the ride vehicles represent how the people who populate the park supposedly got here.
Jim Hill: That’s it, exactly.
Len Testa: The entrance of the park is interesting. On the right hand side you’ve got some like, you’ve got different kinds of buildings for… from every different period of time in every different area. looks like you’ve got steampunk stuff there on the right, you’ve got some really funny stuff over there on the left, so it’s all pretty interesting.
Jim Hill: No, again, and all deliberate, all with the idea of giving you the sense of the world that lies just beyond port of entry here. But again, what I find fascinating is that as you walk into this park, you actually pass the great light. the lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the world. The lighthouse at Alexandria. Yeah, but here’s the funny thing that if you, again, if you remember the initial concept for Tokyo Disney Seas for Tokyo, that was the icon for that park. you know, again, in the fine tradition of, you know, great artists steal, you know, the folks at Universal, it’s like, okay, that’s a cool idea. All right, we’re doing that too.
Len Testa: That isn’t the right vehicle. Yeah, that’s what I mean. But there’s a sleigh. This is a really well done sort of entryway. It feels kind of like a Middle Eastern bizarre meets, you know, sort of Mediterranean village.
Jim Hill: But at the same time, they look at again, universal correct system six. Remember how we were talking yesterday about you walk in past the camera shop, you know, they look across the way on the right side. There’s your bakery.
Len Testa: yes, yes.
Jim Hill: So you want your breakfast and you’re right-handed, you know, that’s where your vision is driven to. So yeah, and on the right-hand side coming back you’ve got your merchandise. So in many ways it does reflect sort of the design sensibility of a regular Disney theme park. And again, you know, now borrowing from two Disney theme parks, we walk out and see the lagoon from Epcot. But what’s across the way? The castle, you know, Jurassic Park. You know, the, you know, the visitor center for Jurassic Park. And… Of course, that’s how it was originally designed, but now, what do you see when you come in? You know, it’s kind of obscured by a tree, but there’s Hogwarts Castle. And if we stand here for a moment, we will watch fully two-thirds of the guests make an immediate hard right as they head off to Harry Potter.
Len Testa: Yeah, we mentioned this on the walkover from Universal Studios, but I would say fully out of every hundred guests that were coming out of the parking garage. 80 of them were going here to Iowa and only 20 of them were going to the studios. The park already, Iowa already feels much more crowded than Universal Studios did.
Jim Hill: And the irony again is previously anybody entering this park before Harry Potter was here made the left because of course the first thing you see is the Hulk coaster.
Len Testa: The Hulk coaster, right, the big green thing with loops and stuff. It’s a great coaster, have you been on it?
Jim Hill: yeah, yeah. Sadly had to ride the fat seat, but yes, I’ve ridden it.
Len Testa: It’s very smooth.
Jim Hill: No, absolutely. It’s amazingly smooth. Though, one of my favorite… Good morning? One of the more interesting aspects of the attraction, and this had to be put in, they began soft opening of this in March of 1999, a friend of Keir was working the bridge, and they had just fired up the whole coaster for this time. He’s standing there, and he suddenly hears smash, and there’s a camera lying in the street next to him. And they realized, oh my god, because in that loop that they go into, know, everything flies out of the car. So now they literally rigged up that net there to capture things and at the end of the day they go and collect them. you know, when your belongings fly out on a hulk, there isn’t actually a chance you can recover them. So.
Len Testa: You know what they should have in the park? What? A pawn shop. You can collect all the stuff. You need a Nikon. What kind of Nikon do you need?
Jim Hill: Well, this is true. This is true.
Len Testa: Hi, so we’re walking under the Hulk coaster. starting a, it looks like a clockwise tour of the park and we’re coming up on some sort of futuristic space looking cafe.
Jim Hill: Well again, here we are with the, we’re in Marvel Island and if I’m not mistaken that’s, what is it, the Fantastic Four Cafe?
Len Testa: Yeah, I’ll go with that.
Jim Hill: Well, and This is where life gets a little complicated because, you know, again, this is a Marvel land at a Universal theme park and Marvel now is of course owned by Disney. And so the question is always, sorry about that. The question has always been when is, you know, when is Disney gonna get the theme park rights to the Marvel characters? At least here in Florida, I don’t know, does the term hell freeze over mean anything? Part of the problem is that the licensing deal, the master licensing deals that Universal enjoys with Marvel are so specific.
Jim Hill: mean, literally, for example, we’re walking by all these buildings now with giant versions of the characters on the marquees. There’s a separate deal for each of these characters on the marquees, let alone the walk-around characters in the park, let alone the attractions. And all of them are very specific to the effect of, know, Universal has the rights for 250 miles. know, nobody else can have an attraction featuring these characters. Within 250 miles. Then, beyond that, it gets a little interesting because there is some additional language.
Jim Hill: And trust me, Disney’s attorneys have gone over and over and over this and they’ve tried to negotiate some deals with Universal. In fact, that’s the interesting thing. Disney has cut deals with Universal before. I think about it. They got Oswald the lucky rabbit back after 80 years. So there is a precedent. It can be done. And they’re trying to do it through back channels quietly, but the first attempt… failed so badly universally actually put money into redoing Spider-Man. In fact, that’s not only opening in a month or two here, as sort of a F-U to Disney. It’s like, you know, not only are we gonna hang on to these characters, we’re putting money back into the attractions.
Len Testa: this is Marvel Island. We’re walking past a comic store, a diner. I wonder if there’s a Chris Eliopoulos in the Marvel stuff. We’re walking past a diner. past an ice cream store. It’s pretty well themed in sort of a, I can definitely see this as a Marvel city.
Jim Hill: No, again, it’s wonderfully done for what it is. But part of the problem for islands is they literally had to go out and find properties. In fact, we’re now just reaching the outermost edges of Marvel’s superhero island. We’re about to go to Toon Lagoon and this is where the stitching really shows.
Jim Hill: I had a friend who actually worked on the construction of this thing. It literally was in the trailer, it was in the mud. You know, as they’re building this thing and literally, you know, your boss would come in and go, we got Prince Valiant! It’s like really, know, what, for pocket chains that was on top of the dresser? You walk through here and it’s all of these comic book characters from the 60s and the 70s and this is what they could get.
Len Testa: If you listen to the other podcast… We’ve got Judge Parker ride! There you go. Mary Wirth’s. Mary Mary Wirth’s. You they just did what they could. They do have the puppy ride, or the Pup Eye ride. They do have the Dudley Doo ride. You mentioned that we’ve got the Broomhilda stand here. These are characters that you’ve seen before, but they’re sort of like the stuff that Hanna Barbera would show at 3am on Cartoon Network.
Jim Hill: absolutely. And again, you… You walk through here and it’s like looking, you know, we’re getting into the depth of the land that is Marquis after Marquis after Marquis, I Brenda Starr. know, and again, Blondie.
Len Testa: Yeah. Although, there’s Bullwinkle and Rocky. I’ll give them that.
