Harry Potter Logistics Question

[serendipity]

Greetings,

We are going to be staying onsite at Disney for nine nights, and would like to spend two of these days at Universal during. Can someone please confirm when are the best days a week to visit (crowd wise)? Also, the main objective of our visit is Harry Potter. How does this work exactly? Do you need tickets just to access the area? If we show up at park opening (or an hour before) is it safe to assume the line for the main attraction will be negligible (we'll be visiting the first week in April)?

PS - the rates were jacked over $800 for a 4 night visit in the last week - otherwise we would have been staying onsite at Universal!

 

[mesaboy2]

Greetings,

We are going to be staying onsite at Disney for nine nights, and would like to spend two of these days at Universal during. Can someone please confirm when are the best days a week to visit (crowd wise)? Also, the main objective of our visit is Harry Potter. How does this work exactly? Do you need tickets just to access the area? If we show up at park opening (or an hour before) is it safe to assume the line for the main attraction will be negligible (we'll be visiting the first week in April)?

PS - the rates were jacked over $800 for a 4 night visit in the last week - otherwise we would have been staying onsite at Universal!

I would say on any given week, the best days would be mid-week (Tu-Th) and Sunday, in that order.

Tickets to access the WWoHP area are only a crowd-control measure implemented on the busiest days--Christmas week for example. They do not cost extra and worked sort of like a FastPass I hear. In those cases, you picked up a ticket with a return time at which point you could walk right in. Of course, there were still lines inside WWoHP for all the attractions and even the stores.

I don't know if the line for FJ will be 'negligible' when you first get there, as the on-site crowd will have already had access for an hour, but they won't probably be too bad. If you don't care, then use the single-rider queue as anything more than a 5-10 minute wait there is unusual. Be warned, however, as you will miss most of the main queue this way. The main queue is an attraction in and of itself. Also, there is a 'castle tour' queue that moves quickly and lets you see most of the main queue without waiting or getting on the ride itself. The other option is to ride late in the day near park close, and you should expect less wait then also.

 

[disneycrazzy]

I agree about going on a weekday if at all possible. We were there last week and as long as we were there when they opened at 8:45/9, it was fine. We walked on to all rides. However, on Saturday, it was much, much more crowded. Ollivanders had long lines when we got there at opening each day (because of early admission to hotel guests) but we went back at 6:15pm (park closed at 7:00) and only had to wait 15 minutes.