1 or 2 days?

[disneyjes]

We are planning our very first trip to WDW and Universal. We are thinking about a week we will be down there. Do you think we need 1 or 2 days for Universal? We mostly want to see Harry Potter, super heroes, Minions and Shrek.

Thanks!

 

[RMulieri]

2- one for each park ( Harry Potter is in each park and you need a park to park pass to ride the Hogwarts express since it goes into both parks)

 

[disneyjes]

2- one for each park ( Harry Potter is in each park and you need a park to park pass to ride the Hogwarts express since it goes into both parks)

That's what I was thinking. Thank you!

 

[johde]

I'm going to agree that 2 days would be ideal. That being said, 5 days may be rushing it for a first trip to Disney. Since Universal tends to close earlier than Disney, depending on your Kid's stamina, You could do Universal in the morning and afternoon then hop over to a Disney Park for the evening going to a park that's staying open later.

 

[disneyjes]

I'm going to agree that 2 days would be ideal. That being said, 5 days may be rushing it for a first trip to Disney. Since Universal tends to close earlier than Disney, depending on your Kid's stamina, You could do Universal in the morning and afternoon then hop over to a Disney Park for the evening going to a park that's staying open later.

Yeah 5 days does NOT seem long enough. Just not sure we could afford longer. Gotta wait till it gets closer and hope for some promotions!

His stamina is pretty good and going to get better. Currently on the swim team and this upcoming year he's joining track. Still, we're all going to work on walking lots before we leave!

I was thinking on Universal days we could do DTD but going to Disney afterwards is a good idea too!

Thank you!

 

[macraven]

Planning our very first WDW trip for March 2016!


i saw that in your post signature.
if you are asking about going for that date in 2016, watch and read the threads that come up next year in March to get an idea of crowds at the motherland and darkside parks.


spring break happens for some schools/families in March.
don't know what time period in March you will be hitting the darkside.

i love trip planning!

 

[disneyjes]

Planning our very first WDW trip for March 2016!


i saw that in your post signature.
if you are asking about going for that date in 2016, watch and read the threads that come up next year in March to get an idea of crowds at the motherland and darkside parks.


spring break happens for some schools/families in March.
don't know what time period in March you will be hitting the darkside.

i love trip planning!

Thank you! I am hoping the first week of March but I will definitely keep an eye out for this upcoming March threads.

 

[kathy884]

It really depends on what else you want to do in Orlando IMHO. If you have two days to devote to Universal/IOA there is definitely plenty to do there and your price per day is WAY better. I could see even three days if you are a hard core HP fan. We like the books and movies, but aren't hard core.

We on a week long trip the week before Christmas we just did one day, found it very enjoyable, and surprisingly got all our must dos in. Our main focus was HP stuff with and handful of other things (We actually, though had time to do nine other attractions -- only four were on our list). The Universal and IOA parks are really nice, and the Harry Potter theming is pretty incredible. We, though, absolutely love SeaWorld, are Disney fans too, and like to have some down time / resort days too, and in prioritizing and picking and choosing for us Universal just got one day, and it would be the same on a future week long visit too.

With so many fun things to do in Orlando it's all a matter of picking and choosing as you can't do everything.

 

[disneyjes]

It really depends on what else you want to do in Orlando IMHO. If you have two days to devote to Universal/IOA there is definitely plenty to do there and your price per day is WAY better. I could see even three days if you are a hard core HP fan. We like the books and movies, but aren't hard core.

We on a week long trip the week before Christmas we just did one day, found it very enjoyable, and surprisingly got all our must dos in. Our main focus was HP stuff with and handful of other things (We actually, though had time to do nine other attractions -- only four were on our list). The Universal and IOA parks are really nice, and the Harry Potter theming is pretty incredible. We, though, absolutely love SeaWorld, are Disney fans too, and like to have some down time / resort days too, and in prioritizing and picking and choosing for us Universal just got one day, and it would be the same on a future week long visit too.

With so many fun things to do in Orlando it's all a matter of picking and choosing as you can't do everything.

Thanks for all of the awesome advice! We are definitely a Harry Potter hardcore family. However....we are definitely more excited about Disney World, lol. I really need to do some research on best times and wait times for HP to see. Ideally I'd like to only spend 1 day there but will do 2 if we have to.

Wish we COULD do everything.

 

[miamimama]

It really depends on what else you want to do in Orlando IMHO. If you have two days to devote to Universal/IOA there is definitely plenty to do there and your price per day is WAY better. I could see even three days if you are a hard core HP fan. We like the books and movies, but aren't hard core.

