Orlando, Fla. - Thousands of people waited in line for hours Friday to get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando
on its opening day, as Daniel Radcliffe and other stars from the movie greeted fans at the minipark.

Aerial photos of Universal Orlando showed thousands upon thousands of people in line. On Twitter and other forums, observers joked that the park had become "Harry Potter and the Endless Line."

Universal Orlando spokesman Tom Schroder said the park would not divulge attendance figures but he said 5,000 people were waiting to get in before the park even opened Friday morning.

The park was admitting guests to the 20-acre Wizarding World area in waves, so it did not appear overcrowded from the inside. But the line to enter the Wizarding World snaked all the way through Universal's Islands of Adventure park, where the Harry Potter area is located, to the Universal entrance at City Walk, according to Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com.

"It's absolutely jampacked," said Niles in a phone interview. "The entire Islands of Adventure theme park and City Walk are just one long queue to get into Harry Potter. The number of people here for this is clearly in the tens of thousands. These are passionate fans."