Just got back this morning from a disney/universal trip. Have not even unpacked my bags yet, I wanted to get my thoughts out while they were still fresh
1.Gringots logistics: We did it on Monday morning,(yesterday) the park EE was 8 am, regular opening was 9 am. We got to the gates just before 6:30 am, and there was maybe 150 people there.
We took the far left turnstile, there was only 4 people ahead of us. Crowds stayed relatively low until just after 7 am, people were just trickling in. Then the Cabana bay buses started to arrive, and it got busy fast.
At 7:30 am, they started letting people through the turnstiles. It might have just been luck, but our turnstile was letting people in before any of the others. TM's did a good job of leading the people at a walk to gringots, there were barricades to check resort ids, and to help with flow of the crowds. They held us just at kings cross at about 7:45, there were only 10 people ahead of us. At 7:45, they started letting people in (leading them) and there were only 10 people ahead of us for this line. Alas, we had to do bag check, so while doing this, about 100- 200 people passed us. (If you can go bag less on your gringots morning, try to do so.)
We were on the ride by 8am or shortly there after. we were out and done by 8:10 am, checking out the leaky cauldron, which was totally dead, as was the stores.
Notes on Diagon alley: Its beautiful. Astounding. Will make a potter fan cry. Imagine Hogsmeade 10 times better, and that is diagon alley. Do not miss the money changing goblin at the currency bank, ask him some questions, its amazing! The merchandizing is brilliant. The ice-cream was fantastic (but I did find the chilli chocolate a little spicy for me).
Gringots itself: It does immerse you into the story, and I loved that. Its not really a thrill ride, the mummy is way more intense. I do like FJ better, but I think its because the gringots ride has a really flat ending. It does not end on a high note, or exciting note, and you just kinda feel it was missing the proper ending, because the beginning and middle are really good.
If you watched any you tube videos, you may be expecting the bank teller area to be wide open to wander through before the que. This is not so, it has been made into a que - and I imagine they had to do that for crowd control.
The elevator bit, it was weird that it is an top open elevator, you can see that it is not moving, but the floor bounces and lights are going like you are descending. Perhaps there was an element not working when I rode it though. Minor point.
More later...
1.Gringots logistics: We did it on Monday morning,(yesterday) the park EE was 8 am, regular opening was 9 am. We got to the gates just before 6:30 am, and there was maybe 150 people there.
We took the far left turnstile, there was only 4 people ahead of us. Crowds stayed relatively low until just after 7 am, people were just trickling in. Then the Cabana bay buses started to arrive, and it got busy fast.
At 7:30 am, they started letting people through the turnstiles. It might have just been luck, but our turnstile was letting people in before any of the others. TM's did a good job of leading the people at a walk to gringots, there were barricades to check resort ids, and to help with flow of the crowds. They held us just at kings cross at about 7:45, there were only 10 people ahead of us. At 7:45, they started letting people in (leading them) and there were only 10 people ahead of us for this line. Alas, we had to do bag check, so while doing this, about 100- 200 people passed us. (If you can go bag less on your gringots morning, try to do so.)
We were on the ride by 8am or shortly there after. we were out and done by 8:10 am, checking out the leaky cauldron, which was totally dead, as was the stores.
Notes on Diagon alley: Its beautiful. Astounding. Will make a potter fan cry. Imagine Hogsmeade 10 times better, and that is diagon alley. Do not miss the money changing goblin at the currency bank, ask him some questions, its amazing! The merchandizing is brilliant. The ice-cream was fantastic (but I did find the chilli chocolate a little spicy for me).
Gringots itself: It does immerse you into the story, and I loved that. Its not really a thrill ride, the mummy is way more intense. I do like FJ better, but I think its because the gringots ride has a really flat ending. It does not end on a high note, or exciting note, and you just kinda feel it was missing the proper ending, because the beginning and middle are really good.
If you watched any you tube videos, you may be expecting the bank teller area to be wide open to wander through before the que. This is not so, it has been made into a que - and I imagine they had to do that for crowd control.
The elevator bit, it was weird that it is an top open elevator, you can see that it is not moving, but the floor bounces and lights are going like you are descending. Perhaps there was an element not working when I rode it though. Minor point.
More later...
