Hi folks. Please forgive me if this has already been addressed. We are visiting IO for the first time on April 16. We are staying at WDW and spending one day at US. We chose IOA as we have some big time HP fans in our group (which consists of me, husband, DS 15, DS 10, and my parents 69 and 78). I've spent a fair amount of time on touringplans.com but I can't seem to get it to spit out a plan that sounds reasonable. We would like to ride FJ and Dragons, more than once assuming we like them, and eat at 3 Broomsticks. We would also like to poke around the shops.
I know my kids will want to do rides in the other parts of the park, but I want to know the best strategy for the day from folks who have done it. We plan to arrive before opening but I know US resort guests will have been in there for an hour before we get in.
We didn't buy the express passes and can't possibly stay til park closing at 2300.
With all those restrictions, what would you recommend?
Thanks in advance
What I will do in this case is:
1. Go straight away to Harry Potter from Seuss and Lost Continent. Don't go anywhere else once you enter the park. Don't eat or drink before riding the three rides.
2. When you get to the Harry Potter, hit the Forbidden Journey first. Skip dragon and 3 broomsticks. Forbidden usually has a longer wait time than Dragon.
3. To minimize the wait time, use the single rider line. Your party will be split up, but it will take you less time in line. Otherwise, you are going to wait between 45 to 60 minutes.
4. When you are done with Forbidden, go to Dragon next. Choose the red or blue coaster. The dragon usually is not as crowded as Forbidden since it has two sides (4 coasters that can accommodate plenty of guests). When you are done with one color, do the other one because they are very different. There is a stair that you can take in the exit area for the reentrance. Thus saving you a little bit time.
5. When you are done with everything, it will probably be sometime around noon. A good time to check out the shops and watch the Olivander's show because the 3 broomsticks will be crowded for the lunch rush. If you are a truly HP fan, you are going to spend an hour browsing through all of the merchandises and debating whether to buy them or not. I usually do this since everything is very expensive at HP.
6. You will get hungry by then, and the 3 broomsticks will not be as crowded as it was. A good time to eat and drink Frozen Butterbeer.
7. If you want to ride the other rides, start with JP's River Adventure (in JP) -> Ripsaw Falls (in TL) -> Popeye & Bluto (in TL) -> Spiderman (in Marvel) -> Hulk (in Marvel). Seuss has a lot of relaxing rides such as The Cat in the Hat, The High in The Sky Trolley Ride, Caro-seussel, One Fish Two Fish. It is good for the whole family. Skip lost continent because there is no ride here. If you don't want to do water rides, you can skip JP's River Adventure, Ripsaw Falls and Popeye & Bluto. Go straight to Marvel from HP via JP and TL.
I still have some questions. We are going to go one day, October 15th, a Wednesday. I think we need to be there before opening, tickets in hand and go to Wizarding World, and just skip Diagon Alley. Since it will be so new, I think it will be super mobbed, which may lessen some of the crowd for the existing HP attractions. My Daughter and Son in Law think we should head to the train right away and see all of the new stuff. None of us has been there before, and it will likely be awhile before we are there again. Since it is a HHN the parks will close early. We are not staying on property so wont have the early entrance privilege. What are your thoughts on this?? HEEEELPPPPP!!! thank you.
