An end to America's decades-long new (Tier I) park drought is on the horizon.
My drawing is an amalgamation of the artwork, plans & models that have surfaced on the internet, with some personal flourishes. The two major influences - the key artwork above and the Drainage Plan - differ somewhat, so I've had to select elements from each for this drawing.
Feel free to comment any thoughts or corrections on what is what.
CELESTIAL GARDENS
The curvy pathways and water features that form the spine of the park seem to have a SciFi-Victorian (i.e., Discoveryland) style which looks appealing in the artwork. Here's hoping reality measures up to the feeling conjured by the art. Kudos to the designers for creating a unique path/park layout - it's something different than anything that has come before.
The Helios Grand Hotel will dominate the park, so many of the important vistas will live or die on the hotel's design & execution. It would be great if Universal can buck the current trend and create an architecturally-great hotel building (last one was 2001's Mira Costa).
Another cool aspect of the overall park is that there are plans for similarly-shaped-but-appropriately-themed "Spire-Portals" at the entrance of each land (all but the Wizarding World one are visible in the art). Each seems to have a silhouette echoing a castle:
WIZARDING WORLD - PARIS
The art shows that the third Wizarding World in Orlando is planned to look like classic Paris. With London & New York already represented in the Universal Studios, it makes sense to tackle a 3rd Great City of the World in this park.
Clearly, the original plan was based on the Fantastic Beasts series being a creative & commercial home-run. Since that hasn't been the case, will Universal cut bait on the Fantastic Beasts connection (as I wish Disney had done with the Abrams trilogy) or change the timeframe & locale of this wizarding world entirely? It already appears the rumored "Broomstick simulator" is in limbo.
The key art reflects that the Paris of Grindelwald didn't feature much in the way of highly-stylized locales such as Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. I wonder if Universal Creative and WB Art Directors take it upon themselves to invent a slanting, "wizarded"-version of the streets of Paris?
MONSTERLAND
Over the years I've drawn a number of Classic Monster lands for various Uni illustrative plans, so I'm excited that one is finally coming to fruition. The artwork, plan and model found on the web show somewhat varying takes for this land. For this drawing I went with the enclosed theater in the south. I've seen a stunt show or a return of Graveyard Revue speculated. I was thinking a Biergarten-type entertainment/dining venue could be a part of the village.
The art and model show the center of the land will have a Camp Jurassic/TSI style explore area, with rope bridges, caves and such.
NINTENDO WORLD
The version of this area that I've drawn is a near clone of the Osaka park's land, slightly-reconfigured. There is a little more space to the land in Orlando which allowed me to add flourishes in the form of Bowser's Airship near his castle and a temple-themed light dining venue in Kong Country.
Perplexingly, the key art shows a markedly different (City) theme to the area than Japan's Mushroom Kingdom. The key art & my plan also include a Spire Portal that is much more elaborate than the Osaka entrance. An artificial hillside conceals the showbuilding from the hub.
ISLE OF BERK
While the available art does not indicate the towering rock spires that the define the island in the movies, in this plan, upon emerging from the Portal into the land, you would to see the two carved statues on the water in the foreground framing the main spire on the far side, beyond the viking ships and village, as in the artwork below:
The building on which I've placed the main spire is a question mark. The footprint of the building and the existence of only one other eatery of any size near the Splash Battle would indicate that this facility has to be a major indoor dining venue, which is what I've labeled. However, there are rumors this is some kind of simulator ride, such as the vertical 4-bay simulator as seen in the above art. This might account for the small footprint and give a need for the tall rockwork spire I've included, but likely wishful thinking.
The land has an assortment of other attractions: a skyfly, a splash battle, an explore zone, and a coaster. At the bottom of the land, I added as second landmark spire (and other smaller ones) atop the large theater building that supposedly will house a headliner show featuring giant puppet dragons & special FX.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Rumors from site OrlandoParkStop suggest plans are already in flux from the original ones they first presented. So it will be interesting to revisit this drawing when construction is at a midpoint and the opening day menu is set in stone. Regarding my filling in the large expansion pads... that will be also be a future effort. Some vague IP lands have occurred to me (LotR, Zelda, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) and I have seen others' suggestions (Jurassic World, Classic Universal, Pokemon, Illumination, etc.). I encourage readers to imagine & draw their own expansions.
