We’ll be staying at RPR at the end of August so we will have the unlimited express passes. I’ve read conflicting reports about how much you miss in the queues when you use them, especially the Harry Potter rides. Does the Express line skip most of the castle for Forbidden Journey and do they still offer a castle tour if you just want to see it? It sounds from another topic that at Gringotts we might be able to pop into the standby queue for pictures and then go back to the Express line.
I’ve looked for a good resource on what the Express queues miss and haven’t found one yet. DH and my younger DS(7) both tend to get cranky waiting in lines which made the hotel cost worth it for the Express passes, but I’m trying to figure out if there are any rides where the short term crankiness would be worth going the standby route.
From my experience you don’t miss much of the themed queue in Gringotts, but you will miss quite a bit of the castle in the Express line for Forbidden Journey. I’ve heard of people asking for a castle tour and being granted it, but I’m more inclined to find a time when the wait is around 30 minutes and hop in line then. I’ve never been bored in that line, and I’ve often wanted more time to look around. Once you get inside the castle, that line moves too fast for me. 
I’ve also heard that there is some cool stuff in the Kong line, but I’m not inclined to try the standby for that.
In the line for Forbidden Journey, you will miss much of the castle. My understanding is that they don’t do castle tours anymore, but it’s worth asking. Last thing at night is a great time to walk through the FJ line standby, as lines are usually almost non-existent, so there are very few people and you can actually hear everything the actors are saying, which you can rarely do during busy times.
You do miss some of the scenes in Spiderman and, I believe, Men in Black as well, but I don’t know that I would consider them “don’t miss”. I would rather wait less than see more line. As far as Kong, aside from the scare actor, I don’t really remember their being much you miss in the EP line.
Thank you both! I just noticed the 5-days-for-the-price-of-two park-to-park ticket offer and we don’t have any plans the afternoon/evening we check in, so we could head over to IOA for dinner at the Three Broomsticks and to explore Hogsmeade and try out Forbidden Journey (maybe more than once!). Being able to hear the audio part of the queue sounds ideal.
I was thinking our schedule would be rope drop and stay until lunch time, afternoon at the pool, then back to the park for the evening so I’m excited that for the same ticket price we can have an extra evening and morning (of check-out) as well as the two full days in between.
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My recollection is that you don’t miss any of Gringott’s.
And I’m not sure you miss much of the Castle. I’ve only ever done FJ using an ExP and I’ve seen plenty of the inside of it, which must have been while I was in line.
Is there more?
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I just got back from my first trip about a week ago. I had heard about these “don’t miss” queues too.
IMHO – skip as much of Gringott’s as possible. The main floor of the bank is impressive, but after that it’s just a line which goes on FOREVER. =P
They do take your picture at a green screen while in the Gringott’s queue – not sure if you do that with Express Pass. If you miss the preshow video “explaining” the premise of the story you should still be able to understand that you are “Escaping” from the bank.
Forbidden Journey does have a couple fun moments that I don’t want to spoil.
All in all, if I had to choose between waiting in a 30 – 40+ minute long line with a child just to see a few “neat” moments or go right on the ride, I’d pick always the latter.
If you can hop on with a short wait (20 mins? Or less) then the Forbidden Journey queue is pretty cool.
In reference to earlier posts –
Spider-man plays a cartoon on TVs “explaining” why you are about to have an adventure and then you walk through a “plain” office setting of the Daily Bugle.
The Kong queue has one show scene. I LOVE this ride, but if you can skip the queue do it.
MIB – I really liked the queue. You go through the MIB office and see small animatronics + props. It’s not “must see”, but I’m glad I saw it.
(You’ve probably guessed by now that there are very few, if any, queues that I want to be in…lol
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Yes. When I have done EP, I missed the greenhouse (not a big deal), entrance to Dumbledore’s office, the house points display, the tapestry, model of the Hogwarts architect and possibly other things. I think those are cool to see.
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