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The South Florida Water Management District today approved plans for Universal Orlando to extend the queue of their popular Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. The plans call for a new outdoor path to be constructed alongside Hogwarts castle, attached to the existing queue, allow more guests to line up to ride.
Since its debut in June 2010, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has drawn large crowds of fans and theme park patrons interested in being transported to the worlds created in the popular movie and book series. Now it seems Universal wants to offer even more room for these crowds to spread out when visiting.
The plans read as follows:
“The proposed pavement areas associated with this application will be used as an additional sidewalk/queue area on the east side of Building 245 to route and stage park guests waiting for access to the Building 245 attraction.”
“Building 245” that the application from Universal Studios refers to is the show building for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
Below is the approved drawing of the new pathway:
Using that drawing, I composited the shape of the new path over the location where it will be built on the aerial photo below, from Google Maps:
The large white building is “Building 245”, the main structure for Forbidden Journey. The upper-right of that building is the facade for Hogwarts castle. The white, winding area to the right of the facade will be the new path.
The construction application confirms this location with a similar graphic:
It’s not clear as to what exactly this path will be used for. The current path leading into Hogwarts castle allows riders to enter the regular standby line as well as a single rider line, when available. The new path appears to join directly to the existing “greenhouse” area of the queue, so perhaps it will act as an exist for those wishing to get out of line without having to backtrack through the initial castle hallway.
The path is not a major addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it’s still interesting to see how the landscape will change. The application was first submitted by Universal Orlando in late May but it’s not clear as to when construction will begin now that it’s been approved.
Video: Take a walk through the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey queue as it appeared before it officially opened in 2010. The new path will be in addition to what you see below.
