Harry Potter Crowd Report Thread...

Universal Studios close at 5pm but IOA stays open until at least 7. If you are not interersted in HHNs and just want to do the parks during the day, go on a Monday or Tues when there is no Halloween Horror Nights, have been told these days are quieter. There is a timetable on the Universal website.
 
In the past that has pretty much been true. But with WWOHP I would doubt it this year. Time will tell..

I have friends that go to HHN every year. They never do Stay and Scream, but this year they are because they want to check out HP. I'm sure they're not the only ones with that plan. I won't be surprised if there is more of a crowd at IOA before 5 pm (especially during Fri-Sun). I don't think it will be packed like this past summer though.
 
We arrived in Orlando last Wednesday, the 15th and stayed offsite at The Fountains owned by Bluegreen Co. It was a wonderful place to stay.

We arrived at IOA on Thursday and parked at almost exactly 9am (opening time.) We went straight to WWoHP and I suggested to wait at Ollivander's first, because of reading Disboards.:thumbsup2 We waited about 15-20 minutes and I would recommend waiting at Ollivander's first because the rest of the day it looks to be about a 45+minute wait AND in the morning, the line is next to the building which shades you from the sun. Later in the day you will be waiting in DIRECT sunlight.
Moved over to FJ next, about 9:30 and there was a 30 minute wait. We were in the greenhouse for about 20min and got stuck in the room just before the sorting hat for about 15. The ride seemed to break down twice. Otherwise, the line moves along nicely and our total wait for this ride was about 45 to 50 minutes. We walked on the Dragon Challenge, and 20 minutes for Hippogriff.
By 1pm, the lines were VERY long, 60+ min for FJ, 30 for Hippogriff and I don't remember Dragon Challenge. We left to do some more of IOA and went to Jurassic Park and a raft ride. We then we to US and hit up more rides.

Friday morning, we parked our car at exactly 9am and walked to US. We decided to go counterclockwise and do ET first but it was closed and didn't open until 11. :mad: We did MiB, Jaws was closed:headache:, Disaster, the Mummy, Beetlejuice, Twister, then ET and Jaws. (RRRclosed:sad2:) Back to IOA and walked on Doom's Fearfall twice, walked on the Hulk, 15 minutes for Spiderman, no wait for Bluto's, 10min for Jurassic Park. Back at WWoHP, at 3pm it was a 40 minute wait for FJ but we got on in about 30 and literally, Hermione said "one, two three....." and the ride shut down. We waited in our seats for 15-20min until they finally turned the lights on and we had to go thru the ride with the lights on. Very interesting to see how they do it!:idea: We got a voucher to use and used it once the ride got up and running. Last ride of the day was Dragon Challenge and we walked on it again.
 

1. Do Ollivander's in the morning so you won't be in direct sunlight. But don't wait for more than 30 minutes, the show is cute but not worth that long of a wait.
2. Use Filch's for your locker. (thank you Disboards!) If you are just getting to WWoHP and don't know where it is, when you get to the lockers, just hand 1 person the stuff and let them "push" through. The first room is always crowded and panicky. "push" through and go to the less crowded rooms.
3. if you have change or a camera in your pocked at FJ: it will fall out! I brought my camera to take pictures in line, and then put it in my front pocket. It fell out halfway through, but I was able to reach around in my seat and save it before we had a chance to tip forward and dump it. :cool1:
4. A 30 minute wait for FJ is perfect. Once you wait for a bit in the greenhouse, you go into the castle and there is so much to see, many rooms, hallways, characters talking to you that it isn't really a wait. Once you see the Sorting hat, you're almost on!
5. TRY the BUTTERBEER! amazing...:cloud9:
6. Preferred parking is hit or miss. The second day we did preferred but there wasn't much of a difference between our first day and second day parking spots.
7. Take your time! I though US did a wonderful job with WWoHP and you really need to take your time, look in shop windows, notice the baby mandrakes crying, see a feather pen writing all on it's own, listen to Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms, sit under the owlry and enjoy pumpkin juice, etc. Don't worry about when the shortest lines for FJ will be etc, you WILL be able to do it all, so enjoy the details.

8. I forgot to add, if you don't like rollercoasters, you should still walk through the line for the Dragon Challenge. There is a great spot for taking a picture in front of Hogwarts and you can see the Weasley's car (still stuck in the woods!) You can exit the line right across from the car. There is no "line" to speak of, just the pathway.
 
Thanks MHT to MCO. We are going to Orlando on 16th Oct for two weeks. Not sure if it will be busier in Universal/IOA because of HHN, but will take your tips on board - we may have to do child swap on FJ as our 7yr old is barely 48", it will be close!
 
