1 day at universal on a disney trip?

[HairyChest]

Im going to disney and staying onsite in october. Im thinking about doing a 1 day parkhopper at universal during that week im at disney, mostly for the harry potter lands. Is 1 day enough time to do the 2 harrypotter lands and springfield? Im not a fan of crazy roller coasters and i live by universal hollywood so other then harry potter theres isnt much id be into there. Anyone done universal during a disney trip?

 

[lizaisabel]

Im going to disney and staying onsite in october. Im thinking about doing a 1 day parkhopper at universal during that week im at disney, mostly for the harry potter lands. Is 1 day enough time to do the 2 harrypotter lands and springfield? Im not a fan of crazy roller coasters and i live by universal hollywood so other then harry potter theres isnt much id be into there. Anyone done universal during a disney trip?

Hi, it will depend in the time of year that you are going. If it is July, August I say that you may need one day and half. If it is in low season then one day may work but historically the lines for HP are very long in high season.

 

[WINTER]

We are going to Disney in July and doing the 1 day park-to-park express pass at USO. Wish us luck!

 

[RMulieri]

October is usually lower crowds ( unless it is Columbus day weekend or the week of Fall breaks for schools).BUT that may not be the case this year, Diagon alley will ikely change crowd patterns even in slower times..ALSO keep in mind the parks close alot earlier than Disney, and the studios will close at 5 pm on certain days for HHN..If all you want is both HP lands and maybe Springfield, it should be doable.But again it may be too soon to know

 

[CEO]

It CAN be done, but try to go on a weekday early in the week. October, as has been pointed out, is Halloween Horror Nights season which means the parks close early on the weekends early in October and then bleeds into Thursdays and possibly other days later in October.

There is SOME overlap in attractions between USH and USF but very little with IOA (outside of Jurassic Park River Adventure). In other words, after doing both sides of Potter and the Simpsons area you will still have an entire park to explore. Taking out the coasters at IOA -- and possibly the water rides given the October weather or your personal preferences -- there is still a lot at IOA that you won't want to miss.

That said, The Simpsons area won't take you more than an hour to explore and that's including riding the actual ride. Both sides of the Potterverse will take you a lot longer than that.

 

[macraven]

October is usually lower crowds ( unless it is Columbus day weekend or the week of Fall breaks for schools).BUT that may not be the case this year, Diagon alley will ikely change crowd patterns even in slower times..ALSO keep in mind the parks close alot earlier than Disney, and the studios will close at 5 pm on certain days for HHN..If all you want is both HP lands and maybe Springfield, it should be doable.But again it may be too soon to know

for the past 10 years, october has gained crowds each year.
when HHN started adding September to its calendar, october crowds have grown.
special ticket passes for the first 10 days of HHN goers, have helped those crowds grow.
the 15th of october starts the opening of wednesdays for HHN.

you can have some dates in october that have low crowds but i would not call October a low crowd month.
the end of the month should have less crowds during the week.

columbus day weekend, fall school break and hell week does add crowds in the parks.

on non HHN nights, the studios can close at 6:00.
IOA at 7:00.
when i was at the motherland in january, parks closed early there also.
AK at 5, dhs at 7:30, Mk at 7, epcot same hours as during the year.



if HairyChest is visiting on a week day and wants to do everything in both parks, aim for a Tuesday and go early. (avoid the weekend)
hit the highlights at the studios (cover Spfld and HP2, then switch to IOA in the afternoon.
go to www.universalorlando.com and get the layout of both parks.
they can zero in on which way they need to go once in the park.
could save them time if they run into crowds.

you will not see it all by rushing in one day.
there is so much more to see and do at the Darkside.
hope they don't come back and say, what is all the excitement about these parks?

 

[abbydancer]

We're going to WDW in December (2nd week - NOT xmas time) and are planning to do a one day park hopper, just to do the 2 HP lands. I assume that Thursday 11 is better than Saturday 13?

My sister is pulling her kids out of school for this, and this is the one weekend she has the kids before the XMAS break (worlds most complicated custody schedule), so not a lot of date flexibility.

Our plan is to be there at rope drop, go to Diagon Alley, ride Gringotts, then take Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, do the attractions there, and then back to Diagon to see the shops etc.

Decent plan?

Thanks

 

[macraven]

thursday would be better than going on saturday.

 

[mickey1968]

I started out with a similar plan to just do one day both parks. Now I have upped my plans to be 4 nites onsite at the new Cabana Bay resort and two days in the parks (Thurs. & Friday, Nov. 20 & 21) with a third possible day either at Universal or back at Disney on Saturday the 22 for one last look. My plans could change again due to a tight budget ( ), but I too am really only going to see the Harry Potter stuff so anything else will be extra.

 

[kathy884]

We're doing a one day hopper to Universal / IOA on our next trip too. It's in December, though, the week before Christmas week with crowd level predictions of a 3 and 4 for the two parks. I subscribed to the Unofficial Guide ($4 upgrade from my Disney subscription) to look at their descriptions of Universal stuff and their touring plans/most recommended attractions, and ultimately created my own customized touring plan (morning at Universal and afternoon at IOA after lunch at City Walk to see what we can probably get in, and it looks great to me.) We are (blasphemy on this board) not huge fans of most of the Universal / IOA attractions, so are mostly interested in the HP stuff and a handful of other things, and on these dates it looks like we can really and truly get everything we want to do in comfortably with room to spare. Our best bet appeared to do the Universal HP stuff at rope drop and the IOA HP stuff later in the day for shortest wait times with the other things we will throw in, in between. Can't wait and I think one day will be perfect for us.

