Harry Potter Theme Park Opens in Florida

Over at the Guardian, Georgia Brown got an advance look at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new theme park in Univeral’s Isands of Adventure space.

The park (pictured, via) took six years and $200 million to open. How does it look? Here’s Brown, on the scene: “At the entrance to The Wizarding World … visitors are welcomed through a stone arch into Hogsmeade village by a steam-blowing Hogswarts Express train. Before them stretches a scene straight out of the movies: crooked-chimneyed Olde English shops crowd along a winding street, their snow-capped roofs glistening in the Florida sunshine.

The main attraction in the park is the Forbidden Journey ride, wherein guests sit on a magical bench that “drops, spins and twists in time with the on-screen action.” Wired.com has numerous pictures of the new park; the Guardian has a few more. We gotta admit, Harry Potter lends itself pretty well to the theme park treatment. Are there any other books that could pull this off?

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.