Day 1: IOA-USF-Pool-USF-IOA
USF ended up being a CL5 and IOA was a CL4 this day. My original plan was to RD Hagrid’s, take the HE over to Diagon Alley, get wands, and have breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron, and then spend most of the day at USF. We basically followed this plan (other than breakfast), but in a different order than planned and we ended up also going back over to IOA at the end of the night for some rides, which also wasn’t in our original plan. Because we ended up kind of winging it, this summary is based solely on my recollection, so I don’t have exact times and I may not include everything we did, but I’ll try to capture most of it. Also, with EP, all of the times were very minimal (with the exception of VC), which basically meant we could just do what we wanted when we wanted–and that I didn’t keep track of expected/actual wait times.
Early entry was at both parks this day at 8am. The night before, we picked up some cereal and fruit from the market at HRH to take with us to eat in the morning while waiting for the parks to open. We left our room around 6:30 and walked over to the security line (the water taxis didn’t open until 7am). There was only one family already in line for security. They were also first timers at UOR but Disney veterans, and it was a little while before anyone else arrived at security. While we were waiting, we debated whether to head to IOA or USF. This was the first day that Hagrid’s was reopening after the recent closure, but the app said that it would not be open for early entry. We decided to head to IOA anyway: either we would luck out and ride it before official park open or we’d go ahead and get in line for it (maybe after doing VC) because we figured lines would be terrible at Hagrid’s all day since it had been closed for a while. We were third in line at the taps to enter IOA. I asked the Team Member if she knew whether Hagrid’s would open early. She asked around and returned, and informed us that the app says it will not open until 9am but their internal systems showed that it would open for early entry–she wasn’t sure which one would be correct, so we took a chance on it opening early. We walked in somewhat leisurely, so we were not at the front of the pack for Hagrid’s, but it did open early (although it went down and then back up and then down again while we were waiting). I’d guess that we waited about 45 minutes in total to ride–and it was awesome! We all loved it! The mixture of coaster plus dark ride elements was reminiscent of 7DMT, but more thrilling, which made DS11 happy.
We then headed over to the Hogwarts Express, arriving at the train station at about 9am. We rode the train over. Really fun. Hermione’s voice was pretty bad, but I wasn’t too bothered by it the first time; by the third time or so (we took the train several times this trip) it really started to annoy me. Couldn’t they find a better voice actor?!?
When we got to Diagon Alley, we did the phone booth, saw the dragon, and then DS7, DD9, and I watched the wand selection ceremony at Ollivander’s and then purchased wands. While we were getting wands, DH and DS11 rode Gringotts and walked around. We met up and all went to Gringotts. DD9 chickened out at the last minute and didn’t ride. A Team Member took her to the side to wait for us. But when we exited the ride, we couldn’t find her. We spent a good deal of time going to the lockers, the gift shop, the child swap room, etc. I was really starting to panic, when we finally found her. She had been waiting exactly where the TM told her to wait and had no idea that we had been freaking out about losing her.
Reunited again, we then did MiB, the Simpsons Ride, and Hurl 'n Twirl. I like MiB better than TSM or BLS. Simpsons Ride was fun, but not a personal favorite. The announcements for Hurl 'n Twirl were hilarious. We walked around the Simpsons area for a bit, posing for pictures, checking out Mo’s Tavern, and then grabbed some tacos from the Bumblebee Man Taco Stand (I’ll review all of our dining in a separate post). After that, we did ET. The kids loved it when they said their names at the end (I had read about that, but didn’t want to ruin the surprise for them). I liked ET, but it doesn’t have the nostalgia for me that PPF or other Disney rides do despite really liking the movie as a kid.
It was getting pretty hot at this point, so we decided it was time to head back to the resort and hit the pool! The pool was very refreshing. We took our time hanging out by the pool. DH and I had an adult beverage while the kids did the water slide and swam. We freshened up, and then headed back to USF late in the afternoon.
(Edited to add that we stopped for milkshakes at Toothsome before entering USF. Tasty!)
When we arrived at USF, we did Minions. Fun, but more screens! Then DS11 and I did RRR while DH and the younger two kids did Race Through NY. DS11 really liked RRR. I didn’t hate it. I liked getting to choose the music you listen to and the path/speed of the ride, but it made my head shake and left me with a slight headache, so I didn’t ride it again this trip.
Next up was The Mummy. DD9 and DS7 were scared to do it (although they did ride later in the trip), so they waited for us in the child swap room while DH, DS11, and I rode (and we didn’t have any issues finding them afterward, although we did leave them with DH’s phone in case we needed to call them). I loved this one! The combination of dark ride plus thrills–really top notch. This ended up being one of my favorite attractions in all of UOR.
After that, we did Transformers. It was just OK for me. At this point, I was really starting to understand all the comments I’d read about Uni rides being too heavily reliant on screens.
DH and the boys then headed over to Fast and Furious, while DD and I went to Diagon Alley to do spells. We had a really good time exploring and casting spells, and the boys met up with us in Knockturn Alley. They didn’t like Fast and Furious. None of us is really into that franchise, so based on their report and what I’d read about the ride in advance, I never made it over to Fast and Furious during this trip.
At this point, it was starting to rain a little bit. We’d missed the last showtimes for the indoor shows and weren’t planning to do the Mardi Gras parade that night, so we took the HE back over to IOA. The weather outside fit well with the rain and dementors on the HE to IOA. I think we all preferred the USF to IOA version.
In Hogsmeade, we stopped into the Hog’s Head. The kids shared a cold butter beer (it was overly sweet even for them) and DH and I shared a Dragon Scale. We did Forbidden Journey next. We enjoyed it (DD loved it), but I would steer clear if you have motion sickness. This one made me dizzy and I’m usually not phased by spinning-type rides. But it is definitely worth it to just walk through the queue even if you aren’t riding–seeing the inside of the castle was fantastic. I really loved the attention to detail and immersive experience of the HP lands at UOR; really incredible. After that, we jumped on the Hippogriff ride. I wish Hippogriff were a little more like SDD; it reminded us more of Barnstormer, but we got to watch the projections on the castle and the fireworks while riding, which was a great way to end the evening.