Looking to fit a day of just HP into our WDW F&W trip 9/18-23. Crowd calendar leads me to Choose between Mon or Fri, but both have HHN @ UF. How will this affect my touring? We are seniors not interested in actual rides, but would like to view the ride queue areas of Gringotts & FJ. Want the shops & explore streets & HE. Can/should we do Gringotts & HE first & FJ & Hogsmeade & back to tour DA til it closes & then back to Hogsmeade? Or will that area be miserably crowded by then? Hubby will be in a scooter.
Wait until the epa park is announced the month before and start in the non epa park would be a suggestion. But if usf is closing early then you would want to do ioa then usf then ioa to get both ways hog express . Honestly if not planning on rides then go another day instead. That way you will be able to see the dragon at night I would not go to parks during a hhn day. CL s don’t mean much for wwohp these areas are super mobbed all the time. If you have mobility issues talk to team members at the ride entry that you want to walk through and they will be very accommodating.
My sister and I were there during HHN last year, and every day of our trip USF closed early. Aside from the early closure and the inability to see Diagon Alley at night, I truly don’t feel like we were affected at all. October is slower in comparison to summer and other high times, so I found touring to be very manageable. And, honestly, several people left Diagon Alley shortly before close to line up for the various HHN things. Diagon Alley was fairly empty shortly before close for us. One day, they even decided to extend time in Diagon Alley only. We were given wristbands and allowed to be in Diagon Alley and no other part of the park for an extra hour after park close. We did not have HHN tickets. I don’t know if this is standard procedure or not.
Rebeecky, that wristband & extra DA hour sounds super, but I’m sure it’s not standard, lol. There are only 3 days while I’m there that aren’t HHN & 2 I’m w/family traveling to meet us @ Epcot. So wanted to get a perspective on how HHN affects WWOHP & how much I’m putting hubby through. We both want to see the detailed atmosphere but extreme crowds, tight spaces & a scooter are no picnic. Was exiting parking lot while people entering for HHN a mess? mumcalsop, dragon @ night sounds awesome, though, didn’t think of that. It’s MK & Epcot CL 2’s or UF 5 and IOA 6, but WWOHP will be crowded, no matter what and we’d be going for afternoon F&W, so CL’s don’t help, there either. Think we’ll go Wednesday to WW. Thanks for thoughts.
I stayed onsite, so I wasn’t going to the parking lot. But it looked to me like many of the people coming to HHN were coming before it officially started. If you have concerns, my advice would be to end your day in IOA and leave an hour or more after HHN has started in USF. That way, I would assume that the mass entrance of people would have already taken place and you and your husband would have more room to move.
For those interested on HHN park change over Orlando Informer did a good article about It last year. There are holding zones inside usf for HHN guests . It gets a bit nuts . Once day guests have left they unveil the houses and let evening guests out.
Not sure about the scooter at HHN, but you can definitely ask one of the people running the show the night of the event.
One thing - We got the RUSH OF FEAR pass, which cost less for access to the HHN for the first 2-weeks of the event than a one day ticket to the special event (HHN). That’s nuts, but it’s a WIN if you want to see a lot of the event.
We purchased the extra EXPRESS PLUS for only one night, because we knew it was the night we wanted to visit the event for sure. If we go any other nights, using only the RUSH OF FEAR pass, that’s a bonus.
They have an express pass for the RUSH OF FEAR pass option, but that was $100 more per ticket than I wanted to spend. If I lived near Orlando, then MAYBE… but nah, I can spend that $200 elsewhere.
Have fun!