Is early access only for HP stuff?

[Tara619]

I've been reading up trying to plan our first visit. If we stay somewhere with early park entrance, does that only apply to the Harry Potter attractions, or is every ride available at that time? We're not HP fans and were planning on skipping it unless you suggest we shouldn't. We only have 2 park days with FOTL on crowd level "10" days so we're trying to strategize.

 

[Kivara]

This past summer, they were moving people directly to the Harry Potter areas. They had roped off a walk-area straight there and had several workers directing people to the Potter areas only.

This was early June. Maybe if they were extremely busy during that opening area, they would have more available, but in my experience it was Potter only.

I am a huge Potter fan, but I know others here who aren't Potter fans at all. Even they enjoy the great theming and rides.

I'd say try it, especially if you are up earlyv anyway

 

[RMulieri]

It is generally only for the potter attractions and NOT all of them .What I mean by that is at the Studios, only Gringotts, Ollivanders and shops are open .Hogwarts express is not .BUT the studios also usually opens Despicable me . Over at IOA, all the Harry Potter rides except Hogwarts express are open .If it is really busy, they sometimes add a ride in Seussland to early entry. But for the most part, EE is only for Harry Potter.
I would not skip Potter..Lots of people who don't really care for it LOVE those sections of the parks. They are attractions that are incredible to experience

 

[dixonsontour]

Both Octobers we have been when studios is early entry despicable me has been open plus diagon alley. Well worth doing despicable me on one of our early days as line was always long for this and as we were atcabana bay we didn't have express pass.

 

[damo]

Generally, if it is IOA that opens early, only Hogsmeade is open. If Universal opens early, generally Despicable Me is open too.

 

[kohlby]

Don't skip it! Even if you're not interested in the rides, it's worth walking around the area. It gets crowded fast and hard to walk around at times, so use your early hour. IOA was open early the entire time we were there. But one day FJ wasn't working - so they had us go in through IOA and take Hogwarts over to US and they opened up Gringotts early to make up for it. During busy times, they often open up both parts. I've heard that Despicable Me can be a long wait even with express during the busy times so I'd do that if US is open early too. Otherwise, it's all Harry Potter.

 

[LuvDaisy&Minnie]

Are you skipping it just because you aren't fans of Harry Potter? If so, I wouldn't suggest that. I couldn't tell you one thing about Harry Potter (except for what I picked up at Universal), but the rides are very neat. I would not want to skip them. And if you are there on a crowd level 10 day, the lines will be extremely long for them once the park opens to the public. I can't remember if anything else was open because we wanted to ride the Harry Potter rides with minimal wait so we concentrated on them, especially since we are not Potter fans.....we don't enjoy waiting in the queue, etc. because we don't even know what is going on. The area is very elaborate and even a person who is not a Harry Potter fan can appreciate the level of detail...you can hardly see the details later in the day when everyone is packed in like sardines.