Is there a castle tour if we just want to show DH castle and not ride?

[kathy884]

Hi, DH has a seminar at that Lowes Royal Pacific hotel, and Tuesday Nov. 15th DS 21 and I will visit the parks in the morning/early afternoon and head back to meet up with DH at 2:30 p.m. when he gets out of his seminar. After that we'll have just three hours in the parks and want DH to get to see the Harry Potter theming. He doesn't care for rides/coasters. Parks both close at 6 p.m. that day. Actually the parks have a private event that evening that he has a ticket for, but he isn't going to attend. We're just all going to have dinner at City walk, relax, go for a swim that evening.

Anyway, I was thinking we'd start around 3 p.m. spending time at Universal (Diagon Alley) -- DS would love to show him that. Then I thought we'd take the train over to IOA. I think DH will get a big kick out of the train. Number 1 after that would be to see the castle, and that is where my question comes in. I heard that at one time there was a special castle tour you can do if you just want to see the castle, but not ride? Is that true, and if so how do you do that? Is there a special line we will see? DS and I will have already ridden Forbidden Journey first thing in the morning with our early entry, so all the three of us will want to do is see the castle (show it to DH).

Thanks so much.

 

[mjhtvchick]

Yes, if you approach the team member at the ride entry and say you want to tour the castle but not ride, they will direct you...basically you are going through the queue and then using the "chicken exit" at the point of no return to exit the ride.

Just don't forget, in order for your hubby to visit Diagon Alley, take the train and see the castle, he has to have, at minimum a one day park-to-park pass.

 

[damo]

You can go through any queue and then use the chicken exit.

 

[wookiebeck]

It is better described as a self-directed 'tour'. There is an empty queue line beside the main queue for most of the Hogwarts rooms. You will not get to see the herbology green house, though. When you do the castle tour, you can stay back and admire without holding up the regular queue.

 

[kathy884]

Great. Thanks so much everyone! And yes, I'm well aware that I'll need to get DH and park to park ticket, similar to what DS and I will have. Fortunately (though it is still really expensive), they sell a convention park to park ticket for $100 instead of the $155, so that is at least a little better. This really and truly will be perfect for DH though as three hours is as much time as he is going to want to spend in the theme park.