Harry Potter Crowd Report Thread...

[hopemax]

just want to bump this post, i'm still looking for an answer.

A few pages back, I posted my report from Monday. I'm staying at my parent's house, so definitely off-site. We arrived at the turnstyle at 7:45. We got into the park with no wait. We could see the line accross the water in JP. We grabbed food at the Cinnabon, which was already open and about 8:10 we noticed people were riding Hulk. All the rides were open in Marvel Island even though posted opening time was 9AM. By 9 we had ridden Hulk, Dr Doom, Spiderman x 2 and the line for HP was stretching back to the entrance of IOA.

We are going to the Studios park today, and will probably go over to WWoHP later in the day. So I will be adding another report later.

 

[Ltl Mermaid]

Clever Girl: What is the Harry Potter Package for Offsite Guests?? TIA!

 

[clever girl]

Ltl Mermaid,

If you go to the Universal Orlando website, you should see an advertisement for the Harry Potter Package from, I think $285/adult. Click there. From there, you'll have your chance to select your hotel and other options like FOTL access. Included with the package is free Citywalk Party Passes, early entrance to the park (invaluable) and breakfast at the Three Broomsticks along with a commerative Grand Opening Ticket. Although it specifies for 4 days, you can make it for any length you want.

 

[cdoles]

I thought for sure I had answered this but maybe it was another thread. The turnstiles have been opening around 8:00 AM. So you will be able to get into the park around that time and then get in line for Harry Potter. I went yesterday and arrived at 8:30 AM and went immediately to get in line. It took us about an hour to get into the Harry potter area and then around 45 minutes in line for Forbidden Journey. If we had arrived earlier, the wait would not have been as long. (I'm a local so I don't stay onsite since I live here.) Good Luck!

i'm sorry if you already answered... i don't think it was mine though,
anyway no biggie, now i got the answer i needed!
thank you!!

 

[hopemax]

Universal Day 2 for us, yesterday. We focused on the Studios side, with the plan of going back over to IOA late in the day for WWoHP. We arrived at USF about 8:50, there was a small line to get in. We rode in this order: Jimmy Neutron, Rock-it, Shrek, Terminator, lunch, Horror Make-up Show, MIB, Simpsons, Jaws, Disaster, Mummy, Twister, dinner at Finnegans, MIB again, walked around the kid land, ET. The waits for everything when we did it were 10-30 minutes, but I did see the coasters were 60 min at times.

Unfortunately, our last ride ET, had a posted wait time of 25 minutes, but the ride went down and then they only had one TM working load, so lots of empty bikes going out and it took 45 minutes, maybe even more. This meant we didn't get into IOA and back to FJ until 9 PM. And I think the word is out about going late. There was chaos at the lockers, the line was posted at 90 minutes. It took about 50 minutes, but it meant we didn't get out until 10:05. If we hadn't have had the extra wait at ET, we could have gotten through the ride and into a shop line before things shut down. Or a butterbeer at 3Bs. Honeydukes and the carts were still open, but the wand cart line was still super long, so we just left.

That is one heck of a trek back to the parking garage, especially when your feet are tired and you need something to drink. We were all sweating a ton. By the time we made it back to the car, I called it the Harry Potter weight loss attraction.

We have one more day, which will be next Monday. Still not sure what we want to do. Be there at 8 when the turnstyles open, or arrive later. So everyone, please continue to post their experiences.

 

[bubba's mom]

thanks for the updates Hope.

 

[Planogirl]

Wow Hope, that is a hard decision. I suspect that we'll go early unless going late seems to work out better as the attraction gets older. Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[abooch]

Keep up with the reports they are awesome!! Thanks everybody...

Mods possibly a sticky? lol

 

[MIChessGuy]

That is one heck of a trek back to the parking garage, especially when your feet are tired and you need something to drink. We were all sweating a ton. By the time we made it back to the car, I called it the Harry Potter weight loss attraction.

I have often wished Universal would do something about the parking garage marathon. Even with the moving sidewalks, it takes forever. On a few prior visits, I've had to drop off my dad near that bus parking area and then meet up with him upstairs, but it's still a long walk even from that point.

