9am-6pm, is this enough time to do both parks?

peeputt

Filled with Wanderlust...
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DH and I have never been to Universal, and I'm dying to go to Wizarding World, but I'd love to see all of Universal. We only have 1 day that would work on our upcoming trip and it's Sept 19th, but I noticed that both parks are only open from 9am -6pm. Is it worth getting the park to park passes for this day, or should I just get passes for IOA? It's only us 2 adults, so there are no kids to slow the process down. I just don't want to waste the money on the park to park if I'm not going to have time to really see both parks. Any advise to this Universal newbie???
 
You should be able to get a lot of stuff done but probably not all.
 
buy the one day park ticket for ioa.

be at the park at 8:30, it opens at 9:00 but perhaps if crowds are low, you will be let in a tad early.
if you are done with that park around 2:30, go to guest services and add park to park.

you will pay the difference for that upgrade price.

then do the studios until that park closes.
(you can hit highlights of the studios)

if you are in line for a ride and it turns 6:00/park closing time, you will be allowed to stay in that line until you are on and finish the ride.


don't take the time out to eat a large, long lunch.

eat at city walk once the park closes.


stick with the one day one park ticket for now.
in case you don't finish touring ioa until 5:30, there would be no reason to upgrade your park ticket for the remainder of the day.

good luck and have fun!
 
What macraven said.

If you are there at open, here's what I'd do.

1. Head right to Dragon Challenge - Ride it 4 times - Front row twice each Dragon
2. The do Harry Potter Forbidden Journey (if you want to go a 2nd time, do the single rider line)
3. Keep moving counter-clockwise and stop at all the rides on the way (Dudley, Bluto's, Spider-Man (Dr. Doom can be skipped in my opinion) and then Hulk).
4. By now it should be between 12 and 1 at the latest (depending on what else you may add or stops you might make (butterbeer..etc). If you leave now you'll have plenty of time for the studios.
5. Go to the Studios - check showtimes for Animal Actors and Horror Makeup. Try to pick show times where animal actors ends within 10 minutes of Horror makeup starting. You can then go right from Animal Actor show to Horror Makeup - Both are worth seeing (we often see them multiple times as they are different each time)
6. For the rides, just make your way around in a circle, only changing that for the shows. Do single rider on everything that allows it and you can get through things pretty quick.

There are some things that you may want to skip with longs waits (Despicable Me and Simpsons) but if you have time left over after doing the rest, come back to these.

With the above, you should be able to do 80% of the park, minus the kids rides.
 

There are quite a few very wet water rides at IOA that you might want to skip if you are trying to get in as much as possible.
 
We have a similar issue. But USf 9-6 and IOA 9-7. Crowd calendars say it is slow. Does the fact that it is a sunday make a difference?
 
We have a similar issue. But USf 9-6 and IOA 9-7. Crowd calendars say it is slow. Does the fact that it is a sunday make a difference?

if you are not going during the summer, sundays can have lighter crowds in the parks.

sometimes sundays are the best day to go to UO.
 
What macraven suggests is what we did in January. Same park times as your date will be. 2 Adults, we bought one day tickets and were at IOA gates at 8:30. Got in went straight to FJ, then rode DD. We didn't mess with the shops or Olivanders. Went around the lake and missed all the water rides, due to timing. Saw most everything else including Poseiden's Fury and Cat in the Hat, etc. . . Jurassic park was closed that day so we missed it :(

Had lunch quickly there and then went to guest services and added the 2nd park. This, unfortunately took over 30 minutes due to a line. Kinda messed up our good day. I would suggest doing this inside the park before you leave. We went outside the park and used guest services at the outside entrance and that was a mistake.

Hot footed it over to the Studios and saw pretty much everything there too with the exception of Terminator. We got to see Fear Factor also. HRRR and Dr. Doom's Fear Fall (at IOA) were the longest waits with about 30 minutes each on this day. I think if they had short waits and we wouldn't have to spent so much time at guest services, we would've been able to get to Terminator.

All the other rides/shows at both parks only had about 10-20 minutes wait.

I must say, my stomach had enough by the time we did HRRR, our last ride for the day. I was SICK!!! All those coasters, OMG and we didn't even do the water stuff!!!!

It was a loooonnnnng day but really fun. I felt we got our money's worth with the cost of a 1 day-2park pass. It can be done but you have to sacrifice some things. Water rides weren't that interesting to me in January, lol. Also missed the obvious kids stuff with the exception of Cat in the Hat.

Good luck, let us know how you did!
 
I would look over the website and read about each ride and then see what in each park looks interesting.

For me, E. T. is such a draw that I would for sure get the park-to-park. Also the Mummy ride is a favorite of my daughters.

I'd skip the water rides unless you save them for the end of the day (popeye and dudley). Jurassic park doesn't usually get you too wet, unless you're in the front seats, so I'd probably ride that.

I'd really study what shows you want to see -- they really do take a lot of time and some are really not that great when time is very limited.

And do a quick counter service lunch.
 
We are in the same boat for our trip in November; we are going on a Monday (Nov 12). We will be in IOA the Friday night prior, so will get some time in there.

If I buy my tickets through UT, can I still add the park-to-park later?
 
I would plan to miss Despicable Me. We just got back and the wait time was 80 minutes just 15 minutes after opening and it never dropped. This was on Sunday and Monday. Unless the ride loses popularity big time in the next month, it will probably take too much time.

