One Day Harry Potter Plan with IoA Early Admission?

[ChandraM]

Hello All - I'm looking for advice on my touring plan. We will be heading to Universal for the first time on Thursday (Touring Plans estimates a 6/10 crowd level) and we want to spend the day doing HP stuff. There will only be early admission to IoA on this day, so my first question is does it make sense to get into IoA and immediately get in line for the Hogwarts Express over to Universal? Would we be better off getting into Diagon Alley as early as possible OR doing Forbidden Journey during the early admission period?

This is what I'm currently thinking...

1. Get in line for Hogwarts Express so that we can get into Diagon Alley ASAP.
2. Go to Ollivander's to get my kids some interactive wands.
3. Do everything else in Diagon Alley EXCEPT Gringott's.
4. Head back over to IoA to do Forbidden Journey and the other Hogsmeade stuff.
5. Head back over to UO to do Gringott's.

Thanks!

 

[AthenaBolina]

You can easily do Gringotts first thing. We did it when we were there a few weeks ago. It was early admission for us as we were on site, but we didn't get there till 8:30AM, and we walked right onto Gringotts. I'm sure you'll be fine. And do the Ollivanders in Diagon Alley, it always moves faster than the one in Hogsmeade

I would do Forbidden Journey first over Gringotts, that line backs up like crazy. Gringotts always moved fast when we were there last month.

 

[ChandraM]

You can easily do Gringotts first thing. We did it when we were there a few weeks ago. It was early admission for us as we were on site, but we didn't get there till 8:30AM, and we walked right onto Gringotts. I'm sure you'll be fine. And do the Ollivanders in Diagon Alley, it always moves faster than the one in Hogsmeade

I would do Forbidden Journey first over Gringotts, that line backs up like crazy. Gringotts always moved fast when we were there last month.

Thanks for the reply. While I kind of like the idea of doing things in the order that Harry experienced them, I'm not so sure about getting the kids up for early admission, waiting at the gates, then getting into the park and waiting another hour for the train. We might all go crazy, so maybe riding Forbidden Journey first is a better idea

 

[cgattis]

Yes, and the train won't start running until DA is open too, so you'd be spending your early hour in line. Definitely do FJ first.

 

[illinidp]

Do FJ during the early opening. There is still an Ollivander's in Hogsmeade so you might want to do that early also.