finucane
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 21, 2010
Just thought I'd share a recap of my families WWOHP experience from last week.
We arrived at Royal Pacific on Wednesday June 30, around 5pm (we had spent the rest of the day at Sea World) and had no wait to check in, or get our tickets, so we got settled in pretty quickly and headed over to IOA.
We finally got to IOA at around 6:30pm and since this was our first trip to Universal, and having a 6 year old with us, we of course had to spend the first 90 minutes in Seuss Landing. After that we passed through Lost Continent, but not before my son got squirted at the Mystic Fountain for telling a bad knock knock joke to it, and then finally arrived at WWOHP shortly after 8pm.
Our initial impression was amazement at the detail of everything. We kept doing our "oooh, look at that, oh oh, over there!" kind of stuff. The crowd was quite busy, but not overwhelming. We were able to spot Olivander's right away by the line outside, and saw that FJ had a 60 minute wait.
We looked around for a short while and then had to make a detour over to Burger Digs for a late diner. My wife was underwhelmed with her Chicken sandwich, but I enjoyed my burger, but mostly because of the condiment bar. Great shakes though.
We then went back to WWOHP to see what we could still do. We immediately noticed that FJ had dropped to 45 minutes so we figured better now than anytime and headed in to the line. This is where I was met with "the test chair of doom." Being 5'10" and 245lbs. I reluctantly climbed in to check my fate, and as I feared, I could only manage a red light. I knew this was a possibility, and I was disappointed, but I was still excited to see the inside of the caste and we all headed in.
Our line started just short of the greenhouse and all the cue lines were open at that time, but the line did keep moving. Even at 8:45 p.m. it was still quite hot so the fans in the greenhouse were nice. The entire time we were in line we just kept marveling at all the detail that went in to this. From the entrance corridor, to the greenhouse, and then to the castle itself.
I don't want to go in to details about the walk, but I was disappointed that the line moved a little to "fast" through some parts that included dialog, and we were not able to hear all of a bit.
Before I knew it we came to the "point of no return," where the second test chair is. Since I already knew my fate I just kept walking with my family. When we finally got to the team member and they asked "how many," I just said three. When they grouped us together I figured since they didn't stop me that maybe I still had a chance. The worst that could happen was I'd be asked to leave, right?
When we finally sat down and that overhead harness clicked in to place I was quite the happy boy. All that despair for nothing. Let that be a lesson to some of you, just because that first chair doesn't work, does not mean all is lost! I was never uncomfortable in the seat, or felt crammed in. The only trouble I did have was I didn't quite clear the little mound between your legs and my man bits did have a rough few minutes after that, but all in all certainly an impressive ride. My 6 year old said he liked the ride, but he never did go back on it again. I think there were a few parts that were a bit to scary for him. I won't go over the details here, but if you really want to know just ask, but lets just say there are some characters that really do get in your face.
Our wait turned out to be 40 minutes total so we then were able to just walk on to Flight of the Hippogriff, (much more my son's style,) and my wife took a turn on Dragon Challenge, while my son and I got some Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice. Now, while I'd hate to discourage anyone from trying it, Pumpkin Juice was not what I'd expected. My best description is that it is very like an iced spice tea, but one that tastes that it would be more appropriate in the fall. It is also somewhat syrupy and I certainly felt I had earned some kind of honor badge after finishing it. Butterbeer, on the other hand, certainly lived up to the hype.
All in all we were very impressed with the theming of the Island, and thought FJ was simply amazing. We were also thrilled to have been able to get most of the attractions out of the way on our first day.
We woke up early Thursday morning to take advantage to the early admittance. We arrived at IOA around 7:20 a.m. having heard that they had been letting people in even earlier. This didn't seem to be one of those days. We got in to the park at about 7:30 and immediately encountered a line beginning just inside Seuss landing. We had noticed that people had been directed to get in line heading in either direction of the area. Around 7:45 the line started moving but then stopped just short of Lost Continent. We thought maybe the beginning of the line had been at Lost Continent and now had been moved up to the entrance of WWOHP. We finally started moving again at 8:00 am and headed right to Olivander's. A line had already started forming, but was still much shorter than the previous night's had been. FJ's line was already out past the entrance so we stuck with Olivander's since we had already ridden that.
