Does riding FJ first thing throw off your touring plan?

[Josh Hendy]

If you're not staying onsite and don't buy FOTL, and you hustle over to Harry Potter land and ride FJ as soon as the park opens, is the wait time "still" going to be long? E.g. 1 hour or more, such that it throws off your plan for the rest of the morning? For instance, by the time you've ridden FJ will there likely be a significant line for rides like Hulk, Spiderman, Ripsaw Falls, etc.? Or do those other rides only fill up slowly, as people pop out of Harry Potter land?

We're going to be there 1st week of August. I think I saw that IOA is opening at 8am for the next week or two. Is that for everyone, not just for resort guests? That must be good news, since I assume that a lot of even fairly hardcore HP fans will have a hard time dragging themselves to the UO garage by 7am so they can get to the entrace before 8am.

I'm thinking, we'll do FJ very first thing, then leave WWOHP to do the other "big" rides, maybe take the afternoon off to rest, then return to WWOHP in the evening to try Ollivanders, Hippogriff, Dragon Challenge. Is that reasonable? Does Ollivanders have a huge line right up until closing?

 

[Harry Potter]

If you're not staying onsite and don't buy FOTL, and you hustle over to Harry Potter land and ride FJ as soon as the park opens, is the wait time "still" going to be long? E.g. 1 hour or more, such that it throws off your plan for the rest of the morning? For instance, by the time you've ridden FJ will there likely be a significant line for rides like Hulk, Spiderman, Ripsaw Falls, etc.? Or do those other rides only fill up slowly, as people pop out of Harry Potter land?

We're going to be there 1st week of August. I think I saw that IOA is opening at 8am for the next week or two. Is that for everyone, not just for resort guests? That must be good news, since I assume that a lot of even fairly hardcore HP fans will have a hard time dragging themselves to the UO garage by 7am so they can get to the entrace before 8am.

I'm thinking, we'll do FJ very first thing, then leave WWOHP to do the other "big" rides, maybe take the afternoon off to rest, then return to WWOHP in the evening to try Ollivanders, Hippogriff, Dragon Challenge. Is that reasonable? Does Ollivanders have a huge line right up until closing?

Early entry for resort guests is usually 1 hour before the park opens to the public, so if the park opens at 8am, then you can bet that it opened at 7am for resort guests, most of whom will be in WWoHP in that hour - in fact, many other rides are not open as early as 7am, and usually only 1 water ride is open before general admission (alternates between JPRA and Ripsaw Falls daily). Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges and the entire Popeye's Sweethaven area does not open until 10am.

You must go straight to WWoHP irrespective of queues elsewhere. Do FJ immediately. There will be at least a 60-75min wait by the time you get there, but apart from a slow-moving queue portion in and around ' the greenhouse ' the queue INSIDE Hogwarts is simply mesmeric. You will not be looking at your watch, let me tell you that. You will be too busy marvelling at the theming.

Olivander's can be watched on YouTube, it is a cute little 5minute show, where a young child gets picked as the 'chosen one', and if it's your child then it will be a great highlight for you. But it is not worth queueing more than 30mins for, IMO. And it is highly unlikely the queue for Olivander's will be less than 30mins at any stage of the day, unless it rains heavily (the queue is unprotected from weather).

It's FJ OR Olivander's first thing. And there can only be one winner in that debate - unless you have very small children who are too small to ride FJ!

 

[RMulieri]

It doesn't matter that the early entry for resort guests would be 7a..WWoHP will still be filled with them by the time the regular public is let in at 8am.If Ollivanders is a MUST do ,I recommend that first, I haven't heard that line dying down all day and that line goes from 0 to long waits.They only let in 20 or so people at a time, it generates long long waits.If it doesn't matter to you then skip it.FJ is going to have a wait when you get in at 8am regardless

 

[Samandmom]

We are currently at Universal and yesterday morning we did the early entry for WWOHP. We left RPR at 6:45 am and arrived in line for FJ for 7:20. By the time we finished waiting in line and riding it was around 7:50 and at that point the wait was 75 minutes. Olivanders had a huge line by 7:20 also. The other rides didn't start to get long lines until after 10. So I would say if you can get to the park for about 7:30 and head over to FJ as soon as they open. As for Ollivanders we skipped it. We might possibly still do it this week.

 

[KeroKero]

I'm not staying on site, but was wondering about wait times to get into the WWoHP. Have been debating back and forth on if to get 2 day tickets (1 day with Express Pass Universal/IOA, 2nd day IOA solely for WWoHP).

Will probably definitely need 2 days if even getting into WWoHP is a waiting game. Know its bad now cause it's July ... but do people think it'll be just as bad the last week in August going into first couple days in September?

 

[macraven]

end of august, most of september are low crowd days in the parks.

 

[conniehar90]

Heading there on Sunday and also concerned about crowds - we are offsite. Plan to head straight to FJ and skip Ollivander's (watched it on youtube).

I thought I read somewhere about a bag check line at FJ that you can bypass as it always gets bogged up. Anyone there recently know about this? I will not have any bags to check - can I just walk past the crowds?

 

[DVC@BWV]

We are currently at Universal and yesterday morning we did the early entry for WWOHP. We left RPR at 6:45 am and arrived in line for FJ for 7:20. By the time we finished waiting in line and riding it was around 7:50 and at that point the wait was 75 minutes. Olivanders had a huge line by 7:20 also. The other rides didn't start to get long lines until after 10. So I would say if you can get to the park for about 7:30 and head over to FJ as soon as they open. As for Ollivanders we skipped it. We might possibly still do it this week.

