3 day park hopper Q

[Kellyww]

So my kids are 9 and 10 (so ok roller coaster riders but not thrill riders). got the park hopper for this sat, sun and monday. Monday afternoon we also have tickets to disney (I wanted to see the lights etc) and plan to head over there around 3:00 but that is flexible.

The hotel offers early admission to Universal Studios. Should we spend one day at one park the second at the other park and determine which to go back to on part of the 3rd day- but we want to ride the HP train...??? how /when shoudl we fit that it.

I had read where one suggestion was on the first day do half of one park and see non harry potter stuff right at early admission while evryone else is lining up at HP, then head to harry potter at the other park (via train) late in the day because it won't be crowded and spend time there. Then on second day kind of repeat but backwards and third go to what you missed. Seems a lot of park 'hopping' but we do want to ride the HP train. Not sure how to fit it all in the schedule.

Thanks in advance!

 

[macraven]

What are your dates for the darkside?
FJ is down until the 18 th of this month

If you have park hoppers, take HE anytime you are ready to see the other potter section at the other

Since the parks are close to each other, it takes very little time to hop back and forth to them

There have been some trips I start at the studios, go to islands hours later and then return to the studios to close out my day in the park

 

[Kellyww]

We leave today so we will visit the IOA and US the 17-19th. With the 19th being the half day since we will travel to Disney around 3:00

 

[damo]

We hop between both parks a few times each day. I would just play it by ear. You're going to want to take the Hogwarts Express between parks anyway, so you'll do both parks each day anyways.

 

[TheConsciousness]

When we went for 3 days, we spent all of the first day in USO and the second day in IOA. On the third day we went into Hogsmeade, rode those rides and explored all of the places we hadn't seen, rode the HE train over to Diagon Alley to explore that side, and then rode the rides we wanted to hit up again on the USO side.

 

[bchbetha]

We hop between both parks a few times each day. I would just play it by ear. You're going to want to take the Hogwarts Express between parks anyway, so you'll do both parks each day anyways.

Same here. We might not have been Uber efficient but we bounced back and forth. Unlike Disney, the parks are right there. You can walk hate to gate in 5 minutes or take the train. We ended each night in Diagon Alley bc it's beautiful at night.

 

[wookiebeck]

Love all the replies here. It seems we always 'make excuses' to jump on the HE and hop to the other park. It is such a nice ride. I figure we hop every day. That is what is great about Uni, more laid back plan than WDW.

 

[Owl X]

Note that the Hogwarts Express trip is different depending on the direction.
So traveling from IoA to US is different than traveling from US to IoA.
You want to ride the train each direction at least once.

 

[pcstang]

We hop multiple times also. Keep in mind what mac said though. FJ is scheduled to open on the 19th, your half day.