Harry Potter Experience Has an Official Date

Polish up your snitches and tell your owl: Universal Studio Hollywood's newest attraction debuts in April.

Some may claim we're cynics, living in a cynical world, but there exists a realm that's only full of hope and positive feeling and enchanted sorcery and promises delivered.

That realm is the universe of Harry Potter, natch. So when one heard that the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the themed land set to open at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2016, would open in the springtime, the quick-to-suppose cynic side of ourselves may have thought "well, it's surely late spring, like the middle of June."

But the Potter-magic-believing side of ourselves thought "it's probably in the beginning of the season, like, early April."

Early April it is, believers of magic and lovers of promises delivered and all non-cynics of the world. Thursday, April 7, 2016, to be exact, with the "7" part adding just a pinch more good luck to a universe already brimming with fine fortune.

And, yes, if you drove by Universal City in the dark-sky hours ahead of the announcement, you may have really seen the Hogwart's castle in full illumination, in honor of the day's auspicious news.

So what's inside? So much magical-o-sity, from Hogsmeade, to a ye olde pub, to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a ride incorporating "hyper-realistic 3D-HD" technology. Shoppes include Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment, Dervish and Banges, and Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods.

We'll raise a butterbeer to all that, and to an opening date that falls near the opening of spring. For so long Harry Potter fans kept "spring 2016" in their hearts, not daring to hope that the date would truly fall on the front side of that equation.

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Tell your hearts it is so, Potterians. And climb aboard, if you will, the Hogwarts Express, where a conductor will lead you on a virtual tour into Wizarding World. Toot toot and full steam and so on and so forth.

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