100!: June 2010

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Orlando

Welcome to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Telegraph.co.uk, 18/6/2010

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opens today in Orlando, Florida, is a fitting shrine to the world’s biggest ever film and book phenomenon, says Tom Leonard.

It is 105 degrees in downtown Hogsmeade, almost hot enough to melt the fake snow off the twisted rooftops and stick a house elf to his pumpkin juice cart.

But not too muggy to stop the Muggles, out in force as a fortunate few thousand have been pouring through the gates of the long-awaited Wizarding World of Harry Potter, five years and a reported $250 million (pounds 169m) in the making.

The attraction officially opens today, and to say early visitors are beating the rush is a vast understatement. For the Florida mini-theme park enjoys the revered blessing of JK Rowling, consulted apparently on everything down to the plastic plates in the Three Broomsticks restaurant. With the books long over and the films all but done, hardened fans of the young wizard simply have nowhere else to go.

And lo, they shall likely find that – as much as any theme park spin-off can ever be – it is a fitting shrine to the world’s biggest ever film and book phenomenon, a 20-acre corner of Universal Orlando Resort that is forever Hogwarts.

There is room to expand but for now it is a bit of a squash. There is no Diagon Alley, no Platform 9 and three quarters, no Quidditch stadium and the castle has been daubed in a magic paint that masks the fact it is not to scale until you are right up to it. But what there is – Hogsmeade village and Hogwarts castle on a rock above – is ingeniously conceived and immaculately executed, with the sort of workmanship and attention to detail that smacks of museum conservation rather than theme park construction. In fact, it is more an exhibit than a conventional theme park, one that best rewards those who stop and stare.

While it has failed dismally to recreate the British weather, Universal – which worked closely with the creative designers of the Potter films – have worked hard on achieving something very close to the original. The hissing red steam train just inside the entrance has a conductor who, depending on whose shift it is, is either English or Scottish. Even the latter manages the sort of bonhomie that one may not encounter at Edinburgh Waverley station.

Next comes a stroll down Hogsmeade’s main street, lined with shops and hostelries. Some, such as Zonko’s joke shop, outfitters Dervish and Bangs, and Honeydukes sweet shop, are tastefully camouflaged merchandising opportunities, others are just there for show. Inside the Owlery and Owl Post, you can post a specially postmarked postcard or package. Look up into the rafters and they have even remembered to recreate the guano under every owl perch.

Ollivander’s dark and dusty wand shop is a little piece of theatre in itself. Having picked out a visitor, the shop owner delivers a wand selection spiel so touching that you might – mistakenly – think the lucky child is getting it for free. Actually, this one – birch with a core of dragonheart string, apparently – will be $28.95 plus tax.

Still, compared to the Nimbus Two Thousand broomsticks hanging up in Dervish and Bangs – $300 and they still don’t fly – it is a snip. In general, prices aren’t too alarming – $29.95 for a stuffed Hedwig owl with movable head, $14.95 for a battery operated Golden Snitch, $24.95 for a Voldemort plush toy for your little Death Eater in the push chair.

One would like to think it was Rowling who insisted on there being a real pub, the Hog’s Head, selling its own, real ale. If you can put up with the grunting boar’s head occasionally coming alive behind the bar, it is a pleasant spot for grown-ups to gather their wits. They should know that the other famous drink from Harry Potter – Butterbeer – may be best left to the children. Resort staff describe the search for the perfect Butterbeer recipe as an almost Arthurian quest that culminated in their taking over a Scottish hotel’s kitchen so they could reconstitute it for final approval from You Know Who. Yes, reconstitute it. Staff at the Three Broomsticks confirmed that making it is a two-part process in which the sugary, cream soda-ish drink is topped off with a marshmallowy head that doesn’t disintegrate but is hopefully biodegradable.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter – don’t let staff hear you call it anything like Potterland – has three rides. Two were existing Universal rides given a Potter makeover, the third is entirely new, technologically at the cutting edge and very much the must-do of the whole visit.

First, Flight of the Hippogriff neatly covers the Hagrid end of Hogwarts – a path winds through the half giant’s pumpkin patch, past his hut and past a nesting hippogriff. I forgot you have to bow to these creatures, in order to avoid offending them, but nothing happened. A sharp lash to the face would have been a nice touch but probably not in line with Florida state health and safety rules. The ride is moderately scary, which cannot be said of Dragon Challenge. This involves 68mph “dueling” rollercoasters that come within a foot of each other and may magically reunite you with your butterbeer.

Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey – the main attraction – is undeniably spectacular but unfortunately it is the sequel to Harry Potter And The Queue of Fire. Universal bosses, deservedly pleased with their creation, become vague when talk turns to crowd capacity and waiting times. The Forbidden Journey is a five-minute ride that essentially combines the animatronics of a very souped-up ghost train with the thrills of a video game.

Resort underlings admit privately that they anticipate that queuing could take up to five hours. For Potter fans who have persevered through 4,224 pages and what will be eight films, this may be a cinch. Just leave the wool robes at home.

Rather cleverly, the queue line wends much of its merry way through Hogwarts Castle. When you’ve done the dungeons (not much to see but at least it’s cool), you move into the main rooms and here the technological know-how makes itself felt. The talking portraits in the picture gallery are very good, ditto the projection of Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) giving a headmasterly address in his study.

Standing in front of him when I passed was a robed Ryan, 5th year Ravenclaw, and an embodiment of one good reason why this thing works better in the US than the UK. Unlike his no doubt self-conscious, rather cynical British counterpart, Ryan could not be shaken from his cheerful Hogwarts persona. And like the rest of the workers – some of whom have to sit written exams on their Potter knowledge – he knew his pepper imps from his pygmy puffs. All the children wanted to know was where Harry was, all the adults wanted to do was trick him out of his persona, he said. He had even learnt how to say “Potter” the British way.

Harry, Hermione and Ron are in the next room with some story I couldn’t quite catch, then it’s Gryffindor common room and then it’s straight past Dawn French in another talking portrait and into the Forbidden Journey home stretch. I don't want to give too much away, but there are dragons breathing real hot breath, giant spiders, Quidditch and Dementors. When you come out, into a shop naturally, you might need a stuffed goblin ($35) just to wipe the spider spit off your face.

Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry) and other stars of the films pitched up this week for an elaborate series of opening parties. Everyone says they are delighted. Tom Felton, who plays nasty Draco Malfoy, said Radcliffe “had been running around like a five-year-old, he was incredibly excited”. Felton, a theme park fanatic, said he thought WWoHP worked “because it’s a combination of technology and subtlety, asking you to discover things rather than shoving them in your face”.

The Muggles seem to agree. The real test of their fortitude is when the big crowds arrive from this weekend but it was very difficult to find visitor disgruntlement. Paul Mousley, a technical manager from Hartlepool, waiting disconsolately with his younger son for an hour and a quarter as his wife and other boy did Forbidden Journey, perhaps came closest.

“Not speaking too loudly but it’s got a bit of that American spin on what they think is old English but it’s very, very well done,” he said. His wife, Jan, emerged from the ride, overcome with superlatives.

Boris Johnson has complained that a Hogwarts theme park should be in Britain. Michael Coughlan, a sales manager from Bolton, shook his head. “I come to Orlando every year and it puts England to shame,” he said. “The cleanliness, the service, the efficiency. This would be a disaster in England, you mark my words.”

His children were delighted, but then they were all clutching newly acquired wands. Their highlights? The wands, Zonko’s, the singing toad choir. They hadn’t even done the rides.

As BP batters Florida tourism on the coast, HP should more than make up. WWoHP’s problem is not going to be that people won’t come but that too many come. Is it worth crossing the ocean for? Diehard Potter fans may say "Yes", others will be relieved by how much else there is to do both in Universal resort and nearby Disney World. As for prices, you can pre-book a two-week resort pass for just £79, but an express ticket to speed through queues works out as much £50 a day.

Describing the project, a Universal boss likes to quote Dumbledore saying something about there coming a time when we must choose between doing what is easy and what is right. The message is clear: shun ye olde air-conditioned tavern, get your wands out and get in line.

The opening:

DinoExpo, Geopark Naturtejo

Esqueletos, crânios de dinossauros, ovos, ninhos e ovos com embriões, garras e dentes vão invadir o Geopark Naturtejo, na maior exposição itinerante de Dinossáurios do Mundo, promovida pela empresa holandesa Creatures & Features. São cerca de 3000 m2 de descoberta, nesta fascinante viagem ao passado, que conta também com aves e os répteis voadores, contemporâneos dos “terríveis répteis”.
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Um destaque vai para a apresentação da escavação de um saurópode real, proveniente do Wyoming (E.U.A.).
Além de réplicas provenientes dos quatro cantos do mundo a DinoExpo mostra também fósseis reais de dinossauros de Portugal.
A exposição decorre de 27 de Março a 30 de Outubro.