I just wanted to share a few thoughts from our week at US/IOA.
We stayed at the HRH, which was amazing. Our room was huge (we had a deluxe double queen, needed for teenage boy, teenage girl.) We loved being able to walk to the parks in five minutes, and coming back to the room to change into bathing suits to do the water rides. The best part of staying on site was the front of the line access. That alone was worth the price of the hotel room, especially at such a crowded time. And the early entry into WWoHP was worth it too.
We had the 14 day passes from Maple Leaf that we got thanks to people on these boards--thank you. It was great that we could go to the parks for a few hours at a time, and still felt like we were getting our money's worth.
I should say that I am a huge Disney fan, and I have pretty severe motion sickness. I found that there was not alot for me personally to do at the parks, but my family enjoyed all of the coasters and simulators. I did love the WWoHP, and went on FJ 3 times, both taking meclazine and not, because I really wanted to ride. I did feel sick after riding, but found the ride itself to be worth it. I loved the theming of all of Hogsmede and Hogwarts.
Thanks to these boards for letting us know about the castle tour, as there is no mention of it anywhere in the park or on the park map. You need to go up to the castle and tell them that you wish to take the castle tour, and they will open up a chained off area for you to go through. We got our best pictures this way, as you can spend as much time as you like there.
As others have mentioned, the crowds were huge for WWoHP. The folks who work at Universal were not prepared for the large numbers of people. I did find the crowd to be worse earlier in the week, and not quite as bad on Thanksgiving Day and Friday. The worse wait times I saw were 180 minutes for FJ on Tuesday, and reports of up to a 4 hour wait to get into Ollivander's that same same. A great tip from this board--do Ollivander's first thing during early entry, then go to FJ. I was surprised by the long lines to get into the stores, even at 9AM. Oh, and frozen butterbear was a real treat on a hot day!
I'm really glad that we went, but I'm not rushing to go back soon. It was hard for this Disney girl to be so close, and not spend the week there.
Lauri
We stayed at the HRH, which was amazing. Our room was huge (we had a deluxe double queen, needed for teenage boy, teenage girl.) We loved being able to walk to the parks in five minutes, and coming back to the room to change into bathing suits to do the water rides. The best part of staying on site was the front of the line access. That alone was worth the price of the hotel room, especially at such a crowded time. And the early entry into WWoHP was worth it too.
We had the 14 day passes from Maple Leaf that we got thanks to people on these boards--thank you. It was great that we could go to the parks for a few hours at a time, and still felt like we were getting our money's worth.
I should say that I am a huge Disney fan, and I have pretty severe motion sickness. I found that there was not alot for me personally to do at the parks, but my family enjoyed all of the coasters and simulators. I did love the WWoHP, and went on FJ 3 times, both taking meclazine and not, because I really wanted to ride. I did feel sick after riding, but found the ride itself to be worth it. I loved the theming of all of Hogsmede and Hogwarts.
Thanks to these boards for letting us know about the castle tour, as there is no mention of it anywhere in the park or on the park map. You need to go up to the castle and tell them that you wish to take the castle tour, and they will open up a chained off area for you to go through. We got our best pictures this way, as you can spend as much time as you like there.
As others have mentioned, the crowds were huge for WWoHP. The folks who work at Universal were not prepared for the large numbers of people. I did find the crowd to be worse earlier in the week, and not quite as bad on Thanksgiving Day and Friday. The worse wait times I saw were 180 minutes for FJ on Tuesday, and reports of up to a 4 hour wait to get into Ollivander's that same same. A great tip from this board--do Ollivander's first thing during early entry, then go to FJ. I was surprised by the long lines to get into the stores, even at 9AM. Oh, and frozen butterbear was a real treat on a hot day!
I'm really glad that we went, but I'm not rushing to go back soon. It was hard for this Disney girl to be so close, and not spend the week there.
Lauri
