Some interesting tidbits are leaking out about the Harry Potter theme park that Universal is supposedly going to build in Florida. I hadn’t realized that Disney pondered the project and then passed on it:
Rowling’s vision supposedly was that each person would enter through the Leaky Cauldron, tap on a brick, gain access to Diagon Alley, then proceed to a platform in a version of King’s Cross station and take a train to Hogwarts. Disney figured it would have had to build multiple Leaky Cauldron entrances to cycle in small groups every two minutes. Admission to the attraction envisioned by Rowling would have run north of $800 per person.
The deep dive (when did I become a management consultant?) comes courtesy of one Jim Hill, a Disney adept who characterizes the whole project as “a very, very clever re-theming of the “Lost Continent” section of Islands of Adventure.”
I never much liked theme parks anyway. But everybody knows I like to pull the wings off fairies, too, so what do I know.
