Ollivanders or Forbidden Journey first?

[MichelinMan]

We are staying on-site at HRH, so will probably get into IOA before the 'unwashed masses'

Trouble is, we aren't exactly morning folks, and the extra hour starts at 7am - we will be lucky if we make it before 8am when the park is scheduled to open fully.

So bearing in mind we will probably only have time to do either Ollivanders or FJ before the park officially opens, what is best to do first to minimise the wait times. I was thinking Ollivanders, as I have heard the queues are worse there.

 

[glocon]

That is exactly what most people on these boards would advise. The Ollivanders show is in a small room with only 25 or so people let in at a time, and the line for the show is outside in the sun. The FJ ride line is continuously moving since the ride never stops, and the line is for the most part indoors/air conditioned.

And the unwashed masses could very probably be let in about 15 minutes before the scheduled opening time is... just so you are aware.

You will love love love the unlimited ep's!

 

[MDer2FL]

I was thinking Ollivanders, as I have heard the queues are worse there.

This is exactly why we plan to do Ollivanders first!

 

[StarWarsJez]

Not sure if I'm on my own here here but IMO Olivanders is an utterly forgetful 'experience'. I love almost everything that Universal and Dismey have to offer - and am a huge HP fan - but for the life of me just don't see the attraction with it.

IMO you should skip it and do the FJ ride twice!

 

[Nancy for Disney]

We did Forbidden Journey first and did Olivander's in the evening about an hour before closing. It had about a 15 minute wait at that time. It wasn't hot either.

 

[hpriamson]

Not sure if I'm on my own here here but IMO Olivanders is an utterly forgetful 'experience'. I love almost everything that Universal and Dismey have to offer - and am a huge HP fan - but for the life of me just don't see the attraction with it.

IMO you should skip it and do the FJ ride twice!

I agree. It's a bit of a yawner for adults. If you've got kids who are HP fans it's a great show for them, especially if they get picked. But I'd never wait more than 15 minutes for it, whereas I'd happily wait 45 minutes for FJ, then run right back in line again.

 

[tinkerbellybutton]

We did Forbidden Journey first and did Olivander's in the evening about an hour before closing. It had about a 15 minute wait at that time. It wasn't hot either.

This is exactly what we have done in the past. When we have done the ollivanders show its been one of the last things we do before we exit the park for the night. We have never waited more than 15-20 minutes and since it's dark it's never been too hot.

Now that my youngest has been selected for the show I am hoping we don't have to do it anymore. He says he doesn't want to do the show again because he wouldn't want to get picked again when there might be other kids that haven't had that experience. So glad he feels that way. While a very cute show, and very well done, I feel it's a huge waste of park time.

 

[rschaen]

Totally agree. Olivanders is a snoozer and not worth missing early ride time on FJ. Dd got picked when we did late show and only waited 20 minutes. Would be worth it of there was chance that the chosen kid got the wand for free...

 

[rschaen]

Btw, early entry started 15 minutes early every morning we were there as well.

 

[coastgirl]

Thanks folks for sharing your info, I was coming to ask about morning vs evening for Ollivander's. We won't be staying on site, and it sounds like Ollivander's fills up early. The lines for FJ seem to start dying down by 3:30 or so (I have been haunting my line app in preparation for our August trip), would you say it's the same for Ollivander's? Does the line get any shade by late afternoon? I don't recall, I do remember being hot.

So in general we are adjusting our plan to go to WWoHP later in the day. Kinda weird for me with my ingrained "rope drop" strategy...

You know I used to think the wand should be given to the person picked, but if they did, the lines would be even more insane, and you'd have a lot more people going on the chance of "free stuff". Maybe a way to make it more special would be to have a special "wandmaker's signature" on the box or something, only for those chosen to participate in the show.

 

[kohlby]

We had an Orlando trip that was supposed to be a Disney-only trip. But we couldn't stay away so we did one day at IOA. Since it was just one day, we were off-site and came in at normal opening time. FJ line was 20 minutes but Ollivanders was less than 10 minutes. I'm glad we did Ollivanders first. It was much larger throughout the day even though it was the off-season, while FJ actually reduced in the wait time in the afternoon. We did WWoHP twice that day. In the morning, we did Ollivanders, Flight of the Hippogriff, and attempted the stores but they were rather crowded. (I have three kids, two were too short for Dragon Challenge and the third didn't want to do it. Hubby and I had done dueling dragons more than 20 times in one day before, so we were okay skipping it). We came back later in the afternoon and did FJ with a 5 minute wait and the stores an hour before closing with plenty of room to walk around and shop. The benefit was not having to worry about our chocolate frogs melting too!

*I don't think the FJ line got longer than 30 minutes at any point that day, but it was the off season. However, with 2 of our kids too short for it, we didn't want a long wait. It was down to 5 minutes by 4:30pm with the park closing at 6pm!