4 Days at Universal Parks. Need Planning Help.

[VeroBeachGirl]

We will be visiting Universal Parks (IOA & US) for 4 days in the first week of June. Staying offsite. My kids are huge Harry Potter fans so we are trying to pick a strategy for how to see the parks. We were going to buy express passes for 2 days (1 at each park for 1 day). What is the best way to go about visiting the parks:

1. 2 Whole Days for Harry Potter Area (1 day in each park) & 2 Whole Days to see other parts of parks with Express Pass

2. 2 days for each park, mixing Harry Potter lands with the other attractions.

3. Any other ideas or strategies to maximize Potter time and only buy express passes for 2/4 days.

Thanks,

 

[rickym]

The Harry Potter sections of the park aren't big enough to reserve a whole day for. They are really cool, but there's not enough to take a whole day

 

[bobbie68]

Hi Harry Potter sections are best done at opening or later in the day when the crowds thin out. I would mix the Harry Potter sections with the regular parks during the day. Do HP first thing in the morning till it is too busy then go back at night. I think you will be fine with 2 days EP then you can kind of just relax and re ride what you like. Also have you thought about VB which is opening soon. It might be a nice park to check out for you. Like the pp said the HP areas are not that big just get crowded. Last year that is what we did however, we stayed on site for 4 nights so we had EP all 4 days. This year we are doing VB for 2 days and US/IOA for 2 days. You can't use EP on Gringotts or Forbidden Journey. Enjoy

 

[jeffbeardreams]

If you want to devote a lot of time to the Harry Potter sections, you could try my favorite tactic ... doing Early Admission for the two big ticket HP rides on two consecutive mornings, followed by wandering around doing the other things in each park that interest you, followed by a nice break at the resort to cool off, followed by a late afternoon/early evening followup on whatever Potter stuff was missed in the morning. Then the third day could be devoted to the other attractions, like Minions, that are best done early followed by anything you've missed. 4th day at Volcano Bay ... done.

Bottom line .... I'm a get stuff done super early and then take a break kind of guy. I'd rather take 4 more leisurely days to do what I could do in 3 hard charging days. But that's me.

 

[janicept]

I would go to HP areas at rope drop and ride the rides then go to a couple other rides then loop back to HP area when the lines get long. Eat lunch then maybe more HP. Then some rides/attractions that have shorter lines. Back to ride the HP rides again near closing.

Four days will give you multiple times to see HP areas even without EPs. You can always wait until you're there to buy EPs on your third and fourth days if you feel you need them. Maybe use that money for other neat experiences like more meals in HP area and more butterbeer.

 

[macraven]

All good suggestions!

Read some of the trip reports and see how others do the parks

Quite a few posters have a different style of touring and manage to cover a lot each day in the parks

 

[Kivara]

I didn't see any mention of whether or not you would have park-to-park passes (sorry if I missed it) But, as Potter fans, I would recommend them. You can only ride the Hogwarts Express with park-to-park passes, as the train takes you between the two theme parks. Also, the train has 2 story lines, so you will want to ride it both directions.

The shows in the Potter sections are a lot of fun as well. We especially like the 2 in Diagon Alley (Celestina Warbeck and the Three Brothers puppet-ish show. (Also, in Diagon, those show are more shaded, and if you show up a little early, you can snag a seat on the ground in front of the stage.)

The interactive wands are around $55 each (with tax), but they are a lot of fun. We can spend hours wandering around hitting all the spell spots (a map comes with the wand of most of the spell spots, but a few are not listed for the surprise of finding them)