Harry Potter or Marvel - which to hit first?

[bgulbro]

I am visiting IOA on June 17 with my family, which includes two boys - one who is really into HP and one who is really into the Marvel Super Heroes. We will not be staying at a Universal resort, nor will we have an Express Pass. Assuming that we will be arriving at the gates an hour prior to general public admission, would you recommend heading to the Harry Potter side first, or hitting the Marvel side and waiting until later in the day to do HP when the crowds will be less?

 

[macraven]

parry hotter.

 

[Lynne G]

parry hotter.

And, if your into wands, do the wand show first, then ride Forbidden Journey. The lines for the wand show are long, even during the early entry hour, and if it's hot out, there's little to no shade in the line.

Spend the early entry hour enjoying the HP area. There's lots to look at. Then, when the parks open, go right to Spiderman. Not a long line when park is first open. Plus, you can use the hotel's express pass. Though go through the regular spidy line at least once, there's more to see than in the express line.

Have a great time!

 

[bgulbro]

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my original post - we are not staying at a Universal resort so we won't have early admission. I meant that we were planning on getting to the gates an hour before they open to the general public so that we would be one of the first non-resort guests into the park.

 

[RMulieri]

Still head to Harry Potter first and do the wand show.The line for that only gets longer and is outside in the hot sun.Forbidden journeys line is touring thru the Hogwarts castle and is cooler.Plus the ride loads continuously so the waits are not bad.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

We always go in and head straight for Harry Potter and we don't do the wand show so we go right to Forbidden Journey.

Here is a tip, if you have never been before keep this in mind to save yourself some time...when you go in and head to the right to go towards Seuss land (that is how you get to HP) as soon as you cross the bridge into Seuss land take an immediate left and you will bypass having to walk all the way through Seuss land. It is a shortcut that first timers usually don't know about unless they read the boards a lot. You can't miss it. Just cross the bridge and go left. If you continue to walk straight it will take you all the way through Seuss.

Also another tip...Dragon Challenge (the coaster) and Hippogriff (the small coaster) always have wait times a lot shorter than Forbidden Journey so I would do FJ at least once before doing the other two rides.

Also another tip, if you have never ridden Forbidden Journey before it might make you dizzy or queasy if you get motion sick. Wait until after you ride FJ before getting a Butterbeer. Just so your stomach doesn't get upset from the motion of the ride. (Frozen Butterbeer is way better than liquid Butterbeer) =)

 

[Metro West]

I am visiting IOA on June 17 with my family, which includes two boys - one who is really into HP and one who is really into the Marvel Super Heroes. We will not be staying at a Universal resort, nor will we have an Express Pass. Assuming that we will be arriving at the gates an hour prior to general public admission, would you recommend heading to the Harry Potter side first, or hitting the Marvel side and waiting until later in the day to do HP when the crowds will be less?

I'm going to be the lone wolf here and say wait until later in the day for HP. Park hours that day are 9-9 so you'll have plenty of time later in the day to explore HP. The problem with hitting HP first thing is you'll have all the onsite guests who had early admission to deal with as well as the majority of guests waiting to enter through the gates. The rest of the park should be basically empty so you will have very short lines elsewhere. I think you should forget about HP until evening...let those people come and go and then you can experience HP. Plus it's really cool at night!

 

[cjenlowe]

I also think a change of strategy may be in order. Last year we went back to HP right at opening and had to wait an hour because of on site guests. By the time we went back to hulk and spiderman, each had almost an hour wait. This year at opening, went on hulk twice, spiderman twice, and than went back to potter. We ended up waiting about an hour, but got in many more attractions in the morning.

 

[Dizisfun]

We always do Harry Potter later in the day. Im gonna say usually after 5pm. It's worked for us to do it that way. Especially if there happens to b a parade on the universal side. That's would absolutely b the best time to do any of the headliners bc everyone else is watching the parade. Have fun!

 

[Planogirl]

I would hit Harry Potter first and then Marvel. We have enjoyed WWoHP late in the day but you can't count on the lines being much shorter. Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. I would do Ollivanders and the Forbidden Journey first (or at least only Ollivanders!) and then head over to Spiderman. You can visit the stores and ride the big and little coasters in WWoHP later. Plus WWoHP is truly gorgeous after dark!

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

Everybody goes straight to HP when it opens; the secret is to wait until late afternoon/before closing. However, you run the slight risk that there could be a downtime at FJ that keeps it closed (very rare, though). Plus, the area is beautiful after dusk!

 

[Darcy03231]

If you want to ride FJ more than once, use the single rider line. We did the regular line when it was 20 minutes so we could see the castle. When we got out the line was up to 45 minutes. We did single rider and the first few times were walk on. The longest we waited in single rider was 5 minutes.