Seems like Star Tours gets most people with motion sickness tendencies, myself included. I love Spidey and Soarin, I think the difference is stagnant air. Hoping for the best with FJ!
We were at Universal Saturday and Sunday, Dec 4 and 5 (first timers here). We spent Friday at Epcot, and it was a madhouse, I was expecting the worst for Universal the next day. We did not get out there until noon, so we thought we wouldn't even attempt to go to Harry Potter that day, and went to the Universal side. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to get on several rides, including Simpsons and MIB with little to no wait. At around 3:30 pm we decided to just go to IOA to check it out, maybe take some daylight pictures of Hogsmeade. We were also hungry, so we thought maybe we would try our luck at Three Broomsticks. Well, we walked right in, got our food and were seated immediately, it was maybe 1/3 full. Although the area looked crowded, we could go into all the stores except Ollivanders. The posted time for FJ was 45 minutes, so we decided to do it: it was more like 25. After this, posted time for Dragons was 10 min, but my sons were able to walk right on. Sunday we did the same thing, went to Universal side first and did not get to HP until 4:15 pm, and it was even less crowded, there was little to no wait for anything except Ollivanders.
We spent 2 days at this park, no express pass, got there around noon both days and were able to do every ride and show we wanted to do at least once, many twice, and left before park closing both days.
RE FJ and motion sickness: I am sad to have to tell you that it was a bad one for me. I am a severe motion sickness sufferer, but with Bonine I am able to ride mostly everything at Disney, including tea cups. I have not braved MS, so I can't comment on that, but had no problems anywhere else other than a little queasiness at Star Tours.
Well, my luck did not hold at Universal: the first problem was at the Simpson's ride: I had to close my eyes half-way through it and felt a little bad for about 15 min after, but got over it. FJ almost killed me, I had my eyes closed the entire time and barely made it off the ride, through the store and across the way to the bathrooms before getting quite sick
Oh well, at least I tried, and it was great just being there and going through the village and the castle. My sons of course loved it, they did not inherit my queasiness and can do all this stuff over and over.
Alright, so my family and I are at IOA today. We were there last May and I got lucky enough to be part of the preview with limited people let in at WWHOP. Thankfully I was able to see it then, because if today was my first time I would have been super disapointed. Today, to me, was CRAZY! It was a really weird day, there were lots of people there but ride times weren't crazy. It was almost like there were people there that have never seen anything before, or they were shot with the "confudus" (spelling) charm. People just stood there looking around right in the middle of the walk ways just standing, not moving, even when I would say "excuse me" to get through they would just look at me like I had three heads. We have a 7 yr old and a 4 yr old with a very small single stroller and ended up dumping it off in several spots because we couldn't even push a stroller through stores, or even just the general walking areas. This doesn't apply to just Harry Potter either, it was the entire park! I don't know what was with people today but it was very unenjoyable to be there today. My husband and I did FJ today, but as single riders since we have the kids, and it was walk on. The line for olivanders was over an hour and security actually had to go on the bridge from JP to WWHOP to get people to move and they had to go into Filches to get people to actually move. It was so weird. I am glad that today wasn't my first and probably won't be my last trip to IOA because if it was I would have been super irritated and disapointed. It felt like both the people and the team members of IOA all acted as if it was the very first day of opening and no one knew what to do, where to walk, how to speak, and were all dumbfounded. I don't know if anyone else that was at the park today felt that way or if it was just us, except we have been there many many times in the past ten years and today was by far the most uncomfortable irritating day I have ever spent there. Oh well, we are here for another week and a half so maybe we will go back and it won't be so weird.
This is pretty much what I saw a week ago myself. Busy yes, but nowhere near the craziness of the other 3-4 times or so I've visited since WWoHP.
By the way, I've worked on aviation simulators for 20 years. The reason a simulator ride gets some people sick--who have no qualms about the craziest coasters--is that the sim is trying to trick your brain into thinking it is doing something it isn't. If the visual scene is not timed to within, say 10 milliseconds of the motion system, then your eyes are seeing something happen that doesn't agree with your sense of balance in your inner ear. The human brain is very perceptive and can tell that something isn't quite right and tells you so by becoming a little disoriented. On coaster, nothing is faked so everything that is happening is in tune--eyes and sense of balance and stuff. In my experience, it is not that you are on the end of a robotic arm going through practical sets that gets people sick, it's the relative lack of motion on the ride while your watching screens that make you think you're diving on a magic bench following crazy wizards on broomsticks.
