ORLANDO INFORMER meetup/newbie UO ?s

karen4546

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 3, 2012
I have never been to Universal. Huge HP fan. The OI meetup kept popping up on my laptop (must have clicked it previously..) and today I booked it for myself, daughter, and grandson.

We are driving down from NOLA on 12/11 and staying in a hotel somewhere at the halfway point and then driving to a hotel close to Universal and we hope to go to the meetup around 3pm.

Any suggestion on a one night hotel close to Universal? The ones on the OI page are booked for the 12th. We will only be staying the one night and then heading over to AKL for 6 nights.

We will take a rideshare to and from the event, because I don't like driving in the dark in unknown areas.

So my questions are:

Hotel recommendation (with free parking)?, advice on the meetup if you have been, and any other help is greatly appreciated. We would love to make the most of this day/night (fingers crossed I can ride Hagrid's). TIA
 
There's a Holiday Inn right across from Universal. I haven't stayed there in years. I checked rates for about a week before your visit and it was running around $57 a night with a AAA discount.
 
We went ahead and book 2 more nights @ AKV Jambo. We will just take a rideshare about 2:30 pm from AKV.

I am so excited to be going to Universal. Fingers crossed for good weather. I ordered some very cute RavenClaw leggings.
 


This is later than I wanted to post this (was hoping to have this up before the meetup guests entered the park today), and it’s long. I just included anything I would have wanted to know prior to the event. Short recap: longer than expected waits (lower your expectations), but still fun!

Thoughts from the meetup last night (12/05):

Check in begins at 2. I’d recommend getting there on the earlier side - we arrived around 2:20, and it was very, very busy, but the line moved quickly. They let you in as soon as you check in. I’d guess we were in the Universal by 2:45. Credentials are a paper Universal ticket (for going between parks during the day) and a paper wristband (non-light up).

After checkin, we went to Diagon Alley and went to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. The parks were busy. Much, much more crowded than when we were at Disney in October. Line for LC was very long (wrapped into Knockturn Alley). You can’t mobile order and use the dining cards, so you have to wait in line to be seated, and then wait until they allow one person from your group to go the register to pay. We had a large group (9), but the entire meal ate a huge chunk of our time. I think we left the Leaky Cauldron after 4:30? Food service during the day was incredibly inefficient (which thankfully changed after hours, likely due to the lack of payment processing).

We had snatched up return times for the virtual line for Hagrid’s during one of the drops earlier in the day. Frustratingly, we missed both of our windows due to the long time at Leaky Cauldron and the looong time it took to leave Diagon Alley and switch parks (we walked, as the Hogwarts Express was ~100 minute wait). By the time we got to Hagrid’s, we’d missed the return time. We were ~15 minutes late, but they wouldn’t let us in.

Wait times before official park close were insane. All of the HP rides (except for Hippogriff) were over 100 minutes. We rode Hippogriff (posted @ 20, was around 5) and then Jurassic Park River Journey (posted at 40, was 10).
Be prepared to wait on long lines to use your dining card before official park close (especially as it gets closer to close). At any quick service place (non kiosk), they insisted on seating us and then taking our order/delivering it to the table. It was a long process. Took over 35 minutes to just get a milkshake from Burger Digs (when there was no line).
We ended up getting another virtual return time for Hagrid’s, which we were relieved about. We were able to ride just before the parks closed to the public. I’d definitely try to be smart about picking your return time to Hagrid’s to be sure you’ll be able to be there during the limited window. They seemed to drop at the hour mark - we noticed them at 8 AM (times through ~2), 11 AM (times through ~4), and 2 PM. We checked on the other hours and didn’t see anything come up (unless I’m forgetting something). The return times we got at the end of the day dropped randomly around 6:35 PM. I’d recommend that each person in your group download the app, and remember to slide the bar at the top to the number of people in your party when the times do show up!