Jim Hill: Well, but that, again, another interesting story of how personal and frankly kind of mean the battle between Disney and Universal was. If you remember- back in the early 80s of the airbugs, Disney actually had the rights, VHS rights, to the Rocky and Bollicle show and they had released eight or nine of them and Disney was actually assuming that because they had this deal that they would begin developing theme park attractions because we have this wonderful working relationship with J Ward’s daughter Ramona and so they were planning on actually, and again this is the eighties before disney had you know it’s it’s an initial revival with all that and beauty of the beast so they were scrambling for characters that did for example to put into the disney hollywood studios and universal some canny lawyer universalism wait they got the video rights but not the theme park roads and they swooped in and and literally snagged them off one disney and disney was so pissed that they actually they had plans for twenty thirty vhs is in the bowl equal dvd series And they shut it down. just, after eight, it’s like, that’s it, we’re done. We don’t do anything else with you.
Len Testa: Eight.
Jim Hill: Yep. And so again, this is a very cutthroat personal business. But again, because they got the J Ward rights, that’s where they got Dudley Do-Right from. it’s not, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that this is necessarily, you know, I mean, it’s got some charm, but it’s an awfully cluttered design.
Len Testa: And a lot of the time you’re looking at it like, do I know that character? mean, well, I mean, I’m looking at Pogo. I know Pogo. Yeah, Pogo, we got the Phantom, Buddy, sorry, Betty Boop, Kathy, Heathcliff. but you know, they gave it a shot. And to be fair, they’re iconic characters. mean, here we’ve got, you know, Little Nemo, know, Winsor McCay. Yeah. You know, there is some good stuff here. Oh, God, there is Family Circus. There you go. I was joking, it’s true.
Jim Hill: And what’s killer though is leading away from the Family Circus is they literally have the dot. You can chase Billy!
Len Testa: So on the Sunday strips of Family Circus, sometimes they’ll do a dotted strip where they show what Billy did. know, for like take out the trash and they’ll show him going through the entire neighborhood. Take out the trash, they do one of those.
Jim Hill: Don’t get me wrong, they’re clever ideas. You have your water fountain. with every cartoon strip dog known to man. I mean, there are some fun ideas here, but it’s kind of cluttered, it’s kind of busy.
Len Testa: There are definitely a of water features here. feels… cooler because the water features. that’s… Ah, the Dagwood sandwich. This is actually, and they will serve it to you here. You actually can get a Dagwood sandwich.
Jim Hill: Really?
Len Testa: What’s in it?
Jim Hill: Everything. I think actually furniture.
Len Testa: Furniture. Do they have it on the list? I’d love to see what the ingredients are in the Dagwood sandwich. Let’s take a look. We’re going to go in and see if there’s to see if there’s an ingredient. Oh, there is. It’s $8.99. All right. Our famous Dagwood sandwich. fresh baked onion and poppy seed bread piled high with baked ham, turkey, roast beef, American Swiss cheese, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and mustard. Wow. That’s a sandwich. That’s pretty impressive.
Jim Hill: I’m sorry, if it doesn’t come with a complimentary Metamucil, I’m not having it. There’s not enough fiber in that one. There we go.
Len Testa: comes with a complimentary wicker charity.
Jim Hill: Anyway, this is, you talked about the water features. One of the reasons there’s so much water in this land, this, again, this is the park where you get wet. have, know, Popeye and Bluto’s, Bill Trav, Ratfuck. And then just beyond that is Jurassic Park. And you don’t just get wet on these things. It’s literally, you can go swimming and be drier.
Len Testa: way around getting completely
Jim Hill: No, absolutely. mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a quality ride, it’s done well, it’s certainly, you you compare this to Cali River Rapids where it’s just, know, that somebody can swatch you with a wet sponge. But they have a wonderful, do you want to go take a look? Okay. A wonderful kid play area and again, that coupled with a just flat out terrific view across the water at Hogwarts. So. But again, sad thing is that anybody who rides Popeye isn’t necessarily re-riding Popeye.
Len Testa: No, no, Once you’ve done it, you’re that’s right. Okay, I am stoked for the week, thank you. So the ride vehicles for Popeye look a lot like the ride vehicles for Collier River Rapids. It’s a similar type of ride, but I don’t think on the same scale.
Jim Hill: But at the same time, mean look, we’re as busy as the park is today. It’s a five minute wait.
Len Testa: Yeah, and it’s warm outside.
Jim Hill: Yeah. So what does that tell you? You know? But at the same time, we have the Wimpy’s burgers over here and that’s again staying, you know, consistent to give the characters of the storyline, you know, coupled with our, our Popeye themed water plate or. know, climbing area play area here.
Len Testa: Sweet Pea’s climbing area?
Jim Hill: Yeah, they do some nice stuff. And again, there’s some great design back here.
Len Testa: We’re walking past a group of people who are just completely drenched. And they’re taking their clothes off and wringing them out. And frankly, some of them shouldn’t be, Charles.
Jim Hill: But anyway. Let’s go and find something nicer to look at, all right?
Len Testa: I think I’m blind, though, Jim. I think I’m blind. and uh… we’re walking up towards the olive which is uh… it’s like a boat play area for
Jim Hill: no and again great climbing great playing but again you know think about it you if you’ve been out to disneyland and been to you know the miss daisy compared that to you know uh… this three story structure
Len Testa: We’re walking over the bridge that is the Popeye attraction and we’re walking past a tugboat scene that is just dumping water all over one half of the rafts in the Popeye ride. I’m not talking about like a sprit. It looks like the waterfall on Jungle Cruise. It’s that much water. That’s incredible and we’re walking up now so we’re kind of elevated right now. We’re kind of up about one story. Have a great view of the Hulk, a great view of the other parts of the park. Jim, what’s that land straight across?
Jim Hill: Well again, we’re looking at Marvel. In fact, we’re looking at the footings for the Hulk coaster. And then if we come over here, we’ve got Sus’s Landing.
Len Testa: then Mithos. Mithos, is that a restaurant?
Jim Hill: Yes, but that’s, and again, this is where things get interesting. This is supposedly the best review of theme park restaurant in all of Orlando. And I’ve always had a little trouble with that story because it’s like, it’s never open. How could it be the best reviewed when anytime I ever go by it, it’s closed. You know, I mean, again, you know, just the fine people get in there.
Len Testa: Rape. It’s like Victoria and Albert’s. That’s why it must be one of them. Ah, got it. OK. But for burgers.
Jim Hill: So, but anyway, now you see just sort of the tale of Hogwarts.
Len Testa: Okay, so we’re looking, uh, Mithos, to the left of Mithos is Hogwarts Village.
Jim Hill: And Plymouth Rock!
Len Testa: Oh my Oh wow, I thought it was farther north. It’s shaped like a Plymouth. That’s funny. Okay. Um… No. The cruiser might be little quieter. We’re about 200 yards away from the Hulk Coaster, which tells you how loud that thing is. If you can hear it in the background.
Jim Hill: But as we stand here, you can see kind of one of the problems with this part. So much of it. mean, look over at Soos’ landing. All right, the vibrant, vibrant colors. it just, means when you commit to Soos’ world, you commit to Soos’ world. In fact, we were watching their little train thing work. That was an opening day attraction that never made it off the table. That was supposed to be Gerald Bucky McBean’s amazing train machine. Never quite worked the way it was supposed to. So this is what they were finally able to jury-rig it into working.
