- Feb 15, 2012
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Yes, and probably 0 before June 1st. I really think we'll look back at these "projections" and laugh.
Diagon Alley Soft Opening Watch
- Thread starter neoshinok
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Yes, and probably 0 before June 1st. I really think we'll look back at these "projections" and laugh.
Those of you who live there will be laughing. The rest of us, not so much, as we had to start making vacation plans weeks or months ago. Some firm dates and actual communication would be really appreciated at this point.
Well, you're never going to get soft opening dates. If you're looking to definitely go in, book after June.
- Feb 15, 2012
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I'm from Cleveland and we had mid June chosen as a date in December. I booked my airfare in February. Goby plz
- Feb 15, 2012
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June 16th, June 18th, and June 20th have been dates I've heard. I believe it will open sometime that week. I also believe it will have some sort of soft openings in June, but nothing announced before hand.
My frustration comes from unrealistic expectations being put out that are completely out of left field.
Opening date should hopefully be announced this week on the Today Show.
Just remember that if they announce any dates, it'll be a grand opening date. They never announce previews or soft openings.
So, tomorrows announcement will pertain only to "Harry Potter and the Slaughter of Guests via Gringotts"?
Since when? They even sold packages for it back in 2010. You know, is there a reason for all the secrecy and possible no previews by both Disney and Universal this year? Because if there is, I'm not understanding. Something is different about this year. It feels like there's some reason behind the scenes at both parks that they're not telling us.
The Potter material is supposed to be spread out throughout the week, no? So I'm thinking there might be other stuff that they will show, but tomorrow seems to be all about Gringotts. And don't forget to watch the Universal blog, as well, where they are also gonna be revealing stuff!
They didn't announce soft openings back in 2010. Regardless, you can throw whatever they did for Phase 1 out the window. For example, the vacation packages you're referring to, which included early entry to the WWoHP, were sold months and months in advance, and here we are, barely a month to go before it officially opens and they have not done anything of the sort. They know this will be successful and they don't need to make the same efforts as with Phase 1 when they were still uncertain. After the huge success of Phase 1, everything changed. But back to my main point, soft openings are controlled situations for the TMs to get training and to work out any kinks in operations, so they cannot announce them because it would create mass chaos of people lining up with expectations and demands that they may not be able to satisfy. They will even deny any soft openings until the moment they decide to have them, and even then there are no guarantees of who gets in or for how long. So do not expect soft openings to be announced. The most we might get are leaks from TMs mentioning when they will be working, or #PotterWatch alerts as softs are happening.
They didn't sell packages for soft openings last time. They sold packages for when they thought it would be open.
:stunned: What?
Which is why everyone wants to know the exact grand opening date, as any soft openings are likely to be held in the days (weeks?) prior to that date.
But no, they didn't sell vacation packages to soft openings. They had originally intended Hogsmeade to be open by then. But they did allow on-site hotel guests - both those who had purchased the vacation packages and those who hadn't - to attend soft openings in the mornings. That was pretty much set. As for the unannounced openings, those occurred as you described; there were no announcements and they shooed those waiting around, claiming that there would be no soft opening that day all the way up until the moment there was. This is why Orlando locals are so interested in the grand opening date and TM soft dates. As for on-site hotel guests, well, there's no guarantee, and there are no obvious reasons for Universal to include them in any morning soft openings this time around other than the fact that they (unintentionally, perhaps) established a precedent last time. But on-site hotel guests who become aware of any public morning soft openings will be expecting to be included via early park access.
Theoretically, they have already been trained offsite, so they merely need to get their bearings within each venue. I would think that ride employees have already been trained off hours in the mummy load area. So, it will be safety training and familiarity with emergency exits etc. that remain.
- Jul 14, 2010
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As several people have already said they didn't sell packages for soft openings. They picked a date months out, and they missed. They thought the area would be open. Soft openings are never announced, so to answer your since when question, since always. The open whenever they are ready and they close whenever they need to. If you announce something you create an expectation of the area being open, and it may not be. It would also generate larger crowds which they are not looking for as they ease into operation.
The way UO does their training (and the way safety and legal will sign off on it) doesn't allow this to happen. For attractions already open they go back and fourth between book work (reading the manual) and hands on. For new rides that's not really an option because you don't want to take the ride away from construction/testing that long. So they tend to do a few days of classroom work followed by a few days of hands on training, and for the hands on training to count it has to be at the actual ride (couldn't substitute Spider-Man for Transformers, Fish for Twirl, Woody for Hippogriff, ect). All that being said they can get everyone trained in a week.
It just strikes me as very odd that both Disney and Universal are acting like they just want to fling open the doors on the grand opening day and let the chaos begin, with no lighter period of some guests like passholders or limited softs testing it. What could go wrong? lol
- Jul 14, 2010
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They both want to open their rides ASAP, but they need them to be done first.
- Feb 15, 2012
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This is how it is always. They have an opening day. They do softs that are unannounced. Seriously guys is this your first rodeo?
What I'm saying is, yes I acknowledge that softs are not officially announced, that's not in question (although we can argue semantics about Universal selling packages for months back in 2010 knowing full well those were going to be soft openings for those people, and those people knowing it too). What IS in question though, is that usually this close to a grand opening we know a little bit more, either officially or unofficially, and some previews are known for certain groups. Like for instance for the mine train, with its grand opening on the 28th, 15 days from now, it will be pretty hard to organize and get a passholder preview together in this time frame. And not even any word of general castmember previews (although I'm not a castmember so I may be out of the loop). And same for Diagon Alley, here we are about 30-40 days from the supposed grand opening, and we've heard next to nothing, even through the grapevine, lol. I'm inclined to believe Nitro_230 that these attractions just aren't ready yet, and it will be right up to the wire to have them ready for the summer season.
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