Still, those who braved opening day came prepared to wait. Blythe and Paige Passantino, sisters from Charlotte, N.C., were among the throng of people who assembled before dawn hoping to be among the first to pass under the sign reading “Please Respect the Spell Limits” and soak in the experience. It was “so much better than I could have imagined it,” said Paige Passantino, 18.

Image Visitors who waited 35 minutes outside Ollivander’s Wand Shop could spend five minutes inside trying out spells. Credit... Scott Audette/Reuters

Blythe Passantino, 21, followed with a tearful admission of her own: “I really wanted to live here; it was so much better than our real lives.”

The recession has hammered theme parks nationwide, but Universal Orlando  comprising Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, three hotels and a shopping district  has suffered more than most. Years of little investment left it increasingly unable to compete with Disney, which dominates the market with four major parks. Even SeaWorld has pulled ahead.

Attendance in 2009 dropped 10 percent at Universal Studios Florida, to 5.5 million, compared with a year earlier, according to analysts. The newer Islands of Adventure fared even worse, with attendance down 11 percent, to 4.6 million. Combined food, beverage and merchandise sales plummeted nearly 20 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to analysts.

NBC Universal, which co-owns Universal Orlando with the Blackstone Group, hopes the Wizarding World, built at an estimated cost of $265 million, will raise annual attendance by over 10 percent. (Universal licensed the Harry Potter park rights from Warner Brothers; Wizarding World is based on the visual landscapes of the films that Warner Brothers produced.)