Harry Potter advice spot-on!! THANK YOU!!

[DWGal210]

We are in Orlando right now and toured IOA on Wednesday to see Harry Potter. I read these boards religiously before we left, trying to get the perfect strategy to tour. So I wanted to come back and say THANK YOU for the great advice!! Here is my mini trip report on our experience:

We knew the park opened at 8AM that day, and we are staying in a rental house in Davenport so we left the house about 7AM. We got to the parking lot about 7:30 and although people were arriving, we still got a good spot in the parking garage (Spiderman 150, so on the first floor). We didn't buy our tickets beforehand but were able to get right in line and within 5 minutes had our tickets. By this point, it was about 7:50 and they opened up the turnstiles. As expected, about 99% of people headed over to WWoHP. If you don't want to see that part of IOA or it's not that important to you to see it, this would be a GREAT time to ride the other rides, I would imagine you would get right on.

I wanted to take pictures and the kids wanted to ride, so they went ahead of me and got in line right away for Forbidden Journey. By about 8:15, the line was already at 45 minutes. Wowza! They rode that first, and then went right onto Flight of the Hippogriff, that wait was about 20 minutes. At this point, the boys went to Jurassic Park and my sister and I stood in line for Olivanders.

The wand show is cute and it's very well-done, but why oh why is it so small?!?! About 30 people at a time can go into the shop and from there, you go into the wand gift shop, which is also TINY. (Small spaces and WWoHP seem to go together!) We were in line for that show for about an hour. At this point, it was about 10:30 and we decided to eat lunch. We hadn't eaten breakfast and we knew that it would get crazy around Noon time, so we ate at Three Broomsticks. The food was good, not great but certainly did the job as we were all hungry. We got 2 chicken finger kid's meals, 2 Butterbeers in take-home mugs, a bottled water, a lemonade, the fish & chips meal and the Turkey leg and it was about $65. Oh well, you're on vacation, right?! The kid behind the counter who was taking the orders actually apologized to me as I handed over my card, "Sorry, I don't make the prices."

Now it's about 11:15AM and the kids rode Dragon Challenge. This only had about a 5 minute wait. I would chalk that up to it not being a new ride, just a re-named one, and people might have already done it and chose to not go again.

By Noon, we felt we'd experienced WWoHP. The boys did go back one more time to ride single-rider on Forbidden Journey but we spent the rest of the day on the other attractions on IOA. We left around 4PM, exhausted, hot and tired, but we had a great time!!

Sorry for rambling on - but I wanted to give my impressions. Here is my pros and cons list for WWoHP:

Pros:
* The theming of this place is unreal. Hogwarts is a masterpiece. Very, very well done!
* At Three Broomsticks, they seat you after you get your food. This is a VERY good idea, as it prevents people from saving places and having to jockey for a table where you can eat.
* The Butterbeer is delicious. A bit too rich for my taste (I couldn't have more than 1 glass of it) but still very tasty.

Cons:
* Too small. In particular, the shops and stores are TINY. I am surprised there isn't a requirement to make them larger for wheelchairs. If you had a wheelchair or stroller and you go in the busy seasons, it would be hard to manuver around.
* Olivander's wand show and the shop. The show itself is not a con, just the way it's handled. If they are doing a dump into the shop after the show to entice people to buy wands, they should have made it 3-4 times larger.

Hope that helps!
~ Katie

 

[damo]

We are in Orlando right now and toured IOA on Wednesday to see Harry Potter. I read these boards religiously before we left, trying to get the perfect strategy to tour. So I wanted to come back and say THANK YOU for the great advice!! Here is my mini trip report on our experience:

We knew the park opened at 8AM that day, and we are staying in a rental house in Davenport so we left the house about 7AM. We got to the parking lot about 7:30 and although people were arriving, we still got a good spot in the parking garage (Spiderman 150, so on the first floor). We didn't buy our tickets beforehand but were able to get right in line and within 5 minutes had our tickets. By this point, it was about 7:50 and they opened up the turnstiles. As expected, about 99% of people headed over to WWoHP. If you don't want to see that part of IOA or it's not that important to you to see it, this would be a GREAT time to ride the other rides, I would imagine you would get right on.

I wanted to take pictures and the kids wanted to ride, so they went ahead of me and got in line right away for Forbidden Journey. By about 8:15, the line was already at 45 minutes. Wowza! They rode that first, and then went right onto Flight of the Hippogriff, that wait was about 20 minutes. At this point, the boys went to Jurassic Park and my sister and I stood in line for Olivanders.

