Leaving in 2 days and need a crash course!

[v.t.]

I am getting to join my kids and parents on a weekend trip, but it is THIS WEEKEND! We have never been and I have not done my due diligence. I would love some advice.
We will be there for 2.5 days. We are going for Harry Potter. Not much of thrill seeker, the bravest we are is Space Mountain. My dad doesn't do thrill rides at all, so I think he will be the backpack holder. Do the HP rides have a chicken exit? If some of us get motion sickness, do we need to medicate to enjoy all the rides. We were thinking Leaky Cauldren and Mythos for dining.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am thrilled to be going, but I always spend months scheduling the Disney trip, so I am frantically planning.
TIA!

 

[Robo56]

You will be fine v.t. No hyper planning needed for Universal. I always suggest people go to Universal Orlando website and go to bottom of the page and pull up the park maps. Look the parks over and get the lay of the land.

If you are staying onsite at any of the resorts you will have early entry to the parks. If you are staying at RPR, HRH or PBH you will also have unlimited express pass. This express pass works on all the rides excepts Forbidden Journey and escape from Gringotts.

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are very easy to navigate.

You will really enjoy the Harry Potter parks. Hogsmeade is in IOA. It has three rides the forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff (small coaster by Hagrid's cottage) and the Dragon Challenge coaster. There are some shops to go through there. The Three Broomsticks resturant is there as well as the Hogs head pub adjacent to Three Broomsticks.

Three broomsticks has a nice family feast meal that's a good deal for a family.

If you know you have problems with motion sickness ahead of time do what you need to do to sort that out. Forbidden Journey tends to get those with motion sickness. Escape from Gringotts not bad at all.

Universal Studios is were Diagon Alley is the only ride there is Escape from Gringotts. They have a lot of neat shoppes and the Ollivanders wand show. That's were they pick someone out of the group and let the wand pick the wizard. Leaky Cauldren is in Diagon Alley as well as Knockturn Alley.

If your kids love Potter would recommend getting them one of the interactive wands to do spells in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. It comes with map of spell sites. These sites are also marked with a metal medallion on walk in front of spell areas.

Hope you got the park to park tickets as you need these to ride Hogwarts express between the two Potter parks

MYTHOS is a great choice for a meal. You will like it. You can make reservations for Mythos on line at Universal Orlando site under dining. Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldren counter service. No need for reservation. There are some nice options at City Walk for meals also.

You can pull up all the restaurants in parks and City walk as well as the hotel restaurants and look at their menus.

To really enjoy the full Potter experience

1) have a butterbeer

2) Get a sweet from Honeydukes

3) have a meal at Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldren

4) have a ice cream at Florean Fortescue's in Diagon Alley

5) get pics of the fire breathing dragon spitting flames on top of Gringotts bank

6) get a chocolate frog with Halogram wizard inside

7) get some Bertie Botts every flavor jelly beans

8) get a Pygmy puff

Lots of fun things to buy.

Hopes this helps. If you have any more questions ask and someone will help.

Have a great trip

 

[schumigirl]

Have a look at the park maps and get an idea of the layout of the parks.

Universal requires little to no planning at all, it's part of its charm! Every ride has a chicken exit, anyone can walk through the queue with you and not ride......that's all rides at both parks.

You will need park to park tickets for Hogwarts Express.......it really shouldn't be missed as Potter fans.........ride it both ways if you can, each journey is different.

You don't say if you are staying onsite or not.........if you are you will have unlimited EP if you are staying at one of the 3 hotels that have this perk. Cabana Bay just has EE.

If staying offsite get there early, at least half an hour before gate opening time.

We all have out favourite restaurants. Mythos has never disappointed us. Citywalk has some good choices.......only place I would avoid is Bubba Gump.

Have a look at the menus in damo's sticky........covers parks, Citywalk and hotel menus.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/wh...do-including-menus-updated-regularly.2681315/

Don't panic........you really can have a wonderful time with no planning........

 

[v.t.]

Thank you both so much, exactly the type of advice I was looking for. We do have the park to park tickets, but are staying offsite and not getting the express pass,budget trip. I assume we start Forbidden Journey and then go from there? Any other rides non HP rides in the park that we should check out?

 

[damo]

Thank you both so much, exactly the type of advice I was looking for. We do have the park to park tickets, but are staying offsite and not getting the express pass,budget trip. I assume we start Forbidden Journey and then go from there? Any other rides non HP rides in the park that we should check out?

There are lots of headliner rides at the two parks. Just get in as many as possible.

I really advise taking a Less Drowsy Dramamine (or bonine) for anyone with motion sickness tendencies. There are a few rides, especially Forbidden Journey, that induce motion sickness. Simpsons is another one that people frequently complain about, but Forbidden Journey is really bad for it.

 

[v.t.]

We had a great weekend. We did Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade first thing each morning so we were able to ride Forbidden Journey and Escape from Gringotts several times during the trip. We were surprised Escape from Gringotts had the longest wait time each day. The train ride between the two parks was great, we did that several times as well.
We really enjoyed Mythos and since we just ordered sandwiches it came out to about the same price as the fast food places for us. Frozen butterbeer was the highlight of the trip for the kids. We also enjoyed the evening light show.
You were correct that we did not need a plan since we had multiple days. It was nice being able to take our time and not rush like we do at Disney.
Thanks again for all the advice!