Once the park closed to the public, Three Broomsticks/Hogs Head shut their doors to new customers (I’d assume that was the same for all QS restaurants). We rode Forbidden Journey (they checked for wristbands - only time they did the whole night, except when we re-entered the park), which was ~20 minute wait. We then got in the line for Three Broomsticks, which looked long but we got in & were seated immediately when they opened the doors at 9. Service was great! Super efficient!

Wait times... didn’t drop as much as we expected (which became a theme for the night). Half our party took Hogwarts Express to Kings Cross (posted as 10 minutes, took 30+), other half rode Kong (walk on) and Hulk (10 minutes). Stopped for lots of food - fun to be able to try anything without paying.

Hogwarts Express had consistently long waits nearly all night. It was consistently posted at 40+ minutes both ways. I think it’s because there wasn’t an open path between the parks this time, which was frustrating as it drove the wait times for HE up. We decided to leave IoA and walk to Universal. At this point it was ~11. Rode Gringotts (25 minute posted, took ~15), then split and half re-rode Gringotts (posted 25, took 10) and the other half rode Rip Ride Rocket (essentially a walk-on and rode 3x in a row). We wanted to ride both before they closed the lines, as they had to be cleared before midnight (along with Hagrid’s, Flight of the Hippogriff, Transformers, and Hulk).

Then enjoyed ice cream at Fortescue’s, Butterbeer, a quieter Diagon Alley, took the Hogwarts Express to IoA so people in our party could experience HE once (posted as 15, just took the time to walk through). At this point, it was nearly 1:30, so we enjoyed a few moments in Hogsmeade and then left the parks.
Overall, I’d encourage you to lower your expectations for the meetup. You will not be seeing the 5-10 minute wait times that I expected to see. That didn’t happen for the HP rides at all - even at the end of the night. Hagrid’s was consistently posted at 60+ minutes during the meetup, so we opted not to ride again. Forbidden Journey was consistently ~20, and Gringotts ~25. Hogwarts Express was 40+ minutes both ways until nearly the end of the night.

Food was great! Fun to get whatever you wanted, but keep in mind you’ll need to be seated at QS locations before they’ll take your order (so you can’t really grab something “to-go”), but kiosks are grab and go.

Looking back, I’d probably do the meetup again, but with a smaller group, after some of the Covid restrictions were lifted (causing longer waits for rides like Hogwarts Express and forcing you to sit at QS), and I’d do two nights (and probably only enter the parks after they were closed to the public, unless I got a virtual return time for Hagrid’s earlier).

Have fun! Happy to answer any questions!
 


This is later than I wanted to post this (was hoping to have this up before the meetup guests entered the park today), and it’s long. I just included anything I would have wanted to know prior to the event. Short recap: longer than expected waits (lower your expectations), but still fun!

Thoughts from the meetup last night (12/05):

Check in begins at 2. I’d recommend getting there on the earlier side - we arrived around 2:20, and it was very, very busy, but the line moved quickly. They let you in as soon as you check in. I’d guess we were in the Universal by 2:45. Credentials are a paper Universal ticket (for going between parks during the day) and a paper wristband (non-light up).

After checkin, we went to Diagon Alley and went to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. The parks were busy. Much, much more crowded than when we were at Disney in October. Line for LC was very long (wrapped into Knockturn Alley). You can’t mobile order and use the dining cards, so you have to wait in line to be seated, and then wait until they allow one person from your group to go the register to pay. We had a large group (9), but the entire meal ate a huge chunk of our time. I think we left the Leaky Cauldron after 4:30? Food service during the day was incredibly inefficient (which thankfully changed after hours, likely due to the lack of payment processing).

We had snatched up return times for the virtual line for Hagrid’s during one of the drops earlier in the day. Frustratingly, we missed both of our windows due to the long time at Leaky Cauldron and the looong time it took to leave Diagon Alley and switch parks (we walked, as the Hogwarts Express was ~100 minute wait). By the time we got to Hagrid’s, we’d missed the return time. We were ~15 minutes late, but they wouldn’t let us in.