Thanks MHT to MCO. We are going to Orlando on 16th Oct for two weeks. Not sure if it will be busier in Universal/IOA because of HHN, but will take your tips on board - we may have to do child swap on FJ as our 7yr old is barely 48", it will be close!
The Studios will be busier in the afternoons when HHN is staged but IOA shouldn't see a noticeable increase.
 
/
1. Do Ollivander's in the morning so you won't be in direct sunlight. But don't wait for more than 30 minutes, the show is cute but not worth that long of a wait.
2. Use Filch's for your locker. (thank you Disboards!) If you are just getting to WWoHP and don't know where it is, when you get to the lockers, just hand 1 person the stuff and let them "push" through. The first room is always crowded and panicky. "push" through and go to the less crowded rooms.
3. if you have change or a camera in your pocked at FJ: it will fall out! I brought my camera to take pictures in line, and then put it in my front pocket. It fell out halfway through, but I was able to reach around in my seat and save it before we had a chance to tip forward and dump it. :cool1:
4. A 30 minute wait for FJ is perfect. Once you wait for a bit in the greenhouse, you go into the castle and there is so much to see, many rooms, hallways, characters talking to you that it isn't really a wait. Once you see the Sorting hat, you're almost on!
5. TRY the BUTTERBEER! amazing...:cloud9:
6. Preferred parking is hit or miss. The second day we did preferred but there wasn't much of a difference between our first day and second day parking spots.
7. Take your time! I though US did a wonderful job with WWoHP and you really need to take your time, look in shop windows, notice the baby mandrakes crying, see a feather pen writing all on it's own, listen to Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms, sit under the owlry and enjoy pumpkin juice, etc. Don't worry about when the shortest lines for FJ will be etc, you WILL be able to do it all, so enjoy the details.


Thanks for the tips!! In exactly 2 weeks we'll be at Uni! :banana:
 
anyone done the wwohp with dslr and do all the rides.

i'll be going with one other person, and i'm not willing not to bring the dslr

by the sounds of it i need to go through the lines once to take pictures, one person could ride as other left, than use lockers so that both could ride, ideally using the single rider to avoid waiting

olivander's, any suggestions for a 25 year old to get picked

hoping for good crowds in first week of december
 
anyone done the wwohp with dslr and do all the rides.

i'll be going with one other person, and i'm not willing not to bring the dslr

by the sounds of it i need to go through the lines once to take pictures, one person could ride as other left, than use lockers so that both could ride, ideally using the single rider to avoid waiting

olivander's, any suggestions for a 25 year old to get picked

hoping for good crowds in first week of december


Good question, this is the main reason we HAVE to get a locker - bc I won't leave w/o my DSLR. However, the first go around I plan to bring a small camera just to take photos, and if I feel it's necessary then we'll go back through so I can take more w/ my camera. How I wish they allowed us to store everything AFTER going thru the line!!
 
3. if you have change or a camera in your pocked at FJ: it will fall out! I brought my camera to take pictures in line, and then put it in my front pocket. It fell out halfway through, but I was able to reach around in my seat and save it before we had a chance to tip forward and dump it. :cool1:.

Can not emphasize this enough!!!!

I had really deep pockets and put a small flat wallet in one. Part way through FJ, I checked my pocket and it was gone! My heart nearly stopped :scared1: In it were my credit cards, license, tickets, etc. I checked behind me and found it! :woohoo: Luckily I checked before it fell from the seat.



8. I forgot to add, if you don't like rollercoasters, you should still walk through the line for the Dragon Challenge. There is a great spot for taking a picture in front of Hogwarts and you can see the Weasley's car (still stuck in the woods!) You can exit the line right across from the car. There is no "line" to speak of, just the pathway.

Dang! so many good tips here and I forgot that one! :(

We were there on a Thrusday, around 9:20 am and it was a 40 min wait already. We did the single rider, about 7 minute wait, and then we asked to do the walkthrough. The ONLY thing you miss is the sorting hat, and the actual ride, of course.

For anyone who wants to really see everything the castle has to offer, do the walkthrough, you can take your time and really enjoy yourself as well as get great pics!
 
anyone done the wwohp with dslr and do all the rides.

i'll be going with one other person, and i'm not willing not to bring the dslr

We were just there Tuesday 9/21, and I brought my DSLR. You can ask one of the attendants at the front of the castle to do a "castle tour" just to take pictures in the queue. They'll let you walk through with your camera in a line that runs parallel to the regular line (except you'll miss the greenhouse)--that way you can take pics without actuallly waiting in the line--and then when you get close to the ride loading area, you exit without riding.