We on a week long trip the week before Christmas we just did one day, found it very enjoyable, and surprisingly got all our must dos in. Our main focus was HP stuff with and handful of other things (We actually, though had time to do nine other attractions -- only four were on our list). The Universal and IOA parks are really nice, and the Harry Potter theming is pretty incredible. We, though, absolutely love SeaWorld, are Disney fans too, and like to have some down time / resort days too, and in prioritizing and picking and choosing for us Universal just got one day, and it would be the same on a future week long visit too.

With so many fun things to do in Orlando it's all a matter of picking and choosing as you can't do everything.

I would love to hear how you managed the one day - did you get any kind of express pass or stay onsite? We were thinking about spending one day at Universal just to see HP attractions - no young children, but staying onsite at DW in Jan.

 

[kathy884]

Here's how we spent our one and only one day in case you are interested and also here's how we decided what to do. // I see some interest in this based on the last two posts.

I spent $5 to access to touringplans.com Universal / IOA touring plans that give different core plans based on number of days, whether you have early entry or not, whether you have express passes or not and give predicted wait times for attractions. I've used them for years for touring WDW, and thought I'd give them a try for Harry Potter (e.g. Universal / IOA). Also, my 19 year old was at both parks in 2008 (before any of the HP stuff was there) and had his own ideas of what was worth repeating (non HP stuff that was there from back then). There are many popular attractions that can take up quite a bit of time that he just wasn't all that impressed with, so that meant his wish list of other things was pretty small. As this was my first visit to Universal since 1989 I can't give you my opinion on whether some of the things he chose to skip are really worth doing or not. I will say many posters think of some of them as must dos. I was happy, though. to go with my 19 year old's judgement, especially since what he wanted to do fit in so well for a one day touring plan. We were offsite with no express pass. Do note, though, that overall crowd levels for our day were only a 3 out of 10 (pretty moderate). It's awfully expensive, but it would be very tempting on a super busy time to do one night in a Universal deluxe hotel to get the early entry and express pass. At this slower / more moderate crowd time though that certainly wasn't needed, and I'm happy that we didn't spend that extra money.

So I started with the Touringplans.com one day plan that hits both parks for offsite guests and just crossed off all the stuff my son didn't want to do. We did everything on our plan (our main interests first), and then did a few extras that hit our fancy. I was first doing a customized plan with touringplans and trying to delete attractions, but that really didn't work too well online. Their software is really better and geared for doing one park at a time except for their special pre-fabricated plans. So I thought my best bet was using their two park plan and just skipping what we didn't want to do. Their core plan by the way looked a little ambitious to me, so I was happy to see us dropping a few things.

The planned stuff
We got there at opening time for offsite and went with the recommendation to hit other popular things you want to do in Universal first while lines are short as onsite visitors are taking advantage of early entry doing Gringotts first thing, so an offsite visitor doing that first thing doesn't really save you much time. The plan had us doing Gringotts and exploring Diagon Alley later in the day, which could I suppose back fire if it breaks down or something like that.
Anyway we started with Despicable Me, Rip Rocket, Transformer's and Mummy. Then we took the Train to IOA (pretty cool attraction) and hit the Dragon Challenge, Jurrasic Park River Ride, Hulk, and then Forbidden Journey. Our only line longer than 15 minutes was Forbidden Journey -- about a 40 minute wait, but you do see the castle which is pretty interesting. Next we took the train back and hit Gringotts -- 40 minute or so wait and explored Diagon Alley shops, watched entertainment, checked out the other little dark alley, Leaky Cauldron restaurant, etc. (spent about two hours here in total on top of Gringott's ride). Here is where the true HP fan I'm sure could spend way more time (maybe even days). That was it for our plan and we were done by 4:30 p.m.

The extras
We were having a great time and my son 19 and nephew 20 weren't ready to go yet // wanted to do another coaster ride and the Universal teacup kind of stuff with their active grandmother (my mom) who at 78 still loves coasters and spin rides (I think their big thrill was to see if they could get grandma dizzy on the teacups). So we took the train back over (now the train wait was up to 25 minutes -- the earlier two rides were pretty quick), and we did Dr. Doom once, Teacups (I skipped), Hulk, and the Universal tea cup sort of thing again (I can't do that one, but lol my mom can.) The non HP areas weren't crowded at all and lines were all 10 minutes or less with thing like teacups being walk on. // Then we called it a night and went back to the condo and meet up with my dad who decided to skip Univeral/IOA entirely. And that was a good decision for him from what I saw. He uses a scooter at theme parks and has some motion issues and hasn't read any of the HP books or seen any of the movies. His favorite park by the way is SeaWorld. The HP areas were packed with people looking around even on a crowd level three day, and I do not see this as an easy place for using a scooter at all.

