We all know about the fairy tales of Harry Potter, well you can revive your memories of them inside Harry Potter Theme Parks.
Beginning Of Harry Potter In Amusement Parks
This article details the appearance of Harry Potter theming in amusement parks. In the late 1990s, Universal Parks and Resorts began discussing the possibility of purchasing the license for Harry Potter to create and theme amusement park rides.
As Time Warner owns the license, a small walkthrough attraction was constructed at Warner Bros.
Movie World called the Harry Potter Movie Magic Experience in 2001. This attraction was removed two years later. In 2010, Universal’s Islands of Adventure park opened The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Similar attractions have also opened in Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan and are planned for Universal Studios Beijing.
Top 7 Harry Potter Theme Parks
• Universal Orlando Resort
Universal Orlando Resort, commonly known as Universal Orlando or simply Universal, formerly Universal Studios Escape, is an American theme park and entertainment resort complex based in Orlando, Florida.
The resort is operated by Universal Parks & Resorts, a division of Comcast’s NBCUniversal. Universal Orlando is the second-largest resort in Greater Orlando, after nearby Walt Disney World Resort. Universal Orlando covers 541 acres of land.
Universal Orlando consists of two theme parks (Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure), an on-site waterpark (Volcano Bay), an on-site entertainment district (Universal CityWalk), eight Loews Hotels (Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel, Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Cabana Bay Beach Resort, Loews Sapphire Falls Resort, Universal’s Aventura Hotel, Endless Summer Dockside Inn and Suites and Surfside Inn and Suites), and it will soon add a new theme park (Epic Universe) with an accompanying hotel.
Universal Orlando is one of the most visited resorts in the world with an annual attendance of 21 million in 2017.
• The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter Park
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area based on the Harry Potter series built at Universal Parks & Resorts’ Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, Japan.
Not to be confused with Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter at Leavesden Studios, it is a collaboration of Universal Parks & Resorts and Warner Bros. Entertainment. It opened to the public on July 15, 2014.
It contains the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride and the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster that debuted at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort in 2010.
The village of Hogsmeade is also recreated. Two features in the Japanese park not found in Orlando are Hogwarts’s Black Lake and live owls.
• Universal Islands Of Adventure Park
Universal’s Islands of Adventure (also known as Islands of Adventure or IOA), originally called Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida.
It opened on May 28, 1999, along with CityWalk, as part of an expansion that converted Universal Studios Florida into the Universal Orlando Resort. The resort’s slogan Vacation Like You Mean It was introduced in 2013.
Islands of Adventure is modeled after a journey of exploration, where guests embark on an adventure to visit a variety of themed islands. Initially, the park featured six islands.
A seventh, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, was added in 2010, themed to the highly successful Harry Potter franchise.
It was Universal’s largest investment since the resort’s founding in 1990. The expansion led to a significant increase in attendance, and in 2013, Islands of Adventure ranked seventh domestically and eleventh internationally after hosting approximately 8.1 million guests.
The eighth island, Skull Island, opened on July 13, 2016, and is themed to the King Kong franchise.
• Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida (also known as Universal Studios or USF) is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida.
Primarily themed to movies, television and other aspects of the entertainment industry, the park opened to the public on June 7, 1990.
It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal and features numerous rides, attractions and live shows.
Universal Studios Florida was the first component of the larger Universal Orlando Resort to open, ranking eleventh in the world and sixth in North America for attendance among amusement parks in 2019 while hosting approximately 10.9 million visitors.
In addition to the theme park aspect, early design focused on providing guests with a behind-the-scenes look at film and television.
A significant portion of the park operated as an active production studio. As producers and filmmakers showed a lack of interest in filming onsite in Orlando, Universal’s approach evolved, transitioning to a first-person perspective for its heavily themed rides, areas and attractions.
The resort eventually expanded with the introduction of two additional theme parks, Universal’s Islands of Adventure in 1999 and Volcano Bay in 2017 as well as the restaurant and retail epicenter Universal CityWalk that also opened in 1999.
• The Wizard World Of Harry Potter
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a themed area at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles.
The area is themed to the Harry Potter media franchise, adapting elements from the film series and novels by J.K. Rowling.
The attraction—the second Harry Potter-themed area to exist at a Universal resort—was designed by Universal Creative from an exclusive license with Warner Bros. Entertainment.
After the successful debut of a similarly themed area at Universal Orlando Resort, Universal Parks & Resorts announced the construction of a second Wizarding World of Harry Potter on December 6, 2011.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Park at Universal Studios Hollywood officially began operation on April 7, 2016.
This attraction suspended operations on 14 March 2020 on grounds of COVID-19 pandemic.
• Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a film studio and Harry Potter theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. About 70% of the studio lies within the unincorporated county island known as Universal City while the rest lies within the city limits of Los Angeles, California.
It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood film studios still in use. Its official marketing headline is “The Entertainment Capital of LA”.
It was initially created to offer tours of the real Universal Studios sets and is the first of many full-fledged Universal Studios Theme Parks located across the world.
Outside the theme park, a new, all-digital facility near the Universal Pictures backlot was built in an effort to merge all of NBCUniversal’s West Coast operations into one area.
As a result, the current home for KNBC, KVEA and NBC News with Noticias Telemundo Los Angeles Bureaus with new digital facility is on the Universal lot formerly occupied by Technicolor SA.
Universal City includes hotels Universal Hilton & Towers, the Sheraton Universal Hotel, and Universal CityWalk, which offers a collection of shops, restaurants, an 18-screen Universal Cinema and a seven-story IMAX theater.
In 2017, the park hosted 9.056 million guests, ranking it 15th in the world and 9th among North American parks.
• Universal Studios Japan
Universal Studios Japan located in Osaka, is one of six Universal Studios theme parks, owned and operated by USJ LLC[3], which is wholly owned by NBCUniversal (as of 2017).
The park is similar to the Universal Orlando Resort since it also contains selected attractions from Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.
The park opened on 31 March 2001. Over 11 million guests visited the park in its opening year, making it the world’s fastest amusement park to have achieved the 10 million milestone at the time.
Since then, Universal Studios Japan has had approximately 8 million visitors every year. It is one of the three Universal Studio theme parks in Asia, the other two being Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Beijing.
The Harry Potter Theme Parks listed above are few of the best themed area based on the Harry potter’s series in Parks and resort’s.
