Does this make sense as a touring plan?

[cinderella'smommy]

Hi!

This will be our first trip to Universal; we are arriving on a Friday, mid afternoonish, after spending 6 days at Disney. So, I am planning that first day to go to US and hit Diagon Alley late afternoon, early evening; pick up a wand for DD; and just wander around.

I think that early entry (staying at RPR) will be for IofA during our time frame (Father's Day Weekend). So, the next day, we will go there for early entry and Hogwarts and Hogsmeade (and the rest of the park too).

So, on Sunday, we will want to hit US and Diagon Alley again; and other US rides.

I am wondering if it makes sense to use early entry into IoA, and just head back to the Hogwarts Express, and ride that over to US. Or, is it more reliable to just try to get to US early, and just be at the gates there, and then head to DA.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[damo]

Early entry at IOA is great. You might even be able to get a couple of rides on Forbidden Journey before heading on to the HE.

 

[elaine amj]

Just FYI and I don't know if this will be true when you go. This past weekend on both Sunday and Monday ("slow" days), US opened their gates early at 8:30am. According to the app, Forbidden Journey had a 30-45 min line up during the first 1-2 hours which slowly dwindled to 20 mins by 11am and down to 10 mins by the afternoon.

Forbidden Journey had a 30 min wait posted (actually about 15 mins) at 5ish in the evening on the Saturday (a "busy" day). It was practically a walk-on.

I was going to do IOA for EE and then take HE to Diagon Alley but because we slept in both days, we went straight to DA. The line had definitely built by 9am (we did a re-ride) but was still ok. Of course, it grew to 60 mins by 10am and stayed that way much of the day.

 

[bas71873]

OK. I'm completely confused on the whole EE thing. I'm believe that IOA will be the only park with EE for our trip this coming weekend. Is EE every day though? If so, should my game plan be to go to IOA for EE, do what do there, take HE over to US, do the HP stuff there and then can we easily ride the HE back over to IOA to spend the rest of the day at that park? Will the "return" line for HE to go back to IOA be crazy? Or should we just do EE, take HE to US and plan for our US day to be that day since we are there?

 

[Nohal]

We just got back and I was totally confused about the process also. IOA opens 1hr early the ONLY thing open in the entire park is the Harry Potter section. The park actually opened a little before 8 on Sat and around 8 on Sun. We were among the first to get into the park on Sat and went right on the Forbidden Journey ride. Same thing on Sun but we were a little behind so spent more time in line but was still out before 8:30. On Sat the train wasn't working as it was broken down so we booked it over to USF and rode Gringotts and were early in line unfortunately we were in line over 1hr because the ride had broken down (sense a theme here). We were told both days while at IOA that USF was open at 8:30. We were only able to do this as we just rode only the one ride in IOA. There was even a line to get into the store that sells the wands. I think that both Harry Potter areas are very well themed even though I don't really know much about the story. My complaint is that the area is very small for the amount of people who are in there. I think they could have at least made the walkways a little wider and the stores a little bigger but I think they used up all of the space for the rides. Just a hint if you are using the lockers either write down the number of the locker or take a picture of the number. I used lockers a few times and the last time I couldn't remember the number and neither could my DH. Finally figured it out but it was a mess until then.

 

[Music City Mama]

OK. I'm completely confused on the whole EE thing. I'm believe that IOA will be the only park with EE for our trip this coming weekend. Is EE every day though? If so, should my game plan be to go to IOA for EE, do what do there, take HE over to US, do the HP stuff there and then can we easily ride the HE back over to IOA to spend the rest of the day at that park? Will the "return" line for HE to go back to IOA be crazy? Or should we just do EE, take HE to US and plan for our US day to be that day since we are there?

I'm in the same boat. We'll arrive Saturday evening and our first park day will be Sunday. I don't know if I should do the FJ at IOA first, then take HE to US -- or just go to US first. I'm especially concerned because of the post below (not the first one I've seen like this) that HE wasn't even working and now you have no advantage of those who entered US first (in fact, you may be at a disadvantage). Also, if they're opening US at 8:30, then I really see no point in going to IOA first if my intention is to focus on Diagon Alley the first day. Hmmmmmm, not sure what to do.

We just got back and I was totally confused about the process also. IOA opens 1hr early the ONLY thing open in the entire park is the Harry Potter section. The park actually opened a little before 8 on Sat and around 8 on Sun. We were among the first to get into the park on Sat and went right on the Forbidden Journey ride. Same thing on Sun but we were a little behind so spent more time in line but was still out before 8:30. On Sat the train wasn't working as it was broken down so we booked it over to USF and rode Gringotts and were early in line unfortunately we were in line over 1hr because the ride had broken down (sense a theme here). We were told both days while at IOA that USF was open at 8:30. We were only able to do this as we just rode only the one ride in IOA. There was even a line to get into the store that sells the wands. I think that both Harry Potter areas are very well themed even though I don't really know much about the story. My complaint is that the area is very small for the amount of people who are in there. I think they could have at least made the walkways a little wider and the stores a little bigger but I think they used up all of the space for the rides. Just a hint if you are using the lockers either write down the number of the locker or take a picture of the number. I used lockers a few times and the last time I couldn't remember the number and neither could my DH. Finally figured it out but it was a mess until then.

 

[pigby]

Hi Elaine amj - it will be DD's 21st and our first full day a week on Saturday - she really wants to do US first (having already seen the Harry Potter stuff in IOA) and it's interesting to note that US has been opening at 8.30am lately.

Do you know when they open the ride and the HP area at that time or whether they do the 'Disney thing' and just let you go into the park and up to another rope until 9.00am?

We have park access the whole week and will do EE at IOA next day and probably other days whilst we are there (so not doing EE on the Saturday isn't an issue)

 

[Nohal]

I don't know if the whole park is open at 8:30 wasn't paying attention just booked it to Harry Potter. When we took the train from IOA to USF we were among the first people to get in the Gringotts building. They don't hold you up anywhere unless that was what they were doing for the Olivanders store and the reason for the line. HE express wasn't working on Sat don't know what time it started working as we were already on our way to USF. On Sunday we were the first one on the HE to USF and it was great beat a lot of the crowds that entered the park at 8:30. So I guess it depends on whether you want to sleep longer or get to IOA at 7:30 or USF at 8:15