Case Study: Universal Expands with Diagon Alley- Harry Potter Section

By Madison Everett

History of Universal Studios On June 7, 1990 Universal Studios Florida theme park opened in Orlando, Florida. Universal Studios was designed so that the guests could ride the movies, and it features various types of attractions and shows for guests to watch. The rides are typically created with the actual creators of the films that the movies are based on, for example Steven Spielberg helped create E.T. Adventure. (Universal Studios Florida) When the park opened there were only 5 different themed areas and unfortunately in late summer of 1990 Universal started offering guest a temporary voucher to revisit the park when their popular attractions such as, Kongfrontation, Earthquake: The Big One and Jaws rides were working again. Later in the year they ended up closing down the Jaws ride for major technical problems in which they sued the designer and hires a new company to re-design the ride. (Universal Studios Florida) In 1999 Universal Studios opens Islands of Adventure right next door to the original Universal Studios Florida. Between 20022008 many of the older rides and attraction are being replaced with newer designs and movie themes, such as the ride Kongfrontation, Earthquake: The Big One was closed and replace with Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride creating a lot of devastated fans and controversy among them. Recently new rides have been added or have taken over existing rides in a revamp of the theme park, for example Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem replaced Jimmy Neutrons Nicktoon Blast, which helped keep the rides up to date. The Transformer Ride opened last year as well as a new gift shop and a meet and greet area featuring Megatron from Transformers.

In 2010 the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter would soon change Universal Studios Florida for the better. Changing an area of Islands of Adventure definitely sparked an interest so much that they have decided to expand once again with the same area in the other park calling in Diagon Alley, but this section would be connecting the two Universal Studio parks with the Hogwarts Express. The original area has an attraction that recreates the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There are other attractions include the Dragon Challenge, which was the Dueling Dragons formerly just given a new name and theme. A new roller coaster

is also in this Harry Potter area called Flight of Hippogriff and a re-creation of Hogsmeade, which contains gift shops and restaurants based off the series of Harry Potter books. Since the announcement of the expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Universal has stated they will be opening the new area as of summer 2014, which will consist of the Hogwarts Express taking guests from one park to another and also another roller coaster called Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. In Islands of Adventure now having three rides with two more opening this summer it is trying to keep guests in Universal Studios area as well, keeping it a balanced attendance in each side of the park. (Universal Studios Florida) The Expansion, Good or Bad? Of course as any business decision there is a good side and a bad side. With the first expansion we can see the attendance and revenue of the park increasing especially in year 2010 of the opening date as well as the year after, and now with Diagon Alley expansion planning to be finished construction this summer, how will the number of attendance project then? Universal Studios is comprised of two parks one being Universal Studios and the other being Islands of Adventure, which is where Hogsmeade is located and Diagon Alley, the new expansion is located in Universal Studios. When purchasing a ticket for the park you can purchase a regular single admission ticket for one park only for $96.00 and if you want a park hopper you would purchase a ticket for one day at $136.00, there is no adding fee to enter the

Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but if you were to enter Universal Studios side and want to see the original side in Islands of Adventure where Harry Potter is then you would need to either upgrade your ticket to enter the other side of the park or buy a new ticket with hopper. Also since the new expansion opening in summer 2014 you will be required to have a park hopper for both parks in order to ride the Hogwarts Express, which will create more revenue from those Harry Potter fans who need to ride the Hogwarts Express and visit the original side and the new side. Also if you would like early access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which is an hour before the park opens for everyone you need to purchase a package with hotel for 4 nights, 3-day tickets, it includes breakfast at the Three Broomsticks total costing around $505 per person for an on site hotel and $385 per person for a cheaper hotel off property. This could create more revenue for the hotels seeing as though the major Harry Potter fans will want that early access and the only way to obtain it is to buy a hotel and ticket package.

