Amount of walking at Harry Potter World

[Eeyore5]

I am planning a trip to Disney World. I'm going to go to Harry Potter World for one day. I need a scooter at Disney of the amount of walking. I'm trying to decide if I'll need one for Harry Potter World. Does anyone know how the size of Harry Potter World compares to Disney? I am only planning on going to the two parts of Harry Potter World, not the rest of Universal studios.

 

[EvilDrPorkchop21]

Getting to the Harry Potter sections of both parks requires a bit of walking. Once inside there is a bit of exploring to do. If you think you might need one, I'd go for it. Better off having it.

 

[redberyl]

It takes a lot of walking just to get to Harry potter world, so you may need it for that. Once there you might need to park it, because most of the shops are tiny, difficult to navigate even with an umbrella stroller. Haven't been since the expansion, but the first phase wasn't very big, less than the size of a mk land

 

[SueM in MN]

I agree with the other posters and made a quick picture to show you.
The Harry Potter area in Universal Studio is circled in red and the route you would take to get there is also in red.
I marked the path of the train between London/Diagon Alley and Hogsmead in green and circled Hogsmead in green.

Parking ramps and drop off lots are across the street from Universal City Walk.
There is a very long skyway that goes between the parking ramps and City Walk. There are some moving sidewalks in the skyway, but it's still a long way to even get to City Walk, then you need to cross that to even get into either Islands of Adventure (Hogsmead/Hogwarts) or Universal (London/Diagon Alley).
You will walk at least a 1-1.5 miles just to get from parking to London according to Google maps. That surprised me because it feels longer!
Once you are in London/Diagon Alley, there are a lot of little streets and areas to explore, so you could walk another mile or 2 just exploring that area. Even though it looks small on the map, there are a lot of little streets,most more walking than it appears.
As others mentioned, you would probably need to park the ECV outside of shops - they are pretty tight.

The Hogwarts Express train goes directly between London and Hogwarts and does accommodate ECVs, so you will be able to get between the 2 Harry Potter areas without walking. Without an ECV, you could be standing/walking in the queue for the train for 30 minutes or more.
There are fewer shops in Hogsmead - there look like a lot more, but the majority are just storefronts where you can look in the windows. The ones that are open shops are very tight - it's hard even navigating to walk through.

Universal doesn't allow ECVs in most lines, so it makes sense to drive between places since you will be walking (or riding in an attraction wheelchair) in lines.

 

[Eeyore5]

Thanks everyone! That is very helpful. If it wasn't for the walk to and from Harry Potter World, I'd probably be able to handle it. Has anyone rented a scooter at Univeral Studios? I think that is my best option rather the trying to find acessable transportation. The friend I am going with is renting a car. Neither of us can handle lifting scooter components in and out if a car.

 

[ammag]

When is your trip? I am in the same position....it's the first long walk that will probably do me in for the day so it's probably not worth trying. It's a lot of money just to do wizarding world for one day! Don't want to ruin it. I am going to try and take the ECV.

 

[Hoodie]

I'm trying to remember if there's any where to park an ECV outside of Harry Potter world. The walk from the transportation hub to the entrance of the park is about 1/3 of a mile. That doesn't include the walk from your car to the hub. Then both Harry Potter lands are in the back of the parks. I did a quick estimate and it was about 3/4 of a mile from the hub to the entrance of HP. I was actually thinking that if my mother ever gets to go, we'd have to push her in a wheelchair or get her an ECV just to get to HP. Once there though, the stores and pathways are pretty tight. Come to think of it, I didn't see a single ECV in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley.

The other place you'll want it is the train between the parks, particularly on the Hogsmeade side. The walk up to that train and the line once you get there are REALLY long and winding. At Diagon Alley, they actually drop you at King's Cross and you have to walk around to Diagon Alley.

 

[DarkatSpock]

I am planning a trip to Disney World. I'm going to go to Harry Potter World for one day. I need a scooter at Disney of the amount of walking. I'm trying to decide if I'll need one for Harry Potter World. Does anyone know how the size of Harry Potter World compares to Disney? I am only planning on going to the two parts of Harry Potter World, not the rest of Universal studios.

