Image by bluemoose via FlickrWe've been waiting for the theme park to open up patiently at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and began our searching through blogs for pictures of the construction.
We found slews of news stories to tease us of possible equipment to be included in the ride. Sounds like this roboarm or Strong Arm, actually did win out in the end.
As launch approached and the fanfare started, we tried to find clips of what the park looked like from the inside! The numbers grew really fast. Walk throughs of the shops and long loving looks at window displays, but we wanted to see the good stuff. We were looking for the big ride.
Even on opening day it took the bloggers a while to get the 'ride through' clips posted. We had already seen a few videos of the que. The line show where you walk the grounds of Hogwarts, explore the halls, chat with the paintings, get the ride story from visions of the characters themselves, but it took another day or so to see the videos from inside the ride itself.
We'd been enjoying video clips of rides at other parks. Sharing stories of the evolution of the Jaws ride at Universal Studios. (The first year it opened, the boat skipper blew the shark up into big bloody-looking pink floating chunks of shark meat. It was closed up pretty quickly.) There are so many good stories. The girls like hearing about the rides that have closed too.
Image via WikipediaBut I must get back to the thread... We were searching for the clips that showed the inside of the ride itself. After finally finding it I was terribly disappointed. NOT in the ride, but in the ability of the riders to be able to capture the ride on video. They couldn't! It was too dark. Too fast. Too much for the little cameras to capture it all. It was even almost too much for the microphones to handle.
This is the clip we finally saw that freaked everyone out a bit. It's a spoiler so don't click on it if you want to stay in the dark. (Which is kind of a joke, because half of it IS just blackness!)
What I learned was that perhaps the little ones need a little more time to age before we embark to Hogwarts. I'd hte to get them there and not feel comfortable letting them ride the Big Ride. What a let down that would be. But, man, I can't wait. And after a year or so, they'll have some of the bugs (not the good ones, they promise) worked out. Getting stuck on this one seems like it would be a blast too.
Looking forward to the day we get to go. This explains how we got ourselves distracted and started enjoying the D23 clips. The anticipation may be more fun than some of the rides and places themselves. The dreams of princesses and dragons will have to do. We have the books. And all the other books with no rides and theme parks.
I think we'll be fine as we wait.
To read all of the posts in this series, click on the keyword "wonder". I reserved that word for this series. Enjoy!
[Link to the Harry Potter wiki for more details.]
