Just back 1/22/23- a few observations about recently discussed topics

[MousetersInc]

These are great tips, thank you! We have booked a throw away room at Royal Pacific so we will have the Express Pass for two park days. I was planning on rope-dropping Hagrids, but I've read it often does not open first thing, so I'm not sure what time to plan on riding it. Should we still try rope-dropping? Before park close? Just watch the app and go on it when wait times drop? I don't know. We'll ride Velocicoaster, too, so maybe rope-drop that, although I think my boys will want to ride it when it is dark.

Thank you for the information about the lines at Three Broomsticks. Is one restaurant better than the other - Three Broomsticks/Leaky Cauldron?

The thrill-data.com graph for hagrid shows that, if you're really early at rope drop—on an 'early park admission' day for Islands of Adventure—then yes, riding at 8:00 is the shortest wait ever, at an average of 75 minutes. But if you're at the back of the rope-drop crowd, or staying offsite, or just not quick on the gun, it's actually better to wait until afternoon. That's the aggregate, overall graph; you should also find some specific days that are comparable to your target day and compare (weekday? weekend? holiday? early opening?).

Velocicoaster tells a different story: as the day goes on, it just goes up or stays flat compared to rope drop. (Also, its times are shorter overall; an hour is a long wait for Velo but short for Hagrid).

Also note, if your party is willing to use single-rider, and they're running the single-rider line, that can save a fair amount of time. I got separated from my party and rode single-rider for Hagrid and cut at least 15 minutes off of their 90-minute wait.

Yes, Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron have a lot of overlap in food: They both have fish and chips, shepherd's pie, etc. The Leaky Cauldron has a few more "British" dishes, like bangers & mash, toad in the hole, and a "ploughman's platter" that I've heard praised. In contrast, Three Broomsticks has some rotisserie chicken and spare ribs, I guess to appease anyone scared by the exotic talk of toads and bangers. Our party had fish & chips, beef pasties, and shepherd's pie, and while none were "the best we've ever had," they were certainly pleasing. Both restaurants, really, are more a place to appreciate the theming than the food. IMO they're some of the most thoroughly "themed" spaces in all of Universal and Disney—don't be in such a hurry to eat and move on that you fail to walk around and soak it in.

Re @ruthies12 's mention of "spell spots": If you get an interactive wand and want to wave it around, we were there on a busy enough day that most spots had queues waiting to take their turn, but Knockturn Alley was rather overlooked and had short or nonexistent lines.

 

[Tatum20]

and only one time was I turned away at the door for not having a voucher. I want to say that was 2 years ago, it was right around when velocicoaster opened. It was an odd occurrence, we'd never heard of breakfast vouchers before and nobody in the restaurant including the manager and nobody at customer service could tell us how to get one and they absolutely refused to let us in for breakfast without one.

That happened to us last month! That was my one and only negative experience with a team member. She blocked the entrance and when I asked her how I would go about getting one (not necessarily that minute, but for future reference), she rather brusquely informed me they were only for people staying in certain hotels. So then I thought it was like an express pass, and I scoured the website and could find no reference to the Harry Potter restaurants only being available for Premium hotel guests.

When we went back to Sapphire Falls, I asked at the UO desk and she said they usually allow walk ins, but if they are at or near capacity they will not. I am not sure why the team member blocking the door couldn't just have said that. I did not buy the vouchers for the following day because I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to breakfast at the only time the park was likely to not be crazy busy. Plus, we share meals and I think by prepaying we would have had to buy for everyone and that would have been a lot of wasted foods.

We did end up being able to walk in later in the week.

 

[ruthies12]

@Tatum20 Yeah that sounds like what happened to us. It was rather rudely handled all around for us too and there really doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason imo. They will say it is for being at capacity but I was turned away when the restaurant was over half empty and I've been let in when we were waiting in line to order and then waiting in line for a seat to open up so that doesn't really make sense. My best guess is that it is a staffing issue and they stop letting walk-ins in when they don't have enough staff. But I'm just guessing, I don't know that for fact. The first time it happened to us customer service told us you could only book it if you'd booked a harry potter hotel/ticket package but that was not true at all, not even at the time it was told to us. If you ask ten different team members, you'll get ten different answers.....