Quick Takes on Harry Potter and Universal

[asta]

Just back from a week at Universal and WDW and wanted to mention a few quick thoughts.

Loved the look of Hogsmeade. Universal did a great job capturing the spirit of Harry Potter.

FJ ride was fantastic. I worried about fitting but was able to ride five times (details are in size thread). Use single rider after getting a good look at the castle for the first ride. Even though there was a long line extending out of the castle, we asked a ride attendant and they told us to just bypass the outside line by walking on their left. We went straight into the castle and the ride was almost a walkon. We did this three times.

Loved the Butter Beer. Thought it tasted like frozen butterscotch.

Like Pumkin Juice better than I thought. We all agreed that it tastes exactly like a hot apple pie from McDonalds.

We did Olivanders since we were there in time for the second show of the morning but thought it was a waste of time. The atmosphere inside the shop is neat, Olivander character is well done but not worth the wait that many people are doing. In our show two children were picked. I thought that it was interesting that they had been through the line enough times that the ladies working in the wand shop knew their names. They had a conversation along the lines of "on hello _____, it is so good to see you back again." I just wouldn't want to spend my time waiting over and over to watch that short show in the hopes of being picked.

Too big of a chicken to ride Dragon Challange. Loved the Hagrid theming around Flight of the Hippograph. They have also smoothed out the jarring stop from when this was the Unicorn ride.

 

[heidijanesmith]

Thanks for your reveiw

 

[TwingleMum]

We did Olivanders since we were there in time for the second show of the morning but thought it was a waste of time. In our show two children were picked. I thought that it was interesting that they had been through the line enough times that the ladies working in the wand shop knew their names. They had a conversation along the lines of "on hello _____, it is so good to see you back again." I just wouldn't want to spend my time waiting over and over to watch that short show in the hopes of being picked.

QUOTE]

I have 4 boys and my 7 yr old twins are desperate to get picked so I will be one of those nutty Moms going as many times as it takes for them to get picked. (reminds me of Jedi Academy and those odds are better )

 

[Purseval]

I have 4 boys and my 7 yr old twins are desperate to get picked so I will be one of those nutty Moms going as many times as it takes for them to get picked. (reminds me of Jedi Academy and those odds are better )

We had early entry, got to Ollivander's at 8:08am and it took us 45 minutes to get in. I'm sure the line gets longer once the park officially opens and we've posted pictures in the crowd report thread of hour waits just before closing time. If I were you and I was determined to get them in I would split up the party, let your husband get in line behind you maybe 25/50 people then when your boys finish with you let them get back in line with dad (if just the boys get back in line and not your entire party the folks behind them will probably let Dad live)while you go to the back of the line and start the process all over again. It could be a long day.

 

[Rip]

We did Olivanders since we were there in time for the second show of the morning but thought it was a waste of time. In our show two children were picked. I thought that it was interesting that they had been through the line enough times that the ladies working in the wand shop knew their names. They had a conversation along the lines of "on hello _____, it is so good to see you back again." I just wouldn't want to spend my time waiting over and over to watch that short show in the hopes of being picked.

QUOTE]

I have 4 boys and my 7 yr old twins are desperate to get picked so I will be one of those nutty Moms going as many times as it takes for them to get picked. (reminds me of Jedi Academy and those odds are better )

Have them stand in front of the staircase.

 

[paper1225]

We went to WWOHP on Thursday and Sunday of this past week. Both times we arrived at the front of the park about an hour before opening and were allowed to walk (race) to the back of the park and get in line! Once inside Hogsmeade, go to the right of the line for FJ to put bags in locker while someone else holds a spot in the left side........line seems to go much quicker than shown-we actually hated how fast it moved since we could not see the entire queue as we would like-the ride is great! The other two are themed just fine, but not as exciting since we had been on them before as different rides! Butterbeer is great, try the frozen-its the best of the two. We never stood in line for Olivanders, just did not want to wait so long!

Here was what we had issues with-why oh why did a lot of the universal workers seem rude? What is up with that? Also, why do the tour groups from southern american seem to get away with everything? They were everywhere and even when we complained about them "butting" in the WWOHP line, nothing happened?

We only stayed 1/2 day on Thursday, then went to Disney---could not handle the rudeness of the tour groups and some experiences with workers. Sunday we started at HP, then moved to the other park and rode all those rides! Was worth the trip!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Can I ask a quick question from those who have been? Lockers! Can you take any sort of bag on at all? If not how close are the lockers, are they key or finger print ones(?! Don't get on with the finger print ones, mine never matches when I get back!!) and is there a charge? I can see me losing ten minutes in the morning trying to figure this out!

 

[paper1225]

The lockers are right at the ride just as you walk into the building. They are the finger type and the machine gives you one hour which was plenty of time. After one hour, I believe the charge was $3/half hour. There is a very small compartment in the back of the seat that is available when you get to the ride, only large enough for a camera/cell phone-but you have to move quick the ride constantly moves and the workers are yelling at you to get in the seat. No bags are allowed! One in our party still had her waterbottle when we got on the ride and the worker took the bottle and said trash!

 

[Purseval]

Here was what we had issues with-why oh why did a lot of the universal workers seem rude? What is up with that? Also, why do the tour groups from southern american seem to get away with everything? They were everywhere and even when we complained about them "butting" in the WWOHP line, nothing happened?

You must have been wearing your Disney Delusion glasses A simple search would show you that those tour groups act no differently at WDW than they do at Universal. So if you are so wrong about that the credibility of your experiences with the TMs also comes into question, especially when we see so few of these threads on the forum.

The lockers are right at the ride just as you walk into the building. They are the finger type and the machine gives you one hour which was plenty of time. After one hour, I believe the charge was $3/half hour.

If the wait is longer than one hour don't meekly stuff dollar bills into the machine. Get an attendant, who will know how long the waits are, and have the locker opened for you. We haven't had a problem with locker charges at FJ but we did at HRRR and we got our stuff back for free.

 

[Planogirl]

We've been seeing endless posts about tour groups at WDW too! What is up with that?

Sorry if Universal TM's seemed rude. Luckily we've never experienced that.

 

[Purseval]

We've been seeing endless posts about tour groups at WDW too! What is up with that?

They are large groups of teenagers far away from home with little control. They also put masses and masses of cash into WDW/Universal coffers so there is no good reason to discourage them from coming. In spite of all the threads they are mainly boisterous. Read about Spring Break experiences in Daytona if you want to see kids getting out of hand.

Sorry if Universal TM's seemed rude. Luckily we've never experienced that.

Niether do most other people. If you are already annoyed because it's hot, you're in a long line and 100 kids are loudly chanting some song in a language you don't understand the TMs become an easy target.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

The lockers are right at the ride just as you walk into the building. They are the finger type and the machine gives you one hour which was plenty of time. After one hour, I believe the charge was $3/half hour. There is a very small compartment in the back of the seat that is available when you get to the ride, only large enough for a camera/cell phone-but you have to move quick the ride constantly moves and the workers are yelling at you to get in the seat. No bags are allowed! One in our party still had her waterbottle when we got on the ride and the worker took the bottle and said trash!

Thanks for the quick response!