Diagon Advice?

[Ash]

Hi all,

I will be visiting UO from the UK with my fiancée in May.
I have been visiting UO since 1992 yet havent been since diagon ally opened, this will be her first ever trip..

I had planned to get there as close to park opening as possible and just hit diagon straight away, get the train over to hogsmead and then do that then get the train back and spend the rest of the day at universal.

Is this a smart plan? Is this everyone's plan? Is it best to wait till later or will it be even busier as more people pile into the parks?

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

I've notice the only time Hogwarts Express gets a line is when one park is closing. Take your time in USF then ride the Express, you shouldn't have to worry about lines.

 

[Mad Dog]

Hogwart's Express also seems to get busy in the mid afternoons....Best advice I can give is to allow plenty of time to explore & enjoy Diagon Alley. It's absolutely amazing.

 

[Disneyhead]

Diagon
HE
Hogsmeade
JPRA
Dudley
Bluto's
Spidey
Hulk
CitH
Poseiden's
HE
The rest of USF with MiB, Mummy, Springfield, and Transformers being headliners.

 

[sjago13]

If u are staying onsite and are willing to go in the hour early then do diagon first. If not I just don't feel like it is worth it unless you really don't care about anything else at the resort. With the hotel guests in the hour early plus 90 percent of guest going straight to diagon I don't feel it's worth it because you can trade that off for doing so much else no wait. For the first 90 mins from opening hulk, spidey, rockit, transformers, mummy will all be walk on. After that the lines will build and stay constant for most of the rest of the day. Mostly because the people that rush harry potter finally spread out added in with people that show up later. I went today and at opening gringotts and forbidden journey were both posted 30 mins but I did everything listed above in the first 2 hours instead. Gringotts peaked at like 75 mins today around 11Ish.but then broke down for like an hour or so. Went at 2ish and waited 20-25 mins for gringotts and they ended up waiting 35 mins for forbidden journey with a 60 min posted wait. Up to you but either be at the gates half an hour early and in there ASAP or go early afternoon. After lunch it lightens up in diagon as the crazies finally start to move on.

But one piece of advice regardless of what you do, make sure to stop by diagon after dark. Have fun!

 

[Mad Dog]

sjago 13 is right about visiting Diagon in the night. It's absolutely beautiful. And the Gringott's Dragon in the dark is awesome.

 

[Hatetofly]

Hello Ashley,

Now obviously everyone is going to have their own experiences and advice so feel free to plan your trip your way. Last week before heading out of town I took a few family members from Seattle, DC, and Philly to Universal. Some had never been to Universal ever and some just hadn't been to Diagon Alley yet. Given my knowledge of the parks I planned the day as follows and it worked VERY WELL.

We missed early entry due to late flights coming in the night before but hit the parks right at 930. We went directly to Marvel did the Hulk twice, then Doom, and then Spidey. We then shot over to Toon but skipped Popeye and then skipped JPRA due to temperatures. We then hit Hogsmeade and did FJ, Ollivanders, and checked out all the shops. After that we did all of Seuss and then shot back to the Hogwarts Express. The longest line we've encountered at this point was 20 mins for FJ. Once inside USF we met up with another group knocked out MIB, Springfield (Ate) , ET, Transformers, Twister, Mummy, and then saved Diagon Alley for last. The group was very happy we saved Diagon for last and Gringotts was only a 30 min wait. We spent the rest of the day there and in London taking it all in. They LOVED IT!! I had to fly out the next morning while they all stayed and finished everything else the second day and spent another 4 hours or so in Diagon.

Now I've done it the other way also with first timers and it didn't work out as good. We headed to Diagon BEFORE Rope drop and upon arriving the line for Gringotts was already 90 mins due to early entry hotel guests all heading there. By the time we finished a majority of Diagon's offerings we noticed wait times were increasing across the park so we headed to IOA via the HE. When we arrived at IOA by close to noon all the major attractions were at 45-90 mins each. We weren't able to do nearly as much as I had hoped for the first timers. I was a little embarrassed the park I raved about wasn't really able to be experienced due to poor planning. But hey you live and you learn right. So thats why I did it different this time and it worked flawlessly.

Hope these previous experiences of mine helped. Its close to 1AM here and just got off a 10 hour shift about 90 mins ago so my apologies if I ran off course or misspelled a few things lol. If you have any specific questions please feel free to reach out, I love talking Diagon, IOA, and ANYTHING UNIVERSAL!!