this one blows a giant ball of fire. It is also stated by Brook Barnes of the New York Times that, Nearly four years after opening, the attraction is still so popular that visitors routinely wait more than an hour just to get into a shop that sells wands. (Barnes) This shows the popularity of the section of the park and in Diagon Alley the new expansion there are not only two new rides, but there will be eight new shops, one of which is a second Ollivanders wand shop, due to the popularity of the first one. Also you will be expecting to see a new restaurant called Leaky Cauldron that is also based off the famous J. K. Rowlings fiction series. Leaky Cauldron has made public some of the food being offered at the restaurant, which includes Bangers & Mash, cheese plate, traditional British delicacies, Chocolate Potted Cream, Apple Red Currant Tart, and a variety of different cookies. All the restaurants have food which relates to the actually food in the books, allowing the guests to feel as though they are living out of the book. The new expansion of Diagon Alley has also made the need for Universal to employ 60 designers on the sequel, compared with 18 on the original. (Barnes) It also created more opportunities for construction seeing as though it was such a large expansion cost around $400 million to complete. (Barnes) With the cost and hiring more people to drive the expenses up even more will the expansion be a positive light for Universal Studios as a whole? Surrounding theme parks such as Disney, SeaWorld, and LEGOLAND could be affected by this new opening of the Diagon Alley. Since the opening of Hogsmeade in Wizarding World of Harry Potter on the Islands of Adventure side there has been a 30 percent increase in attendance and according to Themed Entertainment Association, Islands of Adventure has annual attendance of about eight million; Universal Studios has a bit more than six million. (Barnes) To compare, the Magic Kingdom at Disney World annually attracts 17.5 million guests. (Barnes) This attendance was only when the first section of Harry Potter was open, now what about the second one, if they both rose to 8 million they wouldnt be far off from the Magic Kingdom. SeaWorld is only at a 5.3 million annual attendance putting them third highest because LEGOLAND is around 1.6 million people in attendance annually. When you rank them Universal seems as though they are doing a lot better than when they first opened the park gates.

Diagon Alley is explained to be a huge crisscrossing maze with winding streets and five-story tall building surrounding them as you walk through. (Barnes) In Diagon Alley theres even a Gringotts Wizarding Bank and one of the two rides being added send you plunging into the dark vaults with a fire-breathing dragon. (Barnes) No ordinary dragon though

What else is in store for Universal? There are Hogsmeade from Wizarding World of Harry Potter being built in Hollywood, California and Tokyo, Japan, but nothing has been release about the design or appearance of these expansions. Seeing as the Orlando expansion went so well we will have to see how the expansion affects the other areas. Universal also opened a new Cabana Bay Resort this week. (Tuckwood) This new resort features a 10,000-square-foot zero entry pool with iconic dive tower waterslide, 10-lane bowling alley, the Jack LaLanne Physical Fitness Studio, family suites that sleep up to six and much more. (Tuckwood) The Cabana Bay Resort has

Universal is expanding and upgrading all over the area not just with Diagon Alley and the Harry Potter section of the park. Making improvements can help allow new guests to see the parks differently as well as old guest who have been going there for years. Universal has made strides since their opening day and people have definitely noticed and they have attracted some serious Harry Potter fans and soon to be more. Questions? 1. Do you believe revenues will rise once Diagon Alley is opened, as well as attendance, or do you believe it will be the same group of people coming making the attendance stay the same? 2. Could Universal struggle to wow their guests this time with the opening of Diagon Alley because the first opening of Hogsmeade was so spectacular? 3. Could this Harry Potter be a trend that will eventually phase out causing the attendance of the parks to drop? 4. Will expanding to the two other locations of Hollywood, California and Tokyo, Japan take away attendance from Universal Orlando?

1,800 rooms half of which are family suites and have kitchenettes and the bathrooms even have three sinks. This is the fourth hotel on-site for Universal Orlando Resort. The resort even has a massive food court area called Bayliner Diner. Also this summer there will be a lazy river opening this summer with even more for families and kids to do. (Tuckwood)

5. Are people going to be frustrated that they have to buy multi park tickets that cost $40 more in order to ride a ride? 6. Do you believe other parks in the area will be affect when Diagon Alley opens, such as Disney Parks and SeaWorld? 7. Should Universal Studios consider this theme of Harry Potter for a new completely separate park idea?