ORLANDO, Florida -- Escape From Gringotts is one hell of a ride, a technologically awesome thrill that puts you in the middle of Harry Potter's dramatic break in and escape from the wizarding world's Fort Knox.
The centerpiece of the new Diagon Alley expansion to the fantastic Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park sends you on a daring dash through the bank's underground vaults. You spin and whirl down the track, riding past massive 3-D projection screens (yes, you wear glasses) on which the heroes and villains of J.K. Rowling's epic series act out the story.
But it is much more than a roller coaster, or even a motion-simulation-in-front-of-a-big-screen ride experience. Since you're actually riding a kinetic, fast-moving cart that dips and makes hairpin turns, it feels more like you're actually part of the action projected on the screen. The combination of real and special FX is powerful.
When it works.
WIRED was lucky enough to experience the ride before it went kaput during this week's media blitz. After a series of glitches---including one that left us stranded on the tracks for 10 minutes---park brass shut the ride down early Wednesday evening, and didn't run it at all Thursday. That raises questions about whether Universal Studios will have things sorted out before the July 8 opening.
Much like “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey,” which wound would-be riders through all the halls of Hogwarts before they got onto the ride, the line to get into Gringotts is entertaining all by itself. You begin by walking into the main lobby of the bank, which is situated right at the crossroads of the various streets that make up Diagon Alley. The buildings spill out at all angles except right ones, filled top to bottom with intricately lettered signs and lively window displays, every detail painstakingly true to the source material. It's like stepping onto the movie set.
In the lobby are remarkable animatronic goblins, the bank's tellers, that are---what's the word for it?---freaky. They'll occasionally look up from their work in the bank's ledgers and stare at you wordlessly. (If you want to actually interact with a goblin, there's one in the Gringotts currency exchange building down the street that will actually answer questions that are posed to it.)
Past the lobby, a long hallway filled with desks and other office furniture has copies of the Daily Prophet, the wizarding world's newspaper, complete with magical moving photographs. Further down the way you'll enter the office of Bill Weasley, older brother of Harry's ginger pal Ron. We don't actually see much of Harry, Ron and Hermione on the Gringotts ride, come to think of it. But Bill gets more screen time here in a hologram sequence than he ever did in all eight films.
After this, an "elevator" takes you down, down, down without actually moving you anywhere at all, a combination of clever video and hydraulic effects. Then you're ready to get on the cart and ride it into the unknown.
For all the flash, Gringotts didn't feel as thrilling as "Forbidden Journey," which has similar effects and even flips you right upside down at some points. And as fearsome as the video projections of Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) are at the climax of "Gringotts," the Dementor attacks in "Forbidden Journey" are much scarier. (Maybe because you're upside down.) But Gringotts' gentler nature carries with it a significantly lower height requirement, meaning more kids can join in the excitement.
