Christmas week planning advice

[daraweb]

Hi Everyone!

Thanks in advance for reading this and, hopefully, passing along some advice. We are headed to Universal 12/22-12/26! We are well-versed in Disney planning, but have only been to Universal once before. We had a great time, but it was not nearly as crowded then as I assume it will be while we are there.

We have park-to-park passes and 3 days to enjoy the parks. Both parks have early entry all the morning of our trip. We are a group of 5 (2 adults, two 13 year old girls, and an 11 year old girl). We are happy to get up and out early, go back to the hotel (HR), and then go back out for some evening fun.

Since we will have EP, I assume the best plan is to focus on the HP rides during EE? Any advice on which park to start with since they are both open? Not sure what our plan should be...one HP park and then train over to the other or one HP each morning? Any advice would be so appreciated!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Definitely focus on the HP rides during EE. I'd do the HP rides and get in line for Hogwarts Express just before EE is up and take the train to the other park, spend most of the day there and then reverse the starting park the next day. The parks are open late when you're there and we've found that crowds die down significantly in the evenings, so we like to finish our evening at the park after a break at the hotel. Have a great trip!

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

Are your girls planning to do the wand ceremony at Ollivanders? If so do they have their hearts set on being the person chosen? If so, then suggest you do this in the evening when crowds have died down. We were there in November right before Thanksgiving and after riding Gringots right away after the early admission, the lines at Ollivanders were already pretty long and they move slowly, but in the evening there were no lines and granddaughters both went to the ceremony several times until each of them were eventually chosen.

Also my stepdaughter found out that if you purchase the magic wand at Ollivanders earlier in the day, and then later on at the ceremony a different wand "chooses you" you can exchange the original wand for the new one, providing you have the sales receipt and original packaging. Both granddaughters did this.

 

[daraweb]

Thanks so much for the guidance! 2 of the 3 girls have wands and we are planning to buy one for the 3rd...I'm not sure if she will care about even seeing the show, but that's great advice if she does. Maybe we can that arrival night!

I love the idea of doing rides in the evening after a nice long afternoon break.
Thanks so much!

 

[sillyyankee]

Daraweb, we will also be there the same time. Here's to hoping that we have excellent weather and small crowds (one of those things would be nice!)
We couldn't fit everything in over Memorial Day Weekend, so I purchased annual passes and we are heading back. I really hope we can fit everything in and do some favorites twice.
BTW, HP area was super busy at EE on Sunday of Memorial Day w/e, but almost empty Saturday night. It was so neat looking at night!
Have fun.