Wait times before official park close were insane. All of the HP rides (except for Hippogriff) were over 100 minutes. We rode Hippogriff (posted @ 20, was around 5) and then Jurassic Park River Journey (posted at 40, was 10).
Be prepared to wait on long lines to use your dining card before official park close (especially as it gets closer to close). At any quick service place (non kiosk), they insisted on seating us and then taking our order/delivering it to the table. It was a long process. Took over 35 minutes to just get a milkshake from Burger Digs (when there was no line).
We ended up getting another virtual return time for Hagrid’s, which we were relieved about. We were able to ride just before the parks closed to the public. I’d definitely try to be smart about picking your return time to Hagrid’s to be sure you’ll be able to be there during the limited window. They seemed to drop at the hour mark - we noticed them at 8 AM (times through ~2), 11 AM (times through ~4), and 2 PM. We checked on the other hours and didn’t see anything come up (unless I’m forgetting something). The return times we got at the end of the day dropped randomly around 6:35 PM. I’d recommend that each person in your group download the app, and remember to slide the bar at the top to the number of people in your party when the times do show up!

Once the park closed to the public, Three Broomsticks/Hogs Head shut their doors to new customers (I’d assume that was the same for all QS restaurants). We rode Forbidden Journey (they checked for wristbands - only time they did the whole night, except when we re-entered the park), which was ~20 minute wait. We then got in the line for Three Broomsticks, which looked long but we got in & were seated immediately when they opened the doors at 9. Service was great! Super efficient!

Wait times... didn’t drop as much as we expected (which became a theme for the night). Half our party took Hogwarts Express to Kings Cross (posted as 10 minutes, took 30+), other half rode Kong (walk on) and Hulk (10 minutes). Stopped for lots of food - fun to be able to try anything without paying.

Hogwarts Express had consistently long waits nearly all night. It was consistently posted at 40+ minutes both ways. I think it’s because there wasn’t an open path between the parks this time, which was frustrating as it drove the wait times for HE up. We decided to leave IoA and walk to Universal. At this point it was ~11. Rode Gringotts (25 minute posted, took ~15), then split and half re-rode Gringotts (posted 25, took 10) and the other half rode Rip Ride Rocket (essentially a walk-on and rode 3x in a row). We wanted to ride both before they closed the lines, as they had to be cleared before midnight (along with Hagrid’s, Flight of the Hippogriff, Transformers, and Hulk).

Then enjoyed ice cream at Fortescue’s, Butterbeer, a quieter Diagon Alley, took the Hogwarts Express to IoA so people in our party could experience HE once (posted as 15, just took the time to walk through). At this point, it was nearly 1:30, so we enjoyed a few moments in Hogsmeade and then left the parks.
Overall, I’d encourage you to lower your expectations for the meetup. You will not be seeing the 5-10 minute wait times that I expected to see. That didn’t happen for the HP rides at all - even at the end of the night. Hagrid’s was consistently posted at 60+ minutes during the meetup, so we opted not to ride again. Forbidden Journey was consistently ~20, and Gringotts ~25. Hogwarts Express was 40+ minutes both ways until nearly the end of the night.

Food was great! Fun to get whatever you wanted, but keep in mind you’ll need to be seated at QS locations before they’ll take your order (so you can’t really grab something “to-go”), but kiosks are grab and go.

Looking back, I’d probably do the meetup again, but with a smaller group, after some of the Covid restrictions were lifted (causing longer waits for rides like Hogwarts Express and forcing you to sit at QS), and I’d do two nights (and probably only enter the parks after they were closed to the public, unless I got a virtual return time for Hagrid’s earlier).

Have fun! Happy to answer any questions!
Just wanted to say thanks for the write-up. I have always wanted to go to one of these, and had booked last night back when I had to cancel my May trip. It's good to hear a report, even if I couldn't go!
 

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