 

[Comaxxwhite]

Arrived at the park at turnstiles at 830ish. I don't remember bc it took forever to park the car and walk to IOA. But I was in wwohp at 855. The line to get in started in front of jp river adventure but it was constantly moving And didn't even feel like we waited for that long. We lined up for fj at 9 and were done with the ride before 930. The wait time was posted at 30 min but again the line was constantly moving. Afterwards we walked straight on hippogriff. Afterwards we started to wait on line for butterbeer but only waited two mins bc a waitress came by and I paid cash and didn't want a souveneir cup. We purchased both regular and frozen and preferred the frozen. While we sipped the butterbeer we waited on line to get into zonkos and got in around ten min later. Then on another line for dervishes and that took about fifteen min. In there we purchased the wands bc the line for ollivanders was ridiculous. After that I drank pumpkin juice while taking pics and walkin around. In the end we were satisfied that we completed everything we wanted in wwohp by 1130. In my view if u go before the oficial openig time and on a weekday the lines are not a problem at all and even pleasant since you'll have a chance to take pics of everything.

 

[scanne]

Thanks for that recent update of wait times. Sounds good! We're going on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Our first day at WWoHP is a Thursday. We have a breakfast reservation at 9:30 and we're staying at Portofino, so hopefully we'll have gone on everything before breakfast.

 

[bijoli666]

My first post on Disboards! How exciting LOL. We are staying on-site at the Hard Rock Hotel. Left the hotel (walking) at about 7, and got to IOA about 7:15/20 (DH, me, and three kids 7, 4, 2). They opened the gates at about 7:35/40 and we went in (maybe 150 people (or less) in WWOHP at that time). Showed our room keys to get into WWOHP and got right on Forbidden Journey since that is the only thing that the Express Pass won't work for. Waited about 0 minutes LOL.... we also did child swap which went very smoothly. Forbidden Journey was awesome! We then walked over to Flight of the Hippogriff, which all three of the kids loved, and we rode on that twice. THEN to Dueling Dragons (which I was super scared about, I'm not a huge roller coaster person.) DH went first (on the red one) and then I went. NEVER AGAIN for me! Too many loops and too much craziness for me LOL. DH loved it, and rode the blue one next, and loved that one too. Done w/ all the rides by about 8:30. We had ressies for Three Broomsticks at 9, so we went over about 8:35... A little bit of a wait inside, but not bad. Now by the time we came out of breakfast the public was in and a lot of people were in line for Olivanders and the other shops. We are going to IOA again Sunday, so we decided to visit the shops that day. Went around to do all the rest of the park and re-entered WW through the backside to get frozen butterbeer at about 2 PM, line for Dueling Dragons was still only 10 min (maybe people were scared like me LOL) but I didn't see the Forbidden Journey wait time. The line at Honeydukes was pretty short, so DS 7 and I went in and bought some peppermint toads All in all, the family and I were big fans! And we were super happy to be staying on-site, we finished everything in WWOHP before the public was even in the park. Whew that's a long first post, but feel free to ask any questions of me you have

 

[justprettynpink]

My first post on Disboards! How exciting LOL. We are staying on-site at the Hard Rock Hotel. Left the hotel (walking) at about 7, and got to IOA about 7:15/20 (DH, me, and three kids 7, 4, 2). They opened the gates at about 7:35/40 and we went in (maybe 150 people (or less) in WWOHP at that time). Showed our room keys to get into WWOHP and got right on Forbidden Journey since that is the only thing that the Express Pass won't work for. Waited about 0 minutes LOL.... we also did child swap which went very smoothly. Forbidden Journey was awesome! We then walked over to Flight of the Hippogriff, which all three of the kids loved, and we rode on that twice. THEN to Dueling Dragons (which I was super scared about, I'm not a huge roller coaster person.) DH went first (on the red one) and then I went. NEVER AGAIN for me! Too many loops and too much craziness for me LOL. DH loved it, and rode the blue one next, and loved that one too. Done w/ all the rides by about 8:30. We had ressies for Three Broomsticks at 9, so we went over about 8:35... A little bit of a wait inside, but not bad. Now by the time we came out of breakfast the public was in and a lot of people were in line for Olivanders and the other shops. We are going to IOA again Sunday, so we decided to visit the shops that day. Went around to do all the rest of the park and re-entered WW through the backside to get frozen butterbeer at about 2 PM, line for Dueling Dragons was still only 10 min (maybe people were scared like me LOL) but I didn't see the Forbidden Journey wait time. The line at Honeydukes was pretty short, so DS 7 and I went in and bought some peppermint toads All in all, the family and I were big fans! And we were super happy to be staying on-site, we finished everything in WWOHP before the public was even in the park. Whew that's a long first post, but feel free to ask any questions of me you have

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Glad to hear you were able to get finished with what you wanted to see before the GP got in!