Anyway a big thumbs up for Universal/IOA. I has a very low opinion of the place after my visit in 1989, but hey every 25 years or so you should give a place another shot maybe. I found it to be a lot of fun this time and would not hesitate to come back. I'd still only give it one day on my week in Orlando, but hey I'm a huge SeaWorld/Disney/Resort Relaxation Day fan too. I see a ton of people even doing Universal only vacations and lots of recommendations to hit the Universal parks for three days. We were really happy with our one day though. // My husband who doesn't care for theme parks or Orlando didn't even come to Orlando, but DS is trying to talk him into coming for a little while on our next visit, so he can show him the HP areas -- DH does love the HP books and has read them all at least twice / thinks they are so well written. He's seen all the movies too, but says he in his own imagination sees thing differently than what was portrayed in the movies and is not interested in someone else's recreation. If anyone can talk him into going, though, it will be my son, and DH was pretty impressed with some of the photos DS took of the place and DS's descriptions of rides and places.

 

[disneyjes]

Here's how we spent our one and only one day in case you are interested and also here's how we decided what to do. // I see some interest in this based on the last two posts.

I spent $5 to access to touringplans.com Universal / IOA touring plans that give different core plans based on number of days, whether you have early entry or not, whether you have express passes or not and give predicted wait times for attractions. I've used them for years for touring WDW, and thought I'd give them a try for Harry Potter (e.g. Universal / IOA). Also, my 19 year old was at both parks in 2008 (before any of the HP stuff was there) and had his own ideas of what was worth repeating (non HP stuff that was there from back then). There are many popular attractions that can take up quite a bit of time that he just wasn't all that impressed with, so that meant his wish list of other things was pretty small. As this was my first visit to Universal since 1989 I can't give you my opinion on whether some of the things he chose to skip are really worth doing or not. I will say many posters think of some of them as must dos. I was happy, though. to go with my 19 year old's judgement, especially since what he wanted to do fit in so well for a one day touring plan. We were offsite with no express pass. Do note, though, that overall crowd levels for our day were only a 3 out of 10 (pretty moderate). It's awfully expensive, but it would be very tempting on a super busy time to do one night in a Universal deluxe hotel to get the early entry and express pass. At this slower / more moderate crowd time though that certainly wasn't needed, and I'm happy that we didn't spend that extra money.

So I started with the Touringplans.com one day plan that hits both parks for offsite guests and just crossed off all the stuff my son didn't want to do. We did everything on our plan (our main interests first), and then did a few extras that hit our fancy. I was first doing a customized plan with touringplans and trying to delete attractions, but that really didn't work too well online. Their software is really better and geared for doing one park at a time except for their special pre-fabricated plans. So I thought my best bet was using their two park plan and just skipping what we didn't want to do. Their core plan by the way looked a little ambitious to me, so I was happy to see us dropping a few things.

The planned stuff
We got there at opening time for offsite and went with the recommendation to hit other popular things you want to do in Universal first while lines are short as onsite visitors are taking advantage of early entry doing Gringotts first thing, so an offsite visitor doing that first thing doesn't really save you much time. The plan had us doing Gringotts and exploring Diagon Alley later in the day, which could I suppose back fire if it breaks down or something like that.
Anyway we started with Despicable Me, Rip Rocket, Transformer's and Mummy. Then we took the Train to IOA (pretty cool attraction) and hit the Dragon Challenge, Jurrasic Park River Ride, Hulk, and then Forbidden Journey. Our only line longer than 15 minutes was Forbidden Journey -- about a 40 minute wait, but you do see the castle which is pretty interesting. Next we took the train back and hit Gringotts -- 40 minute or so wait and explored Diagon Alley shops, watched entertainment, checked out the other little dark alley, Leaky Cauldron restaurant, etc. (spent about two hours here in total on top of Gringott's ride). Here is where the true HP fan I'm sure could spend way more time (maybe even days). That was it for our plan and we were done by 4:30 p.m.

