The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade (Orlando): Part 2

[orlandobuff901]

Great pics!! I cannot wait to go!! IT'S SO AMAZING FROM THE PICS!!:dance:

 

[Drewfilmboy]

So I visited IOA today (Tuesday, Dec 21) to buy a Harry Potter-esque christmas present for my ex-beard Jen. What I thought would be a lone, quick shopping experience turned out to be a crazy extravaganza only the superbowl halftime show could muster. Shall we begin?

Yay Orlando's #1 resort for capital spending and progress...

There sure are a lot of people in Citywalk. Oh well, it is 11am.

Now, why do I smell stress coming up ahead?

Well FML.

IOA was PACKKKKKED today. According to a fellow friend who works for the mouse, MK hit 75,000 yesterday. Orlando is busy yall.

To make matters worst, instead of going left towards Suess Landing like a normal person, they had signs for the WWOHP pointing the OTHER WAY. At this point I wanted to shoot myself in the face, but I was morbidly curious as to what the wait could possibly be.

This is the service road between Dudley Do-Right's and JP arch. And these people (including myself) are waiting in line to receive a "Fastpass" to get into the land. 75 min wait...

Since I couldn't enter until 1:40, I walked around the park looking like an idiot. My friend who works for the mouse was supposed to meet me in the park but unfortunately he lost his annual pass. There is nothing more fun than being a party of 1 in a theme park.

Guess I'll watch people do stupid stuff like ride the water rides. It was 60 degrees.

They even used the left side. That's how crowded it was. Workers were out in full force barking to guests "Ride the water rides now while it's warm!" (warm?)

Stupid people. In 3 seconds, everyone in this picture will have water shooting into their faces.

I decided to check out an area I don't frequent (because it's so out of the way and kinda hidden by the trees: The front of the park.

They had performers playing arabian music behind me. It was odd to see street entertainment here, but I really liked it.

What a random skyline. Grey warehouse, tropical visitor building, castle, elaborate rock formation.

Idk what I'm taking a picture of, but by this time my friend told me they sell select HP merchandise at the Port of Entry gift shop. Opps. I forgot.

Well, after spending about an hour and a half here, I bid my farwell to the park and head to the gift shop where I buy a Twiwizarding Cup for my friend, so she can drink hard liquor from it.

Hope yall enjoyed my first ever trip report. Ok Bai!

 

[Splatter]

So I visited IOA today (Tuesday, Dec 21) to buy a Harry Potter-esque christmas present for my ex-beard Jen. What I thought would be a lone, quick shopping experience turned out to be a crazy extravaganza only the superbowl halftime show could muster. Shall we begin?

Yay Orlando's #1 resort for capital spending and progress...

There sure are a lot of people in Citywalk. Oh well, it is 11am.

Now, why do I smell stress coming up ahead?

Well FML.

IOA was PACKKKKKED today. According to a fellow friend who works for the mouse, MK hit 75,000 yesterday. Orlando is busy yall.

To make matters worst, instead of going left towards Suess Landing like a normal person, they had signs for the WWOHP pointing the OTHER WAY. At this point I wanted to shoot myself in the face, but I was morbidly curious as to what the wait could possibly be.

This is the service road between Dudley Do-Right's and JP arch. And these people (including myself) are waiting in line to receive a "Fastpass" to get into the land. 75 min wait...

Since I couldn't enter until 1:40, I walked around the park looking like an idiot. My friend who works for the mouse was supposed to meet me in the park but unfortunately he lost his annual pass. There is nothing more fun than being a party of 1 in a theme park.

Guess I'll watch people do stupid stuff like ride the water rides. It was 60 degrees.

They even used the left side. That's how crowded it was. Workers were out in full force barking to guests "Ride the water rides now while it's warm!" (warm?)

Stupid people. In 3 seconds, everyone in this picture will have water shooting into their faces.

I decided to check out an area I don't frequent (because it's so out of the way and kinda hidden by the trees: The front of the park.

They had performers playing arabian music behind me. It was odd to see street entertainment here, but I really liked it.

What a random skyline. Grey warehouse, tropical visitor building, castle, elaborate rock formation.

Idk what I'm taking a picture of, but by this time my friend told me they sell select HP merchandise at the Port of Entry gift shop. Opps. I forgot.

Well, after spending about an hour and a half here, I bid my farwell to the park and head to the gift shop where I buy a Twiwizarding Cup for my friend, so she can drink hard liquor from it.

Hope yall enjoyed my first ever trip report. Ok Bai!

I can attest to how crowded things have gotten. It is the biggest two weeks out of the theme park in central FL time of year though.

I was at Magic Kingdom yesteday, and Haunted Mansion was at an hour plus wait for a lot of the day and at a 50 min wait at 6pm.

 

[mantaguy]

^ Sorry to hear you had such a bad time. The parks are normally not that stressful, and the line for WWoHP has not been that bad since June. I suggest returning when the crowds die, which should be about a week after New Years.

 

[Teebin]

My word... I had no idea. I had never heard that they used the service path between Toon and Jurassic. The place can burn to the ground before I would ever encounter that kind of crowd. I guess people do not study the best times to visit tourist areas around the planet earth; they just go when it is convenient for everyone ON earth.

