No Early Entry; Do Gringotts first?

[g-dad66]

We are not staying onsite so will not have Early Entry. Other threads here are reporting that Islands of Adventure will be the Early Entry park for our Universal/Islands day (March 16).

We will be at one of the parks well before Rope Drop, and I'm thinking that we should start at Universal Studios (where no one will have a headstart on us).

Now my question is:
Should we head straight on back to Gringotts? Or should we do Minion Mayhem and Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket first (because we know they will have long waits later in the day)? (If we choose the latter plan, how much longer do you think the Gringotts wait is likely to be vs. doing Gringotts right at Rope Drop?)

Thanks for any and all help on this.

 

[chabs]

Either way-you are going to have to wait for something. I would try to do Gringotts early in the day because it tends to break down a lot. Same with anything outdoors if there is bad weather expected in case the rides have to close.

 

[RMulieri]

With no early entry or express passes, you are going to wait for something no matter what.Personally I would do gringotts and then bounce back to do Despicable me and Rip ride rocket .It will require a lot of backtracking, but you will experience the least waits this way.DM routinely( even in off season) has waits of 60-120 mins later on ( when we were there end of JAn it was 90-120 mins )

 

[johde]

I'd hit DM then HRRR first. Most of their queue is outside and uninteresting. I'd go so far as to consider "power riding" ROTM, Transformers, Simpsons and MIB before finally heading to Gringotts. First thing in the morning they normally have a short line while everyone rushes to Gringotts. If you ride Gringotts first, everything else will have a longer line. According to Touring Plans, unless your right up front Gringotts is going to have a 40 minute wait at 9:00 and 48 minutes at 11:00. But DM goes from 16 min. to 35 min. from 9:00 - 10:00, HRRR increases from 11min to 23 min, The Mummy goes from a walkon to about a 15 min wait about 11:00. The list goes on and on. I'd spend your first 2 to 2 1/2 hours doing something else and hit DA about 11:00 - 11:30.

 

[schumigirl]

Nothing scientific about this but I'd hit DM then HRRR first. Most of their queue is outside and uninteresting. I'd go so far as to consider "power riding" ROTM, Transformers, Simpsons and MIB before finally heading to Gringotts. First thing in the morning they normally have a short line while everyone rushes to Gringotts. If you ride Gringotts first, everything else will have a longer line.

That's what I'd do too if I didn't have EP. DM, RRR then Gringotts.

DM can have horrendous queues and the regular queue looks extremely boring. If I was going to queue I would rather queue for Gringotts.

Gringotts has been very reliable for a while apart from a glitch last week so I wouldn't take that into account, things break when they break.

Hope you have a great trip

 

[sharona]

I agree with the above advice to ride everything else first, you'll be waiting on Gringott's either way so why wait for everything. With EE at IOA, you also have on site guests coming over to Diagon Alley via the Hogwart's Express right at opening. They could beat the gate crowd to Gringotts. I've seen mixed reports on the time the first train arrives at Kings Cross...

Also, Gringotts does have a single rider line which you could use if the regular line is outrageous. I guess that depends on your party make up, looks like you have some littles based on the photos in your sig so that may not be an option.

 

[g-dad66]

I agree with the above advice to ride everything else first, you'll be waiting on Gringott's either way so why wait for everything. With EE at IOA, you also have on site guests coming over to Diagon Alley via the Hogwart's Express right at opening. They could beat the gate crowd to Gringotts. I've seen mixed reports on the time the first train arrives at Kings Cross...

Also, Gringotts does have a single rider line which you could use if the regular line is outrageous. I guess that depends on your party make up, looks like you have some littles based on the photos in your sig so that may not be an option.

Those photos are 7 years old, so those littles ain't quite so little any more...

Thanks to everyone for your help. You've sold me on not rushing to Gringotts right away, and we'll certainly consider the single rider options at both Gringotts and Forbidden Journey.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

How bad is the line at Gringotts if you go to the park on the evening of your arrival day (a Sat for us)? When we went to USO in 2012, we got to IOA at 6:00 on a drizzly evening in early June and walked onto FJ. We will be there same week this year, but with Sat arrival instead of Sun.

 

[johde]

Thanks to everyone for your help. You've sold me on not rushing to Gringotts right away, and we'll certainly consider the single rider options at both Gringotts and Forbidden Journey.

The Queues for both Forbidden Journey and Gringotts are attractions in and of themselves. They are hands down, no questions asked two of the best queues in Orlando. For Forbidden Journey, you can do the Castle Tour and walk through what was going to be the Express line and see 90% of the queue (you miss Herbology) at your leisure before entering the Single Rider Line. Gringotts currently doesn't offer a bank tour. The only way to see the elevator and Weasley's office is to go through the regular queue. If at all possible, if the line isn't totally crazy I'd recommend waiting in Gringotts line at least once.

How bad is the line at Gringotts if you go to the park on the evening of your arrival day (a Sat for us)? When we went to USO in 2012, we got to IOA at 6:00 on a drizzly evening in early June and walked onto FJ. We will be there same week this year, but with Sat arrival instead of Sun.

If the weather's nice, crowds start to trail off about 7:00. If the park stays open until 9:00 you should be able to ride with shorter waits those last couple of hours.