The wand show is cute and it's very well-done, but why oh why is it so small?!?! About 30 people at a time can go into the shop and from there, you go into the wand gift shop, which is also TINY. (Small spaces and WWoHP seem to go together!) We were in line for that show for about an hour. At this point, it was about 10:30 and we decided to eat lunch. We hadn't eaten breakfast and we knew that it would get crazy around Noon time, so we ate at Three Broomsticks. The food was good, not great but certainly did the job as we were all hungry. We got 2 chicken finger kid's meals, 2 Butterbeers in take-home mugs, a bottled water, a lemonade, the fish & chips meal and the Turkey leg and it was about $65. Oh well, you're on vacation, right?! The kid behind the counter who was taking the orders actually apologized to me as I handed over my card, "Sorry, I don't make the prices."

Now it's about 11:15AM and the kids rode Dragon Challenge. This only had about a 5 minute wait. I would chalk that up to it not being a new ride, just a re-named one, and people might have already done it and chose to not go again.

By Noon, we felt we'd experienced WWoHP. The boys did go back one more time to ride single-rider on Forbidden Journey but we spent the rest of the day on the other attractions on IOA. We left around 4PM, exhausted, hot and tired, but we had a great time!!

Sorry for rambling on - but I wanted to give my impressions. Here is my pros and cons list for WWoHP:

Pros:
* The theming of this place is unreal. Hogwarts is a masterpiece. Very, very well done!
* At Three Broomsticks, they seat you after you get your food. This is a VERY good idea, as it prevents people from saving places and having to jockey for a table where you can eat.
* The Butterbeer is delicious. A bit too rich for my taste (I couldn't have more than 1 glass of it) but still very tasty.

Cons:
* Too small. In particular, the shops and stores are TINY. I am surprised there isn't a requirement to make them larger for wheelchairs. If you had a wheelchair or stroller and you go in the busy seasons, it would be hard to manuver around.
* Olivander's wand show and the shop. The show itself is not a con, just the way it's handled. If they are doing a dump into the shop after the show to entice people to buy wands, they should have made it 3-4 times larger.

Hope that helps!
~ Katie

Lack of space makes the shops small. Ollivander's has Dragon Challenge immediately behind it...there really is no room to make it bigger. I think JK Rowling really wanted things small and intimate like normal shops. This is only a problem during heaving times. Otherwise it actually works just fine.

 

[Planogirl]

Thanks for the report. I agree that the shops are tiny but it fits the theming I suppose. I'm glad that you had a nice time!

 

[mesaboy2]

Lack of space makes the shops small. Ollivander's has Dragon Challenge immediately behind it...there really is no room to make it bigger. I think JK Rowling really wanted things small and intimate like normal shops. This is only a problem during heaving times. Otherwise it actually works just fine.

This.

I think Rowling is probably most responsible for the small size of the stores. My presumption is she wanted to keep as much as possible close to her original vision. The "actual" Ollivander's is not big, for instance. If true, that would also account for the wonderful theming everyone mentions. Just my opinion.

FYI, Universal is adjusting a little bit. They did convert a storage room into a second wand shop that Ollivander's can dump into.

 

[DWGal210]

This.

I think Rowling is probably most responsible for the small size of the stores. My presumption is she wanted to keep as much as possible close to her original vision. The "actual" Ollivander's is not big, for instance. If true, that would also account for the wonderful theming everyone mentions. Just my opinion.

FYI, Universal is adjusting a little bit. They did convert a storage room into a second wand shop that Ollivander's can dump into.

Oh I agree with this, absolutely. I honestly didn't see a whole lot of real estate in that area of the park where they could expand. I was just speaking to the crowding I felt being in the stores. It is very true to the books, that's very true. They did a great job with that. I was only saying that a vision of small spaces + LOTS of people doesn't mix. However, on the other side, I also think it they had made these giant stores it wouldn't have looked as "realistic" as it did. It's a catch-22, for sure. It certainly didn't affect our enjoyment of the park, so that was good.

 

[jlhay]

So you were offsite guests right who didn't get early entry? And still did WWoHP by noon-ish? I was thinking of trying to go to WWoHP after 5pm when I've read crowds die down a bit. We'll be there in late august offsite too.

 

[Brownie54]

So you were offsite guests right who didn't get early entry? And still did WWoHP by noon-ish? I was thinking of trying to go to WWoHP after 5pm when I've read crowds die down a bit. We'll be there in late august offsite too.

Going to WWoHP the last two hours before closing is a great idea. It sure worked for us on Memorial Weekend no less.