I am certainly no expert, but we went on June 25, June 26 and July 1st at park opening. We were at the gates 25-30 minutes before opening, they started taking tickets 15 minutes before opening and we were on major rides before opening each day. We did IOA on the 25th and July 1st. We had been so scared of lines at Harry Potter that we didn't even go there 1st.
On the 25th, we rode Hulk twice and Spiderman once before going to Harry Potter. When we got to Harry Potter @ about 9am, we rode the red dueling dragon 5 minute wait, and FJ with a 30 minute wait. That was of course a Sunday. We went back on July 1st, rode Hulk, Dr Doom, Spiderman, then went to HP. Can't remember when we got there, but we rode FJ with a 30 minute wait and the blue dueling dragon with a 5 minute wait.
After riding all of those attractions in such a short period of time, we were ready for a break. The lines were almost too short. Each day we took a break in City Walk from about 11-2, but we were able to accomplish everything and more by arriving 30 minutes before opening. The ticket lines back up QUICKLY because it seems somebody in each line has problems with the scanning machines.
As I said at the beginning, we have only been one time, so I'm not an expert, but we didn't buy the express passes and I would have felt that we wasted our money if we had. The only thing in both parks that we waited more than 30 minutes for was Rip Ride Rocket and FJ riding at about 10:30.
Harry Potter was pretty full, but it seemed like the longest line was for Olivanders and noone in our group was interested in that.