I would aim to experience all of HP, ride Hulk, Spiderman, Jurassic Park, maybe Cat in the Hat if you're a fan like I am and then switch over to the studios. Try to ride the Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit, the Simpson, Men in Black and Disaster. Also see the Horror Makeup Show and maybe Shrek.

I agree that it's a good idea to make a list of must-sees. You can see a lot but won't really have time to check out the details or some of the smaller rides.
 
We are in the same boat for our trip in November; we are going on a Monday (Nov 12). We will be in IOA the Friday night prior, so will get some time in there.

If I buy my tickets through UT, can I still add the park-to-park later?

no matter where you buy your UO park tickets, they can be upgraded to park to park, add more days up to 4, etc. at guest services.


UO tickets look the same as the UT tickets.
 
This was back in May and we had a pretty slow day. I think if it is slow you can get a lot done. Also we were able to get in with the resort guests because of a very nice Universal Employee letting us in but the general public got in around 8:45 that day.

7:00 drove from POP to Universal and arrived at Universal with only 5 cars in the parking lot.
Got tickets at 7:45. A booth was open because I hadn't bought tickets yet.
At 8:10 a Universal employee allowed us to go in with the resort guests. Again probably because only my son and I were the only ones sitting there. That was a pretty awesome surprise.

Now the rides

Forbidden Journey - no wait - don't miss 5 out of 5
Hippogriff - little kid coster
Dragon Challenge - 4 out of 5
Park opens and everyone heads to Potter Land so we are off to Super Heros
Spider Man - no wait - 4 out of 5
Hulk - no wait - 4 out of 5 we did this twice
It is now 9:45 so we decide to hop over to the other park
Rockit twice - no wait - best coaster for me 5 out 5
The Mummy - 4 out of 5
Disaster - 1 out of 5 -not sure why I dislike this so much but I did
MIB - 3 out of 5
Simpsons we did twice - 5 out of 5 Weird but my favourite ride of my whole trip. I love the Simpsons.
ET - 3 out of 5
Terminator - 4 out of 5
Twister - 2 out of 5 - Only gets a 2 because of the cow flying by us.
Shrek - 4 out of 5
Back to Island. We wanted to do Rockit again but it was closed because of lightening.
Hulk again - why is Hulk open but not Rockit. We look back and Rockit is now running.
I didn't do the next two rides but my son did and was soaked from head to toe and loved it.
Popeye
Ripsaw Falls - my son said was better then Splash Mountain which I love. I just didn't feel like getting soaked (lame old man)
Jurassic Park - 4 out of 5 - I did this one and yes I got wet but my son got drenched
Did a walk around Potter and walked on to main Potter ride again.

My son then saw the wands and I bought a Valdemore and magically my day ended. This kid with all this energy just wanted to go back to the resort (yay). So we left and arrived back at POP before 7 with the park still open for another 2 hours. That was a tiring 12 hours and quite pricey but it was well worth it. My son enjoyed Universal more then any Disney Park but I can see why people do it in two days.

Not sure if this will help anyone but I was looking to see if could be done and if you get lucky and have the energy I think you can get a lot done.
 
I would look over the website and read about each ride and then see what in each park looks interesting.

For me, E. T. is such a draw that I would for sure get the park-to-park. Also the Mummy ride is a favorite of my daughters.

I'd skip the water rides unless you save them for the end of the day (popeye and dudley). Jurassic park doesn't usually get you too wet, unless you're in the front seats, so I'd probably ride that.

I'd really study what shows you want to see -- they really do take a lot of time and some are really not that great when time is very limited.

And do a quick counter service lunch.
:thumbsup2
 
I would plan to miss Despicable Me. We just got back and the wait time was 80 minutes just 15 minutes after opening and it never dropped. .

This is so disappointing to hear. We are going to do 2 parks in one day this fall and Despicable me is near the top of our list since it's new. I really hope crowds drop a bit and we can ride it first thing. Or maybe wait until last thing. Does anyone know if they have been closing the line early? Or are they like Disney and let you line up until closing?
 
This is so disappointing to hear. We are going to do 2 parks in one day this fall and Despicable me is near the top of our list since it's new. I really hope crowds drop a bit and we can ride it first thing. Or maybe wait until last thing. Does anyone know if they have been closing the line early? Or are they like Disney and let you line up until closing?
As long as you're in line and the park closes, you can ride. You cannot enter the queue once the park closes. I think crowds will drop significantly once all schools are in session but Despicable Me will still have longer waits. I wouldn't give up hope just yet.
 
This is so disappointing to hear. We are going to do 2 parks in one day this fall and Despicable me is near the top of our list since it's new. I really hope crowds drop a bit and we can ride it first thing. Or maybe wait until last thing. Does anyone know if they have been closing the line early? Or are they like Disney and let you line up until closing?
If you have two park days, maybe you could line up early at the Studios one morning and make a beeline for the ride. The OP only has one day so she'll have to hit up HP first. Despicable Me will likely be pretty jammed later in her day.
 
DH and I have never been to Universal, and I'm dying to go to Wizarding World, but I'd love to see all of Universal. We only have 1 day that would work on our upcoming trip and it's Sept 19th, but I noticed that both parks are only open from 9am -6pm. Is it worth getting the park to park passes for this day, or should I just get passes for IOA? It's only us 2 adults, so there are no kids to slow the process down. I just don't want to waste the money on the park to park if I'm not going to have time to really see both parks. Any advise to this Universal newbie???

I saw an update on FB today from Orlando Informer that said some September hours were extended. Your date on the 19th has US open until 6 and IOA until 7. It's not much, but every hour helps! :)
 


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