I confess myself... disapointed

[auntyjenn]

Please, if you can, only visit Harry Potter during slow times. It was so packed! I don't know why they made the streets so narrow and the shops so tiny! Waiting in line to do the magic affects was pretty lame too. You could already see what they did.

Of course, everything was still really neat. The rest of Universal wasn't bad at all. Maybe I just have a thing against having to push through throngs of people... (We were there Mar 16 & 17)

As far as the rest of Universal goes, as long as you get there early it is super manageable. I feel like Universal goers generally arrive even later that Disney goes with the majority right around noon.

 

[macraven]

i haven't read the potter books or seen the movies.
but what i have read on the forums, everything at ioa was made to represent how the shops, street, etc was depicted in the books/movies.

olivanders is really small at ioa.
it doesn't hold up well with crowds and lines.
two olivanders are at the studios potter section, guess they realized it draws a large crowd and wanted to accomodate all those interested in viewing that show of picking wands with someone in the viewing.

i try my best to avoid large crowd days.
i stay onsite for quite a few days so it is easier for me to go back to the hotels or hit city walk when i do run into large crowds.
got caught in the tour groups in january and october before and do try to avoid that now.

going early is a good point that you made.
that can be a great way to be ahead of crowds and get more done in a shorter time period.

 

[bumbershoot]

Waiting in line to do the magic affects was pretty lame too. You could already see what they did.

That's also a problem at MK and Epcot with Sorcerer's of the MK and the Agent P thing. If you're participating, it's best to not look at the people in front of you.

They had a misguided view that things should be small like in the books. Of course, in the stories, there are expandable charms that make things FEEL bigger inside. That doesn't happen with us muggles, so they should have just made things big. Of course, then you'd end up with twice the number of people inside and it would still feel crowded.

If you look up at the buildings in Diagon Alley, they go in as they go up. So the streets *could* have been narrower. They made them wider then made the buildings tilt down.

And of course the other issue is that everyone wants to stop and take the exact same picture as everyone else has already taken.

 

[RMulieri]

They are both the most packed areas in the park..JK Rowling was very specific that the park areas needed to be authentic to the books.Unfortunately, it doesn't translate well into packed/gridlocked themeparks.We only visit in lower times and it is still wall- wall people..We spend early in the morning and late in the evening there and that is about it .

 

[Bluer101]

You went durring spring break. The 2 days you went were better than the weekend on spring break.

 

[HM]

The best time of day in the HP areas is an hour before closing. The crowds disappear, the place looks magical, and you can actually spend time looking at things.

Sorry you were disappointed, OP.

 

[Planogirl]

We were there at the same time and I agree that the best time to go was in the evenings. It is all quite small but reports say that J K Rowling required this. I'm sure that Universal would prefer bigger stores so that they could sell more!

 

[V2000]

I am so sorry you had a stressful time. I know how excited you must have been to see Harry Potter World.

Who knows if these crowd calendars are correct but it look busy on the days you went.
https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

I am also worried about the crowds when we go in October.
Was it crowded all day? Or just a certain time?

 

[V2000]

Please, if you can, only visit Harry Potter during slow times. It was so packed! I don't know why they made the streets so narrow and the shops so tiny! Waiting in line to do the magic affects was pretty lame too. You could already see what they did.

Of course, everything was still really neat. The rest of Universal wasn't bad at all. Maybe I just have a thing against having to push through throngs of people... (We were there Mar 16 & 17)

As far as the rest of Universal goes, as long as you get there early it is super manageable. I feel like Universal goers generally arrive even later that Disney goes with the majority right around noon.

If you have a picture of the crowds during you stay please post it!

 

[johde]

The best time of day in the HP areas is an hour before closing. The crowds disappear, the place looks magical, and you can actually spend time looking at things.

Sorry you were disappointed, OP.

I would agree, if the parks open late enough. If the parks are only open until 6:00 or 7:00, the HP areas seem to stay busy right up until closing. But if they are open until 9:00 or 10:00 then you are definitely right. Of course, the whole park can be quite at that time as well.