As for a crowd report and experiences with FJ....

As I said, we were there 9/21. Got to Harry Potter area about 10:00-10:30. At that point FJ was a 60-minute wait. We stored our stuff in lockers. An attendant was telling everyone single rider was a five-minute wait. We decided that for our first ride, we'd do the single-rider and then come back later and go through the regular line to see that.

Well....

So we got in the single rider line. And we waited. And waited. And waited. We waited FIFTY minutes. In the single-rider line.

Turns out the person in charge of directing the standby line and the single rider line just before the loading area did not know what she was doing. She was mixing up the lines, and top of that, as she was mixing them she was allowing about 30-40 people from standby into her mixed up line for every 1-2 people from the single-rider line. It was a mess.

Needless to say people were NOT happy. Some guys in single rider ended up jumping the queue into the standby line because it was moving so much faster. When the TM yelled at them, they tried to explain and she did NOT understand. She got mad and ended up yelling at all of us, waving her hands around while saying "FINE, you want to ride together, you'll ALL ride together" and actually hit me in the side of the head with her hand (by accident).

Anyway we finally got on after an hour in the single rider line. Afterwards we went back to the front of the castle to try to explain to the attendants there the problem (because we still weren't sure the issue was being corrected, because the TM never did understand what people were trying to tell her).

The attendant at the front took us through the line (through the castle so we could see everying we had missed in single-rider) to the front so that we got on the ride immediately. That was very nice of her. Once there we noticed the TM who'd been mixing the lines was gone, and we found from talking with the new TM that they had finally understood what was happening and that was why they'd replaced the other TM.

So anyway, we got to ride again, but that time it broke. We got stuck briefly at the end of the dementors scene, and then the screens/movies for the rest of the ride did not work.

So all in all.... not such a magical experience for Forbidden Journey for us. The ride itself really was a lot of fun, but after two rough experiences, we decided that was enough. I had sort of lost the desire to even walk through the "castle tour" queue with my camera just to take pics, so we left the castle for the day.

We enjoyed the rest of WWoHP for another couple hours after that.... riding Dragon Challenge, drinking butterbeer (loved it), and just taking our time in the shops.

All in all I am very glad we went: the theming is amazing. FJ is a fun ride, although perhaps because of our disappointing queue experience, it didn't quite blow me away the way I thought it woud. (But please hear me, it was still VERY good--I think we were just so rattled...) Butterbeer was awesome. Loved Dragon Challenge. Loved Zonko's and Honeydukes.

Moral of the story..... well, I guess it's that if you get in the single rider line and it seems to be taking way too long, leave, let a TM know, and try back later! :confused3
 
Single rider line is usually almost a walk on. There should be three lines at the loading platform: singles, normal, and modified seats. Was it the person before those three lines or after those three lines who was the problem?
 
Single rider line is usually almost a walk on. There should be three lines at the loading platform: singles, normal, and modified seats. Was it the person before those three lines or after those three lines who was the problem?

It was the person just before those three lines at the loading area. In the room where the talking portraits give you a "lesson" on the safety and etiquette of the flying benches. She was sending people from standby and single rider into the same line--mixing the two lines--and on top of that, she'd send like thirty people into the line from standby for every one or two she'd let in from single rider.
 
what time have they been letting hotel guests into the wizarding world??
Is it still around 7:30 or has it gotton later:surfweb:
 
what time have they been letting hotel guests into the wizarding world??
Is it still around 7:30 or has it gotton later:surfweb:

When we were there at the end of August, they were holding people until a few minutes before 8 and then not letting the general public in until a little before 9. But, I feel like I've read on here that people were allowed in earlier than that after us. (Maybe Labor Day Weekend?) I'm wondering if they change it based on how busy it is and how many people are waiting to get in. :confused3
 
We went on Saturday expecting to stay for a few hours and not fight the crowds. We got to IOA gates about 10 minutes after opening and walked with the mob straight to FJ. The wait was 30 minutes but single rider was walk on. If you have already seen the castle use that single rider line!

After that we decided we wanted to get out of the crowd and try US. On our walk out we noticed everything else in the park was walk on. No crowds to be found anywhere else!! We hopped on a couple rides on our way to US.

US was empty. We didn't see a line longer than 30 minutes all day! :banana: We stayed until about 4pm then headed back to IOA as the stay and screamers were starting to show up. Back at IOA max ride times were about 1 hour. (single rider at FJ was still walk on).

It doesn't look like HHN made the parks too full this weekend! It wasn't nearly as busy as I expected. Hope this helps the planners out there! :goodvibes
 


/











Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE














DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter

Back
Top