We stayed at the HRH, and had 4 day tickets, Dec 18-21.
Saturday morning we did early entry, got to the shuttle boats around 6:30. My parents don't walk very fast these days so there is no telling what time we got in line for Forbidden Journey. We were stuck in the greenhouses, waiting for them to get the ride running. Finished about 9:00, just in time for the pouring rain! We loved the ride, the castle effects were outstanding! My mom did have a problem with motion sickness (on all the simulator rides, not just FJ). But overall, it was just fantastic!
Had breakfast at the Three Broomsticks. Reasonably good food, my son (12 years old) enjoyed his pumpkin juice. I hadn't told anyone about the effects inside the The Three Broomsticks. All of the sudden, I noticed a look of extreme puzzlement on my dad's face. He caught a side glance of something and actually had thought that one of the air conditioning grates had changed to a window. We watched for awhile and although the grate remained the same, there was a window effect beneath it. He'd thought he was seeing things.
Very quickly, there were crazy lines outside all the shops, so we left WWOHP. We went back that evening, after dark sometime, and it was more manageable. We did not attempt to ride FJ, as the line seemed enormous.
Sunday morning, we did not take advantage of early entry, but avoided WWOHP until evening, and again it was more manageable but we did not ride FJ, as the line was long and I was planning to go early entry in the morning and ride it then.
Monday morning, early entry and we again got into the greenhouses and stopped. The ride wasn't running and around 9:00 they let us do a walk thru the castle.
At this point, I wanted to kick myself! I had been shaking my head over all the people standing in the endless line for Ollivanders, when my son decided he thought we needed to see what the big deal was. I tried to talk him out of it but he said, "What if we're missing the GREATEST thing here!?" Trust me, we aren't! But I told him I would take him on just ONE condition...that we went early entry (without the grandparents so we could move more quickly) and did it first thing! So now we were down to our last early entry, we've only ridden JF once and I had promised to do Ollivanders.
The next morning I was on a mission! We were out early, early and inside the park just after 6:30. They were letting people in, but I don't know if anything was running before 7:00. We were close to the front of the Ollivanders line and they let us in just after 7:00. We were done by 7:06 or something equally ridiculous given the amount of time people wait for it. We set off immediately for FJ.
We stopped (momentarily) further back in the greenhouses than before and cringed every time there was an announcement, expecting that our presence would make the ride break
laughing
. But the line moved at a pretty steady pace. Afterward we shopped in Filtches (crazy crowded, but I did find ornaments), my husband totally forgot which set of lockers we had used so that ate some time, we rode both dragon rides and were finished with all of it by 9:20. We rode the Hulk and left.
Later that afternoon, my parents tried to get into WWOHP and couldn't. We went back in the evening after dinner and as we were walking inside, a group of people were puzzled (and most excited) to find that they could walk right in to WWOHP! They actually stopped at the entrance and asked employees standing there if they could come in.
I guess they were used to being turned away.
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