Harry Potter Crowd Report Thread...

[iluvepcot]

Staying onsite Went in for early entry. Wwohp broke for the entire hour. 90 min wait by 9 :30. They say if you come back 1 hour before closing the wait is not bad. This is Labor Day weekend after all.

 

[bubba's mom]

HI bubba's mom! So yeah, I totally wasnt able to drag us there by 7:30. But got lucky that day anyways It was awesome!

That's good. Thinking because crowd level dropped end of Aug w/ back to school. Right now, not an option for us to go then...we always go early/mid July.

Glad it worked out for you.

 

[spima3]

Where exactly does the Durmstrang & Beauxbatons show take place?

 

[damo]

Where exactly does the Durmstrang & Beauxbatons show take place?

As you walk from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, there is an area to the right with a strange looking tall rock with holes and several flags just as you exit Hogsmeade.

 

[fairyprincess88]

Where exactly does the Durmstrang & Beauxbatons show take place?

The area is located right near the entrance of Flight of the Hippogryff, across from Hogwarts. This is what it looks like:

This is also where the Hogwarts Frog Choir performs. It's also a fun photo-op after the shows if you are near the front(lines get long) as you can take pictures with the Choir and dancers. They let me hold the frog as a birthday gift in my picture with the Choir. Sounds nerdy to be excited about I know but for a Potter freak like me it was the best gift ever.

 

[SmallWorld71]

The area is located right near the entrance of Flight of the Hippogryff, across from Hogwarts. This is what it looks like:

This is also where the Hogwarts Frog Choir performs. It's also a fun photo-op after the shows if you are near the front(lines get long) as you can take pictures with the Choir and dancers. They let me hold the frog as a birthday gift in my picture with the Choir. Sounds nerdy to be excited about I know but for a Potter freak like me it was the best gift ever.

Just wanted to add that when we were there at the end of August, they didn't start performances until noon. Then they traded off on the half hour.

 

[iluvepcot]

Earlier I reported that we did not get to ride on our on site early entry day due to the ride having problems and was closed the entire hour. I am happy to report that when we arrived 2 hours before closing the line stated it was 60 min but we got thru in 40. We immediately went back on and the line was stated to be 40 min but we got thru in 23. They must over state the time slightly in case it shuts down. We rode twice and could have ridden a third time. As it was getting shorter each time.

 

[suzquig]

Went to IOA this past Thursday Sept 2nd and the crowds were GREAT!!! We had intended to be there by 9AM...however our 4 kis ages 12-2) were wiped out because of the 3 preious days at WDW and getting up by 7:30. So...we booked a Mears Van to pick us up at the Poly at 9. We were thru the gates by 9:45 and back at HArry Potter by 10:10. Yes there were people but not tons. Plenty of time and space to take many photo opps in front of stores, the train etc...FJ was a wait time of 10 minutes at 10:30...the other 2 rides 5 minutes. Olivanders at that time was 30 Minutes. The kids wanted to ride the rides first though...by the time they did that Olivanders was probably up to 45 minutes to an hour....it was BLAZING HOT and the line was pretty much in all sun...so my daughter bought one from the cart.
BTW...the rest of IOA had only 5-15 minutes wait for ALL other rides!! GREAT DAY!!!

 

[GetGlowing]

Awesome news -- I really have no desire to be there before park opening.

We'll be there in a week!! ack!

 

[Disney_Stitch626]

We visited Universal Studios and IOA last Wednesday (sept 1st), we booked the 1 day 2 park package with Dreams Unlimited. We got there around 9:10am, due to our transfer not arriving at 8:15am. That is a long story. Anyway we decided to start in IOA and take the park at our own pace, so we started in Marvel Super Hero Island and worked our way around the park arriving at the WWOHP around 10:30am. I'm just gonna add that the other rides before we reached WWOHP were walk ons. So we got there at 10:30am, and our first port of call was Forbidden Journey. Wait time- 20mins!!! Brilliant. So we waited in the main line, and the posted time was pretty accurate. So we got off and went over to flight of the Hippogriff, rode that. Again another short wait. We had a look in a few of the shops, but neither me or my friend are fans of Harry Potter, so had no desire to buy the merchandise. I wouldn't have minded a Chocolate frog, but not for $10. I did buy some red liquorish laces from Honeydukes however. Olivanders had a line, but it didn't look awfully long, however we were not bothered about doing that, especially since we had another park to get under our belt that day. We hopped on over to Universal Studios at about noon, and stayed there until it closed at 6pm. IOA was open 'till 8pm, although we were expecting it to be open 'till 7pm- so that extra hour was a bonus. We had booked our transport for pickup at 7:15pm, so we had a mission in that final hour: to get back to IOA and ride Spiderman and Forbidden Journey one last time, and leave the park at 7pm in order to get back to the pickup spot before 7:15pm. Well we managed it! Rode Forbidden Journey Single Rider, although the wait was still only 20mins, and walked straight on Spiderman. It was a successful day