Len Testa: It’s an elevated, slow-moving train ride through Susa’s land, looks like. You’re right. In terms of visual contrast, going from right to We’ve got the green of the Hulk coaster. We’ve got the Mediterranean sort of look of the end of the the entryway. We’ve got Seuss’s landing, which is all sort of Technicolor odd-shaped structures. You’ve got a roller coaster in the back. That’s RupRide. You got Mythos, which is it looks like it’s carved out of rock. And then you’ve got Hogwarts. You’ve really got, you know, you know, we’re missing here is the Chrysler building because that would be that would be every every type of architecture you could possibly do.
Jim Hill: Well again, the irony here is if they had actually gone ahead with the Two Universal Project, right there was where Gotham City was going to be built and Marvel was going to be Metropolis. And in fact, what was kind of interesting is the lagoon, how they were going to close the park out every night, was they were going to do this massive lagoon show. In fact, the path we’re on was where guests were going to go to stand to see it, literally, idea was that elements from all four islands would come out and form a brand new island that will only come out at night and you know for example sailing out of Gotham City would be an iceberg that had been created by Mr. Freeze you know and now it would have been an amazing nighttime show but never quite again they did make that deal though interestingly enough one of the only reasons that Universal got Harry Potter was because of Seuss.
Jim Hill: Well, interesting thing that, you know, Disney had the first shot at JK Rowling and they actually, designed two attractions. There was a defense against the Dark Heart ride and then there was going to be, if you can believe it, a care and feeding of magical creatures petting zoo.
Len Testa: Wow.
Jim Hill: But it was only these two attractions. was only going to be, you know, and Disney was going back and forth about whether it was going to be in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom where they’re going to build it at the studio. And they basically… They totally mishandled J.K. Rowling. Long story short, this is a woman who was very hands-on. In a sort of way, Disney should have known better because it was like, it took them 15 years to convince P.L. Travers to give Walt Disney himself the rights to Mary Poppins. And Travers was a pushover compared to J.K. Rowling.
Jim Hill: But they basically… told her, honey, know, we’re Disney, we’re the very best at what we do, when we want your input, we’ll ask for it. And the negotiations just crashed and burned. Meanwhile, Universal gets wind of, you know, that the fact that she’s on the market again. And they’re so smart about it. They contact her and literally it’s like, look, Miss Rowling, understand you. know, theme park rides are available and we’d be so honored if you’d be part of our, you know, and we’d love to work with you. In fact, we’d consult you on every phase of the park.
Jim Hill: And so they fly around here and they literally walk her over to Seuss’s landing and say, look, you know, the Dr. Seuss stories. Look at how carefully we sculpt the characters. Look how lovingly we maintain these buildings. You know, we, we followed exactly what, Geisel did. And better yet, here’s Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss’s widow. Give her a call. Tell her, ask her how it was to work with Universal. And Audrey, Audrey was a huge pain in the ass. Audrey, when they were opening this park back in 99, she’s walking around going, that’s the wrong color, it. And they painted it.
Jim Hill: And that was the thing that said, look, I was really, really demanding. I put these guys through hell, and they did it. They did exactly what I want. I have no complaint at all about Universal. if you’re thinking of bringing Harry there I wholly you know a big thumbs up go with those guys and that’s what happened she decided to sign because of Suzy’s landing so that’s a great story yeah so anyway speaking of go Potter and walking for another three hours we’ll get there
Len Testa: I haven’t been to this park in years so it’s a completely lost as well right we’re walking back towards Jurassic Park is that it
Jim Hill: well we’re sort of screwed in the water here trying to figure out if we can actually get back out to Dudley Duroyd here.
Len Testa: We may have to swim for it, Jim.
Jim Hill: Well that’s another little, you know, of fascinating story of universal history because Dudley was supposed to be the attraction that opened the spring after the park opened. It was deliberately held in reserve.
Len Testa: Okay. for something else to do?
Jim Hill: And… They’re four months out from opening and they’re not, you know, we’re gonna need it. Is that all right? I think we go down here and go right. All right. problem is, we’re not ready. So…
Len Testa: that’s a dead end. And apparently we’re meeting up with other people who are stuck in the dead end. Do think we have to go back up that way? Okay. Alright, I’m following you at this point.
Jim Hill: Anyway!
Len Testa: And they were never heard from again. Let this podcast be a recording of our last thoughts on Earth. Alright, anyway, back to… I didn’t look like it went anywhere. Let me check, hold on, there’s an area over here. let me look, me look, let me look, let me look. Nope, that’s nothing, dead end. Does anybody have any food?
Jim Hill: said, I’d miss.
Len Testa: Jim’s playing Battleship. that’d be funny. Anyway. That’s what we need, a theme park based on board games.
Jim Hill: Do not give them any ideas. Remember, Battleship the movie is actually opening this year.
Len Testa: Is it really?
Jim Hill: yes. Yes.
Len Testa: Seriously. What? There’s a plot?
Jim Hill: Aliens. And fact, what’s fascinating is that when the aliens actually attack the battleship, they fire what look like big white plastic pegs into the side of the ship.
Len Testa: that’s beautiful. if you’re a literalist when playing the game, you’ll be completely happy. There you go.
Jim Hill: Anyway, back to Dudley again. So they have four months and they get it open. But it’s like, look, we don’t we have show scenes that aren’t done. like, I don’t care.
Len Testa: And they’re still not done.
Jim Hill: They’re still not done. Still not done. 15 years later. Yeah, was one of these things where it’s like, we’re going to have to get back to that at some time. And I never have. Wow. Now, you’ve ridden Dudley at some point, right?
Len Testa: Oh, yeah. I got soaked on it.
Jim Hill: So, but you remember the Pirates of the Caribbean gag at the end?
Len Testa: No, I don’t remember it.
Jim Hill: Well, the last scene before you get to the offload area is Snidely Whiplash, you know, in jail, literally. aping the scene from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Len Testa: a dog?
Jim Hill: Only in this case it’s a beaver holding the set of pears.
Len Testa: That’s great. I think we can go up and to the right to to Jurassic Park.
Jim Hill: I Anyway, pushing on. So, I don’t know, I remember from… Angela my friend who actually worked this project just the poor thing being out here in this mudfield This was literally the last land to get done because they didn’t know from day to day Who they’d land the rights for? Which which characters that we’ve got and it’s just sort of like okay, and let’s hurry and get that facade built so
Len Testa: Wow, all right, so we’re walking over we’re leaving the The land of cartoons and we’re heading over towards Jurassic park.
Jim Hill: And again, this was when this place opened. This was their castle. This was what was supposed to drive you ever deeper into this park. some of this stuff works back here and some of it does not. I mean, for example, we’re working at Pterodon Flyers right now. And a wonderful attraction if you weigh three pounds.
Len Testa: Yeah, it’s got height requirements that prevent lots and lots and lots of people from riding it,
Jim Hill: Absolutely, and coupled with the fact that it’s got virtually zero capacity. Charming idea, you know, when it came time to actually build the thing, it just never quite came together the way it was supposed to.
