# Universal Studios-Harry Potter



## stratusnj75 (Aug 31, 2010)

Just to let everyone know that I was in Orlando this past week and visited Universal Studios on Tuesday.  Was able to walk right in to the new Harry Potter area 1st thing in the morning.  Area was crowded, lines for the wand store were already very long, so didn't wait.  New ride in castle was a 40 min wait.  Walked right on to the dragon coaster with only a minimal wait.  Left and did most of the rest of Universal Studios.  Came back to the Harry Potter area again around 1 pm after someone gave my wife a way to circumvent some of the line for the new ride in the Castle.  Again was able to walk right in to that area.  Still very crowded.  Castle ride line said 70 min wait.  Using the hint my wife got, we only waited about 1/2 of that time.  Ride was neat.  1/2 simulation ride, like spiderman, 1/2 real ride.  Someone described it as like disney's Soarin' on steriods and I thought that was pretty accurate.

They did an excellent job on the area.  Very realistic looking.  Looked even better when it was dark and gloomy with storm clouds around.  And I am far from being a Harry Potter freak.

Devin


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## davhu1 (Aug 31, 2010)

What was the hint?  Care to share with us?  We will be there spring break.


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## rickandcindy23 (Aug 31, 2010)

I read that they have a single rider line, and if you get in that, you will cut the wait considerably.


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## AnnaS (Aug 31, 2010)

We were there a few weeks ago.  Lines were unbelievable.  We got lucky too and were given some kind of fastpass - basically a printed ticket that told us what time to go to the village and we would go right in.  We went in at 9 and our designated time was between 10:30 and 11:30.  We avoived a 60 minute if not more line just to get into the village.

The place is absolutely great.  I did not find it too big.  We waited about 30 minutes just to get into the shop to purchase the wand.  The dragon coaster was also a walk-in then (I did not go on of course).

You described the simulator ride in the castle perfect.  It was actually a bit intense for me.  We also did single rider.  

I hope by now the lines are much shorter and glad to read that they are.  If it were not for my daughter and niece, we would have waited another year to go in.


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 20, 2010)

Rode the new Harry Potter "Forbidden Journey," twice.  We went to renew our annual passes last week and rode it after about a 40 minute wait, then we rode it again Monday, after the nearly identical 40 minute wait.  The ride is fabulous, not at all scary, mostly a motion ride.  Best ride ever, even better than Spiderman and Men in Black.  

Someone said it was like Soarin' on steroids.  Maybe a bit, but comparing the two myself, I found very few similarities in them.  There is a harness that comes down, to keep you in your seat when the ride puts you on your back.  It also has you moving the opposite direction, so you are looking down.  The ride is swift, the screen is constantly moving in front of you, and you are really taken on a spectacular adventure.  

You enter it as a party of four per car.  The ride's entrance is like a lot of rides, entered on a moving sidewalk, and when you get off, you get off in the same way, but you are walking forward to get off, and the "sidewalk" is moving sideways, while you are walking forward.  So in other words, you are walking on a sidewalk that isn't going the same direction you are.  And getting off is awkward--AWKWARD.  An older lady a car in front of ours was getting off the sidewalk and tripped two people on her way down.  They had to pause the ride to pick up the mess.  Getting off the ride is that tricky. That's the only problem I saw with it, and no one is warning you about the sidewalk (like they do at Disney), nor are they telling you where it ends, and it's not marked well.


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## gjw007 (Oct 20, 2010)

I will be in Orlando starting December 1 for three weeks.  I am hoping to be able to just get on.  I don't normally get up first thing in the morning to head to the parks but have a more leisurely approach as I come and go with no particular plan.  I may have to change that for the Wizarding World visit


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 20, 2010)

We went to the Studios first, then went to IOA in the early afternoon--very early, around 12:30.  The town is so amazing looking, right out of the movies.  Anyway, Gary, you won't have to get up early, and I heard people say NOT to get there early, because you will probably still have a long wait.  People arrive very early to be the first at the ride.  Maybe Rick and I should do that once, before we leave.  

Forty minutes of waiting is not much.  I wasn't at all bored in line, either.  The line is kept cool during the warmer days with fans, and the line moves pretty much all the time.  You might pause for 30 seconds every now and then, maybe so they can pick up the casualties at the exit of the ride.  :rofl: 

LOVED the ride!  Cannot say enough good about it, and I am terrified of roller coasters, and I am even scared of Splash Mountain and Jurassic Park.  I am so ashamed to say that.


