Ollivander's or FJ first?

[Luvmyfam3]

We will be at IoA June 5th. We will be staying one night at RPR to take advantage of the FOTL passes and the early entry. (We'll be at US the day before). My daughter is a HUGE HP fan!! We're actually taking this trip as a celebration of her high school graduation. Anyway, I've seen conflicting reports on which attraction to go to first in Potterville. I kind of hate to go to Ollivander's first if it's just a shop with an occasional "ceremony" of the wand picking the person. BUT, my daughter does want to get a wand while we're there. I'm sure she'll want to ride FJ as many times as possible (I read somewhere that waiting until the end of the day and single-rider are the way to go for repeat rides). What do you recommend?

Thanks!!

Kim

 

[mesaboy2]

Ollivander's. You have early entry--use it to go straight there. Resist the urge to go to FJ first. Ollivander's line builds quickly and moves slowly, and is uninteresting and in the elements to boot. The Ollivander's line will be long all day. FJ's won't be as bad and you can use single-rider to beat it on repeat rides.

Trust me.

FYI, Ollivander's is not a shop, it is a dedicated show space where the wand ceremony is repeated about every ten minutes, about 25 people at a time. You cannot buy a wand there. When you exit, you will do so into one of two Owl Post stores, where you can buy a wand. You can get to this store without going through Ollivander's.

 

[damo]

Yup, Ollivander's first.

 

[Luvmyfam3]

Mesaboy2,

Thanks so much! Also, I see that you have a 7 year old daughter. I do too. Does your daughter ride FJ? Are there any rides she doesn't/won't ride at either US or IoA? We haven't been here since my daughter was 4 1/2 so I'm unsure what's appropriate or suitable.

Thanks!

Kim

 

[mesaboy2]

Mesaboy2,

Thanks so much! Also, I see that you have a 7 year old daughter. I do too. Does your daughter ride FJ? Are there any rides she doesn't/won't ride at either US or IoA? We haven't been here since my daughter was 4 1/2 so I'm unsure what's appropriate or suitable.

Thanks!

Kim

She is now discovering her inner ride demon. Direct quote after her first FJ: "That was AWESOME!". She's ridden it a couple of times since, but it does have a lot of scary elements in it. I think she probably has her eyes closed for those parts--you can't tell while on it.

(She recently discovered and loves the big rides at Disney, including Aerosmith, Space, Tower of Terror, etc, and is chomping at the bit for Everest, to give you an idea.)

She loves everything in Seuss Landing, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Pteranadon Flyers, Spiderman, Ripsaw Falls, Bilge Rat Barges, Flight of the Hippogriff back in HP (her all-time favorite at Uni), all at IoA. She's either not tall enough or quite adventurous enough for Hulk, Dragon Challenge, Doctor Doom (neither am I) at IoA, or Mummy or Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit over at the Studios. She's tall enough for Mummy, but fire tends to scare her so I've warned her about that one.

 

[mesaboy2]

Oh, and while I recommend Ollivander's once, it will probably not blow you away. It is cute, but not "AWESOME". Another reason to hop in line first thing while it's still fairly short.

 

[Bonniec]

Agreed with the others. Maybe she will luck out and be chosen. My daughter in also a senior and got chosen when we went for her 18th birthday earlier this month. I was so happy for her since she is such a huge fan. Also was never expecting it because I assumed they only choose a young child. So it was super special for her.

Mesaboy2,

Thanks so much! Also, I see that you have a 7 year old daughter. I do too. Does your daughter ride FJ? Are there any rides she doesn't/won't ride at either US or IoA? We haven't been here since my daughter was 4 1/2 so I'm unsure what's appropriate or suitable.

Thanks!

Kim

A 7year old might or might not like it. It's hard to tell. They do have a very nice child swap though. The kids get to watch the HP movie while waiting for mom or dad. Disney could learn a thing from Universal's child swaps!

 

[Bonniec]

double post

 

[RMulieri]

Ollivanders first, though I will NEVER wait for that show again.It was cute but definitely NOT worth the waits it generates.My 8 yr old didn't care for it either.Even doing Ollivanders first we managed to ride FJ 3 times in a row with no wait

 

[zack123]

 

[macraven]

if you are a parry hotter fan, ollivanders is a must to do first.

last october i saw the line for ollivanders snake out towards the entrance of that section of the park. that was at noon time....

 

[bumbershoot]

I agree with O's first.

My son is 7. He liked FJ, though the line is dark and spooky to him. He's also very nervous about the big huge spiders in the ride (acromantula is I believe what JK called them). So since I had ridden it first, and knew where they were, I told him to close his eyes when the dragon breathes fire (which is very obvious), then I squeezed his knee when they were gone so he would know to open his eyes again. With that precaution, he loves the ride.


FYI, at Universal, kids can ride alone if they are 48" and above. So if she wants to ride Flight of the Hippogrif a thousand times in a row, and she's 48 and above, you can sit on a bench while she does just that. DS really enjoyed that on our last trip. I made sure he knew the rules of being in the line (and I watched him from afar), and it seemed like every other time he came out of the ride he had another kid-friend with him.

This policy also saved me from EVER setting foot on the Woody's Nuthouse Coaster! The kid went 15 times in a row as a last ride of our first trip (when he was 6), and this was the day he went 14 times in a row on Hippogrif to START our day. Sadly, I didn't know the 48" policy for Hippogrif, so I went on every single one of those 14 rides, LOL.

 

[Luvmyfam3]

Thanks everyone! I am completely convinced that Ollivander's is going to be first on our to-do list that day!

Our 7 year old can be a bit of a thrill-seeker (part of it is probably partly due to wanting to impress her older sisters! ) I'm hoping that we'll work our way up in thrilling rides in US so that she will be ready to ride FJ the next day. Also, we've started reading the first HP book together so that she can understand more fully Potterville. Up until this point, we've "sheltered" her from the movies since they can be a bit intense.

Thanks so much for all your advice! Alway invaluable!

Kim

 

[pigletto]

I agree with O's first.

My son is 7. He liked FJ, though the line is dark and spooky to him. He's also very nervous about the big huge spiders in the ride (acromantula is I believe what JK called them). So since I had ridden it first, and knew where they were, I told him to close his eyes when the dragon breathes fire (which is very obvious), then I squeezed his knee when they were gone so he would know to open his eyes again. With that precaution, he loves the ride.


FYI, at Universal, kids can ride alone if they are 48" and above. So if she wants to ride Flight of the Hippogrif a thousand times in a row, and she's 48 and above, you can sit on a bench while she does just that. DS really enjoyed that on our last trip. I made sure he knew the rules of being in the line (and I watched him from afar), and it seemed like every other time he came out of the ride he had another kid-friend with him.

This policy also saved me from EVER setting foot on the Woody's Nuthouse Coaster! The kid went 15 times in a row as a last ride of our first trip (when he was 6), and this was the day he went 14 times in a row on Hippogrif to START our day. Sadly, I didn't know the 48" policy for Hippogrif, so I went on every single one of those 14 rides, LOL.

BRILLIANT FJ strategy!!!
My son is going to be almost 8 on our trip and loves HP. He's seen the first few movies and read the first few books but I didn't know how he would take to the spiders in the ride. I will completely use your strategy!!! Thanks!