Len Testa: Anyway, here we come up on Ripsaw Falls, which has the wonderful exploding building effect. Here we go. so we’re passing by Ripsaw Falls. on our left. It’s got a sort of a splash mountainy type feel to it. There’s tons and tons of water just pouring out of the rapids, actually, Ripsaw Falls, I guess. And as each ride vehicle goes down, water can shoot out and spray everywhere. It’s just a ton of water. It’s a great effect, though. very, visually, it’s very interesting.
Jim Hill: Absolutely, absolutely. Again, it just would have been interesting if it had been built as designed and more to the point finished. But I’m funny that way. I complete it still.
Len Testa: We’re coming up on the entry to Jurassic Park. It’s got the big doors from the movie. Yeah, the Pterodon flyers look like it’s a relatively straightforward attraction, hanging sort of coaster for kids.
Jim Hill: So that said, one of the nicest things about the success of Harry Potter was that because they were suddenly dealing with that many more people in the park, they actually brought back their Triceratops encounter attraction here. You ever done that?
Len Testa: No.
Jim Hill: It’s… It’s this incredibly sophisticated… You know, again… Basically, it’s the guys in Canada who did the robotic space arm for the shuttle. And what they did is they built an audio animatronic triceratops that you literally go into the barn. And there’s a trainer there who’s, you hi, you have a four and five minute encounter with an animal that doesn’t exist. It’s really, really clever. But they actually shut it down because… Well, again, circling back to our Tomorrowland story, the entrance path was so obscure. that people didn’t know what to do.
Len Testa: We’re now walking through the Jurassic Parkland. So one of the things I like about the entrance here, Jim, is just like the Animal Kingdom, they’ve themed the walkway. So it’s got plant imprints on it, like fossils and stuff. And the plants themselves on either side are representative of early time, so ferns, simpler plants, and things like that.
Jim Hill: No, absolutely. Though the flip side of this is this comes at a cost, that if you’re in a wheelchair or you’re in a DA vehicle, it makes the pavement that much rougher. you know, so it’s always a balancing act when you’re talking with ops. Never mind the fact that these are harder to maintain, because you know, not only have to paint the pavement, but you have to paint in a little shadow to sell the idea that, that’s a fraud, or that’s a footprint, you know, nice.
Jim Hill: Speaking of nice though, the Camp Jurassic here, the kiddie play area, I think again among the best in Orlando. The only thing, as an adult, if you take your child in there, you can lose them for days. I remember coming here with EJ and Jonathan White and just two small boys who, I think we were here for two hours and then eventually it’s like look, Let another family adopt you. We’ve waited long enough. We can’t find you. That’s it.
Len Testa: Wow. So that was a boat that just came out of the Jurassic Park ride. That is a tremendous amount of water.
Jim Hill: Absolutely. Absolutely. But that’s the interesting thing is people here like to do the water triathlon. They will do this, then they’ll go over and do Dudley, and then they’ll build Dread, and then they’ll dribble throughout the rest of the park.
Len Testa: Wow. It’s good way of universal to irrigate the rest of the park. moisture wicking from the guests.
Jim Hill: Yeah, because of course, know, in Florida they have that, they need more humidity.
Len Testa: Yeah, that’s it. This is a place that just, you know, it’s not damp enough. It needs to be, it’s so arid normally that we need more moisture. We’re walking past one of those fans that… blow the missing fans. That’s a little bit of noise. So I think Camp Jurassic one entrance so at least you you have a half a chance of actually getting your children back. You can play zone. There we go. we go. So the Jurassic Park land has a restaurant, has a gift shop of course, and it’s got two or three attractions if you include the camp right?
Jim Hill: Absolutely. But again remember the Triceratops thing and actually there’s an expansion pad that they have yet to use back here.
Len Testa: Really?
Jim Hill: Behind the outfitters? Yep. And this is actually for a Jurassic Park Jeep attraction that they have, they literally, they’ve had it designed now for 15 years. They’re ready to go. But it takes the thing from the movie that everybody saw, riding in the ride vehicle and something goes horribly wrong. Right. But, you know, who knows? Maybe someday, I know that there is talk at Universal about doing a fourth Jurassic Park film, fact, maybe rebooting the series. And perhaps as part of that, they’ll finally take that idea out of, know, out of hock, so to speak.
Len Testa: We’re walking now towards the, through the back end of Jurassic Park. We’re coming up on, I guess there’s place to get temporary tattoos, pizza. You know, the interesting thing though, still, I mean, we’re, the view leaving the Jurassic Park isn’t terrible. Hogwarts castle looming in the distance but this pizza place, the theme fits in with the land. It’s really not bad. They’ve got a show building that’s, I guess the Hogwarts show building which is pretty big but overall they’ve done pretty well with the… with the sight lines.
Jim Hill: No, and again, the only problem is that, in fact, this is why we’re seeing, you know, when Hogwarts bumps out, it’s going to go down the hill toward Sinbad, let alone what they’re doing over at Universal Studios Florida. just, this is as far as they can go in this direction. This is as far as Hogwarts can go without taking out the Jurassic Park stuff. And, you know, the sad part of it is that they were… They were hoping that they’d actually be able to do here the dining experience. They give people a meal in the Great Hall and they’re still circling around on that idea.
Len Testa: Would they have to expand out this way?
Jim Hill: Well, that’s the problem. You’d really want to take out, I mean, don’t know what sort of support buildings are behind here, but you’ve got restrooms, you’ve got a pizza place, you’ve got room to do it. Well, the problem is that as they want to do the Great Hall, first of all, know, when are you going to pay $60, $70, $80 for for that sort of character dining, is what we’re talking about. They’re gonna wanna at least think that they’re going into Hogwarts Castle, so you have to build it in this area, and you have to figure out how to load people in.
Jim Hill: More to the point, though, it’s gotta be built. The Great Hall itself has to be built on the second floor, because the kitchens have to be below. There’s an effect they’ve got planned for the show that’s absolutely killer.
Len Testa: That, what is it?
Jim Hill: Well, basically, again, if you know from the Harry Potter films, starts with the food magically appearing. So people who are dining at the Great Hall are going to want to see the food magically appear. and they’ve figured out how to do it. And it’s actually a really clever idea that that. What they’ll do is that you’ll sit at long common tables and there’ll be what appears to be an empty silver platter in front of you. And then the wait staff will walk in with the top of a tureen, which they show you without showing you that it’s empty. There is nothing in it. It’s light.
Jim Hill: They’re sort of spinning. And they put it down on the table and on a five count they lift it and it’s filled with food. It’s steaming hot chicken and beef. And everyone’s like, wow, how did you do that? Well, how they do that is that again, kitchen blow and they put the food on a hydra. like ram. The platter in front of you literally is like a drawer. It slides out of place, food comes up, and the food is there. The couple of tests they’ve done, it’s really good with chicken, it’s great with beef, not so much with the mashed potatoes.
Len Testa: Well that’s exactly, you lift up the top of the turian and you scoop out the mashed potatoes.
Jim Hill: But they’ll figure it out. that’s what they wanted, because again, the survey work, that was literally one of the top three that people who came to Harry Potter they love what they have here but they want to ride the Gingras Coaster they want to ride Hogwarts and they want to eat the Great Hall and so it’s like two of those they figured out and now it’s just finding space for the third.
