I read that you can not do mobile ordering if you have a quick service dining plan. Is there some different line dining plan people have to use then?
You would have to try to get to an employee. To encourage people to NOT stand in line for the cash register, they are discouraging ordering in person by making that not-obvious.
We were there in August and are fans of the QS Plans. But, we decided against using Q.S. for just that reason. Also, the mobile ordering does take the AP Discount, so it made the Q.S. plan less of a deal.
How much of a bother it is to get to an employee probably depends on the crowd level. When we were there the level went from a predicted 2 to an 8. It was bonkers. The Q.S. places with tables had long lines to get a table. For example, the line to get into the SImpons Food court was at least a block long and not moving. Getting food to people was more labor-intensive so they were worked pretty hard.
When we go back in late April, if dining is the same, we are going to entirely skip eating in-park at a table without a reservation. The problem is getting a table. We’ll eat at table service places with reservations, or the snack carts. Hopefully that crepe place is still open then. I love the HP restaurants, so this is sad.
We have experienced the problem of long food lines as well. Saturday was a 10/9 for crowds and food lines were ridiculous! We did not get any HP food that day. Sunday was a little better. We ate at Leaky Cauldron by lining up at like 10:35am for lunch. The line was short, and we had our food around a little after 11am, which was a good time for an early lunch. Monday was much better. I think weekdays are the way to go if you can help it. And eat at off-times whenever possible.
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I don’t think off peak helps much on holidays or weekends in my experience but early like you did does help. My personal experience in Oct was around 11am on weekends the park was insanely crowded but before that it was good. So if you can eat before 11am otherwise go to city walk.
We haven’t has much trouble this week except for Saturday. No need to exit the park to CityWalk unless that’s where you wanna go.
Dining for anything non-Harry Potter has been reasonable when going slightly off the usual eating times.
I’m afraid if we leave the park and go to City Walk it will be at capacity and we won’t get right back in. (We will be there week of 21st-25th so it will reach capacity I’m sure.
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Apparently that rule does not apply to hotel guests so if you’re a hotel guest fear not. Otherwise, that makes sense. Eat early! Fast Food Boulevard wasn’t bad at 11am but Three Broomsticks was soooo long at 1:30pm
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I keep reading conflicting info about this. Some are saying Universal changed the wording on their website to say hotel guests have “priority” entrance–instead of guaranteed entrance. I’m just going to remain optimistic because I really want to try 3 broomsticks
You could ask a CM while you are there, right before you leave.
I strongly suspect that priority and guaranteed mean the same thing since they aren’t doing reservations. Only difference is that they want to protect themselves from someone making a fuss if something weird happened, like they had to close the park for a hurricane.
Since they aren’t taking reservations, the only way they could keep the authorities happy is by starting the count with the number of on-site hotel guests. So, you’d already be counted.
Since you don’t want to leave the park, make sure you know where that new park-to-park path is located. .
We are hotel guests and have left the park and gotten back in when at capacity, a couple times this week.
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It’s honestly not that good depending on what you’re expecting (Three Broomsticks). Mythos is much better food and good atmosphere with a reservation if you haven’t been.
Leaky Cauldron on the other hand is very good imho. But if you want to eat at Three Broomsticks for the ambience and butterbeer then do it. Just plan to invest 2 hours if you’re going on a weekend for sure at lunch and possibly longer. It was more than 2 hours for us because they messed up the order. Line up early if you can for lunch. If it’s dinner you’re interested in I’m not much sure what’s the best time but maybe not 5-8 if you can avoid it.
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