My WWoHP (and Universal) experience

[cherylmk]

Hi, all -- I've read this forum for hints and tips so I thought I'd repay the favor. We were at Universal and IOA this Monday - Wednesday. HOT!!! Anyway, we visited WWoHP on Monday morning and evening, and Wednesday morning. We stayed onsite, and the Royal Pacific, so we were at the turnstiles at 7:15 those mornings. On Monday, we went straight to FJ, where they said it was not running yet but we were welcome to get in line. Well, we got in line, and got through just about to the last big room in the castle (with Harry and the others) and waited there until about 8:15, when the announcement finally came that they had no idea when the ride would be running so we should leave the line, which we did. Rode the other two rides (Dragons had about a 10 minute wait), visited the shops (no lines), and walked around until about 9:30, when we left WWoHP and went to the rest of the park. By then, the lines to get in were VERY long (2 hours, I heard) and the rest of IOA was also very crowded. By way of example, at around noon the wait for Express Pass on Dudley Do-Right was estimated to be an hour. We then decided to have lunch and leave. We returned on Monday around 5:15, walked straight in, rode FJ with about a 45 minute wait, short waits on the other rides, but lines for the stores. However, we had dinner at Three Broomsticks with about a 5 minute wait. We stayed at the Park through closing -- after dinner, there were much shorter lines, and it was cooler!

Tuesday we went to Universal Studios -- got there at opening, very few people. Did the same thing -- stayed in the Park through lunch, went back to the hotel for a rest, then came back to the back to catch the 5:00 Beetlejuice show. We were easily able to see everything we wanted with ExpressPass, and do a number of things (like MIB) twice. Our general impression of US was that, although it had some summer crowds, it was much less crowded than IOA (even the non-Harry part of IOA). We also found the park much "cooler" because there were more inside rides/attractions.

Wednesday we were with the 7:15 crowd at IOA again - this time went straight to Ollivander's. We got in line, and (because we were waiting for a few slower walkers) let a group or two ahead of us to get in the first group. That proved lucky for us. We went in for the second "show," and one of our group got "picked." She was a 16 year old girl, standing by herself off to the right as you faced the counter. Such fun for all of us! After Ollivanders, did FJ -- line was 45 minutes long.

Had a great time overall, but right now, frankly, I would only do WWoHP either right at 7:30 when it opens (if onsite -- and be there NO LATER than 7:15 to get in line), or after 5 or so, when a lot of people are heading out of the parks for dinner reservations.

Thanks again to all here who provide "lurkers" like me with such helpful tips, and I hope I've repaid (a little) the favor. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

 

[John_RN]

Thanks for posting your experience! My SO and I are leaving on a 6 am flight out of Austin, Tx tomorrow morning and staying at RPR also.

Tomorrow we don't have any set plans except to arrive at the hotel, which should be around 130-2pm, see if the room is ready, if not, I want to go to IOA to guest services to get our actual tickets because all we have is the reservation email for our Harry Potter package. I want to get that out of the way and then maybe visit City Walk for some lunch. Then head to the pool and just relax.

Sunday we are taking the free shuttle to Sea World to spend the day.

Monday is when we are planning to head to WWOHP. Thanks to these great boards, I know to arrive no later than 7:15 am.

We got the park-to-park pass so Tuesday we will sleep in a little then head to US and spend the day there. We want to finish off the day at WWOHP when the crowds die down and maybe have dinner in the 3 Broomsticks.

Wednesday is another early day and spending it all day at WWOHP and we have breakfast reservations at 0930 that morning.

Then we leave Thursday morning.

I can't wait! I am glad you had a good time. What did you think of RPR?

 

[Jonny_Duck]

Thx for the update...I am headed there around the 19th or 20th just to shop and thinking I may go around 6pm or so and hope to avoid some crowds!

Glad you had fun!

To the PP...Imo RPR is great, I like it the best out of that and HR personally.(Haven't stayed at PBH yet)

 

[cherylmk]

It was a very nice hotel, friendly people, beautiful grounds. A couple of thoughts:
1. The water taxi is nice, but on those mornings when time was important -- the 7:15 mornings -- we walked. It was faster, frankly. We always took it back (we were tired).
2. We did the breakfast every morning in the bar area (not the restaurant). Pastries, Muffins, Cereal -- picked them up, checked out, and brought them back to the room for the kids, although you could eat in the lobby area. Doing this is a "must" on those early mornings, since it is the quickest way to have breakfast. We were a bit disappointed that there was not much protein -- just some yogurt and some ham and cheese croissants. Wished they would have had, for example, some hard boiled eggs.
3. Housekeeping was sometimes slow. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon about 3, they told us all our rooms were ready. In fact, only one of 3 was ready. We went to eat at the Island Cafe (very slow service there, too) and still the room was not ready. They weren't ready until 5:30. After that, we didn't have a problem -- some days, however, housekeeping had already been there when we got back for our afternoon "break" and other days, they didn't start until we left for our evening in the park.
4. We had bought park tickets on line and did the "will call" version. There are kiosks in the lobby that will print them out. The concierge or the front desk will also print out boarding passes for the return trip.
5. Buy lanyards and use them. Very convenient. We went to CityWalk on Sunday night to browse and bought some at the Universal Store there. They showed us how to put tickets on one side and room key on the other so that they could be scanned without removing them.

 

[derekburgan]

One of the biggest surprises to me was to see how much the snow covered buildings "worked" in the Florida context. I've seen the pictures and just thought it was a little weird, but I was blown away when I walked in Saturday night. The effect is going to be even stronger once we get into the November time frame throuhgout the spring.

 

[John_RN]

It was a very nice hotel, friendly people, beautiful grounds. A couple of thoughts:
5. Buy lanyards and use them. Very convenient. We went to CityWalk on Sunday night to browse and bought some at the Universal Store there. They showed us how to put tickets on one side and room key on the other so that they could be scanned without removing them.

I was aiming on getting a ravenclaw lanyard for me and a slytherin one for the SO but it looked like they didn't have the plastic card holders on the end. Can you buy those plastic sheaths separate? I have heard of some people letting the front desk punch holes in the room keys.

 

[cherylmk]

We actually asked someone at the Universal store in CityWalk who "found" one with a plastic case on it. (I think he went in the back and put it together.)

 

[sicjoy]

cherylmk,

Thank you for taking the time to write your experience with the details. We too will be staying at the RPR for our upcoming trip. I will try to get our experience up as soon as possible once returned.

John_RN,

Have a great trip and I hope you enjoy every aspect of it!