Len Testa: That’s good segue so we’re about to enter Harry Potter land here. We’re still going sorry sorry sorry no this is the visitor center here. I totally edit this out so it doesn’t make us make me sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about and by totally edit out I mean let’s keep it in because that’s what happened. this again I guess is closed for the season now but this is where the Triceratops attraction is located that I guess now it’s open on a seasonal basis which is a shame it’s great fun to see the gate through there. see the queue.
Jim Hill: So, by the way again this is your castle this is what’s supposed to drive you deep into the park but you know if you do hear a complaint about islands it’s that The walkways are very, very, very twisty.
Len Testa: It is,
Jim Hill: But again, you want to give that sense of more space than there actually is here. Because that’s the other problem with this park is that given how massive so many of these attractions are, you need giant show buildings. mean, if you’re out driving on Sand Lake Road, you can see the size. of the Jurassic Park Riveride building. It’s huge. It’s like the tiny version of the vehicle assembly building at NASA.
Len Testa: I think they have tons of room for expansion. We’re walking past the dinosaur in the Discovery Center. It doesn’t look like that populated to me.
Jim Hill: Here’s the problem. this is this to me universal owns Jurassic Park They don’t have to pay and it well, okay. All right, have to pay Michael Crichton’s estate. Okay and Random House Okay, but everything else they own Whereas with Harry Potter everything is in negotiation, you know, you got to go back to JK. In fact, you know You take for example that this One the reasons they haven’t officially announced what they’re doing over in USF is that they still haven’t got her to completely sign on board with it. So it’s like, you’re going to agree to do this? Yeah, in principle. It’s like, well, could you sign a contract? In principle. In theory, I could sign a contract.
Len Testa: All right, we’re leaving Jurassic Park. We’re about to go over the bridge to, I guess this is Harry Potter Land?
Jim Hill: All right, this is a good place to stop. We’ll pick up again in a minute.
Len Testa: Alright Jim, we’re getting ready to walk into the Dr. Seuss Land? What’s the…
Jim Hill: Seuss Landing. And again, just for those of you who are purists, yes, we cheated. Alright, we were in Jurassic Park, we are now, you know, at Seuss Landing.
Len Testa: Magically in Seuss Landing.
Jim Hill: We, and through the magic of editing, we may splice all this together to appear seamless.
Len Testa: there we go. Alright. Okay. this is…
Jim Hill: Again, the… This is the land where Universal really, really, really tried to show, you know, this is their equivalent of Fantasyland and what they could do. And the fact that it’s such a great physical representation of Geisel’s books doesn’t necessarily mean that it was all successful. I for example, we’re standing across from the long-shuttered Green Eggs and Ham Shop, which… You know, again, a great idea on paper, because they did it authentically. They actually sold green eggs. They sold green eggs and ham.
Len Testa: Really?
Jim Hill: It was eggs with green food coloring. And people would get in line and this is wonderful. This is cool. And I’m not eating this. so they were trash cans full of this just right off to the side where people would take one bite and then throw it away. Because, you know, green eggs and ham.
Len Testa: And the ham was green too?
Jim Hill: No, the ham was actually the right color, but green eggs. anyway, we have, cool. Did you, I’m sorry, you just missed it. Universal has feral cats. No, seriously, one just ran out of, in fact ironic, if I ran the zoo, ran out of, you know. The feral cat ran out of the, if I ran the zoo exhibit. In if you’ll notice, we have a Universal employee with a net trying to catch the feral cat. so with really big gloves to like, Like the kind of gloves that if you were blowing glass, then you need to stick your hands in an oven. Those are the kind of gloves the man has on.
Len Testa: He went that-a-way. He went that-a-way. Jimmy’s directioning in the way the cat went. Okay.
Jim Hill: Anyone? No! It’s kind of ironic they’re trying to catch it because Disney, least in California, actually cultivates its feral cats because, of course, they keep the rodent population down. You know, which is kind of ironic. Again, Mickey Mouse, but we’ll get into that later.
Len Testa: We’re walking past the Carousel.
Jim Hill: Which, again, you Disney collectibles fan, a lot of the authentic Seuss animals for the Carousel were actually sculpted by Maggie Parr, the Imagineer who You know, worked for years on sadly projects that didn’t get made for Disney like Beastly Kingdom for Disney’s animal kingdom. But you know, she now mostly makes her living painting wonderful Disney paintings that recreate settings from the parks and put the characters in them. But one of her earlier gigs after she left Disney was doing this carousel.
Len Testa: Nice. We’re walking past the Cat in the Hat right now. What does that look like,
Jim Hill: Well, to be honest, it’s a dark ride that is very well done but could have benefited from a little less spinning. fact, that’s one of the complaints that parents make a lot about this ride is that their kids would love it except for the fact that… Every so often, the vehicles really whip around and sort of freak out the kids.
Len Testa: Ah, that’s a shame. And then we’re passing one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, which is essentially Dumbo. It’s a spinner ride.
Jim Hill: Dumbo when you get spat. Well, it’s actually closer to the magic carpet to Aladdin because you do get spat on in this thing.
Len Testa: That’s right. There’s water feature where the fish spit on you during the ride.
Jim Hill: again, they did such a nice job when it comes to sculpting. you know the Seuss characters and just taking the world of the books and making it three-dimensional and And but the interesting thing is the back door component of this is that because they had this working relationship now with Audrey Geisel that then allowed them to make movies like The Grinch which we won’t talk about and just opening this week in The Lorax.
Len Testa: and we’re walking by the other Trafila trees right now and the Lorax was behind us. The Trafila trees here are a little bit faded.
Jim Hill: Yeah well that and and again this is part of the problem with committing to something like this that because the colors and the stylization in the Seuss books are so distinct. know, a painting crew basically starts at one end of this thing, finishes, and then goes right back. Because, you know, this is central Florida, colors get burned out immediately.
Len Testa: You can tell actually where they’re at right now. So they’re not quite at the Lorax yet, but they’ve definitely completed the Dr. Seuss All the Books You Can Read store because those colors are really, really vibrant.
Jim Hill: Absolutely, and as we get deeper in here, mean, just the Gerter McFuzz, you know, I mean, this part of it pops, but…
Len Testa: It’s hysterical, the difference, because I that’s a great green right
Jim Hill: Yeah, yeah. But again, come back in three months and it’ll be faded. You know, just these sorts of colors just can’t, you know, just can’t deal with the harsh Florida sun, central Florida sun, so… But again, to be fair, they have committed to doing it right. And now, again, everybody knows about Hidden Mickeys. What I love about Seuss’ landing is we actually have a hidden Dr. Seuss.
Len Testa: We have a hidden Dr. Seuss in Seuss’ Okay, over here.
Jim Hill: Alright, we’re over by the police car. Mulberry Street. If you see the police car, there’s a band full of three dignitaries. Look at the one on the far left. That’s Cedar Rock Castle. could also be Bob Salinger. I’m not entirely sure. I’m going with Geisel. Okay, but again, they do a nice, nice job.
Len Testa: That’s great. We’re passing the Mulberry Street store, the Gizmo’s Gadgets and Goodies Galore.
Jim Hill: And it’s nice to see they got the train attraction finally going through. This was an opening day thing that never quite got out of the box. It took them four and five years to finally get something up and running.