 

[Albytaps]

My first post on Disboards! How exciting LOL. We are staying on-site at the Hard Rock Hotel. Left the hotel (walking) at about 7, and got to IOA about 7:15/20 (DH, me, and three kids 7, 4, 2). They opened the gates at about 7:35/40 and we went in (maybe 150 people (or less) in WWOHP at that time). Showed our room keys to get into WWOHP and got right on Forbidden Journey since that is the only thing that the Express Pass won't work for. Waited about 0 minutes LOL.... we also did child swap which went very smoothly. Forbidden Journey was awesome! We then walked over to Flight of the Hippogriff, which all three of the kids loved, and we rode on that twice. THEN to Dueling Dragons (which I was super scared about, I'm not a huge roller coaster person.) DH went first (on the red one) and then I went. NEVER AGAIN for me! Too many loops and too much craziness for me LOL. DH loved it, and rode the blue one next, and loved that one too. Done w/ all the rides by about 8:30. We had ressies for Three Broomsticks at 9, so we went over about 8:35... A little bit of a wait inside, but not bad. Now by the time we came out of breakfast the public was in and a lot of people were in line for Olivanders and the other shops. We are going to IOA again Sunday, so we decided to visit the shops that day. Went around to do all the rest of the park and re-entered WW through the backside to get frozen butterbeer at about 2 PM, line for Dueling Dragons was still only 10 min (maybe people were scared like me LOL) but I didn't see the Forbidden Journey wait time. The line at Honeydukes was pretty short, so DS 7 and I went in and bought some peppermint toads All in all, the family and I were big fans! And we were super happy to be staying on-site, we finished everything in WWOHP before the public was even in the park. Whew that's a long first post, but feel free to ask any questions of me you have

That's a great first post and thanks for the report! I'm hoping to have a similar experience to yours... specially on FJ with the child swap.

 

[hopemax]

Arrived at the park at turnstiles at 830ish. I don't remember bc it took forever to park the car and walk to IOA. But I was in wwohp at 855. The line to get in started in front of jp river adventure but it was constantly moving And didn't even feel like we waited for that long.

Good to hear. I was wondering what type of wait people arriving at that time would have. We were already leaning to arriving early on our last day, figuring the sun wouldn't be as bright and it wouldn't be as hot, than if we arrived 4ish. So I think we will aim for an 8-8:30 arrival, head to Ollivanders when we are allowed in, and then Dervish & Banges. And hit the rides afterwards.

 

[phamton]

i'm sorry if you already answered... i don't think it was mine though,
anyway no biggie, now i got the answer i needed!
thank you!!

No, I was just confused, which isn't unusual. I was just sorry you had to wait so long for an answer.

My first post on Disboards!

Welcome! And thanks for sharing the info.

 

[Orlando313]

Ok I just got back home from WWOHP and I'm here to share my crowd update. We arrived around 7:30 pm and the park wasn't too busy, no wait to get into the section. The wait for FJ was 60 mins, but my sister and I chose to wait in the single rider line. We were SO excited since it was our first time riding. We ended up waiting about 30 mins in all. The ride was AMAZING!!!!!!!! The best ride I have ever been on in my life. I'm trying to convince my mom that it's not too bad, she doesn't like jerkiness, but the ride is super smooth.

There was a small wait to get into Honeydukes/Zonko's, less than 5 mins. Honeydukes was overpriced, in my opinion, for the low quality of candy. Zonko's was just a bunch of junk it seemed like. We waited for Butterbeer for about 10 minutes. It wasn't anything like I imagined it tasting like, but it was still good. The foamy top was growing, and it was kind of cool. The lady told us not to put a straw in it until we drank it down some or else it would explode or something.

We didn't get do anything else because we had to go hunt down some ice cream, but I plan on going back this weekend at some point. I HAVE to ride that ride again!!!!!! I think evening is the way to go though.

 

[torinsmom]

I am not sure why anyone waits in the stand by line for FJ. It's not like you can interact with the other people on the ride. If you do single rider, you can talk to the people you're with until the first one gets on the ride. I don't know,90 minutes in stand by vs. 20 minutes in single rider

 

[Orlando313]

Yea when you're on the ride you can't even really see the person beside you. If they all went to single rider, then I would just go to standby.

 

[dalownerx3]

I believe you miss most of the experience of being in Hogwarts if you go in the single rider line. You also won't be able to have your group photo if all rode single rider.