After about a 50 minute wait we finally got inside to see the quick show. My son was to shy to make his way to the front so was not picked. I'd be curious to know if anyone has had a child under 8 be picked. After this we discovered the real reason that line moves so slow. The show takes all of 5 minutes but it takes at least another 7 minutes for your group to be crammed in to the Owl Post.
This was the most ridiculous part of the experience. The main trouble, as I see it, is that they have the wands on display shelving with a sample of the wand on the outside then, presumably, the corresponding wands above them. Trouble is that they never matched. Couple that with the fact that the boxes are not clearly marked, and what you get is every kid opening every wand box trying to find that elusive special wand. Add to the mix that they were out of stock on several wands and you have the crowd moving from display to display thinking they were going to find what they were looking for.
Even after picking out Draco Malfoy's wand, trying to fight my way to pay took another 20 minutes. My wife never was able to make it back in to the Derrvish and Banges portion of the store and had quite a hard time making her way out the exit. The Owl Post register is in the middle of the "store" so there is no good way to make a cue to pay.
After that ordeal it was already after 9am and the general public was heading in. FJ's line had gone over 2 hours so we decided we would do the rest of the park and come back again the following evening. As we were leaving the area a team member let us know that to get back in to the Island there was currently a 2 1/2 hour wait and he wanted to make sure we wanted to leave. We headed back to the entrance to grab a bite to eat at Cinnabon and watched as Security was now directing everyone going to WWOHP to use the entrance on the Jurassic Park side and that no one would be admitted heading the other direction.
We returned again on Friday night around 7pm and this time it seemed even less crowded than on Wednesday night. We again had about a 40 minute wait on FJ, although it was on this trip through, that we learned that if we were going to use Child Swap, in the future we could use the single rider line. The child swap area is very nice with comfortable benches and Sorcerer's Stone playing nonstop (oddly enough my son caught the Olivander scene both times he waited there, so not sure how much of the movie they show.)
A quick note about the single rider line. Another benefit of using this is that it allows you to linger in certain parts of the castle without having hordes of people behind you getting upset that you are holding up the line. You don't get to see everything in this line, but in the areas where I had missed some of the dialog, I was able to just watch and anyone coming up the line just went around me. So a suggestion I have is that you use the main line to get to see everything and have a go at the single rider line to catch everything.
After doing FJ again we did get a chance to do some shopping in Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods, and then caught some dessert in The Three Broomsticks. We all shared some apple pie and ice cream and it was wonderful! Also, I'm not at all certain why it would be different from location to location, but the frozen butterbeer here was the best we found.
My wife and I took turns taking my son on to Flight of the Hippogriff while the other would head over to Dragon Challenge. In all, my Son rode that thing 7 times. We still didn't get in to Dervish and Banges, but did make it in to Honeydukes and Zonko's, but found that $10 for a chocolate frog was a bit too much, particularly since we had our doubts it wouldn't melt before we got back to the room. One last trip on to FJ, this time only a 10 minute wait, and we headed out again.
My family was wiped out from a late night diner at Margaritaville (I had no idea my 6 year old was such the party animal,) so I was the only one to brave getting up for the early admittance on Saturday morning. We had a 3:50 flight so I wanted to pick up a few gifts for home and hoped I could find another wand, this time skipping the show.
I got to the dock just as the water taxi was heading off. There was already a line for the next one, so I decided to walk it. I left the dock at 7:47 and by 8:10 I was already walking off another turn on FJ. This time around I didn't encounter any of the crowds, or lines, we had on Thursday morning. In little over an hour I was able to walk to the park, ride FJ, both Dragon coasters (in the front car) shop at Dervish and Banges, (including getting two more wands,) shop again at Filch's, ride Spiderman, and walk back to the Royal Pacific.
So all in all we had a great experience with WWOHP, except for Olivander's. We never did brave it during the height of the day, but seems if you can hold out to evening, and/or, take advantage of early admission, you are going to get what you want done there. My main advice is to try the single rider line at least once to linger in the dialog portions of the caste, and stay away from the Pumpkin juice, and instead, for about $1 more, go buy 2 frozen butterbeers in the Three Broomsticks.
