1 Day Enough?

[MattsPrincess]

Yes, I know that the 1 day park-to-park and the 2 day base tickets are the same price, but we're trying to save as much as possible so cutting out the hotel and what not would be great.

Two adults, driving down from Tampa with plans to be there right at opening. We're looking at February 19th, a thursday, with 11 hours of "open park" time.

Will going for only day work out? I went last year solo in March, to just IOA, and had looped the whole thing in about 4 hours. I ended up walking around the park a solid 3-4 times, riding a lot of things multiple times, and I wasn't rushing by any means. I found myself wishing I had gotten park-to-park tickets. So, when I decided we should go for one day, I was pretty much just basing it on my experience last year.

Being as we don't have kids we can skip out on the kiddie rides and the more kid-oriented shows (though I do want a pic with the grinch! lol)

Right now, our game plan is start in US and work our way through until we get to Diagon Alley. Then take the Hogwarts Express and work our way through IOA until we get back to Hogsmeade, then ride it back to US and finish our day there, since that park will be open later that day.

Any input, insight, tips or hints would be greatly appreciated! This is our first "vacation" together so I just want it to be nice and fun.

 

[Squggl3]

If you can do open to close I would say absolutely! I just got back, we had 7 people including my 65 yr old grandmother. We did 2 day park to park got to park at open 8am w/EE did Hogsmeade, rode HE to DA, did DA and the rest of US, Then rode HE back to hogsmeade, did seuss landing/TLC we left by 4:30 ate dinner at Bubba Gumps at 5:00 and were back at hotel by 7:00 day 2 we started at Hogsmeade (used EE again) then left at 8:45 walked to hulk then did the rest of IOA we were done by 12:30. spent the rest of our last day at the pool bar. I honestly found Universal Lacking and wouldn't spend more than 2 days there (if that) I can do 10 days at Disney and still not want to leave by day 2 of Uni I was ready to go home the next day.

 

[EvilQueenLiz]

I've never done less than two days there. For me, 1 day isn't enough but if I had no other choice I would just have to pick my top rides and attractions and be sure to visit them.

 

[kathy884]

The one day park to park ticket worked great for our party ages 19 - 78 this December on a crowd level three day on a Wednesday, the week prior to Christmas week and the Christmas crowds.

Our touring strategy was similar to yours, and we had a very selective touring plan, weren't trying to do everything / see everything. We also knew we'd be happy spending about an hour looking around in Diagon Alley. I could see true HP fans wanting to spend a lot more time and even more than one day. Most people recommend three days at these parks, but one is all I'd give in the future too. Given how many things that we love to do in Orlando and the fact that we were only in town for a week, this was a good allocation of time for us and would be what we would allocate in the future too. We also weren't doing any of the shows. We got their at opening did five popular US attractions (I don't remember the order - but we did the order that we came to these in the park: Minons, Transformers, Rip Rocket, Men in Black, Mummy), followed by the train, Dragon Challenge, Forbidden Journey, train back to US, the Leaky Cauldron for lunch and some looking around in Diagon Alley for about an hour. Then we headed back to IOA for the Jurassic Park river ride and Hulk -- That finished our touring plan, but we still had some time before we were planning to meet some others for a late dinner -- pizza at our condo, so we did teacups, Dr. Doom, and the Hulk again, teacups one more time and then called it a night. We didn't have express passes and were offsite and that worked out pretty well - lines except for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey that were about 40 minutes long were all 15 minutes or less with a lot being walk on. // We had also been to the parks in 2008 and skipped lots of things that we did back on that trip that we weren't interested in doing again that some people might really want to hit, meaning they might want more time at the parks.

We just took our time and had a great day, got a good feel for the place, but didn't my any means do everything / see everything. If DH comes with us on our next Orlando trip which will be March of 2016 -- we'll do a one night onsite deluxe stay because that's a busy time (crowd level 8 instead of 3 like our last trip) and a one day park to park again, so that he can see the HP areas. I think your crowds would be moderate more like ours were in December the time you are going. If DH doesn't come, we'll skip the Universal parks, not that we don't like them, but there is just so much to see and do in Orlando and our trip is quite short -- focus next time will be SeaWorld parks -- Discovery Cove with freebies to SeaWorld (our favorite park) and Aquatica - thee days covering these with SeaWorld getting one and 1/4 days, Discovery Cove getting a day, and Aquatica getting 3/4s of one day, Again, if DH comes we'll add on one day for US/IOA again and then move to a SeaWorld hotel for four nights/three days. We're skipping Disney next time, not that we don't love Disney, but we've done their parks pretty recently and are just looking at being in Orlando three or four days next time.

The Universal parks are so much improved compared to what they used to be, and for us a day there was a lot of fun.

General sense of crowds on the level 3 day -- moderate and not that many people except for the HP areas which were really packed (more crowded than I like even for just browsing / looking around).