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## mecllap (Oct 20, 2010)

Thanks for the really helpful descriptions of how the FJ ride actually works and feels -- sounds like I will be able to handle riding it someday.


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## gjw007 (Oct 22, 2010)

Cindy, I may try it both ways.  I had been able to get onto Toy Story @ Hollywood Studio when it first opened but I have never been able to get on again without waiting most of the day.  The fast passes have been all allocated when I got there at 9:30 AM (which for me was early).  Nice ride but not worth the wait.  I am looking forward to the Wizarding World as it hadn't been opened when I was there last.  I am hoping that since I am going during a low period that it won't be too bad but as the Wizarding World is still new, I expect most of the crowd to be there.  It should be better than the crowds during the summer.


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## Deb from NC (Oct 22, 2010)

Hi all...
I've never been to Universal, but we're planning on going in November, primarily because of Harry Potter  
Are you buying tickets ahead of time?  If so, is there a good place to buy them on line ?
I'm not a big roller coaster fan, I'm wondering if there are other parts of Universal I would enjoy?  If so, how much time would you budget?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Deb


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 22, 2010)

There are two parks at Universal: Islands of Adventure and Studios.  

My favorite things at Studios, as a person who is scared of roller coasters: 

Men in Black, Alien Attack: love it, and we try to ride it at least six times, all in a row, and we go through the baby swap area to ride again, going to the line in front just for the first ride, then we go up the stairs and make a U-turn to the beginning of the ride again.  The Universal employees only stop us when the park gets busier.  We hit Men In Black right away, as soon as the park opens.  

Then we go to The Simpsons ride.  It's a motion ride, and you can see the other cars down the line.  It feels pretty wild, but really is mostly the screen.  It's a bit too much for some people, but not me, and if you don't like The Simpsons, the Harry Potter ride will also not be good to ride.  Motion rides don't bother me much, because I know it's not as bad as it seems.  

ET ride is great, and you ride these bicycles that fly, so you kind of get the Peter Pan effect.  It's really great the first time you ride it.  

Jaws is something we skip quite a bit, but it's not scary, it's actually kind of silly, with a guide that is acting scared and running back and forth in the front of the boat, shooting Jaws.  

Jimmy Neutron is another motion-type ride.  I like it and ride when the line is short. 

Shrek 3D is a fun show, and the seats move more than any other theater show we have seen.

Rocky Horror Makeup Show is great the first few times you see it.  We go once in a while.  

Disaster is an earthquake on a subway, basically.  There is a long pre-show that is interesting the first few times you see it.  The Disaster is fun.  

Terminator 3D is a great show, once again with a lot of motion in the seats, and it's a combination of a live show and a 3D movie.  There are real actors who play Sarah and John Connors, and there is also an actor who is Arnold (The Terminator), and he rides a motorcycle.  Pretty cool.  

Twister I like occasionally.  This is a set that experiences a tornado, and you will get wet, plus the platform you stand on will drop pretty abruptly.  

At Islands of Adventure, I ride very little.  It's a roller-coaster lover's dream. 

Spiderman is great, a motion ride, but you are moving in a car through it.  The screen is amazing, and it's 3D.  You have to keep saying to yourself that it is not going anywhere; otherwise, you might think you are falling in the end. 

I sit on a bench a lot at IOA, while Rick rides Dr. Doom's Deathfall (I think that's it) and Incredible Hulk.  

Jurassic Park I won't ride because of the one huge plunge.  I will ride the Barge boats in comicbook land, but you get soaked, so not really all that great on a cooler day.  It's a lot like Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom.

I love Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey ride, so that's good.  Another ride for me in that park.  

The only other thing I can ride in IOA is the Dr. Seuss rides, and only the Cat in the Hat is worthy of riding because the little train has a long, long line and is very slow.  

There is a Poseidon show near Harry Potter, too.  It's pretty good.


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## Rose Pink (Oct 22, 2010)

As far as rides go, Harry Potter is the most amazing I've ever been on. It is also the one that gives me the most motion sickness. I rode it once and spent the entire time trying not to throw up :ignore: . Fortunately for the other passengers, I was successful.

The only other ride I remember that gave me that much nausea was one at Epcot.  I think it was mission to mars or something similar--it was spaceship oriented.


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 22, 2010)

The great thing about the Harry Potter ride is they aren't allowing Express Yourself, even for hotel guests, so no one gets to go ahead of you; everyone waits in the same line.  I wonder when that will change?  

You need to go to Disney Studios on a slower day, and that means you should never go on a day where they have early or late extra magic hours.  There is a science to it.  We rode it three times before 10:10 just a few days ago.  We got FastPasses when we first got there at 9:00, then we got in line and rode it twice by 9:45.  The first line was about 15 minutes, even though they said 50 minutes.  There are no FastPass people stopping you from going on the ride the first hour or so.  After that, you are delayed by the FastPass people.   

We use the calendar on touringplans.com to determine when to go to the parks.  Bob Sehlinger is a great resource for us.  He is the author of "The Unofficial Guide to Disneyworld."  In December, FastPasses for Toy Story will not be sold out.  



gjw007 said:


> Cindy, I may try it both ways.  I had been able to get onto Toy Story @ Hollywood Studio when it first opened but I have never been able to get on again without waiting most of the day.  The fast passes have been all allocated when I got there at 9:30 AM (which for me was early).  Nice ride but not worth the wait.  I am looking forward to the Wizarding World as it hadn't been opened when I was there last.  I am hoping that since I am going during a low period that it won't be too bad but as the Wizarding World is still new, I expect most of the crowd to be there.  It should be better than the crowds during the summer.


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## Deb from NC (Oct 22, 2010)

GREAT information...thanks all !  DH and I love the Men in Black movies so I bet we'll enjoy that ride as well as many others.  We're really looking forward to our first trip to Universal!
Thanks, Deb


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## Rose Pink (Oct 23, 2010)

Unlike Disney, Universal Studios does not allow purses and such on some of its rides.  Men in Black and Harry Potter are two of those rides.  Instead, they have lockers nearby that you can place your items in.  When we were there in July, we had to wait in line to get a locker, then wait in line for the ride, then wait in line to retrieve our things from the locker.  

If you can go to Universal without purses, bags, water bottles and such, you won't have to rent the lockers.


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## mecllap (Oct 23, 2010)

Rose Pink said:


> Unlike Disney, Universal Studios does not allow purses and such on some of its rides.  Men in Black and Harry Potter are two of those rides.  Instead, they have lockers nearby that you can place your items in.  When we were there in July, we had to wait in line to get a locker, then wait in line for the ride, then wait in line to retrieve our things from the locker.
> 
> If you can go to Universal without purses, bags, water bottles and such, you won't have to rent the lockers.



When I was there in Sept, the lockers were still free for long enough to do the ride once -- if you leave stuff too long, they have a posted list of charges.  But, traveling light to theme parks is always great -- cargo pants are wonderful!


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## Deb from NC (Oct 23, 2010)

Rose Pink said:


> Unlike Disney, Universal Studios does not allow purses and such on some of its rides.  Men in Black and Harry Potter are two of those rides.  Instead, they have lockers nearby that you can place your items in.  When we were there in July, we had to wait in line to get a locker, then wait in line for the ride, then wait in line to retrieve our things from the locker.
> 
> If you can go to Universal without purses, bags, water bottles and such, you won't have to rent the lockers.



Thanks for letting me know...that never would have occurred to me.  I'll be sure to 'travel light' to Universal!
Deb


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## Rose Pink (Oct 23, 2010)

mecllap said:


> When I was there in Sept, the lockers were still free for long enough to do the ride once -- if you leave stuff too long, they have a posted list of charges. But, traveling light to theme parks is always great -- cargo pants are wonderful!


If you don't have to wait in line too long for the ride and then wait in line too long to get back into your locker, it is free.  

There were attendants there who had to open lockers for some of the people.  If your wallet and credit card is in your purse or fanny pack inside the locker, how do you pay to open the locker?


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## ginnylbs (Oct 24, 2010)

*There is a different spot to load for elderly and handicapped*

There is a different loading spot - where they stop the ride to get on and off for people who need it.  I was in a cast on my foot (using an electric cart) and they sent my family and I to that area. They stop it to get on and then divert you back to the same area to get off - stopped again.
-Ginny


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## dvc_john (Oct 24, 2010)

Went on Forbidden Journey last week. 

The line was 90 minutes, but there is a single rider line (not marked - you have to ask) and was essentially a walk-on.  This was about noon.  At 5pm, the line was about 20 minutes. 

Great ride, but be careful if you are subject to motion sickness.  This ride is about the max I can take.  If you don't ride, it's still fun to walk through the castle.  Just ask, and there is a separate line that you can go through as fast or as slow as you want.

I also liked the 'butter beer' a lot. (non-alcoholic).  The lines at the carts were really long, but they also have it in the restaurant there.


