Hello! My boyfriend and I will be visiting early November. We will have early entry for all three days. It seems that early entry will be only for IOA during our stay. We are wanting to do Harry Potter only for the first day to keep the magical feeling alive without distractions. Are we better off using the early entry to explore Hogsmeade/FJ or should we get in line for the Hogwarts Express and hope it starts running 30 mins early and use our early entry that way? We were also hoping to get our interactive wands very early in the day. Also, how long do people typically spend exploring Hogsmeade and DA? I want to really get the most out of it and allow myself to get immersed. Then after we have enjoyed all of the Harry Potter magic, we would then spend the day after doing the other attractions. Thank you for any tips or info! I am a worrier so I just want to get it right and not wander aimlessly.
http://touringplans.com/plans/958637 I know what you are thinking but would recommend following this 2 day plan then using day 3 to do any extras and repeats. Copy and then add I your breaks and make any changes you want then optimise and it might change the order. Sometimes it goes a bit mad when you optimise these plans as they are custom. In that case start again and use the evaluate function instead
This is a harry porter 1 day plan http://touringplans.com/plans/1144171 if you want to do that as a one day immersive experience instead. Just to warn you we spent 3 hours in Hogsmead just looking at shop windows etc and that was without the interactive wands. If you are really into HP then you might want more than one day. Also ride the train both ways as the experience is different.
You are better just entering IOA with from the main gate in case the train is down. It is timed so that the train leaves IOA once the main gate of USF is opened to get all guests at Diagon at the same time so no advantage.
If you have express pass then you don’t really need a tp for the resy of the parks.
Hope this gives you some place to start from Mx