Gah... Need some IOA touring help

[FutureDis]

I've read so many conflicting reports, I'm just not sure what to do. We'll be there the first weekend in Feb, Saturday at US, Sunday at IOA, and half of Monday at which ever we want to do again.

So my questions are:

1. We are not staying on site, so no EE. Park opens at 9:00 for us. How early should we get there, and what are the chances of being let in early?

2. The big question.... HP first, or save for afternoon? Ride wait times that I have read on a subscription site (touringplans.com) lead me to believe that unless you are EE to HP, it really doesn't get more crowded than from park opening. Ride times seem to peak at 9am, and stay the same (or lower a bit) throughout the day. Would we be better seeing the rest of the park when there are no lines in the begining of the day, then hitting HP in the afternoon??? Or is it still best to go straight there when we get in?

 

[Metro West]

I've read so many conflicting reports, I'm just not sure what to do. We'll be there the first weekend in Feb, Saturday at US, Sunday at IOA, and half of Monday at which ever we want to do again.

So my questions are:

1. We are not staying on site, so no EE. Park opens at 9:00 for us. How early should we get there, and what are the chances of being let in early?

2. The big question.... HP first, or save for afternoon? Ride wait times that I have read on a subscription site (touringplans.com) lead me to believe that unless you are EE to HP, it really doesn't get more crowded than from park opening. Ride times seem to peak at 9am, and stay the same (or lower a bit) throughout the day. Would we be better seeing the rest of the park when there are no lines in the begining of the day, then hitting HP in the afternoon??? Or is it still best to go straight there when we get in?

Alot depends on your answer to question two. If you want to save HP until later in the day...which I would recommend...then you wouldn't need to get to the park much earlier than 9am. If there is a long line out front, there's a good chance you would be allowed to enter earlier than 9am but I wouldn't count on it.

I think you would be better off doing the rest of the park first and then check out HP after lunch. You could of course check wait times throughout the day and if you wanted to head over, you certainly would have that option.

 

[soccermother]

You should go straight there. It's probably the main reason you are going to Universal, right? So you don't want to have stress of worrying about it by delaying till the afternoon. Once you have had your fill Hogwarts then you can have a more relaxing day picking and choosing from the rest of it.