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## carl2591 (Oct 24, 2010)

another great place to find out more on the theme parks in florida and around the US go to 

http://www.themeparkinsider.com/index.cfm

they have good info and up to date on changes that might be gone on at the various parks.. 

they posted a video supplied by busch gardens on the new roller coaster they are building in the area near the over head cable car ride got off point at Egypt and the other roller coaster there.


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## colamedia (Oct 26, 2010)

on-site Universal guests get access 1hr beofre the rope drop for the rest of the general public, so if you do get there for rope drop and rush to get to Forbidden Journey, there will already be quite long line.

On a crowded day, the most important thing is NO BAGS.  We went last Saturday and the queue for the lockers was 30min (it was out past the ride entrance) and then another 70min from the lockers.  They weren't making it very clear why there was a huge queue on the right and people were walking in on the left, but the difference was bags to put in lockers.
*HINT *if you are doing a child swap, you don't have to put your stuff in the lockers.

Single rider line is very easy to miss (it is just after the lockers on the left)  you go up the stairs and then you sort of have to go across the normal line, very odd bit of planning.  Make sure you go through the normal ride at least once, you get to see a lot of details you don't get in the single rider line.

If you are chesty (male or female), get on the seats on either end, they are a little bit bigger than the 2 inside seats. They will swap you if you sit on the inside seats. If you are a group of 4 chesty people, I don't know what they will do!  When looking at the 4 seat 'flying bench', I found the seat on the right a bit more intense than the rest.



If you're not interested in the full Ollivanders wand show (or the queue is too big), you can queue up for Dervish and Banges (round the back of the Owl Post), and it gets you into the Owl Post and the full wand selection from Ollivanders (they move you out of Ollivanders after the 'show' into the Owl Post)  The Wand selection is done by birthday, so you can check the the wood wand online beforehand (in the online shop) to know what you should get (there are 13 wood wands, and 12 hero wands).  Most of the wood wands are a couple of inches bigger than the hero wands.  The hero wands can be found outside Forbidden Journey and in Ollivanders/Owl Post/Dervish and Banges and online, they come in a plain small box.  The wood wands can only be found Ollivanders/Owl Post/Dervish and Banges and online, and they come in a box that says Ollivanders.

The butter beer and the pumpkin juice are both VERY sweet, the frozen butter beer is slightly less sweet.  The head on the butter beer is like a runny marshmallow topping.


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## falmouth3 (Oct 26, 2010)

Rose Pink said:


> There were attendants there who had to open lockers for some of the people.  If your wallet and credit card is in your purse or fanny pack inside the locker, how do you pay to open the locker?



We ran into the same thing at the Statue of Liberty.  You have to lock everything up and then we didn't have money to pay for the locker when we ran over the alloted time.  You'd think they would have thought of this...

So no fanny packs either for the rides?  Too bad.  I use my fanny pack whenever I'm planning on walking for most of the day.


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## tlwmkw (Dec 9, 2010)

Just got back from Orlando- went to Harry Potter at Universal on Friday last week.  We arrived early and went straight to the Harry Potter area and there was nobody around at all- very quiet.  No wait at all for the Forbidden journey ride so we walked right on (would have liked to have spent more time looking at all the items that are there for you to see as you wait but we're not complaining at all!)  Did everything there by midday.  We didn't go to the wand shop to see Olivander- that was the only thing with a line- we went first to the Forbidden Journy and when we got off a crowd had materialized (by magic ) and the wait was already 40 minutes- it was 90 mins by the time we left.  The Hippo griff ride had good theming but was a very short roller coaster type ride and other than the theme wasn't anything special.  The dragon ride was just a roller coaster that was repurposed for HP and wasn't anything very special.  We ate at the Three Broomsticks and had a good meal.  DH was feeling the effects of motion sickness from the ride and he didn't eat much but the rest of us had a good meal- salad with grilled chicken and a baked potato and the kids had chicken nuggets.  Butter beer is basically a cream soda and very sweet- after one sip you've had enough (even my kids thought so and didn't finish it).  We liked the harry potter area but had expected a bit more- the press billed it as a "new park"- well it isn't really that it's just a small section of an old park.  They could have done a lot more but I suppose they don't want to spend too much on it in this economy.  The rest of the Islands of Adventure was dead- not many people around at all.  I think everyone was there just for the Harry Potter area.  We wandered around after leaving the Wizarding World and left soon after that.

Overall I'd recommend it but don't expect to spend all day there.  Go early before the big crowds hit and do your shopping early before the shops fill up with large crowds too.

Has anyone done the wand shop?  What happens in there anyway?  The line was very long and seemed to be moving very slowly so we weren't interested since we had youngsters with us.

tlwmkw


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