Ollivander's or Escape to Gringott's First?

[AmyTX]

We're visiting UOL for the first time on Sun 7/24 and have Early Entry. Which attraction should we hit first: Ollivander's or Escape to Gringott's?

We have no experience with what to expect, crowd- or wait time- wise, and your wisdom is appreciated!

 

[havoc315]

If you don't want to wait in line at all, do Gringott's first. We got to the park at 6:30 for 7 am early entry. They let us into the park at about 6:50.. we walked briskly to Gringotts, and we were in the ride pre-show within 3-4 minutes. (after walking through the queue of course).
But... the queue is amazing, and worth spending some time within it. We rode Gringotts again on another night, when the wait was posted as 20 minutes. Really took us about 25 minutes. But it really was pleasant getting to enjoy the queue instead of racing through it.
And the lines at Ollivanders never seem to get really bad anymore, since they opened the 2 locations with multiple rooms. We had under a 10 minute wait for Ollivander's in the early evening.

Don't forget Despicable Me, which is also open during early entry and later gets long lines.

 

[Robo56]

It looks like both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios are going to have early park entry for the whole month of July. Early entry for both parks is at 7 am. Like above poster stated. Be there early as they will let you in ahead of time.

Check out the maps for both parks on Universal web site so you will have the lay of the land and an idea of what you want to do in each park.

There are two Potter Parks. Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley at Universal Studios.

Escape from Gringotts would be my first choice. Then do Ollivanders. Also if you want to repeat ride Gringotts and you don't want to go through the full scenic line . You can go through the single rider line. This is my favorite ride.

Usually later in the evening Gringotts is fairly easy to get on.

After you do Escape from Gringotts and Ollivanders don't forget to wander around Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and take in all the neat shoppes.

I like the Ollivanders in Diagon Alley better. I have done the one in Hogsmeade numerous times.

The Ollivanders in Diagon Alley has an area that you can wait in inside and it never seems to be as long a line as the one in Hogsmeade. The interior also seems to be a little more spacious.

Agree with havoc315 Despicable Me Minion ride is very popular. This would be one ride to get done before lines and wait times get to bad.

Hopefully since you are doing a Sunday it won't be to bad a lot of folks check out on Sunday, but a lot of locals hit the park on the weekends. Never know for sure.

Have a great time Trust me you will want to come back again and spend more time at Universal.

 

[Cuchman]

Escape from Gringotts would be my first choice. Then do Ollivanders. Also if you want to repeat ride Gringotts and you don't want to go through the full scenic line . You can go through the single rider line. This is my favorite ride.

Definitely agreed on the single rider line for repeat rides. On the last trip (5 days) , my family rode Gringotts ONCE in the regular queue and.....ten times single rider line. Such a fantastic ride - but definitely don't skip the queue altogether. It is wonderful.

 

[gtpoohbear]

We just did EE there yesterday. We chose to do Ollivander's first just because the kids were so excited to get their wands. We just missed the first show by about a minute, and our show wasn't even full. By the time we picked out wands and left, the line for Gringotts was still only 10 minutes. When we left Gringotts, after doing child swap there, the line for Ollivander's was out the door, so I was glad we did that first.