Going to US morning, IoA night... bad idea?

[crazybetty00]

The facts:

• We'll be going to Universal on Friday, Jan. 23! We only have 1 day.
• We're not staying on-site, so no early entry, no EP.
• We're MASSIVE Harry Potter fans. BIG TIME.
• I don't like big, crazy roller coasters (especially if they go upside down!), so we're not really interested in riding Hulk, RRR or Dragon Challenge. I think I can do Mummy.
• We've been to Hogsmeade before, but not Diagon Alley.
• We're mainly interested in HP stuff. We really like feeling immersed in those locations and enjoying the atmosphere and shopping, plus Gringotts & FJ.

So, with all the info out of the way... is it a bad idea for us to do DA in the morning and Hogsmeade in the afternoon? I've read that that's the path EVERYONE takes, so it's probably better to do it in reverse. But we're such huge HP fans, I wanted to do it in the order of the books! (I know, NERD ALERT.) Should we RD Gringotts if we do?

Last time we went in late January (2012), the crowds weren't bad it all. I went on FJ four times in the morning... practically walked right on! I'm guessing things have changed since DA opened?

If you were me... what would be your plan of attack?

 

[damo]

Get an ap with wait times and pay close attention to it. The area themselves aren't too terribly busy, but wait time for Gringotts might be high.

 

[crazybetty00]

Get an ap with wait times

Any recommendations? I thought I read Universal's official app doesn't show wait times unless you're IN Orlando.

 

[ladybugx]

I would think you'd want to see Diagon Alley both when it's light out and at night as a big Potter fan. It's a bit of a different experience in the dark, at least so I hear. I didn't get to spend that much time there at night because our scheduling got messed up due to our shuttle and a few other things, as in I literally just rushed through at night to pick up a keychain I wanted to buy, then ran back out of the area to the shuttle area. However, from what others say, it looks really neat at night.

In our case, US closed an hour after IoA. So our plan was to do DA early on, then head over to IoA, then head back to US to see DA at night after IoA closed.

I hope I'm making sense. Really bad migraine lol.