 

[Bluer101]

Disney and JK were is many negotiations back in 2003. The problem is Disney wanted to have their own imagineers create WWOHP without much of JK's input. They wanted it to be not as realistic as it is now. So Universal got the rights in 2007 and pay WB too. So basically Universal let JK have her way and the marriage began. I believe is was a very smart move and has helped Universal big time.

Both lands are amazing and really fit in the books and movies.

 

[hpriamson]

I've read articles (maybe in the Unofficial Guide) that for Hogsmeade at least, the negotiations between Rowling and the Universal designers were pretty difficult. For example they wanted to have Hagrid's hut be a walk through attraction, but Rowling wouldn't let them put in the ramps that ADA requires, so it wound up being something you look at on the Hippogriff roller coaster. Also, she pretty much required them to use the set designer who did the sets for the movies - and while he was outstanding at designing highly detailed movie sets that are protected and touched up as necessary, and only need to last for a few months, he didn't have any experience designing things that need to survive the Florida elements and would be groped by hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. So while Hogsmeade came out looking wonderful, it was apparently the result of many, many compromises.

 

[gopher101]

When we went last year, it was body to body on a Thursday, but really nice on a Saturday. Go figure. We went end of March/beginning of April

 

[DPCummerbund]

And of course the other issue is that everyone wants to stop and take the exact same picture as everyone else has already taken.

I really don't understand this. There are already millions of pictures and videos of the the dragon breathing fire, but people keep taking them.

 

[schumigirl]

I really don't understand this. There are already millions of pictures and videos of the the dragon breathing fire, but people keep taking them.

What's not to understand.

People like pictures as souvenirs or memories of precious vacations. There are millions of pictures of anything online.......but to take your own images of the Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower or the Burj Al Arab and have a permanent memory of your time in a place is special.

We have thousands of pictures of our trips from over the world and many of them are of Universal Orlando.....and yes many of the dragon breathing fire.

We love looking back over them. I will happily wait for people to take pictures of such things........

 

[bumbershoot]

I really don't understand this. There are already millions of pictures and videos of the the dragon breathing fire, but people keep taking them.

Yep. Same as ride videos. I can go onto youtube and see better videos I could ever take.

I'll admit I took some pictures of the dragon, but I was standing against a building, not in anyone's way, to take it. I didn't just stop in the middle of everything and take the picture. Same when my son and cousin were coming through the (really disappointing, though it was going to be better somehow but don't know what they could have done there) entrane into DA. I told them to wait a minute, I went through and found a spot up against a building, and when they came through I shot pictures as they looked in awe and kept walking towards me. I didn't want to be one of the millions stopping in their tracks.

Oh and the dragon pictures don't give you the sense of what it's like. The feeling of that heat is something that can't be copied!

 

[Bluer101]

I really don't understand this. There are already millions of pictures and videos of the the dragon breathing fire, but people keep taking them.

Don't take this the wrong way, this statement coming from someone that has not been yet, you will understand when you see it.

I have been in DA too many times to count and it's still fascinating to see and witness it. Heck my DS still takes video and stills of it.

 

[Planogirl]

I finally got to the dragon breathe fire our last evening and it was funny to see all of the people raise their cameras and phones right before it happened. It was fairly late and was kind of quiet in DA but plenty of people were milling around waiting to take pictures.

 

[DPCummerbund]

I finally got to the dragon breathe fire our last evening and it was funny to see all of the people raise their cameras and phones right before it happened. It was fairly late and was kind of quiet in DA but plenty of people were milling around waiting to take pictures.

Yeah, I guess that's my point - I enjoy photography as much as anybody, but it seems funny to me to be in a big crowd of people, all of whom are taking exactly the same picture at the same time. I'm sure I'll also get a photo of the dragon, but scenes like this one just strike me as a little strange. It just makes me wonder how people remembered things before digital cameras were invented...

 

[hydrotony]

[GALLERY=] [/GALLERY]Diagon Alley is really not that narrow. In the last movie, there is a scene where you see the alley at night and it is narrow. The USF DA looks 3 or 4 times as wide as it was in the movie. As for the dragon, it really is different depending on where in the fire blast you snap the photo. This photo I took, to me, looks like there is an actual fireball blasting its way far down Diagon Alley.