We didn't get them because my DS didn't know they existed. I wouldn't spend $50 on one either. He had a cheap one from a HP Halloween costume anyway. I would never think to being a stroller for a 6 yr old. I don't know any 6 yr old who would ride in one. When we took my son to Disney when he was 4, he was fine for 12+ hrs at the park.

Single Rider Lines are an absolute must!

I just got back from universal today. We did the single rider line for HP escape fro Gringots and walked on.

Anonymous wrote:We skipped the wands and my DC did not care at all. They had a great time anyway. best advice is to get to the park as soon as it opens and go straight to Hogsmeade one morning and Diagon Alley another morning, its the best time to avoid the crazy crowds. We stayed on property and were at the park at 7 am each morning and could walk on rides, by 10:30 lines were over an hour long.

Are there long lines for the interactive wand stations?

Last thing I want to do is wait in a long line to buy a $50 wand and then stand in line after line to use them.

Anonymous wrote:Any other tips from recent visits to HP World at universal - besides the get there really early? We are headed down in three weeks. TIA!

If you are willing to not sit together on rides, you can get on a lot quicker on the single rider lines.

Park did get quieter at the end of the day but we were there Spring Break and both parks were open until 9. Another tip is to get the dual park pass, it's more money but you can't ride the Hogwarts Express without it

Any other tips from recent visits to HP World at universal - besides the get there really early? We are headed down in three weeks. TIA!

Anonymous wrote:We skipped the wands and my DC did not care at all. They had a great time anyway. best advice is to get to the park as soon as it opens and go straight to Hogsmeade one morning and Diagon Alley another morning, its the best time to avoid the crazy crowds. We stayed on property and were at the park at 7 am each morning and could walk on rides, by 10:30 lines were over an hour long.

It sounds like it is similar to Disney and their crowds for popular rides. Ugh. For some reason, I thought Universal would be a lot less crowded than Disney.

Do the crowds die out when the park is about to close?

I believe Universal is closing at 5pm on the days we are going in October. They have a Halloween special event starting at 7ish.

Islands of Adventure is open a bit later but still not that late. I think it was 8 or 9.

We skipped the wands and my DC did not care at all. They had a great time anyway. best advice is to get to the park as soon as it opens and go straight to Hogsmeade one morning and Diagon Alley another morning, its the best time to avoid the crazy crowds. We stayed on property and were at the park at 7 am each morning and could walk on rides, by 10:30 lines were over an hour long.

We went without kids, so not the same, but we would just watch other people using theirs to see the neat effects. There are plenty of people with them, including staff, so its not hard to see everything.

That being said, my DH and I know as soon as we take kids we will likely be buying wands. It was very hard to pass them up for ourselves because of how fun it was to be in Harry Potter World and to get wrapped up in the experience.

There are a ton of different characters' wands to choose from. I think we have a Dumbledore and a Hermione. They all do the same thing. My 5y/o walked the entire park with no issues. Definitely get the pass that works for both parks. Sometimes the train was just a relaxing part of the day. Also we lived by the refillable cups that they microchip. It was hot so totally worth it.

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 kids and bought 1 wand interactive wand (and 1 regular one).

We didn't plan to buy an interactive wand, but yeah, everyone has them.
It was pretty fun to use. I didn't want to pay that $50 but looking back now, we really did have fun with it.

My kids are ages 4 and 6.

Do the interactive and regular wand actually look different?

I picture kids fighting the entire time if we get only 1 wand or 2 wands with 1 being obviously inferior.

On a different note, should we bring our double stroller?

My 6yo never rides a stroller except when we go to Disney. We are only going to Universal this time but imagine the amount of walking would be similar to Disney.

We have 2 kids and bought 1 wand interactive wand (and 1 regular one).

We didn't plan to buy an interactive wand, but yeah, everyone has them.
It was pretty fun to use. I didn't want to pay that $50 but looking back now, we really did have fun with it.

We were there in June for four days. My kids are 12 and 5 so of course we had to buy 2 of them... Everyone has the wands. They're about $50 each. They're a little tricky to get to work. Some things are easier than others. You have to look for the red light in the window or whatever and then very compactly make the design that is on the ground in the market you're standing on. Could we have done without? Absolutely yes since my kids haven't touched then since we have been home. However, I'm pretty sure we couldn't have gotten out of the park without them since so many people do have them... There are plenty of staff around that will help you out. Even the butter beer cart guy showed us one where a cauldron tips and pixies come out. No one else had gotten it the whole time we were there that we had seen.

Trying to work out the details for our upcoming Universal trip.

Do you think the wands are worth the price? Experience with them?

We will be at Universal for 3 days.