What's the best way to visit HPWW during the Celebration of HP event if I'm not doing the event?

Gigi25

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 24, 2017
HELP!
Our trip will overlap with the Celebration of Harry Potter event. We'll be at Disney and use one day to spend at the Universal parks (mostly for HP stuff). We'll have park-to-park tickets, but no express pass. Not planning on doing any of the panels or expo during the event - really just want to visit the lands and do rides/stores/shows.

How crowded is the park during this event if you are not attending the event? Are Hogsmead and Diagon Alley packed? We could go either on Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon or Tue - which one would be our best bet for lower crownds at HP? Do guests usually linger that week after the event, or people really just come for the weekend?

Thank you for your help!

PS. Not doing a split stay - I know people usually suggests that for the perks. And can't justify the cost of the express pass. Can we still do this?
 
Monday or Tuesday is probably the best bet. Even if some of the crowd does linger, you're missing the dates for the celebration packages and the people who come just for the event, so even if the crowd is higher than typical for that time of year, I would think it would be lower than the weekend crowds.

Last year, we got in late on Friday, and Hogsmeade actually had really light crowds, but this was maybe a couple of hours before park close, and I can't speak for the rest of the day. But the HP sections were definitely busy Saturday and Sunday, and we skipped the Hogwarts Express most of the time because the lines were super long.
 
The time we were there it was no big deal in the parks. The people there for the event were off in the event spaces.

But when we go we stay onsite in deluxe hotels and have the unlimited express pass. So our days are helped by that.
 

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