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Old 12-22-2010, 11:06 PM   #1
BarryH
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I survived IOA's insane crowds on 12/21/10!

Well, I had a date set up for Aquatica yesterday, but I got stood up. It was a little chilly that morning, so I headed over to IOA. I arrived at 11:00 am. I knew the crowds would be big, but it was more crowded than I expected. Waits were getting long. Here's a brief overview of the waits at around noon:

Incredible Hulk Coaster: 90 minutes
Spider-Man: 95 minutes
Dr. Doom's Fearfall: 30 minutes
Storm Force Accelertron: 10 minutes
Ripsaw Falls: 5 minutes

There were Universal Express kiosks around the park and the lines to buy them were long!

I did the single rider lines for Spider-Man and Fearfall. I waited about 15 minutes each time. The Hulk didn't have a single rider line. I would have expected it to open with a 1 1/2 hour wait!

The biggest wait was for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The standby wait to get into the land was 120 minutes. No, not to get into the ride, but the LAND! I got a return ticket (like a Fast Pass) to get in between 12:50 and 1:50 pm.

When I got into the Harry Potter area, the crowds were huge! It was wall-to-wall people. I don't think there was a spot on the land that wasn't occupied by a person. The waits there were 75 minutes for the Flight of the Hippogriff, 5 minutes for Dragon's Challenge, and 150 minutes for Harry Potter and the Forbbiden Journey. Yes, a 2 1/2 hour wait for the ride! I opted to do the single riders lines and waited less than 5 minutes each time. I did both sides of Dragon's Challenge too.

Then it was off to Jurassic Park. I did the Triceratops Discovery Trail. This attraction has been closed for years and is rumored to be open temporarily. The Triceratops (I saw Topper) never looked so good, although much of the trail was closed off and the encounter wasn't too long (about 5 minutes). The wait was about 10 minutes.

I saw the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" show, which is now located in a sound stage. The show was pretty good, but it felt a little to syrupy. Still, 30 minutes off your feet was great!

The highlight of the day was lunch at Mythos. I had to wait 50 minutes for a table, but it was well worth it. I spent the 50 minutes writing a letter to the lady who stood me up. I had the bistro filet (awesome!). I came to Universal because I wanted to wallow my tears in the Bananna Gooey Cake. I call the Bananna Gooey Cake "Heaven on the spoon" and today it was! It helped me recover from being stood up on the date.

When I left at around 5 pm, the Hulk dropped to about a 35 minute wait. Not too bad...

Lots of people would shy away from visiting during peak times, but if you have to visit then, I would say arrive at opening and do as much as you can before the crowds come. IOA is opening at 8 am during these Christmas and New Year's weeks. I would suggest rolling out of bed early to beat the crowds!
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Old 12-23-2010, 12:48 AM   #2
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Sounds like you still had a good day, despite the crowds.
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Old 12-23-2010, 07:30 AM   #3
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I think you made the best of what started out as a bad day! Great report Barry! I can't believe someone would wait that long for a ride. Single rider lines are the way to go!
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Old 12-23-2010, 09:09 AM   #4
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Wow, so busy! Sounds like a fun day anyway!
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Old 12-23-2010, 12:26 PM   #5
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I'm glad you were able to salvage the day
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Old 12-23-2010, 01:49 PM   #6
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Thanks for the report Barry. I'm stunned that you had to get a FastPass type ticket to get into the WWoHP! I totally believe it since it felt too crowded the days we were there and we were there on a slow day. Sounds like they at least have discovered a way to try to alleviate some of the space problem.
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Old 04-20-2011, 03:50 PM   #7
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Great info - it helps to have a strategy (ie single rider lines) to get through on such a busy day. We will be staying on site and have express pass and will arrive before opening for their extra hour (I want to call it extra magic hour)
Did I hear right that the single rider line for FJ doesn't take you through the castle? So we should go at park opening and walk through the regular line to cehck out the castle and then for repeat trips we can do single rider, does that sound right?
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Old 04-21-2011, 12:54 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Suzie-Q View Post
Great info - it helps to have a strategy (ie single rider lines) to get through on such a busy day. We will be staying on site and have express pass and will arrive before opening for their extra hour (I want to call it extra magic hour)
Did I hear right that the single rider line for FJ doesn't take you through the castle? So we should go at park opening and walk through the regular line to cehck out the castle and then for repeat trips we can do single rider, does that sound right?
The single rider line at FJ bypasses about 90% of the queue. You can go to the ride at park opening and then use the single rider line for future rides. You can also take the castle tour and then use the single rider line.
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Old 04-21-2011, 03:57 PM   #9
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Very cool Barry - thanks. I don't think I'd noticed anything about a castle tour before. I was a little stressed about the crowds when we first decided we'd try March break, but I'm feeling more confident now that I've got more information and can make a plan of attack. It'll still be crowded, but I'm sure we'll be able to do everything we'd like to do and the boys will be so happy to see WWoHP!
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