 

[macraven]

We're doing a one day hopper to Universal / IOA on our next trip too. It's in December, though, the week before Christmas week with crowd level predictions of a 3 and 4 for the two parks. I subscribed to the Unofficial Guide ($4 upgrade from my Disney subscription) to look at their descriptions of Universal stuff and their touring plans/most recommended attractions, and ultimately created my own customized touring plan (morning at Universal and afternoon at IOA after lunch at City Walk to see what we can probably get in, and it looks great to me.) We are (blasphemy on this board) not huge fans of most of the Universal / IOA attractions, so are mostly interested in the HP stuff and a handful of other things, and on these dates it looks like we can really and truly get everything we want to do in comfortably with room to spare. Our best bet appeared to do the Universal HP stuff at rope drop and the IOA HP stuff later in the day for shortest wait times with the other things we will throw in, in between. Can't wait and I think one day will be perfect for us.

there are many on the Darkside forums that also do the motherland.
and not all of those that do the Darkside are parry hotter fans.....
i do the parry hotter rides and stuff but am a muggle

if you don't go on a weekend, you will have less crowds/people in the parks.
if the weekends have great weather, it tends to draw in more locals.

if the single rider lines are open for a ride, use it, makes less of a wait than being in the regular line.

if you feel cramped for the day time wise when you are at the parks, eat a light meal in the parks and hit City Walk for dinner once the parks close.

hope you have a great day and perfect weather when you go!

 

[abbydancer]

We're doing a one day hopper to Universal / IOA on our next trip too. It's in December, though, the week before Christmas week with crowd level predictions of a 3 and 4 for the two parks. I subscribed to the Unofficial Guide ($4 upgrade from my Disney subscription) to look at their descriptions of Universal stuff and their touring plans/most recommended attractions, and ultimately created my own customized touring plan (morning at Universal and afternoon at IOA after lunch at City Walk to see what we can probably get in, and it looks great to me.) We are (blasphemy on this board) not huge fans of most of the Universal / IOA attractions, so are mostly interested in the HP stuff and a handful of other things, and on these dates it looks like we can really and truly get everything we want to do in comfortably with room to spare. Our best bet appeared to do the Universal HP stuff at rope drop and the IOA HP stuff later in the day for shortest wait times with the other things we will throw in, in between. Can't wait and I think one day will be perfect for us.

If you don't think this is unethical, would you mind sharing the crowd levels for the 11th? I have the Disney subscription. Or do you think it's worth my upgrading for one day's worth of info?

Thanks.

 

[macraven]

If you don't think this is unethical, would you mind sharing the crowd levels for the 11th? I have the Disney subscription. Or do you think it's worth my upgrading for one day's worth of info?

Thanks.

go to the UO website for ticket purchase.
put the date/dec 11th in for the express pass purchase.
also click on the park as prices differ between the two.

if the cost of that express pass is under $49 for that park, it should be a low crowd day.

if you get a figure for one of the parks for $89 and up, you will see crowds.

if nothing shows up when you do this, try again closer to the date.
i don't remember how far out the prices are listed for the express.

 

[abbydancer]

go to the UO website for ticket purchase.
put the date/dec 11th in for the express pass purchase.
also click on the park as prices differ between the two.

if the cost of that express pass is under $49 for that park, it should be a low crowd day.

if you get a figure for one of the parks for $89 and up, you will see crowds.

if nothing shows up when you do this, try again closer to the date.
i don't remember how far out the prices are listed for the express.

Thanks. I did that - it was 59.99 - going up to 89 the next week and well over that on Xmas.

 

[macraven]

Thanks. I did that - it was 59.99 - going up to 89 the next week and well over that on Xmas.

over chrstmas time, the ee can raise in price due to demand. once they are sold out no more will be sold.

 

[abbydancer]

over chrstmas time, the ee can raise in price due to demand. once they are sold out no more will be sold.

I figured something like. So the price for our day isn't lowest crowds, but not crowded yet? I'm thinking that since all we really want to do is the Harry Potter stuff, no point in us spending a few hundred additional dollars for them.

Thanks!

 

[mickey1968]

There are also a couple of free crowd calendars out there too.

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

*********************************/universal/crowd-calendar/

I am just worried that none of the calendars are going to be accurate for this fall because of Diagon Alley opening. My trip isn't until the week before Thanksgiving so maybe by then there will be enough data to adjust their predictions.

 

[abbydancer]

There are also a couple of free crowd calendars out there too.

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

*********************************/universal/crowd-calendar/

I am just worried that none of the calendars are going to be accurate for this fall because of Diagon Alley opening. My trip isn't until the week before Thanksgiving so maybe by then there will be enough data to adjust their predictions.

I'm not sure they aren't accurate because this is not the first time at this. Remember that Hogsmeade opened in 2010, so it's been done once before.

 

[kathy884]

If you don't think this is unethical, would you mind sharing the crowd levels for the 11th? I have the Disney subscription. Or do you think it's worth my upgrading for one day's worth of info?

Thanks.

Predictions are crowd levels of 2s for both parks! Sounds fantastic.

 

[abbydancer]

Predictions are crowd levels of 2s for both parks! Sounds fantastic.

Thank you!