Len Testa: Wow. It’s an elevated train ride around Seuss’s Landing. I like the name of the store. Goose Juice.
Jim Hill: I think around the corner we actually have Moose Juice.
Len Testa: Goose Juice and Moose Juice?
Jim Hill: Come on. Gotta read your Dr. Seuss.
Len Testa: And now we’re walking over the bridge. we’re at the end of the Seuss Landing. We’re at the bridge to go to Harry Potter Land.
Jim Hill: Shall we go, Injun? Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun will probably go under the knife in the next four or five years. The only thing that’s supposedly hands off is mythos and even then there’s talk of you know would this be that much more popular as a Harry Potter themed restaurant. mean face it you can’t really go wrong at Universal these days when it comes if you put Harry Potter something you know people get on line for it yeah and you know and it’s right now they have the demand exceeds supply and they’re just looking for ways to bump that out.
Jim Hill: So, I take for example here, we’re walking up on the edge of Poseidon’s fury. One of the concepts that has been kicked around is using this theater, this facility for a chamber of secrets show. Second Harry Potter book, you know, the notion is that you would go into this space and, you know, to be deep under, you know, the hills of Hogwarts and, you know, come face to face with a basilisk. So, but again, it’s a shame because this has, you look at, I love the statue that fell in and it’s over. I mean, here you have Poseidon’s head, his foot, his arm. mean, there’s so much great detail, great work here that, but again, you have to, this is the second iteration of the show because the first version, people were like, the show’s called Poseidon’s Fury. Where is Poseidon? You know.
Len Testa: They had to literally change it out to create a new version that heavily featured Poseidon. So this is another, another of the Seven Wonders of the World, right? So out front was the lighthouse at Alexandria. Another one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was a Poseidon sitting astride the harbor at, and then it was destroyed in an earthquake.
Jim Hill: that’s interesting, that’s interesting theme. there any other wonders in the? I think, you see the problem is that was the design idea that they were married to initially, but continued to fall away. And you know, it’s a shame. But again, I just, love these giant chunks of the statue. just.
Len Testa: It’s really well done. You see the feet. standing in stride, the entrance to the theater. That really is thinking, actually. It’s pretty clever.
Jim Hill: Again, there’s some wonderful storytelling in this part. And sadly, the story is coming to an end relatively soon. Make way for more Potter. Like some background music back here, it’s nice. And again, just fun little retail shops, but of course, who, I can’t know. No one’s buying Poseidon merchandise these days.
Len Testa: There there you go. It’s like, you’re walking by somebody reading a Harry Potter book. It’s just, all right, okay. Just some notes. They’re starting before they ride the ride, just to make sure.
Jim Hill: I want to make sure I get There’s a quiz at the end right here. So anyway, if all… If what they’re saying is true, that what will happen in phase three of Pawdakas, phase two of course is the Diagon Alley project for Universal Studios Florida, you’re now going to bump out the borders of Hogsmeade Village and this is going to be basically the hillside that the students walk down to go to the Hogwarts at Cress and there will be pretty much approximately where Sinbad is right now. by a train station that will run back and forth between the two parks. in fact, the disaster attraction over there will be redressed as white, there’s a white chapel, no, King’s Cross Station. And that’s where, back and forth, you’ll ride from one Harry Potter experience to the other.
Len Testa: So you’ll get on the train, you’ll go to one park, you’ll get off the train, you’ll be in another park, then you get back on the train to come back to your original park?
Jim Hill: Yes, that’s it exactly. but again, they’re hoping that you do in fact wander out away from Harry Potter at some point. that you don’t just get off the train and get back on? And here’s the sad part, we’re gonna lose fun little… I mean… Now mind you, the fountain didn’t used to play music like this, but this is the interactive fountain where the… You know, there’s a playoff stage watching through a camera who’s busy assaulting children via water.
Len Testa: So we’re out in front of the eighth voyage of Sinbad and there’s a water fountain that’s normally just sort of a relatively calm fountain, you know, that the water stays inside the area that it’s supposed to. But then apparently it occasionally erupts. and sprays water 20 feet across. The one disconcerting thing that Jim mentioned is that the background music that was playing while the fountain was going off was Cypress Hills, Insane in the Membrane. Not exactly true to form for. I’ve seen this in bad movie. Maybe there was in the stop motion one that I didn’t see entirely all the way through. Moving on, moving on. Now that song is going be in our heads for the rest of the day.
Jim Hill: But again, just, to be honest, you look around this, this isn’t going to be an area that necessarily is going to be missed. I we’re in a gaming section. It’s not designed, it’s the area.
Len Testa: No, and as much money as the games make, they probably make more with Potter.
Jim Hill: absolutely, absolutely. But, you know, as we walk up to the gates of Hogsmeade Village, just picture this going 300 feet further back there.
Len Testa: Frankly, mean, looking at it, I’m surprised they haven’t done it already.
Jim Hill: Well, because you have to close it to do it. And it’s like, you’re gonna turn off the money machine? yeah, yeah. Again, one of the things they hope to address while doing this is the issue with the Dragon Challenge Coaster. When this was the Ice Dragon, the Fire Dragon, back when it was lost content, this was one of the most popular attractions in the entire park. They would have epic lines. And now, it does less than a third or the fourth of the business. But again, it comes back to a theme that we’ve talked about before. mean, come on over, take a look.
Len Testa: Hi, we’re over in Harry Potterland. We’ve just passed the Hogwarts Express train. We’re passing by Hogsmeade Station. We’ve got Honeydukes on our left. We’ve got these amazing Butterbeer Cruts. It’s really like walking into Grand Central Station, you know, on New Year’s Eve. There’s just people everywhere, all around. It’s the middle of the day. It’s really, really warm. Excuse me, go ahead. Kids running underfoot, it’s a circle.
Jim Hill: As busy as it is, notice how few people are actually going to Dragon Challenge. It’s because it’s this little modest recessed door. There’s a five minute wait right now for Dragon Challenge. So we’re in the busiest land, in the busiest of the Universal theme parks, and there’s a Harry Potter themed attraction for which there’s a five minute wait. And the amazing thing is if you go up the hill here, there’s wonderful props. And in fact, that’s the other thing to understand about the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It’s a very specific time. This is set in the fourth book, the fourth film. You’re literally in the middle of the Triwizard Tournament. you are in the world of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on the day of the Dragon Challenge, before things start to go south. So it’s still a relatively happy time in the Potter universe. And that’s literally where they’ve frozen the characters.
Jim Hill: And in fact you go up the hill here and hero all of the banner the handmade banners by the Hogwarts students for their their heroes and If I get as smart as they’ve been with all of the propping here is you actually go in a top of the hill There is a goblet of fire when you go into the next room There are these wonderful amazing fifty thousand dollars worth of tapestries that Universal had made in Hungary that are gonna depict the great wizards of the past watching the tournament However, they are in the room with the candles dangling down. And in order to sell the candle effect, they had to turn down the light. So literally, if you want to see some amazing tapestry, bring your camera with a flash, all right? And when you’re in that space, wait till other guests pass through and take a couple of shots. So when you go home, look at the wonderful tapestries, because you can’t see them here.
