Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic - General Discussion Thread

[mccgavin]

Looks like waits for Battle at the Ministry have been ... very, very long. Has anyone here actually been since the park officially opened? If so, thoughts on the best plan of action for hitting this? Seems like either waiting until the end of the night or getting on around lunch time.

For me, hitting the ride at the end of the day worked out best. On my first day I got in line 30 minutes before park close and waited about 45 minutes (130 mins posted wait). Another day I got in the single rider line right at park close and waited 10 minutes, although that night the whole park was open an additional hour beyond what was advertised.

 

[belloq87]

Looks like waits for Battle at the Ministry have been ... very, very long. Has anyone here actually been since the park officially opened? If so, thoughts on the best plan of action for hitting this? Seems like either waiting until the end of the night or getting on around lunch time.

My game plan is to set aside most of my second day for this land. Of course, that's assuming Universal lets me get a second day at the park in the first place!

If I'm only there for one day, the strategy will be to get in line near park close and gamble that the ride doesn't go down.

 

[Alicia]

Be careful as some days the sign says “at capacity for last hour or so”. Depending on how full the queue is, (it could even be cut off sooner).

Right now queue is at two hours after initial rush. Personally, I’d line up an hour before park open, as they start filling the queue immediately. Plus they opened the ride early, so if you were in the first 1000 or so people in line the wait wasn’t too long (and the ride will be working the best it will all day).

My last two visits I tried to ride midday when line gets shorter but EVERY time I tried it broke down. So today I went for first thing in the morning to ensure better chance of success and it was a good quick moving line.

 

[Jake S]

i miss the virtual queue

 

[Galactus]

Looks like waits for Battle at the Ministry have been ... very, very long. Has anyone here actually been since the park officially opened? If so, thoughts on the best plan of action for hitting this? Seems like either waiting until the end of the night or getting on around lunch time.

Agreed with mcgavin's opinion. We were concerned about breakdowns so we went in the middle of the day and waited 60 on a posted 100. Well it would've been 60 if there wasn't a 40 minute breakdown. But then we came back at the end of the night (around 9:25pm at a 9pm closure) and walked right on. But this was on a Sunday night after a storm so the park was pretty empty so keep your eye on crowd levels, especially on a Saturday

 

[Skipper Justin]

We went right when it opened. The queue was to the outside switchbacks and full. It took two hours (one 20ish min breakdown).

 

[belloq87]

Personally, I’d line up an hour before park open

How are they handling the early entry crowd vs. the regular day guests?

 

[AvoidTIMtation]

We got to the park about 30 minutes after opening on Friday and went right to Potter, posted wait was 120 minutes. Waited about 45 minutes in single rider and 4 out of the 5 people in our group still got to ride together LOL

 

[Jake S]

Do you lose much by going single rider vs the regular line?

 

[mccgavin]

Do you lose much by going single rider vs the regular line?

You miss getting to walk through Umbridge's office with the Higgledy animatronic, as well as a room with portraits of the former Ministry Ministers talking to each other.

 

[devinp267]

I don’t know if it was a creepy lady or not, but is there a character in this land who’s a lady pretending to read a paper but when you really look at her her eyes are looking dead at you over the newspaper ?

 

[ZachPL]

How are they handling the early entry crowd vs. the regular day guests?

Late but they are letting everyone queue for the ride even if not early entry. So if you arn't staying on site you can still queue at 9am when the crowds are let in for early entry.

 

[Mad Dog]

Late but they are letting everyone queue for the ride even if not early entry. So if you arn't staying on site you can still queue at 9am when the crowds are let in for early entry.

Disney was doing the same at DHS when we went there a couple weeks ago. It confused guests though. You had two separate lines queuing up. And people were getting in the wrong lines since the CM's didn't say anything about it, unless someone asked them.