 

[Drewfilmboy]

^^ Yeah it was pretty bad. People were losing their sh*t trying to figure out how to get into WWOHP. But I didn't have a bad time. I love theme parks even when they're abusive. Yeah I'd would have liked to ride some rides and actually go inside WWOHP, but it's all good. Plus I really needed to get my friend something from HP. If anything I'm sad because I'm moving away and this was essentially my last visit to Universal.

 

[White Rabbit]

Hey Drewfilmboy, they also sell select HP merchandise in the Universal Studios Store in CityWalk.

 

[TSSD]

They also sell HP merch at the online store.

 

[speckles]

Love to visit WWoHP at night however what a trade off to visit at this time of year given the lines. Make me really appreciate that I have the flexibility to visit at other times than when the masses have holidays. When do they stop night hours at the end of summer/fall season?

 

[ScottInNY]

Well, it was finally my turn to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Two weeks ago, 2 friends, my partner and I spent 3 lovely - although freezing - days at Universal Orlando. We stayed at Loew's Royal Pacific Hotel, which was lovely, and spent our days exploring the two parks.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was everything everyone here has written and yet more. The comments that it photographs beautifully, but is even better in person are so true. The detail really is as impressive as you all wrote. Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice truly YUM!!!!!! (I even have followed the posted recipe and made some pumpkin juice here, back home.)

What really surprised me though was, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I've read so many comments here and have read through the battle between Spider-man and The Forbidden Journey that I thought I knew what to expect. I didn't.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is simply a masterpiece! Words don't do it justice.

Everything was working. (Over the tens of times my friends and I rode, the dementor's kiss worked all but once.) I suspect that they have also adjusted the lighting extensively, because it was definitely not too dark, but just foreboding. The balance between film and built sets was perfection and it's true that so many of the ride's props seem almost within touching range. The dementors were startling even though I knew they were coming. Like the whole of The Wizarding World, I thought The Forbidden Journey also was far better - and far more "polished" - than I had come to believe following mostly these posts.

I even got to ride with the lights on... Riding for two days, and many many times (Tuesday 14 December, my first day was the depth of the cold spell and the park was near empty) I was fortunate enough to experience the ride go down. We were stopped very early in the ride, right after the first set of dome screens. After about 2 minutes, an announcement was made and the lights came on. As you can imagine, I was beyond excited to see this perspective with my own eyes. After another 5 or so minutes, the ride started moving, at first with the lights on. It wasn't until near the end that they resumed regular lighting, giving me a wonderful opportunity to see the magic behind the magic.

I loved The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. For those who have been following here and have yet to make the journey, I know you will be so pleased - and surprised - when you finally get there. Yes, I knew far too much about where everything was and where to look. Yes, I knew to do Olivander's first thing, so not to have to wait on the one truly obnoxious line. Yes, I had seen it all in the countless photos taken and posted here, but still... The Wizard World still surprises and wow, The Forbidden Journey is just amazing.

 

[orlandobuff901]

:happy::happy:I ABSOLUTELY CAN'T WAIT!!!!:happy::happy:

and how long has the wait been lately?

 

[ScottInNY]

Well, lately has been the Christmas holiday and I have no doubt that the park was filled to capacity. Two weeks before - when I was there - the crowds were extremely manageable. Tuesday 14 December, we practically had The Wizarding World to ourselves. (Please note it was also like 20 degrees outside!) Thursday 16 December, was much more crowded, but still reasonable. (The Forbidden Journey listed about an hour wait.)

I am confident that you are going to be very impressed. The Wizarding World is quite special.

 

[Vyrus]

Scott, great review, its also been a while since you've been on here, I thought UO Legal scared you off

But you were dead on about your source when it comes to the reflective paint for the Floo Network sections of the ride :thumbs:

 

[mantaguy]

Glad you had a great time Scott, I would have hated to have had to wait that long to go. As for current crowds, I have no doubt that you would get trampled if you stopped to tie your shoe in the middle of the path.

 

[Vyrus]

WTH!!! There is a secret backstage tour of FJ?! I wanna go on this! This is from the www.disunplugged.com blog I'm reading right now:

Through the grace of the Universal Studios friend, Justin Arthur, we were treated to not only Universal Studios Tour and Islands of Adventure, but all of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter including a secret backstage tour of how the ride is done

 

[Tbad556]

From Universal:

Today @TomFelton visited with the Beauxbatons at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! [HASHTAG]#wwohp[/HASHTAG] http://twitpic.com/3knmkv

 

[Vyrus]

Kind of weird he is wearing University of Colorado sweat pants. Does he go there or something?

 

[Teebin]

WTH!!! There is a secret backstage tour of FJ?! I wanna go on this! This is from the www.disunplugged.com blog I'm reading right now:

Vyrus, these tours have been available since December of 2009... sort of :look:

Secondly, you look at a picture of a motion picture star standing with cute girls and the only thing you notice is his Colorado sports sweats? You sports addicts.... yeeesh.

 

[Splatter]

I was hearing reports that the park was at capacity for awhile today. Anyone confirm?

 

[Tbad556]

I was hearing reports that the park was at capacity for awhile today. Anyone confirm?

I just read several tweets stating that Islands of Adventure did close due to capacity and the WWoHP held a 120 minute entry wait.