Surprise!! Timed entries for WWOHP today --and BIGGG crowds

[dzd]

Got back from IOA today, same as reported yesterday. HUGE LINES at olivanders, over 3 hours, and after doing it later in the day around 6 with an hour wait, what a waste of time to standby for 3 hours!! FJ was 90 to 120 till after 3 then died down to about 45 minutes. Honey dukes was 15, D&B was 30 minutes, DC was usually less than 30 minutes but at noon it was 60! I cant believe you have to wait in line to go into a Merch shop. Oh and metering at 11am. It was grid lock by then, people were standing in line to move!

anyway, I expect it will be only worse as the week goes on. Had a great time in any event and will post up a report when i get home.

 

[fa mulan]

Timed entrance is fastpass.

The timed entrance is not the same as FP, because it was for entry to the entire WWOHP area. This didn't work b/c while they were metering people in by "time", they had no control over how many people were leaving. I don't know how they could time this, b/c with the amazingly themed stores, castle, restaurant and rides, it could be a few hours before people might want to leave (unlike with FP, when once you are off the ride, you leave to go to another). Crowd control is definitely needed, but I think they figured out that timed entry into the entire area is not the way to go.

 

[fa mulan]

Got back from IOA today. . . later in the day around 6 with an hour wait, what a waste of time to standby for 3 hours!!

Hi dzd - - I was thinking of trying to go back in the evening before our trip is over (since w/ have these 14 day tix), so thanks for your update about the reduced wait at night (we left yesterday before 5). Will have to decide whether it's worth it to stand in line for 3 rides (hopefully) in 3 hours. Might be better to go see Deathly Hallows instead!

 

[Timmy Boy]

Got back from IOA today, same as reported yesterday. HUGE LINES at olivanders, over 3 hours,

Did you notice where the line went? I see the makeshift line they've created for Ollivanders, but I've only seen it at about a 45 minute wait. Where do they hold the rest of the 2 hours and 15 minutes of it?

 

[brenda1966]

I'm not sure timed entrance will work unless they could force a timed exit! They can try to stagger the people coming in, but unless people are leaving, it won't work. Seems the only thing they can do is let one in as one leaves. Good luck to anyone going during holiday time!

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Ugh. I'm not surprised, but double UGH! I'll be there on Friday with the rest of the dummies - haha.

 

[tfoster]

Oh no - now I'm getting nervous for our trip scheduled for Dec 19 - Dec 24! All of the hotels are sold out for that time period, but there appears to be tons of availability the week prior. DH and I are going to talk tonight about the possibility of switching our travel dates. I was totally counting on the crowds not arriving until Dec 26!!

 

[SandraLee]

I must admit, I'm looking at alternative plans and skipping Universal. I don't want to go and not be able to see and enjoy the whole experience.

For $400+per night plus the ticket cost, I want to be able to enjoy.

 

[Lucky4me]

I must admit, I'm looking at alternative plans and skipping Universal. I don't want to go and not be able to see and enjoy the whole experience.

For $400+per night plus the ticket cost, I want to be able to enjoy.

I feel so sorry for anyone heading there this weekend or the weeks before and after Christmas.
If I had refundable reservations and non expiring tickets and could go another time, I certainly would.
WWOHP is a very small area. I was having a hard time the week of November 6th when it was supposedly "empty". I can't imagine waiting an hour to get into the area, hours to get on a ride and an hour to get into a shop.
I just would not be able to do it.

 

[geenerbell]

We are planning to do IOA on Weds. Dec. 1st. That's the week after Thanksgiving. If the crowds are anywhere near what is being reported in this thread I'm not sure it's worth the $$$ and effort. Anyone care to guess what crowds will be like the week after Thanksgiving?

 

[damo]

Crowds should be way down.

 

[mom0299]

Great. Just Great. We are planning to go on Sunday, Dec. 19th.

 

[Finally08]

We were just at IOA today - first time there.
Lucky for us we went for Jurassic Park, not HP, because you couldn't get near that. I don't know if they were still doing tickets or timed entry...when we attempted to go near that area they had ropes, people yelling with bullhorns and we heard people saying no one else could go in. I thought it was pretty darn ridiculous.

The lines and crowds for everything were bad. In about 7 hours there we only did about 5 things....everything seemed to have about an hour wait (including the ticket window to get in the park).
I would neveR return to universal at a holiday time unless I was staying at their hotel and had their skip the line privilege. Waiting an hour to ride a kiddie ride while the fast pass type people continually enter the line que and more than half fill the ride just gets old.