 

[Miketheboss]

Hello Ashley,

Now obviously everyone is going to have their own experiences and advice so feel free to plan your trip your way. Last week before heading out of town I took a few family members from Seattle, DC, and Philly to Universal. Some had never been to Universal ever and some just hadn't been to Diagon Alley yet. Given my knowledge of the parks I planned the day as follows and it worked VERY WELL.

We missed early entry due to late flights coming in the night before but hit the parks right at 930. We went directly to Marvel did the Hulk twice, then Doom, and then Spidey. We then shot over to Toon but skipped Popeye and then skipped JPRA due to temperatures. We then hit Hogsmeade and did FJ, Ollivanders, and checked out all the shops. After that we did all of Seuss and then shot back to the Hogwarts Express. The longest line we've encountered at this point was 20 mins for FJ. Once inside USF we met up with another group knocked out MIB, Springfield (Ate) , ET, Transformers, Twister, Mummy, and then saved Diagon Alley for last. The group was very happy we saved Diagon for last and Gringotts was only a 30 min wait. We spent the rest of the day there and in London taking it all in. They LOVED IT!! I had to fly out the next morning while they all stayed and finished everything else the second day and spent another 4 hours or so in Diagon.

Now I've done it the other way also with first timers and it didn't work out as good. We headed to Diagon BEFORE Rope drop and upon arriving the line for Gringotts was already 90 mins due to early entry hotel guests all heading there. By the time we finished a majority of Diagon's offerings we noticed wait times were increasing across the park so we headed to IOA via the HE. When we arrived at IOA by close to noon all the major attractions were at 45-90 mins each. We weren't able to do nearly as much as I had hoped for the first timers. I was a little embarrassed the park I raved about wasn't really able to be experienced due to poor planning. But hey you live and you learn right. So thats why I did it different this time and it worked flawlessly.

Hope these previous experiences of mine helped. Its close to 1AM here and just got off a 10 hour shift about 90 mins ago so my apologies if I ran off course or misspelled a few things lol. If you have any specific questions please feel free to reach out, I love talking Diagon, IOA, and ANYTHING UNIVERSAL!!

Great response HTF. :thumbs:

 

[Ash]

Thank you everyone for the advice you've been a great help.
We did the Warner bros HP Tour in London yesterday to get us in the mood for UO.
I was never a huge potter fan before but universal has made me love it.

87 sleeps, hope to see you there,

Ash

 

[Mad Dog]

Thank you everyone for the advice you've been a great help.
We did the Warner bros HP Tour in London yesterday to get us in the mood for UO.
I was never a huge potter fan before but universal has made me love it.

87 sleeps, hope to see you there,

Ash

We're not really Potter fans either, but what Universal has done with Potter is just awesome. We spent nearly 40 hours in Diagon alone last vacation. The HP stuff is just pure quality. Have to love it whether a fan or not. HTF's plan looks really good. From my experience it sounds like a winner.

 

[Jenstar]

I'm from the UK too and I go to Florida in 85 days! Although staying at Disney the first 8 nights and then staying at Universal for 5 nights! These tips really helped me too (as I have only been once before in 1997!! so a lot of change!) The Warner Bros tour is amazing plus they have added a new part! Did you see the new bit? Unsure of when it opens up.... Its of Platform 9 and three quarters! I cannot wait for my trip! Hope your trip is amazing Ash!

 

[Ash]

Hi Jen, platform 9 3/4 is opening in March but they have added a restaurant and changed some of the outside parts (you can now walk on the hog warts bridge). Looks like I'll be there the same time as you... Not going since 97 means tons of new stuff.

I haven't been since just before transformers opened.

Have fun :wave:

 

[Skubersky]

When USF had Early entry I advised saving Gringotts for afternoon, but now that it doesn't, day guests arriving for rope drop have a decent shot at it. But DM is now the real bottleneck, hit that before park opening if you can.

 

[khelwig88]

Does anyone have any idea when/if USF will have early admission this summer? I'm taking my niece for her first visit and we want to hit Diagon first, then hop over to Hogsmeade via the Hogwarts Express. Would love to do the whole Harry experience like he does in the books/films... and early entry would make that much easier!