First time to IOA...advice needed

[VeeHam]

Hello all,
I will be heading to WDW and spending one day at IOA this October with my DH, DD9, DD5, DM and her husband. We have never been before and are trying to figure out what we should do when. My DD9 is a HP fanatic. (I kinda am too) I know our first stop will be Ollivanders then FJ. We'd also like to hit the other shops in TWWoHP.
Are there any rides or shows you'd recommend as a must do or some that we can leave out? My girls are not too excited about Suess Landing but we'll probably go there for a bit. I'm just trying to figure out what we can do with such a vast age group. My DM and her hubby will not do any roller coasters or jerky rides. They are more interested in the relaxed rides and shows (me too). My kids are not really big on coasters. Is spiderman ok to ride for non coaster fans? I've been to their website and youtube but I'm still not too sure what it will be like. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

Your 5 yr old would probably love Seuss landing. They have a ride that is like Dumbo it goes up and down in the air and squirts water on you a little bit. If you follow the instructions in the song and go up when it tells you to go up and go down when it tells you to go down you won't get wet. There is also the Cat in the Hat ride that I personally love.

We always skip Ollivanders. None of us have ever been interested in that. We always go straight for FJ. Then after that we ride Hippogriff a few times and the kids and DH ride Dragon Challenge. I skip that one. Too many loops for me.

You could kind of consider Spiderman sort of like a roller coaster in a way but not really. You sit in a roller coaster type car and it takes you through different scenes and 3D images come out at you and it swings you kind of fast from one scene to the other but it is not something that would scare anybody. I think even the 5 yr old would be fine on it if they are tall enough.

Tell the kids to look for the talking water fountain. After you go through the Seuss area and are headed for Harry Potter there is a Sinbad area and before you get to HP there will be a water fountain with a carved stone face and if you walk up to it and talk to it it sometimes will talk back. There is a person sitting somewhere listening for the kids and then it starts joking with the kids and trying to squirt them with jets of water. I have a 4 minute long video where it was interacting with my kids and kept cracking jokes on them and kept spraying them when they came within squirting range. It was hilarious.

If you could get the park to park ticket where you were able to spend the first half of the day at IOA then the second half of the day at US, they have several good shows at US. They have the Horror Make Up Show (not scary- it is a comedy), The Terminator show and my fav the Beetlejuice Rock N Roll show. I think the first Beetlejuice show of the day is at 12:30. That is one show I must see every time we go. I love it.

The Poseidon's Fury show at IOA is good if you can catch it about to start.

 

[damo]

Lots for the kids to do at IOA. Personally, I would skip Poseidan's Fury with the kids but your parents will probably like it. Cat in the Hat is tons of fun as is One Fish Two Fish. You should do those. The High in the Sky Trolley is cute and everyone can do that as well.

Let the kids run around in the Jurassic Park play area. There are some really neat caves and things in there. The Jurassic Park Discovery Centre is also a nice place to cool off and explore.

The only things I'd probably leave out are the two big coasters and perhaps Dr. Doom (although I think it is great fun).

Rides at Universal tend to be more adventurous than at Disney. Checking out youtube videos would give you a good idea of what you are getting into.

Everyone will find the Sinbad show cute and well as Ollivanders.

 

[heidijanesmith]

Hello all,
I will be heading to WDW and spending one day at IOA this October with my DH, DD9, DD5, DM and her husband. We have never been before and are trying to figure out what we should do when. My DD9 is a HP fanatic. (I kinda am too) I know our first stop will be Ollivanders then FJ. We'd also like to hit the other shops in TWWoHP.We are huge HP fans and loved WWoHP. Ollivanders 1st, then FJ for sure. The shops can get crowded and butterbeer line can be huge. You can get butterbeer inside Hog's head, usually with a much shorter line.
Are there any rides or shows you'd recommend as a must do or some that we can leave out? My girls are not too excited about Suess Landing but we'll probably go there for a bit. I did not think that I would like Suess landing much either, but we really enjoyed it. It is fun to look around and check out the area. I'm just trying to figure out what we can do with such a vast age group. My DM and her hubby will not do any roller coasters or jerky rides. They are more interested in the relaxed rides and shows (me too). My kids are not really big on coasters. Is spiderman ok to ride for non coaster fans?I am very prone to motion sickness and there is one part of the Spiderman ride that makes me queasy, I just close my eyes for that part and the rest is ok for me. The ride vehicles are pretty smooth. I've been to their website and youtube but I'm still not too sure what it will be like. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Check out WWoHP in the AM and at night. It's a beautiful area at night, very fun to go on the "kiddie" roller coaster Flight of the Hippogriff when it's dark. You can always check out the queue lines for FoH and DC, as there are many neat HP items along the pathway. FoH has Hagrid's hut and DC has the Triwizard challenge cup.

There really isn't any part of IOA that I would avoid, especially for the 1st time visitor. One exception to my statement above, if you don't want to get wet--avoid the water rides (flume, raft and Jurassic Park), you will get soaked-drenched on those rides. We have been totally soaked every time.

 

[Metro West]

If you could get the park to park ticket where you were able to spend the first half of the day at IOA then the second half of the day at US, they have several good shows at US. They have the Horror Make Up Show (not scary- it is a comedy), The Terminator show and my fav the Beetlejuice Rock N Roll show. I think the first Beetlejuice show of the day is at 12:30. That is one show I must see every time we go. I love it.

The only drawback to doing the Studios in October is the park will close an hour early at 5PM for Halloween Horror Nights on select dates. Since we don't know the date the OP is visiting, I would recommend the Studios first and then IoA second since IoA is open until 7PM during October.

 

[VeeHam]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We are planning on visiting October 17 which is a Thursday. That isn't set in stone yet though.
I will keep all of this in mind while planning our trip.
If the park is say a 5/10 for busy, could we realistically see everything there in one day (6 -8 hours)?

 

[Metro West]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We are planning on visiting October 17 which is a Thursday. That isn't set in stone yet though.
I will keep all of this in mind while planning our trip.
If the park is say a 5/10 for busy, could we realistically see everything there in one day (6 -8 hours)?

If you're only going to IoA, you shouldn't have any problems doing everything you want within that time. October crowds aren't usually bad except for HP of course.