The extras
We were having a great time and my son 19 and nephew 20 weren't ready to go yet // wanted to do another coaster ride and the Universal teacup kind of stuff with their active grandmother (my mom) who at 78 still loves coasters and spin rides (I think their big thrill was to see if they could get grandma dizzy on the teacups). So we took the train back over (now the train wait was up to 25 minutes -- the earlier two rides were pretty quick), and we did Dr. Doom once, Teacups (I skipped), Hulk, and the Universal tea cup sort of thing again (I can't do that one, but lol my mom can.) The non HP areas weren't crowded at all and lines were all 10 minutes or less with thing like teacups being walk on. // Then we called it a night and went back to the condo and meet up with my dad who decided to skip Univeral/IOA entirely. And that was a good decision for him from what I saw. He uses a scooter at theme parks and has some motion issues and hasn't read any of the HP books or seen any of the movies. His favorite park by the way is SeaWorld. The HP areas were packed with people looking around even on a crowd level three day, and I do not see this as an easy place for using a scooter at all.

Anyway a big thumbs up for Universal/IOA. I has a very low opinion of the place after my visit in 1989, but hey every 25 years or so you should give a place another shot maybe. I found it to be a lot of fun this time and would not hesitate to come back. I'd still only give it one day on my week in Orlando, but hey I'm a huge SeaWorld/Disney/Resort Relaxation Day fan too. I see a ton of people even doing Universal only vacations and lots of recommendations to hit the Universal parks for three days. We were really happy with our one day though. // My husband who doesn't care for theme parks or Orlando didn't even come to Orlando, but DS is trying to talk him into coming for a little while on our next visit, so he can show him the HP areas -- DH does love the HP books and has read them all at least twice / thinks they are so well written. He's seen all the movies too, but says he in his own imagination sees thing differently than what was portrayed in the movies and is not interested in someone else's recreation. If anyone can talk him into going, though, it will be my son, and DH was pretty impressed with some of the photos DS took of the place and DS's descriptions of rides and places.

Thank you so much for sharing! You got a lot done in that 1 day! Wow!

I hope your DH decides to come. I bet that would be fun!

 

[johde]

So I started with the Touringplans.com one day plan that hits both parks for offsite guests and just crossed off all the stuff my son didn't want to do. We did everything on our plan (our main interests first), and then did a few extras that hit our fancy. I was first doing a customized plan with touringplans and trying to delete attractions, but that really didn't work too well online. Their software is really better and geared for doing one park at a time except for their special pre-fabricated plans. So I thought my best bet was using their two park plan and just skipping what we didn't want to do. Their core plan by the way looked a little ambitious to me, so I was happy to see us dropping a few things.

Touringplans.com 1 day/2 park plan is a commando tour of both parks. It was back late summer they mentioned they had tweaked the plan a little bit to be able to squeeze in another attraction.

In general, at Universal, 1 day is enough to do the highlights. To hit all of the headliners, you'll need to have a good plan and go at a fairly commando pace. Looking at Kathy's post. For everything she did in her 1 day, she didn't mention hitting Popeye and Bluto's, Dudley Do Right, Spiderman, and the Cat in the Hat (or anything in Seuss) at IOA; and Simpsons, MIB, and ET in USF. She also didn't mention seeing any shows. That's not to say she didn't have a great day. It's just the limits of 1 day and not going super commando.

Comparing to to Disney, it's about like trying to do DHS and DAK in 1 day if the 2 parks were closer together. Both of which have been called 1/2 day parks. And that holds best before WWOHP opened. You could do it. But you may need to skip some shows or rush through the trails/Rafiki's planet watch at DAK.

With 2 days in the park, you can hit most everything if you move. You have time to hit some of the lesser attractions and repeat your favorites.

With 3 or more days, you have time to really slow down and relax. Especially if your staying onsite. If the parks are open a little later, go back to the hotel for a couple of hours in the afternoon and swim.

For the first time visitor, most of us here would recommend at least 2 days at Universal. For a 7 day trip to Orlando for a first time visitor. I'd recommend

1 1/2 days USF/IOA - Park to Park. Park Hopping both days. Start like Karen did with a stripped down 1 day/2 park plan that allows you to slow down and enjoy yourself instead of just tick boxes off a plan. The second day, hit attractions you missed/reride favorites.

2 days MK If EMH are involved and staying onsite or close possibly go back to the room in the afternoon for swimming.

1 1/2 EPCOT If you're staying onsite it would be nice the 1/2 day happened to be Evening EMH.

1 day DHS, Depending on hours and show schedule could squeeze in afternoon break.

1 day DAK / DTD. DAK closes early much of the year. After finishing the day here could be the ideal time to hit up DTD.