It looks like it took you 35 minutes to get from RPR to FJ - did you walk or take the boat? Was there a long line at the entrance?

 

[Samandmom]

It looks like it took you 35 minutes to get from RPR to FJ - did you walk or take the boat? Was there a long line at the entrance?

We walked and no long line to get in. I am going to guess that their probaly was but when we got there it was after 7.

 

[mesaboy2]

Heading there on Sunday and also concerned about crowds - we are offsite. Plan to head straight to FJ and skip Ollivander's (watched it on youtube).

I thought I read somewhere about a bag check line at FJ that you can bypass as it always gets bogged up. Anyone there recently know about this? I will not have any bags to check - can I just walk past the crowds?

When the line for FJ is outside the castle and out the gates, this is generally for people who are waiting for lockers, or don't know they are waiting for lockers. If you have no bags, mention that to the TM at the gates and see if they recommend you walk past all the other folks. That's one way.

Though some have mentioned you can't do this, it is also possible to enter the ride by going into Filch's Emporium at the ride's exit and walking through the locker area. This way seems a little underhanded to me, so I try not to do it too often.

 

[fashionista311]

Thanks for starting this thread - I was wondering the same thing.

On a similar note - I'm planning a trip in the area in mid Sept, and I was hoping to make a quick detour to the studios just for the WWOHP. Orlando isn't our final destination (we'll sill have about a 2 hour drive) and we have to get to where we are going so we'll probably have about a half day in the park. how crowded do we think the park will be on a random Friday morning in the middle of Sept? I've personally have been to Islands about a million times since I went to school in the area (but not since WWOHP opened) so if I don't get to do anything but that, I won't really be heart-broken. Is it worth it to stay at a Universal hotel just for one night (we'll need an Orlando hotel anyways) for the extra hour benefit?

Any insight/advice would be very much appreciated. I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd...so I'm very much looking forward to finally going!

 

[Lesley Mahler]

What if you want to go into Olivanders just to purchase a wand, not to view the little show that's on you tube, is it still a long wait just to get in to shop?

 

[macraven]

Thanks for starting this thread - I was wondering the same thing.

On a similar note - I'm planning a trip in the area in mid Sept, and I was hoping to make a quick detour to the studios just for the WWOHP. Orlando isn't our final destination (we'll sill have about a 2 hour drive) and we have to get to where we are going so we'll probably have about a half day in the park. how crowded do we think the park will be on a random Friday morning in the middle of Sept? I've personally have been to Islands about a million times since I went to school in the area (but not since WWOHP opened) so if I don't get to do anything but that, I won't really be heart-broken. Is it worth it to stay at a Universal hotel just for one night (we'll need an Orlando hotel anyways) for the extra hour benefit?

Any insight/advice would be very much appreciated. I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd...so I'm very much looking forward to finally going!

potter is at ioa.

mid sept should be low crowds.
lines should not be long for rides and shows.

if you do stay onsite, your perk for that is two days of usage of the express lines.
unlimited rides.

rates for sept are usually low as it is in the low season rates.


since i have been staying on site, i don't see how i could stay offsite.

even for one night.

 

[mesaboy2]

What if you want to go into Olivanders just to purchase a wand, not to view the little show that's on you tube, is it still a long wait just to get in to shop?

Ollivander's is the show, the Owl Post is the wand shop. You can access OP via Dervish & Banges, which can have a line to enter. I've personally never seen this line longer than a 10-minute wait.

 

[Lesley Mahler]

Ollivander's is the show, the Owl Post is the wand shop. You can access OP via Dervish & Banges, which can have a line to enter. I've personally never seen this line longer than a 10-minute wait.

Oh thank you, I was confused!!

 

[conniehar90]

thanks mesaboy for the info on the bag check!

 

[dolphindan1]

Keep in mind you do not have to stay at one of the Universal Hotels to get the 1 hour early entry...Universal's preferred offsite hotels offer the same benefit....you just wont get the Front of the line access that the Universal park offers...so if you are jsut going to get in 1 hour early to see FJ that doesnt offer FOTL then stay at a cheaper preferred hotel...just a suggestion

 

[anorman]

Staying onsite because I am not a fan of lines . I'm trying to decide whether to go to Ollivanders or FJ first with the early entry. Do the crowds for FJ ease off later in the day or is it long waits all day long until closing? If the crowds lighten up later on then I may do Ollivanders first thing and come back to do FJ an hour before close. Any thoughts?

 

[mesaboy2]

Staying onsite because I am not a fan of lines . I'm trying to decide whether to go to Ollivanders or FJ first with the early entry. Do the crowds for FJ ease off later in the day or is it long waits all day long until closing? If the crowds lighten up later on then I may do Ollivanders first thing and come back to do FJ an hour before close. Any thoughts?

Ollivander's, Ollivander's, Ollivander's first. And in case you misread: Ollivander's first. That line builds fast, moves slow, is outside in the elements, and uninteresting. FJ's line can also build fast, but also moves fast, is mostly inside in A/C, and very interesting.

Oh, and Ollivander's first.

 

[RMulieri]

Ollivander's, Ollivander's, Ollivander's first. And in case you misread: Ollivander's first. That line builds fast, moves slow, is outside in the elements, and uninteresting. FJ can also build fast, but also moves fast, is mostly inside in A/C, and very interesting.

Oh, and Ollivander's first.

Soooo....Should I do Ollivanders first ?