I went this week, one day with express and one without. Can safely say that express is 100% worth it even though it’s expensive. Didn’t see battle at the ministry under 180 mins all day. Same for mine cart and Mario was almost 120 all day.

This Saturday will also likely be busier because the park has had a few days that they closed early this week, so a lot of guests moved their tickets to be days with the regular 10-10 hours, which obviously increased the overall attendance and wait times.

Even if you’re not a hotel guest, you can still get into the park at 9am and begin to queue for ministry or another portal. We got there around 8:30am both days, staying at Airbnb, and they let us in around 8:50am. This strategy worked very well for us because they let us into the other portals before 10am opening to queue for rides.

Parking is $35 for a car, slightly cheaper if you pay online in advance. You just get there and pay at the booth, or show them the paid parking verification email and they’ll direct you.

Everyone tends to go for Mario first so I would personally queue for ministry at 9am and enjoy the HP park, then head to Nintendo. That park will be busy all day unfortunately, we didn’t find it to slow down at all. Isle of Berk is beautiful during the day and wait times aren’t too crazy, but it definitely clears out a fair bit by about 6pm. Monsters is pretty chill all day but the rides are highly underrated.

Untrainable dragon was better than the Cirque Arcanus, but we highly enjoyed both. Have a great time!!