We arrived at Royal Pacific on Wednesday June 30, around 5pm (we had spent the rest of the day at Sea World) and had no wait to check in, or get our tickets, so we got settled in pretty quickly and headed over to IOA.
We finally got to IOA at around 6:30pm and since this was our first trip to Universal, and having a 6 year old with us, we of course had to spend the first 90 minutes in Seuss Landing. After that we passed through Lost Continent, but not before my son got squirted at the Mystic Fountain for telling a bad knock knock joke to it, and then finally arrived at WWOHP shortly after 8pm.
Our initial impression was amazement at the detail of everything. We kept doing our "oooh, look at that, oh oh, over there!" kind of stuff. The crowd was quite busy, but not overwhelming. We were able to spot Olivander's right away by the line outside, and saw that FJ had a 60 minute wait.
We looked around for a short while and then had to make a detour over to Burger Digs for a late diner. My wife was underwhelmed with her Chicken sandwich, but I enjoyed my burger, but mostly because of the condiment bar. Great shakes though.
We then went back to WWOHP to see what we could still do. We immediately noticed that FJ had dropped to 45 minutes so we figured better now than anytime and headed in to the line. This is where I was met with "the test chair of doom." Being 5'10" and 245lbs. I reluctantly climbed in to check my fate, and as I feared, I could only manage a red light. I knew this was a possibility, and I was disappointed, but I was still excited to see the inside of the caste and we all headed in.
Our line started just short of the greenhouse and all the cue lines were open at that time, but the line did keep moving. Even at 8:45 p.m. it was still quite hot so the fans in the greenhouse were nice. The entire time we were in line we just kept marveling at all the detail that went in to this. From the entrance corridor, to the greenhouse, and then to the castle itself.
I don't want to go in to details about the walk, but I was disappointed that the line moved a little to "fast" through some parts that included dialog, and we were not able to hear all of a bit.
Before I knew it we came to the "point of no return," where the second test chair is. Since I already knew my fate I just kept walking with my family. When we finally got to the team member and they asked "how many," I just said three. When they grouped us together I figured since they didn't stop me that maybe I still had a chance. The worst that could happen was I'd be asked to leave, right?
When we finally sat down and that overhead harness clicked in to place I was quite the happy boy. All that despair for nothing. Let that be a lesson to some of you, just because that first chair doesn't work, does not mean all is lost! I was never uncomfortable in the seat, or felt crammed in. The only trouble I did have was I didn't quite clear the little mound between your legs and my man bits did have a rough few minutes after that, but all in all certainly an impressive ride. My 6 year old said he liked the ride, but he never did go back on it again. I think there were a few parts that were a bit to scary for him. I won't go over the details here, but if you really want to know just ask, but lets just say there are some characters that really do get in your face.
Our wait turned out to be 40 minutes total so we then were able to just walk on to Flight of the Hippogriff, (much more my son's style,) and my wife took a turn on Dragon Challenge, while my son and I got some Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice. Now, while I'd hate to discourage anyone from trying it, Pumpkin Juice was not what I'd expected. My best description is that it is very like an iced spice tea, but one that tastes that it would be more appropriate in the fall. It is also somewhat syrupy and I certainly felt I had earned some kind of honor badge after finishing it. Butterbeer, on the other hand, certainly lived up to the hype.
All in all we were very impressed with the theming of the Island, and thought FJ was simply amazing. We were also thrilled to have been able to get most of the attractions out of the way on our first day.
We woke up early Thursday morning to take advantage to the early admittance. We arrived at IOA around 7:20 a.m. having heard that they had been letting people in even earlier. This didn't seem to be one of those days. We got in to the park at about 7:30 and immediately encountered a line beginning just inside Seuss landing. We had noticed that people had been directed to get in line heading in either direction of the area. Around 7:45 the line started moving but then stopped just short of Lost Continent. We thought maybe the beginning of the line had been at Lost Continent and now had been moved up to the entrance of WWOHP. We finally started moving again at 8:00 am and headed right to Olivander's. A line had already started forming, but was still much shorter than the previous night's had been. FJ's line was already out past the entrance so we stuck with Olivander's since we had already ridden that.
