Dani, Matt "Stew", Anthony, Cassandra, Hye Mi, Tom, Rebecca and Katherine
Our second day in Orlando was another early start, but this time instead of an airport we were making our way to a theme park!
We are designing a magical experience for children and families that takes place in an indoor, low-light situation. Where can we possibly perform research into existing, applicable work? Why, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios of course! This visit was the cherry on the cake of an already amazing project.
There are some obvious fundamental differences between Harry Potter and the Star Fairy program, including but not limited to: the amount and awareness of backstory involved in the creation of the experience, the amount of time and money available, the fundamental needs and wishes of the guests. Universal may have had a massive budget to build the Wizarding World, but they also had extremely defined constraints to work within. We won’t be constructing an entire castle (we already have one after all!) but we do get a huge amount of creative freedom in designing the richest, most engaging experience we can dream up.
Naturally, we explored the rest of the park as well. Spiderman took us on a trip through New York City, we got lost in the wilds of Jurassic Park, took a stroll through the Truffula forests and stopped by the desert paradise of Margaritaville for lunch. And, of course, being students at the ETC we had to analyze every second of it but despite what some people may think, this kind of work doesn’t get old.