Len Testa: Wow. Just walking to see them here. Sure, sure, So walking past one of the Butterbeer carts, and I’m going to count the number of people in line. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. There’s like 50 people in line for Butterbeer.
Jim Hill: In a lot of ways it’s the biggest attraction here and certainly it’s the most profitable. mean, when you think about, know, it’s not exactly in Coca-Cola country as in Coca-Cola is what? eight ounces of water and you know three pennies worth of syrup but it’s a relatively short list of ingredients relatively cheap to make and they’re making money hand over fist.
Len Testa: that’s great. Anyway to get- What’s this structure right here that we’re Sort of like a-
Jim Hill: This is if you know your Harry Potter stories that- Okay all messages travel by owl the owl post and so what you’re seeing here is literally you know the owl read that this is where all and in fact what I love about their attention to detail is we have plastic owls in here that’s heads that swivel but again assuming that they’re real owls there’s owl poop under each of the…
Len Testa: there is, there is.
Jim Hill: you know just but again the idea was to make this as lived in you know I mean literally the idea is you walked into the books you walked into the movies and the only problem with that is that and this this really only becomes an issue during the summer months but because This area is almost all black and gray stone. It doesn’t just hold the heat. It’s an easy bake oven. again, there’s a reason that people are looking for beverages because they’re dying here. But no, has, there is honestly so much, we could do an entire podcast just about this land. There is so much attention to detail. Whether it’s the snowy roofs of Hogsmeade Village. or the individual windows of each of the stores that, for example, where you buy your quidditch equipment, there’s a snitch flying around in the window. I mean, just so much, the only problem right now is this is so hugely popular, it’s almost impossible to move in here. just, you know.
Len Testa: I wouldn’t want to bring a stroller in here.
Jim Hill: Well, and that’s the thing. In fact, at certain times of the year, it’s a… one way traffic only. You come in one side and they direct you out the other. You know, they cut off access through Jurassic Park area.
Len Testa: What’s that straight ahead, Jim?
Jim Hill: That is the three broomsticks along with the hogshead tavern. fact, let us stuck in there and get you a beverage.
Len Testa: A beverage, you say? All right, we’ll walk over there and see what we can do about a beverage. I’m intrigued. You guys hear the background music? So this is a bar, shop, drink shop? place where we file taxes. We’re going into the Hog’s Head. Apparently some sort of refreshment stand. We’ll see how long the line is for whatever it is that we’re doing. it’s a bar, it’s a bar.
Jim Hill: it is. Now, I was actually here for the grand opening of The Wizarding World. again, through, again, didn’t do this deliberately. was, the first went off of the press bus. They had a red carpet set up and I ended up, but it was covered with, was raining, it was covered with plastic, and some Universal employee shooed me off of it. And I finally wound up. in the day out, see? My prom day found work. So, I was the only reporter let in to the Wizarding World for 90 minutes. And I had the place basically to myself.
Jim Hill: And so I ended up going from store store interviewing people and got some amazing information about, for example, the typical guest when they got into the Harry Potter stores during the soft opening, they were spending $175 a person. on robes and on average. they were talking about there had been some families, one family that came over from Britain that spent $1,500. They had to have one of everything. anyway, so I end up here in the Hogshead Tavern frantically taking notes. And I’m really not paying attention to what’s going on around me.
Jim Hill: And they had decided to bring in 30 to 50 Universal employees and dress them as wizards. for the press event. And this became the facility that they held them in. So I look up and I’m literally I am now in the movie, all right? Because they’re all sitting here waiting. And it’s like, oh jeez, know, it’s literally in my brain, was like, one of these things is not liked yet. So I gotta get out of here. I’m trying to discreetly get out of the room and I must have stepped on the back of 30 different cloaks because it was like, ow, ow, ow, ow.
Jim Hill: So I end up back in the three broomsticks portion, which is now empty. And I’m sitting there and there’s this English family, you know, just sort of sitting alone and I grab the other table and sit down. and eventually become aware of the conversation and it’s like, what do you think, Her Majesty is coming out this evening? It’s like, well, she has to. She’s been working with them all week. And it’s like, I eventually realized it’s J.K. Rowling’s family that had flown over for the event. And they proceed to talk about how the poor woman had been out in the park after hours with literally, I mean, her attention to detail here was almost insane. She was walking around talking about correcting the moss on the side of the building here.
Jim Hill: I have different species in mind. It would have been here longer, so it needs to be a little larger here, and this is damp, and it just, it was fascinating, and again, it’s just one these things where you’re sitting, listening, and trying not to, I’m really not a creepy eavesdropper, you know, I happen to be in the area hearing this conversation. But, but again, I just, I love this facility, but.
Len Testa: But the other thing is, think about it, you just talked about 50 people being in line. In line for a beverage. Okay, we just walked into this place, we are now what, fifth in line? Yeah, so a quick tip is if you actually want the Butterbeer, it’s faster to go into the Hogshead Tavern? Yes. Hogsmeat Hogs
Jim Hill: It’s also the only for the audio and the metatronic hogshead behind the bar that periodically comes to life.
Len Testa: Yeah, it’s kind of interesting, it’s a pretty large hogshead. So what are you gonna do? You’re gonna do… You gonna do Frozen or you gonna do…
Jim Hill: How about one of each? That way you can…
Len Testa: Are you buying the butter beer?
Jim Hill: I’ll buy the butter
Len Testa: Jim is buying the butter beer, folks. excited here. This line is a… Actually this is fairly detailed. Is there upstairs seating? that what those stairs are for? that a prop?
Jim Hill: No, no, no. In fact, we’ll step into the deeper part of the bar here, but with this…
Len Testa: Oh, it goes way back.
Jim Hill: In fact, what’s fascinating is if you actually go in into the… Again, this is a geeky little touch. But go into the three broomsticks and look up. This is Florida. They need air conditioning. They need duct work. You can’t see it. Alright, they’ve literally put a false ceiling in of a tavern, you know, in the Harry Potter world. And then all the duck work is above that, hidden away. mean…
Len Testa: It’s genius.
Jim Hill: Yeah, absolutely. So…
Len Testa: So we’re doing one of these.
Jim Hill: One frozen and one regular. Fabulous.
Len Testa: Alright folks, we’re gonna pause this for second until we get our Butterbeer and then we’ll be back. Alright, so we’re taking a break inside the Hogshead Brewery. We’ve got Jim’s buying the drinks. Thank you Jim. Ha, interesting. Alright, so we’ve got two drinks here. We’ve got the frozen version and then we’ve got the liquid version. So on the non-frozen version, it looks like this bubbling marshmallows.
Jim Hill: The head is added at the end. It’s literally the finishing touch. It’s a separate station where they added almost like the whipped cream on a cake.
Len Testa: It looks like a… It’s hard to describe. It looks like it’s wet bubbles. All right, here we go. It’s like gum. Cream soda, butterscotch, and it’s really sweet. Sweeter even. Laurel’s making the yucky face. It’s been a while. I’m going to try the frozen version now. Here, give it a shot. It’s almost like a mocha. It’s a different flavor for me.