 

[Kellydelly]

Oh no - now I'm getting nervous for our trip scheduled for Dec 19 - Dec 24! All of the hotels are sold out for that time period, but there appears to be tons of availability the week prior. DH and I are going to talk tonight about the possibility of switching our travel dates. I was totally counting on the crowds not arriving until Dec 26!!

The last time we visited US/IOA was the week before Christmas and the crowds kept getting progressively thicker the closer to the 25th (this was 4 yrs ago). I thought I was safe taking my kids out of school for a full week before the holiday but that wasn't the case. Disney was even worse, but now with the WWOHP I think Universal is going to be very crowded during your dates.

 

[Kellydelly]

We are planning to do IOA on Weds. Dec. 1st. That's the week after Thanksgiving. If the crowds are anywhere near what is being reported in this thread I'm not sure it's worth the $$$ and effort. Anyone care to guess what crowds will be like the week after Thanksgiving?

We are headed to Orlando this Saturday for a week, I am hoping that the crowds die down a lot after Sunday. We aren't huge Harry Potter fans anyway, so if we don't get into the WWOHP it won't bother us too much.

 

[Magpie]

Does anyone have any predictions for the week of Dec 11th to the 18th? What are crowds likely to be like then?

 

[mama03]

We will be there this friday and then Dec. 15-17th. I know it will be very crowded so not even going to attempt HP tomorrow. I do believe it wont be crowded 15-16. All schools here will start christmas break the 18th so crowds will be massive during christmas break. the next couple of weeks should not be too bad. I will try and post a live comment on the 15th to let you guys know how crowded it is in the parks.

 

[mollybeasley]

How long did you have to wait to ride FJ the night before? We're planning to go there on our arrival day to see if we can get on FJ late in the day.

How long did you ultimately have to wait for FJ? If it was only an hour or so, that's probably not too bad for Thanksgiving week after 9am. And did you like it!

Maybe they'll work out the kinks with that time-slip system soon. Or maybe it really WAS supposed to be just for hotel guests, but since you asked directly they gave them to you. (It's harder to say no to an eager guest when you're looking them in the face.)

It sounds like Thanksgiving week is almost as bad as Christmas week.

 

[mollybeasley]

Does anyone have any predictions for the week of Dec 11th to the 18th? What are crowds likely to be like then?

Both Saturdays are predicted to be busy, especially the 18th, but otherwise crowds should be relatively light. We're going on the 13th, so I've been reading every prediction I can find. For IOA, Mondays and Tuesdays are usually lighter than later in the week. I've heard some contradictory info on Sundays. For some reason, Wednesday the 15th is predicted to be busy at WDW, and it's not a recommended day for most WDW parks. So I think that might be a good day to go to Universal/IoA.

Time of day is the main factor for WWOHP as well as WDW parks. If you're staying on site, you should definitely take advantage of your early entry. If you're off site, you should still get there before the official opening time because often they'll let people in early. If you get there after opening, the lines will be a lot longer for the most popular rides.

For our week, overall it should be light (especially compared to this week, or Christmas week). It might be easier to get on popular rides at dinner time or closing time.

 

[NOLA_Tink]

Did you notice where the line went? I see the makeshift line they've created for Ollivanders, but I've only seen it at about a 45 minute wait. Where do they hold the rest of the 2 hours and 15 minutes of it?

It was being held along one of the "alley" walls behind the shop. And, it looked like it wasn't moving at all.

I must admit, I'm looking at alternative plans and skipping Universal. I don't want to go and not be able to see and enjoy the whole experience.

For $400+per night plus the ticket cost, I want to be able to enjoy.

This sounds like a really good idea. IoA has always been DH's fave park, but after our experience there on Monday, I couldn't drag him back there. It seemed as if they were totally unprepared for the large crowds & everything felt very unorganized. We were extremely disappointed & wished that we had made other plans for that day. We were talking about it on our cab ride back & DH said, "At WDW, people would be outraged if they had to wait in 2 different lines for 1-2 hours just to get into Frontierland & then wait in another line for another hour to eat at Pecos Bill, & wait another hour to get into a gift shop, & get in line for another 2 hours to ride Splash Mountain...just for it to break down once we're finally close to the front." That's pretty much how we felt. After being there for almost 5 hours, we were only able to eat lunch (which included another 5 lines: one outside to get into the restaurant, another one inside to be assigned to a cashier, a line for the cashier, a line to pick-up your food, & a line to be assigned to a table) & ride one ride.