How do I optimize my game to increase loading speed between layouts?

I have a game that comprises of numerous sprites (about 10 per layout), each sprite comprising of many different frames (up to 300).

When the game starts, it directs the user to the welcome layout (this loads very fast as there is only 1 button in the welcome screen).

However, when the player clicks on the start button, it takes a much longer time to transit from the welcome layout to the home layout (about 2-3 seconds).

Is there a way where I can achieve either of these:

1. Pre-load all layouts (before welcome layout) so that user only has to wait once before the game starts

2. Speed up the loading between layouts (or add a loading transition between the changing of layouts)?

Reducing the no. of frames and sprites is not an option. I have already minimized the image sizes to be small (in KBs).

Place the sprites that are causing the slowdown on your welcome layout. If they are used in both the current layout and next layout, they won't be unloaded and reloaded into memory.

The slowdown will occur before the welcome layout instead, or a loader layout if you like.

There are also system actions for memory management, which should give you several options for dealing with this.