Last weekend, Universal Studios Hollywood stunned the Southern California theme park community by dropping the ropes to its brand new Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion almost a full two months before its scheduled opening date, for limited soft-open technical rehearsals.
Guests were first allowed into Hogsmeade Village around 3:00 PM on Friday, February 12th, and the preview has been running intermittently since then. In that time we’ve been amassing an exhaustive look at the intricately-detailed streets, shops, interiors, and storefronts of California’s first permanent Harry Potter-themed attraction.
In Part 1 of our video series exploring the West Coast Wizarding World, we’ll take a look at the streets and storefronts of Hogsmeade Village.
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These technical rehearsals have been running fairly smooth, and are a good way for Universal to gauge crowd reaction, ride operations, merchandise popularity, and other factors in launching a major theme park expansion.
Universal Studios Hollywood’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter officially opens on April 7th, but guests paying a visit to the park between now and then may very well get lucky…