So, here’s an idea of how today was in the park…
Wall to wall people… easily as crowded as when we went on Spring Break one year. They were making full use of virtual queues, however.
We arrived around 7:30am for early admission at IoA. They v began letting people in at 7:45. The number of people there was pretty low… we stopped at Starbucks on our way in and still walked all the way to the final room before we had to wait at all. I was actually worried I wouldn’t finish my coffee in time. We immediately got in line for a second go and the line was just inside the entrance. Our total time for that ride was 40 minutes, including about 7 minutes down time.
The virtual queues opened up before we went into the building, and between 3 of us we got 2 times for each house, plus 2 Mummy times. After we got off Hagrid we walked on to Hogwarts Express at about 9:15. We went over and did both houses, and RRR before 10:25.
By then the crowd had really built up. The number of people in the parks may be far below capacity, but when you’re not having people actually waiting on the queues for a bunch of attractions then they wind up just being… around. It was almost impossible to stay 6 feet away from people outside of the queues.
We rode the Mummy twice, and had one of the Halloween food truck treats (the fried chicken & funnel brains… the funnel was a perfect portion for one and it tasted good, but the chicken tenders were overcooked and stringy), and then waited an hour to get into the Leaky Cauldron. I tried the Otto’s Fizzy Orange Juice and loved it. They serve it with a cinnamon-sugar rim that adds a really nice flavor but drips down the sides of the cup, making a sticky mess.
We had a 1:20 virtual time for Tooth Fairy and the wait was still a solid hour we and missed our second Bride time (by like 40 minutes). The CM was going to let us in anyway, but we were kinda done with the crowd by then and we’d scored an evening virtual time for Hagrid, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit.
After dinner at the hotel we headed back to IoA and just barely made it in time for our Hagrid sundown ride (definitely recommended!). It has started to rain and was getting a bit chilly, so we were like salmon swimming upstream going against the exiting masses. It really was a different ride at that time of evening. I think our total wait was less than 15 minutes.
With the continuing rain and still 50+ minute lines for Forbidden Journey, Kong, Spider-Man, and Hulk we decided to just head out and stop for VooDoo donuts in the way. We mobile ordered, and had our treats in about 7 minutes.
We’re getting up for early entry again tomorrow, and thinking that maybe we get the latest virtual times possible (in the first wave they seemed to only go up to about 4pm) while we’re in line for Hagrid again, then ride Hulk and have a mid-day at the pool before going to UoR and doing RRR once or twice and trying for the Bourne thing.
)