After about a 50 minute wait we finally got inside to see the quick show. My son was to shy to make his way to the front so was not picked. I'd be curious to know if anyone has had a child under 8 be picked. After this we discovered the real reason that line moves so slow. The show takes all of 5 minutes but it takes at least another 7 minutes for your group to be crammed in to the Owl Post.
This was the most ridiculous part of the experience. The main trouble, as I see it, is that they have the wands on display shelving with a sample of the wand on the outside then, presumably, the corresponding wands above them. Trouble is that they never matched. Couple that with the fact that the boxes are not clearly marked, and what you get is every kid opening every wand box trying to find that elusive special wand. Add to the mix that they were out of stock on several wands and you have the crowd moving from display to display thinking they were going to find what they were looking for.
Even after picking out Draco Malfoy's wand, trying to fight my way to pay took another 20 minutes. My wife never was able to make it back in to the Derrvish and Banges portion of the store and had quite a hard time making her way out the exit. The Owl Post register is in the middle of the "store" so there is no good way to make a cue to pay.
After that ordeal it was already after 9am and the general public was heading in. FJ's line had gone over 2 hours so we decided we would do the rest of the park and come back again the following evening. As we were leaving the area a team member let us know that to get back in to the Island there was currently a 2 1/2 hour wait and he wanted to make sure we wanted to leave. We headed back to the entrance to grab a bite to eat at Cinnabon and watched as Security was now directing everyone going to WWOHP to use the entrance on the Jurassic Park side and that no one would be admitted heading the other direction.
We returned again on Friday night around 7pm and this time it seemed even less crowded than on Wednesday night. We again had about a 40 minute wait on FJ, although it was on this trip through, that we learned that if we were going to use Child Swap, in the future we could use the single rider line. The child swap area is very nice with comfortable benches and Sorcerer's Stone playing nonstop (oddly enough my son caught the Olivander scene both times he waited there, so not sure how much of the movie they show.)
A quick note about the single rider line. Another benefit of using this is that it allows you to linger in certain parts of the castle without having hordes of people behind you getting upset that you are holding up the line. You don't get to see everything in this line, but in the areas where I had missed some of the dialog, I was able to just watch and anyone coming up the line just went around me. So a suggestion I have is that you use the main line to get to see everything and have a go at the single rider line to catch everything.
After doing FJ again we did get a chance to do some shopping in Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods, and then caught some dessert in The Three Broomsticks. We all shared some apple pie and ice cream and it was wonderful! Also, I'm not at all certain why it would be different from location to location, but the frozen butterbeer here was the best we found.
My wife and I took turns taking my son on to Flight of the Hippogriff while the other would head over to Dragon Challenge. In all, my Son rode that thing 7 times. We still didn't get in to Dervish and Banges, but did make it in to Honeydukes and Zonko's, but found that $10 for a chocolate frog was a bit too much, particularly since we had our doubts it wouldn't melt before we got back to the room. One last trip on to FJ, this time only a 10 minute wait, and we headed out again.
My family was wiped out from a late night diner at Margaritaville (I had no idea my 6 year old was such the party animal,) so I was the only one to brave getting up for the early admittance on Saturday morning. We had a 3:50 flight so I wanted to pick up a few gifts for home and hoped I could find another wand, this time skipping the show.
I got to the dock just as the water taxi was heading off. There was already a line for the next one, so I decided to walk it. I left the dock at 7:47 and by 8:10 I was already walking off another turn on FJ. This time around I didn't encounter any of the crowds, or lines, we had on Thursday morning. In little over an hour I was able to walk to the park, ride FJ, both Dragon coasters (in the front car) shop at Dervish and Banges, (including getting two more wands,) shop again at Filch's, ride Spiderman, and walk back to the Royal Pacific.
So all in all we had a great experience with WWOHP, except for Olivander's. We never did brave it during the height of the day, but seems if you can hold out to evening, and/or, take advantage of early admission, you are going to get what you want done there. My main advice is to try the single rider line at least once to linger in the dialog portions of the caste, and stay away from the Pumpkin juice, and instead, for about $1 more, go buy 2 frozen butterbeers in the Three Broomsticks.
!!
. The ride is a bit jostling, eh???! My DD made it ride ot every single day we were there. I think twice in a row is a bit much. 
That was a wonderful treat!