 

[Singinglizzie]

We were there on both Saturday and Sunday of the labor day weekend. IMHO it was crowded and super, super hot. We did get to IOA before rope drop and by the time we reached the WWOHP the place was already crowded. At that hour 8:45 we were able to ride FJ in about 1/2 hour, but we never did get to see the show at Olivanders since the line was already long and at least 1 hours wait both days. It even rained Sunday eve and you would think the crowds would have thinned out, but nope, people stuck around and stood in the rain to get into Olivanders - well maybe next year we can return and hopefully the lines will be shorter. Kudos to those of you who were lucky enough to go on a non- weekend day and take advantage of the low crowds.

 

[zimaaaaah]

Thanks to everyone posting their experiences! We are planning a trip for early November and love hearing the crowds are dying down a bit! Keep 'em coming

 

[upsidown]

We visited Universal Studios and IOA last Wednesday (sept 1st), we booked the 1 day 2 park package with Dreams Unlimited. We got there around 9:10am, due to our transfer not arriving at 8:15am.

To Disney_Stitch626 or anyone else who may be able to answer this: I was planning on being in Orlando next week and just came across this deal you mentioned from Dreams Unlimited and Universal. What was your experience with them? In particular, did you get to choose a time to be picked up in the morning or was that assigned to you? Is it a shuttle or private taxi? Any problems with tickets?
I'll be in town for 5 days and have not settled on an exact date for Universal yet. When ordering tickets from Dreams website, it makes you enter an "arrival date". Does anyone know, would this date be when my plane gets there or the day I plan to go to Universal? If I can't make my first choice day and have to go later in the week, will tickets continue to be held at will-call? Is there a time limit on tickets being held?
Sorry for all the questions. It's been a good 10 years since I was last in Orlando, and this will be my first time going without family. I'm excited, but ordering things that I don't have any tangible control over can make me nervous. Any info on Dreams Unlimited and ticket processes would be helpful.
Thanks all.

 

[TDC Nala]

Friday, Sept. 3, FJ line never went above 40 minutes but at least an hour wait for Ollivanders until near 6 PM (I waited, this is about a 10 minute show. It's cute but not for an hour wait). Everything else a walk-on. I was the only person in my vehicle on the wild wicker hippogriff. The only other line that formed was to get into Dervish & Bangs. Never seen a line to get into a store before.

 

[Trishde]

We will be at WWHOP tomorrow. We are getting a rental car here at Disney and driving over early. EPCOT late this afternoon mostly walk on to 10 minutes. We got on mostly everything-hoping IOA won't be crowded tomorrow. I'll post tomorrow night.

 

[Trishde]

We are off to Hogwart's this morning-picking up the car at 8am to head over.
Wish us luck on low crowds today! I really love magic

 

[Praise2Him]

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Thumper_Man]

We are off to Hogwart's this morning-picking up the car at 8am to head over.
Wish us luck on low crowds today! I really love magic

Have fun. Don't forget to come back and let us know. We're headed there next month. So far the latest crowd reports have sounded promising.

 

[salliep]

Hi all- we are spending thanksgiving with harry and the mouse !! We booked the HP pkg that includes breakfast at The Broomsticks- has anyone done that, and if so how was it? Does anyone have dinner suggestions in the Universal area?

 

[Lava124]

We just got back,We were there from the 6th until this morning.We arrived about 1pm on the 6th and were at the park by 2PM.The wait time was 50 mintues for FJ and an hour for Ollivanders.We did early admission the next 2 days which was great.We rode it 4 times each day and after the first ride each day,that was taking our time and lots of pictures going through the Queue.We usually made our way back to the area mid day to get more butterbeer (Frozen is great by the way) and the line was at least 40 minutes each time we checked.The longest I saw was 60 minutes and then the line was stretched back all the way through the greenhouse.Ollivanders stay steady 30-60 minutes all day after about 10AM.