Harry Potter in Orlando

Orlando is getting its very own Harry Potter Theme Park. Announced last May, and expected to open in late 2009, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Universal Orlando Resort are partnering to create the world’s first fully immersive Harry Potter themed environment based on the bestselling books by J.K. Rowling and blockbuster feature films from Warner Bros. Desribed as a “theme park within a theme park” and titled “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” the new environment will become part of the experience within Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park at the Universal Orlando Resort.

The attractions are to include a giant recreation of Rowling’s fictional Hogwarts Castle, a permanently snow-covered Hogsmeade village, the Forbidden Forest and a Hogwarts Express that will steam away from Platform 9 and 3/4.

The village, with steep-roofed slate-and-stone buildings will boast “experiential shops and restaurants” selling cauldrons and broomsticks, wands, magic potions and Harry Potter-themed meals.
Across the park, through “immersive rides and interactive attractions”, fans will be confronted with characters and scenes from Rowling’s epic story.

Computerised special effects will display figures looking like real characters but which will disappear in a flash.