A few questions!

[flortlebap]

Hi all

Whilst I'm pretty much OK with planning Disney, I have no idea how to go about planning our visit here!!

We have two days, and we will probably do one day at IoA and one at Universal (although we may only do half a day at Universal as the kids are quite young, 8, 6, 5 & 5).

A few things I want to ask are:

• Are the opening hours listed anywhere for early June 2012? What sort of time should you get there to make the most of the day?
• Am I right in thinking the free express passes are done with? Are they worth buying (we are going on a Monday and Tuesday)?
• Where are the best restaurants (we really like quirky/themed places, not so bothered about characters)
• How busy is WWoHP really? Is it as bad as everyone makes out?

Thank you so much for your help - I know there are a few questions!!!

 

[queendisney]

Hi all

Whilst I'm pretty much OK with planning Disney, I have no idea how to go about planning our visit here!!

We have two days, and we will probably do one day at IoA and one at Universal (although we may only do half a day at Universal as the kids are quite young, 8, 6, 5 & 5).

A few things I want to ask are:

• Are the opening hours listed anywhere for early June 2012? What sort of time should you get there to make the most of the day?
  
  no its too soon for June hours
  
• Am I right in thinking the free express passes are done with? Are they worth buying (we are going on a Monday and Tuesday)?
  
  The passes are only free if you are staying on site at Universal and personally we have found that we have never really needed them but have not been in June before, but considering your children are young its gonna cost a far bit and you're not really going to get your use out of them.
  
• Where are the best restaurants (we really like quirky/themed places, not so bothered about characters)
  
  not too good on this one we tend to just grab and go
  
• How busy is WWoHP really? Is it as bad as everyone makes out?
  
  LOVE WWoHP..but you do have to head there first thing, as early as you possibly can. It gets extremely packed very quickly as its not a huge place and still very very popular

Thank you so much for your help - I know there are a few questions!!!

Have fun planning....

 

[flortlebap]

Thank you :

I have never been before in June either! In fact the last time I went, it was early October 5 years ago and we practically had the parks to ourselves! That's why I'm panicking more this time round...

 

[damo]

If you are going in early June it will be much less busy than later June. Get to the parks at rope drop, which will probably be 9 am in early June and 8 am in later June.. If you go to the hours calendar, you can go backwards to see what the hours were this past June and that should be similar as to what you should expect.

There is a food sticky with all menus and recommendations.

There is no free express unless you stay onsite and then it is free and unlimited. In the summer, this is the way to go. This will be the third summer for the Wizarding World. It is difficult to say how busy it will be.

 

[flortlebap]

Yes it's early June!

Glad to hear it won't be too bad!

 

[kohlby]

I've never been in June - crowds were extremely managable the week before thanksgiving. We got there at rope drop and lines really weren't an issue. (Never waited more than 10 minutes for anything, including in WWoHP). I agree with going to WWoHP first. Those staying on-site get in an hour early, but I think that can actually work to your advantage since it gets people through Forbidden Journey an hour ahead. Despite it being a low crowd day when I went, the stores were still packed. We came back in late afternoon and the stores were much more managable. Another tip I've heard is to go to the stores at closing. If the park closes at 8pm, that means that all people in the Forbidden Journey line at 8pm will get on - and the stores remain open until they're done. So, as everyone else leaves the park, the stores will still be open a little. I went on a low crowd days, so that really wouldn't have helped me since the FJ lines were under 10 minutes even an hour before closing that day.

There are couple good restaurants I've heard of but we're also grab and go type of folks. However, The Three Broomsticks handles crowds amazingly well and the food was pretty good too. Plus, we had to do it because the kids are such huge HP fans. The feast food package looked yummy but would have been way too much food for us - 2 adults and kids 8, 5, and 2. Perhaps that would work better for your crew. Definately get some frozen butterbeer.

Two years ago, we found that the kids meal deal saved us money. You can buy just the kids and not the adults. The adult one wouldn't have saved us. Three Broomsticks is not included in it however. It's the basic pizza and burgers fare, so not incredible food but it worked. It's only worth looking into if you know you'll eat both lunch and dinner in the park. When we did it, the kids size pizza was the exact same size as the adult! So I'd buy a fruit plate for myself and eat the kids leftover pizza. (It does say no sharing, but I figured that was a grey area since I did buy food for myself and only got a meal for the two older kids, who were almost 4, and 6 on that trip).

Another eating idea that works well for my kids is Moe's. It's a chain and there's one at Citywalk. It's like a fresher Taco Bell.

 

[flortlebap]

Thanks for the helpful reply! I didn't even know they did a meal plan!

WWoHP is going to be a must for us, my oldest is a HUGE fan and my younger three claim to love it, although I'm not entirely convinced they understand it

Fingers crossed for low crowds. I'm still planning for the worst!

 

[francie57]

As far as restaurants go, we love Thunder Falls Terrace near Jarassic Park in IOA. They have a good variety and the meals are large so you could split a meal between two of the kids. At Universal we like Richter Burger for a quick lunch and Finnegans for a sit-down meal. Margaritaville is a must for us also.

 

[macraven]

if you do not stay on site, do not buy the epp in advance.
they are non refundable and date stamped.

wait until you are in the park to determine if they are needed.
if you are in the park and it starts raining, lines generally are short then and no epp is necessary.

you can buy the epp in the parks while you are there.
they do not have to be purchased in advance.

 

[Metro West]

Thanks for the helpful reply! I didn't even know they did a meal plan!

The meal deal isn't that great unless you have people in your party who like to eat a lot. There are better places to try that are not on the meal deal and most portion sized are large enough to share. I would recommend Thunder Falls Terrace and Mythos in IoA and Finnegan's and Louie's at the Studios.