USA Today has an exclusive video preview of the Diagon Alley expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. They also shared a bunch of new photos that can be seen in the gallery.
They detail the Escape from Gringotts ride:
inside Gringotts bank, after guests pass through the grand lobby, there’s a hallway with magical portraits and armor fit for goblins and trolls.
Turn the corner, and you realize you are in the office of Bill Weasley, who greets you in a similar way that Dumbledore does in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure. Then, you board souped-up elevators that make you feel as if you are going deep into the cavernous vaults.
Once you exit, there are massive stalactites above and 12-person ride vehicles, each with its own steam-pumping chimney. That is impressive in itself, but what about the ride?
“Is it part roller coaster, part 3-D-motion-based ride?” I ask.
Not exactly.
“It would be a real understatement to call it a roller coaster, because it does so much more,” Coup says. “It’s way beyond that.”
Here’s how it works: Riders put on 3-D glasses and race through a labyrinth of underground vaults, where they encounter the villainous Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldermort, Harry’s archrival.
At one point, “a troll grabs the vehicle and starts shaking it,” Coup says. At another point, hot lava surrounds guests just as the villains reappear in a full, 360-degree scene. It’s all thanks to 4K digital high-definition animation, state-of-the-art 3-D Infitec projection systems and live special effects.
It’s clearly very different from Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a wildly popular ride at Hogsmeade. The distinguishing factor: Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts “is thrilling and dynamic, but not as dynamic as Forbidden Journey because we wanted everyone to be able to ride it.”
We even get some new tidbits about the Hogwarts Express ride that connects the two worlds (Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade):
In a final stroke of brilliance, there’s the Hogwarts Express, which transports parkgoers from Hogsmeade Station to London’s King’s Cross Station and back. As you trundle along, you are treated to a four-minute Harry Potter movie made for this ride. Each carriage is “basically your own little audio theater,” Gilmore says. “The characters are all around you in this experience.”
[…]
Indeed. As I sat in a train carriage on the Hogwarts Express, with the sound of the engine rumbling and smoke bellowing outside, I started to feel less like a Muggle and more like a wizard.
