Fellow Harry Potter fans have a new reason to visit Universal Studios Hollywood with the recent opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter within the park. It may not be as big as the Orlando version (not a new trend as far as theme parks go), but it’s a way for west coast Potter fans to enjoy drinking butterbeer, exploring Hogsmeade, and buying overpriced wizard robes without having to travel cross country. From my recent trip to the park, I’ve come up with a list of tips to help you maximize your time in the park.
Hogwarts, home of the most popular ride in the park
#1. Buy your tickets online
If you know what day you’re planning on going, there’s no reason not to buy them online in advance. This allows you to skip the lines at the ticket window. But more importantly, buying in advance gives you an hour early entry to the Harry Potter World section of the park. Which leads me to my next point…
#2. Be at the front gates before opening
If you followed step 1 you should have early entry - that’s 8am this time of year, but it could also be 9am or 7am depending on when you go, so make sure to check the calendar. The next step is to make sure to be there a little before that time. You wont be allowed into Harry Potter World until actual early entry time, but you want to be at the front of the mob crowd when they do open. Trust me on this.
Hippogriff on the hippogriff ride
#3. Target big attractions first
This means going for the 4D Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride at the castle first. We went for this first thing and waited about 25 minutes. Later in the day wait times were up to 120 minutes. After the 4D ride, we went for the hippogriff ride, which was a mistake. We should have went to Ollivanders next for the wand ceremony. By the time we got around to that wait times were up to 70 minutes, so we ended up waiting until later in the day to come back to that. After visiting Ollivanders, feel free to stop by Flight of the Hippogriffs. This is a low wait time ride, only going up to 35 minutes maximum on the day we went.
Visit Ollivanders to see the popular wand choosing ceremony
Here are also a few more general tips for the rest of the park:
#4. Wait until you’re at the park to buy front-of-the-line passes
You can upgrade your pass at the park for the difference in price between the front-of-the-line tickets and regular tickets, so there’s no monetary incentive to getting them ahead of time. Depending on the day, you may find you don’t even need the FOTL passes, so you can save that money for buying more butterbeer.
#5. Plan to see shows around the middle of the day
The park is fairly empty early in the morning, gets crowded starting late morning, and tapers off again right around dinnertime. Wait times for rides also increase and decrease correspondingly. To avoid wasting too much time in line, plan to see shows around midday to mid afternoon when lines for rides are the longest.
Go for the Studio Tour in the morning or late afternoon to avoid huge lines
#6. Go on a mildly drizzly day
If possible, try to visit on a day with some light rain, because most Los Angelenos are allergic to rain. At least that’s what it seems like - we visited on a day that had some occasional showers, and the park was much less crowded than usual. Just throw on a raincoat, wear some waterproof sandals, and go. You were going to get soaked on the Jurassic Park ride anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment