1st Time Universal Goer ???

[mubriankoz]

So yes my family is a brain washed Disney Family, (DVC members, the Mrs. is an ex-cast member) we have an upcoming Orlando trip in mid-July. We have an extra day open and want to visit US and/or IOA.

With the express passes can we do both parks in a single day? Especially if we only do the headline attractions?

My 10 and 9 year old kids really want to do all the HP attractions. Also high on the list are Spider Man, Transformers, and Minons.

By mid July Diagon Alley looks like it should be fully open right?

No easy answer here but for a family that lives Disney and knows all those parks inside and out we are struggling how to balance the 2 Universal parks and how to best experience given a limited time.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Metro West]

If you are only doing the highlights then yes...you can do both in a single day...but its not recommended.

Diagon Alley should be open by the time you visit.

It will be a very expensive day with purchasing EPs and having to have park to park tickets in order to ride Hogwarts Express. There are no discounts for single day admissions. I doubt EPs will work for Hogwarts Express or Escape from Gringotts and Forbidden Journey still does not accept EPs.

 

[RMulieri]

If you are only doing the highlights then yes...you can do both in a single day...but its not recommended.

Diagon Alley should be open by the time you visit.

It will be a very expensive day with purchasing EPs and having to have park to park tickets in order to ride Hogwarts Express. There are no discounts for single day admissions. I doubt EPs will work for Hogwarts Express or Escape from Gringotts and Forbidden Journey still does not accept EPs.

This
Harry Potter Headliners will not take express, and without staying onsite you wont have early entry either.Plan on spending a long long time in those lines.Even now , Forbidden journey can have 90-120 min waits in summer , and that has been open since 2010.Expect that and worse in Diagon alley because it is so new.If you only do Harry Potter and the attractions you mention it may be possible, but I wouldnt count on it.July is crazy busy to begin with and with the new HP stuff, ALOT more people are planning trips and adding on ddays to WDW trips to see it

 

[mubriankoz]

so i think the plan is US only, being the park experts that we are we will be at the gates for rope drop and hit Diagon Alley right away and venture around the park from there.

How are the shows at US? At some point we will want to get off our feet and relax some.

Knowing my family we will end up in Springfield for lunch, hoping the food is good.

 

[hermionesnape]

so i think the plan is US only, being the park experts that we are we will be at the gates for rope drop and hit Diagon Alley right away and venture around the park from there. How are the shows at US? At some point we will want to get off our feet and relax some. Knowing my family we will end up in Springfield for lunch, hoping the food is good.

You said in your original post that your kids were looking forward to Harry Potter and you also mentioned Spider-man. You have to get tickets to IoA and Universal to hit all of the attractions you originally mentioned.


In IoA -
Hogwarts and Hogwarts Ride
Hogsmead
Dragon Challenge (Triwizard themed roller coaster)
Flight of the Hippogriff (small tame coaster set next to Hagrid's hut)
Spider-Man

 

[RMulieri]

Even IF you only plan on doing Diagon Alley, You will still need a park to park pass ( US equivalent of a park hopper )if you plan on doing the Hogwarts express( a park to park ticket is required to ride it), and since ONE day park to park tickets are not discounted, it is a very expensive day trip to only do the one area.

 

[clsteve]

so i think the plan is US only, being the park experts that we are we will be at the gates for rope drop and hit Diagon Alley right away and venture around the park from there.

How are the shows at US? At some point we will want to get off our feet and relax some.

Knowing my family we will end up in Springfield for lunch, hoping the food is good.

Our family loved the Universal Horror Make-up Show. It's really well done, with 2 great MC's, informative, and incredibly funny.

The donuts at Lard Lad Donuts in Springfield are surprisingly good.

 

[glocon]

So this is not really relaxing- (ok, no relaxing at all), but we love the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit and the Mummy coasters.

As far as relaxing goes though- we love to watch the Blues Brothers show in the New York backlot area. Very entertaining and gives you some down time.

 

[Magpie]

So yes my family is a brain washed Disney Family, (DVC members, the Mrs. is an ex-cast member) we have an upcoming Orlando trip in mid-July. We have an extra day open and want to visit US and/or IOA.

I think my question for you would be:

If you had a friend who'd never been to Disney World before. And they said to you, "We have an extra day open and want to visit Hollywood Studios and/or the Magic Kingdom," what would your reaction be? How about if they then went on to tell you that their top priorities are Toy Story Mania, seeing Anna and Elsa and riding the Mine Train Coaster in New Fantasyland? And they'll be going in mid-summer, at a high crowd time, shortly after the opening of a new land?

Oh, and now imagine that none of the aforementioned headlining attractions have FP. And you have to pay (a lot) extra to get FP on any of the rest of the rides. What would you expect their takeaway impression of Disney World to be? Would it be positive?

Yes, for a whole lot of money, you can dip your toes into Universal Studios a day, and see a few things. But I'd worry that it wouldn't leave you with the best impression of the place.

A better bet, if you can swing it, is to book a single night at one of the deluxe resorts (which, by the way, cost about as much as Disney moderate, despite being as plush as any Disney deluxe - and walking distance to the parks!). One night at a deluxe resort will give you two whole days worth of unlimited express pass (like FP, but without time limits and no need to pre-book). And an hour early entry to the Wizarding World!

Get a park-to-park ticket. If you don't, you won't be able to ride the Hogwart's Express, which is a significant part of the new Diagon Alley expansion, and much more than just transportation between the parks. New scenes have been filmed especially for the Express, and rumour has it the train will be attacked by Dementors.

Remember: Hogsmede and the Forbidden Journey ride are in Islands of Adventure, and Diagon Alley and the Gringott's ride are in Universal Studios. If your kids want to do ALL the Harry Potter rides and attractions, you will have to visit both parks on a 2 park ticket.

Good luck!

 

[mubriankoz]

how does rope drop work at US? Similar to Disney I assume??

Plan is to hit Diagon Alley right away and ride Gringotts twice then head to the rest of the park and circle back later in the afternoon. I really hope the park itself lives up to the hype, i cant wait to check it out!

 

[agavegirl1]

No one knows yet how the early entry for onsite guests will work with respect to Diagon Alley. If resort guests are allowed entry at 8AM, showing up at 9AM and expecting to ride Gringotts twice seems a bit ambitious. I know that you are die-hard Disney folk but I'd seriously consider the one night stay on site at one of the deluxe resorts mentioned by a PP. However, if not, use your rope drop strategy to ride Gringotts, tour around Diagon Alley then venture out into the rest of the park. I personally like almost everything there but for downtime shows try Beetlejuice's Graveyard Review and/or Animal Actors on location. The Blues Brothers are great but there is no seating.

 

[RMulieri]

No one knows yet how the early entry for onsite guests will work with respect to Diagon Alley. If resort guests are allowed entry at 8AM, showing up at 9AM and expecting to ride Gringotts twice seems a bit ambitious. I know that you are die-hard Disney folk but I'd seriously consider the one night stay on site at one of the deluxe resorts mentioned by a PP. However, if not, use your rope drop strategy to ride Gringotts, tour around Diagon Alley then venture out into the rest of the park. I personally like almost everything there but for downtime shows try Beetlejuice's Graveyard Review and/or Animal Actors on location. The Blues Brothers are great but there is no seating.

agree..During August last summer Forbidden journey ( which opened in 2010) had waits of 60 mins shortly after opening( you have all the early entry folk riding and then the floodgates open and the whole park essentially runs for the same area, WWoHP).By the time we got off our first ride in early entry, the line was 30 mins, by the time we rode it again and walked back around, park had opened and the wait jumped straight to 60 mins, we went to jurassic park and came back and the wait was 90 mins..That is how popular Harry Potter is. ..riding Gringotts 2x is very ambitious especially since it is brand spanking new and everyone will be slamming into that section of the studios.
i would really hate for the OP to get a bad-taste in her mouth from trying to cram too much into one busy summer day.Universal is wonderful ,but it can be very crowded and summer is brutally hot waiting in long lines

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

So yes my family is a brain washed Disney Family, (DVC members, the Mrs. is an ex-cast member) we have an upcoming Orlando trip in mid-July. We have an extra day open and want to visit US and/or IOA.

With the express passes can we do both parks in a single day? Especially if we only do the headline attractions?

My 10 and 9 year old kids really want to do all the HP attractions. Also high on the list are Spider Man, Transformers, and Minons.

By mid July Diagon Alley looks like it should be fully open right?

No easy answer here but for a family that lives Disney and knows all those parks inside and out we are struggling how to balance the 2 Universal parks and how to best experience given a limited time.

Thanks in advance!

I do both in one day. I go to IOA first and ride:

Hulk
Spiderman
water rides in cartoon alley if warm enough
Jurassic Park ride
Harry Potter

I will do Potter and Spiderman a 2nd or a 3rd time if lines are 15 minutes or less.

Then I make my way over to US

Then I go to the Lucy display
Terminator 2
Lunch at Mel's Diner
ET
Simpsons
Disaster
Mummy
Shrek
Despicable Me

Mix in stopping in a few stores, a few snack, drink breaks and I'm done by 4.

 

[mubriankoz]

thanks for all the tips!!

33 days until we hit Orlando, cant wait to have a new experience at Universal!!

 

[sadossey]

We just returned from 5 nights at RP hotel at Universal with 3 day P2P tix. We did DW the last 2 years and had a great time so I had to talk my wife into going to Universal this year cause our kids are young (7 and 4). We did one full day in each park and one "best of" day in both parks and we still didn't see and do everything. There is a lot to see and do, so one day will be pushing it I think. And it wasn't all that crowded last week and we had express passes(which are great!!!). Our take....we are done with Disney World! Universal / IOA has it beat hands down.

 

[nighttowll]

how does rope drop work at US? Similar to Disney I assume?? Plan is to hit Diagon Alley right away and ride Gringotts twice then head to the rest of the park and circle back later in the afternoon. I really hope the park itself lives up to the hype, i cant wait to check it out!

I'd be extremely flexible in whatever plan you decide on. I know in the past when HP first opened, they actually physically blocked it off and handed out passes to return later in the day at a scheduled time. I'd go back and read some about the chaos of when the original section opened to give yourself an idea of what you may be in store for. No one really knows what they are going to do this time. If there is no early entry for resort guests, and you go at RD, I'd still only expect to ride one ride once before the lines get long. If there is early entry, I'm not sure RD will offer any advantage at all for Diagon Ally. Think TSMM if you need a good Disney comparison to popularity, crowds, and wait times.

For instance, the old section was wall to wall people spring break with 90 minutes waits, but the rest of the park was no where near as crowded. I can only imagine how crowded Diagonal Ally will be. So many people have put off trips to go just for this. Then add in that it is peak summer season, and you've got a recipe for huge crowds in that one section. I really don't think you are going to achieve any advantage heading straight to Diagon Ally at RD unless they are giving out the paper return tickets and you are able to get one of those.

Since you've never been before, my advice would be to head to Hogsmeade at RD instead of Diagon Ally. No guarantee it will be better, but there is good reason to believe it may be a little less crowded right at first.

1. Repeat visitors will be heading for Diagon Ally since they've already seen Hogsmeade.
2. Many people want to go in order like they are in the books. You know go to Diagon Ally first, then take the train, then end up at the school. Like they are a student.

So, hitting Hogsmeade first may give you a slight advantage over the masses heading to Diagon Ally.

It's just a thought.

Honestly, I can't wrap my head around what you want to do. It would be my idea of a nightmare. It's kind of like saying you are going to do TSMM twice, then circle around the park without any FP and come back again later. I don't think you are going to have very much time to get much done at all unless you have an EP. I went during a moderate time and couldn't have done what you described without an EP. Plus we spent a good 1/2 day in Hogsmeade alone, and we used EP and the singles line. Hitting both HP sections, even without long waits, would take me most of one day by itself. I'd need a second day to do anything not HP related. I'm planning my HP trip for October and still plan to use early entry to avoid the crowds. But everybody tours differently, so you may be more use to flying through lands quickly and do fine.

Best of luck.

 

[mubriankoz]

I'd be extremely flexible in whatever plan you decide on. I know in the past when HP first opened, they actually physically blocked it off and handed out passes to return later in the day at a scheduled time. I'd go back and read some about the chaos of when the original section opened to give yourself an idea of what you may be in store for. No one really knows what they are going to do this time. If there is no early entry for resort guests, and you go at RD, I'd still only expect to ride one ride once before the lines get long. If there is early entry, I'm not sure RD will offer any advantage at all for Diagon Ally. Think TSMM if you need a good Disney comparison to popularity, crowds, and wait times.

For instance, the old section was wall to wall people spring break with 90 minutes waits, but the rest of the park was no where near as crowded. I can only imagine how crowded Diagonal Ally will be. So many people have put off trips to go just for this. Then add in that it is peak summer season, and you've got a recipe for huge crowds in that one section. I really don't think you are going to achieve any advantage heading straight to Diagon Ally at RD unless they are giving out the paper return tickets and you are able to get one of those.

Since you've never been before, my advice would be to head to Hogsmeade at RD instead of Diagon Ally. No guarantee it will be better, but there is good reason to believe it may be a little less crowded right at first.

1. Repeat visitors will be heading for Diagon Ally since they've already seen Hogsmeade.
2. Many people want to go in order like they are in the books. You know go to Diagon Ally first, then take the train, then end up at the school. Like they are a student.

So, hitting Hogsmeade first may give you a slight advantage over the masses heading to Diagon Ally.

It's just a thought.

Honestly, I can't wrap my head around what you want to do. It would be my idea of a nightmare. It's kind of like saying you are going to do TSMM twice, then circle around the park without any FP and come back again later. I don't think you are going to have very much time to get much done at all unless you have an EP. I went during a moderate time and couldn't have done what you described without an EP. Plus we spent a good 1/2 day in Hogsmeade alone, and we used EP and the singles line. Hitting both HP sections, even without long waits, would take me most of one day by itself. I'd need a second day to do anything not HP related. I'm planning my HP trip for October and still plan to use early entry to avoid the crowds. But everybody tours differently, so you may be more use to flying through lands quickly and do fine.

Best of luck.

good advice, we are going to roll the dice and be at the park entrance to US a good 30 min before gates open for non-resort guests. We will head right to Gringotts and hope for the best. Even if we get on pnly once early i'll take it. With this our first time there I'm sue we will enjoy Transformers, Minons, Springfield, etc