Long waits to ride Hogwarts Express

Patience

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jul 7, 2011

• Feb 22, 2017

• #1

Crowds are pretty heavy this week at Universal. Yesterday, we waited nearly an hour to ride Hogwarts Express from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure. You can't see the crowd waiting for the train when you first enter so we didn't realize how big the line was. Today, we walked from IofA to US. Much faster! I love being able to switch parks quickly with the parks being so close to one another but Hogwarts Express was not the way to do it, at least on a busy day. It's a cute ride though and we have seen it both ways but I'm walking tomorrow, not riding.

 

perditax

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 8, 2015

• Feb 22, 2017

• #2

I was pretty underwhelmed but I'm not a HP fan. It was a train ride with some tv screens in place of windows. I think I was expecting more theming or something. I definitely would not wait more than the 10-15 we did.

 

B

bchbetha

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 27, 2016

• Feb 22, 2017

• #3

It's all about timing. Be sure to ride it the opposite way than you've already done since it's different. Download the wait time app or check the boards so you can plan.

 

schumigirl

It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts

Joined

May 15, 2007

• Feb 23, 2017

• #4

We've done it loads of times but even the first time, said we wouldn't wait longer than 10-15 mins max.

It is cute and if you're a Potter fan, you have to do it. We like it an did we're in that area when we decide to go to the other park we ride it, if there's no queue.

But, it's not any hassle to walk to the other park if the queue is ridiculous.

Glad you got to do it both ways though.........

 

psac

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 2, 2009

• Feb 23, 2017

• #5

Patience said:

Crowds are pretty heavy this week at Universal. Yesterday, we waited nearly an hour to ride Hogwarts Express from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure. You can't see the crowd waiting for the train when you first enter so we didn't realize how big the line was. Today, we walked from IofA to US. Much faster! I love being able to switch parks quickly with the parks being so close to one another but Hogwarts Express was not the way to do it, at least on a busy day. It's a cute ride though and we have seen it both ways but I'm walking tomorrow, not riding.

Click to expand...

What time of day was it? We're going next week, and we want to do both ways, but we're thinking of trying to do both ways fairly early in the day to avoid mid-day peaks.

 

J

JohnneeO

Mouseketeer

Joined

Oct 1, 2012

• Feb 23, 2017

• #6

When we were at UOR for three days in November, one of the days was the first Saturday in November, and because an extra HHN had been added (likely due to the Hurricane that had forced a cancellation of an earlier HHN) US was closing at 5 PM (IOA at 7PM). When were ready to hop to from US to IOA around 4 PM, the Hogwarts Express wait time was over 120 minutes, and they wouldn't even guarantee that everyone on line would get to ride! Obviously we walked over to IOA, stopping at Shrek on the way, and ultimately closing US that day. We were able to ride Hogwarts Express (both ways) later on our trip.

 

JaxDad

DIS Veteran

Joined

Sep 23, 2014

• Feb 23, 2017

• #7

We rode it from London to Hogsmeade Saturday afternoon. It was our first visit, and we had ridden it the other direction that morning, so wanted to experience both. We boarded and went through the whole video, then sat for quite some time in the cabin with the doors still closed. Finally, the doors opened and we were still in London! They gave us all "Golden" Express Passes and said we could still wait at the head of the line until the ride was back up again. We opted to leave, and according to the app it was down for quite a while, so I'm glad we did. Gringotts was also down most (or maybe all) of that day.

 

Disxuni

"Where's the fun without a bit of risk?"

Joined

Mar 12, 2016

• Feb 23, 2017

• #8

It's pretty calm in the morning and once it starts hitting towards the very late morning / early afternoon the time starts to increase. Another time to try it would be in the late afternoon / evening, by then the wait times are much lower.

 

E

elaine amj

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 26, 2012

• Feb 23, 2017

• #9

We visited 3 times last year and rode it several times. For some reason, the lines from London to Hogsmeade was usually super long so we rarely took it in that direction (opting to walk instead).

 

darnheather

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 28, 2013

• Feb 24, 2017

• #10

It was a must do for us and we happily waited 45 minutes for the third time we rode.