Jim Hill: Maybe they need to chain the hog head. I could get used to the frozen versions. The cold really helps it a lot. The downside of this is, as Nancy pointed out at lunch today, it’s a fast lane to a brain freeze.
Len Testa: yeah, I can already feel it. It’s really good, thank you Jim.
Jim Hill: But it’s almost worth it alone, rather than to pay cash to do this at a credit card because they literally hand you a quill.
Len Testa: Really?
Jim Hill: So it’s like, well, you have to sign your card. It’s in.
Len Testa: So, no, I’m Here’s your inkwell. There you go.
Jim Hill: No, there’s, again, I think the storytelling particularly here in the Three Gorms, Six Hogs, is so well done. What’s fascinating though is that at the opening, I got to chat with Stuart Craig and he said the problem was that we had done three movies that featured scenes in, you know, The Hog’s Head and The Three Broomsticks and each time we had changed the look of it, you know, coupled with what it said in the book and what the layout of this place was like. And so it was literally trying to take all of these elements and give it a unified view while at the same time making it a restaurant that worked at a theme park. that they can plug with like, you know, fire regulation.
Jim Hill: But at same time, just across the way here with the three broomsticks, they, that’s authentic English fare. I mean, you know, you can get scotch eggs, can get bangers and mash, fish and chips. And what’s particularly fun about it is that their menu board is done in the style of the wanted posters from the movies. So, you know, where you saw serious black screaming that, It’s that large woodblock kind of print with images that fade out. But again, the details, the dedication to bringing the world of the books and the movies to life here is just kind of stunning. now, you know, that’s where kind of the gauntlet has been thrown down for Disney.
Jim Hill: It’s going to be interesting, you know, between Cars Land in California coupled with Fantasyland Forest as to whether or not… Disney can reclaim the high ground when it comes to themed entertainment. It’s going to be difficult for them to reach this level of detail in Venezuela because they probably started this…
Len Testa: I don’t know if they aspire to this level of detail. The room that we’re in is, what, three horse stories tall? Yep. And it’s detailed from the ground all the way up to the very top of the ceiling. I mean, just look across the way at the dining room. You have all of these mismatched chairs.
Jim Hill: Yep. Because again, this is a tavern. This is a place where people just come to eat, and it’s got to service a lot of people. But again, they’ve done… Such a nice job, and to Disney’s credit, it’s gonna be interesting to see what happens when Be Our Guest opens. Because that is gonna be… That’s gonna be a joint comparison here. That’s exactly it. You can dine in the West Wing, you can dine in the Grand Ballroom, or you can literally dine in the Be Our Guest dining room, with the giant tables and all that. That’s gonna be fascinating.
Jim Hill: The one thing I was hearing about that though is they have been having trouble with the Living Character Initiative figures. that they wanted to do that. If you remember the early concept paintings for it, you would actually see sort of tea trays being pushed through and on each of these there was an audio animatronic lumiere, there was a Mrs. Potts and Chip, and it’s like, it’s one thing to do Remy the Rat when he’s six inches tall and really doesn’t have to say anything. Me, me, me, me, me, me, he’s done. It’s quite another thing to figure out who’s backstage doing the Jerry Vorbach impression. Hello! You know, so.
Jim Hill: But I don’t know, again, the only complaint you can make about Harry Potter is that literally the Wizarding World is too popular. It’s not big enough. It’s not big enough. And that’s kind of a good problem to have. But yeah, universal internally fought about this, about how big is too big. when it came down to it, it’s like, well, obviously we have to do the ride right. In fact, that’s…
Len Testa: That’s where we’re headed next, you think? Or… We are. Just one last thing on this. One of the things that’s amazing to me about the architecture of the Tamarisk, obviously it’s a modern restaurant. It meets fire code. It meets all the health and safety measures. But you don’t see like a giant air conditioning turret at the top, you?
Jim Hill: No, absolutely. And in fact, that’s really one of the wonders of… This complex you can look up and it looks like an authentic 16th century tavern But the ductwork the electrical, you know, again, this is air-conditioned right here. It’s all here You just can’t see it, you know, they’ve hidden it all very very well
Len Testa: This tremendous trying to I’ve been in temperature in England and this is pretty darn close. I mean I Would imagine you’re not going to get the same response from asking for butter beer though.
Jim Hill: No, I will tell you this much while I was at the bar There’s this interesting conversation, again, this lovely suburban woman comes up and she’s negotiating that she and her family want six butter beers and a real beer and they want an empty glass. Because they want to pour Amstel Light into a glass with butter beer and see what it tastes like. I’ve never seen, you the Universal employee was so trying to talk her out of it so hard it’s like, you don’t understand, this will all separate. All right, the alcohol will mix with this. and you’ll have glop. And in fact, I don’t know what it will form, but I wouldn’t drink it.
Len Testa: There’s a small chance of potential explosion.
Jim Hill: But she was determined. She was walking off with her empty cup in her amp still and all of her children with their butterbeer. So watch the news tonight, folks. There could be a really ugly story.
Len Testa: I would love to know how they make this. We’re going have to do a… All right, should we go ride the ride?
Jim Hill: Sure.
Len Testa: See you in a minute. Sorry, so you’ve just ridden Forbidden Journey with Harry Potter. It’s a remarkable attraction. It’s got an incredible amount of detail in the queue. The ride itself is fantastic. You’re on a Kuka arm that goes along a track, and you’re swinging from scene to scene. I thought it was gonna be all CGI, Jim, but a lot of it is actual sets that they’ve established. But the interesting thing is, going through the queue, you realize that there’s so much detail in there, it’s gonna be really interesting to see how Disney responds to that.
Jim Hill: No, in fact, again, Cars Land Radiator Springs Racer is supposedly Disney’s response. And don’t get me wrong, they’re wonderful characters, but again, it’s two films versus seven books and eight movies. you know, and in fact, that’s the thing I think that was so smart about this is getting the actual cast to film this before, you know, they got to work on, you know, the last of the half-bored prints. it’s just, you know, between the audio and the visuals, and it’s just… and mixing back and forth from the film to the practical sets. it’s the new gold standard for a themed attraction.
Len Testa: It really is the, you you’re walking through the queue and it’s not just static rooms you’re going through. There are things to interact with in virtually every room. There’s films or there’s paintings that come alive. There’s lighting, there’s rich detail everywhere.
Jim Hill: And I say this as a fat guy and remember that the big worry and the big problem with this attraction initially was that they had, know, that people of a certain heft couldn’t ride. And a few months in, they very bright thing, they took the two outside seats and made them fat friendly. And now, again, it’s just a question of, yes, you get on board the ride and it’s like, again, suck it in, fatty, but basically anybody can ride.
Len Testa: It’s really good. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what Disney does in response to this. I can’t imagine how Beast’s Castle or anything in the New Fantasyland is going to… be as detailed as this but I’m really excited to see it. It’s been really good. Any last thoughts, Jim, before we close this episode?
Jim Hill: I expecto patronus.
Len Testa: Okay, there we go. All right. Well, thank you guys for listening to the to the podcast We’ll be back with with more really really soon Don’t forget to leave comments on iTunes and rate the show, please if you like it We’ll do more if you don’t like it. We’ll probably do even more than that. Talk to you guys later. Thanks.