Universal before HHN

[catherinesian]

We are going Sept 19 - and are planning one day at Universal / IOA. This is mainly for Harry Potter but would love to get some other rides done if we have time.

I watched a Tim Tracker video yesterday where he went into the park on HHN nights and the wait times were really low, the main Universal park shuts at 5pm and IOA 8pm.

We are now considering taking a risk and going to Universal / IOA on a HHN whilst we are there. In the hope that the time we lose due to reduced opening hours we save on queues. We would prioritise Universal as that's the park that shuts early.

My question is, has anyone gone on a HHN night before the park closes and did you see a real difference in the wait times? I am concerned Tim just saw it on a good day and it's not representative of the actual crowd levels.

TIA for you wisdoms on this

[Lell]

We were there in September this year and yes we were in Universal before HHN. I think the longest we queued for anything was about 20 mins. Most rides were 5 or 10 mins.

[mattyped]

Next year the new hp section may be open so crowd levels may be a little higher. Cant remember the expected opening dates but they have started installing the coaster tracks so prob whithin the year.

[blades]

We've just got back and on the non HHN night (Monday/Tuesday) the parks were empty. We went in on the Wednesday for the scare actor meal (early on) and the rides seemed quite then.

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by catherinesian

We are going Sept 19 - and are planning one day at Universal / IOA. This is mainly for Harry Potter but would love to get some other rides done if we have time.

I watched a Tim Tracker video yesterday where he went into the park on HHN nights and the wait times were really low, the main Universal park shuts at 5pm and IOA 8pm.

We are now considering taking a risk and going to Universal / IOA on a HHN whilst we are there. In the hope that the time we lose due to reduced opening hours we save on queues. We would prioritise Universal as that's the park that shuts early.

My question is, has anyone gone on a HHN night before the park closes and did you see a real difference in the wait times? I am concerned Tim just saw it on a good day and it's not representative of the actual crowd levels.

TIA for you wisdoms on this

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We were in the Universal parks last week on both HHN nights and non HHN nights, didn't really notice a difference between them to be honest, you do see the mass exodus to IOA around 3.30/4pm but you also see people coming in to see stay & scream so it balances it out. IOA definitely gets busier later on on HHN nights.

It was pretty quiet mid week anyway, the wait times were very low all week, picked up at the weekend.

[IAdoreWDW]

We were there the 10th and 17th of October (both Wednesdays) we started off at IoA both times, I did mean to get to Universal first as it shut at 5 both times but I love Marvel Island so that’s always first port of call.

The first Wednesday was super busy. Wait times at US were really long. But it had been Colombus day that weekend. However we got to Voodoo donuts at 4pm. No queue! Bonus!

The second Wednesday was less busy. Gringotts was 20mins at half 12! We got on everything we wanted to and had left the park at 4pm. The longest wait was The Fast and The Furious at 45mins (ended up being 30)