Hi There!
I have had several back surgeries (and spinal fusions...) AND happen to love Disney and Universal (and, of course, Harry Potter!). I DO recommend renting an ECV for Harry Potter stuff on your trip. It's a bit of a trek to get to the HP sections to begin with. The map above is great! There ARE many places to park your scooter and I've ALWAYS felt comfortable maneuvering around even inside the attractions. The train to Diagon Alley is also VERY ECV friendly!! Even though everything seems close to each other within the HP sections, the walks on the waiting lines and such add alot of steps to your mileage!! I'd rather be able to walk and stand to enjoy the attractions than to spend my "walking limit" getting TO the HP areas!
Hope this helps!

Also... I recently purchased my own ECV and found that it's fairly simple and easy to fly, as well! I've actually saved money over the past few trips instead of renting each time. Yes, they CAN be a pain to wrangle into a vehicle but the taxi services (not to mention most of the park transportation) have wheelchair/scooter friendly vans! I recently saw a completely portable....truly portable ECV on QVC... not sure how much $$ but it rolls like a golf club bag when you're not on it!

 

[Eeyore5]

I am going in October 2016. Last August I made it 6 hours walking at the state fair with lots of breaks and I was miserable the next day. But the 2 years ago I only made it 3 hours. I'm working on getting stronger but am not sure what my limit is. When I was a teen and in good shape, the state fair was hard. I have mild CP.

I am so excited to go to Harry Potter World and don't want my disability to stop me. I only need a mobility device for really long days of walking. For those how have been there: Do you feel like one day is enough time if all I am interested in is Harry Potter?

DarkatSpock: thanks for the reasurance about accessibility. That has been making me nervous. It's why I love Disney. It's so easy to get around there.

 

[bopper]

Remember it isn't all or nothing...you can use the EVC to get to HP land...walk around...and then use it again in a long line.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

We did both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in March this year (on different days). We did US first and was able to take my (rented) scooter into Diagon Alley. I had to park it up in a side lane about 20 yards from Gringotts' ride and walk back on my stick, but other than that had no problem with it. You have to use the elevator to get up to the platform to ride Hogworts Express (remember you must have a dual-park ticket to be able to ride it), but once up they send you to a queue, you get out of the scooter and into the carriage you're directed to, and all scooters, wheelchairs and strollers are loaded into a compartment at the back of each carriage.

Admittedly we were fast-tracked both ends: at 'Paddington Station' I heard the girl at the front calling for a party of 3. I cheekily said "We're a three" as no-one ahead of us in the queue was taking any notice, so we must have jumped over 30 people to get on the next train. When we got off at Hogsmeade, we went right round and back into the entrance to go straight back to US on the train. This time we were taken straight to the front of the queue and were loaded onto the next train back. I wonder whether that was because the guy who was giving us timings of queues 'rang ahead' on his walkie talkie that a party was coming over on the train with a scooter and wanted to come straight back again ... I guess we'll never know.

Anyway, we managed fine in Diagon Alley, as I said, even though it was manically busy that day. I didn't go into any of the shops, but could have left the scooter outside very easily.

Unfortunately I didn't get to find out where you would leave scooters at Hogsmeade because when we returned to IoA a couple of days later, Forbidden Journey was temporarily closed due to some sort of fault.

You really do need a scooter at Universal, though, because both parks run for miles round a central lake, and there's no short cut to anything.

Oh, regarding parking, while we had to pay to park (and that was perfectly acceptible) as they don't have elevators between parking levels - only escalators - we were directed to the disabled parking section where we were directed right to the back of the row where there were some spaces for people without a disabled parking badge. On our second visit, the guy directing where to park told us to park right at the front. I told him I couldn't as I didn't have a disabled tag, but he said, "It's okay, just park there. I'll still be here when you get back." He was, too!

 

[Amusement]

One other thing to keep in mind is that seating/benches are very, very limited in those areas and they can get pretty crowded so the competition for a place to rest can get a little fierce. I have arthritis in my feet and in general I have done fine on our trips as long as I could sit and rest from time to time to give my feet a breather and I really struggled the day we went to Universal to see the HP areas. I loved our time there, but I couldn't make it a full day because the pain in my feet got to be too bad because I had a hard time finding places to rest. An ECV would have given me a guaranteed place to sit and rest when I needed to do so and I would have been able to stay in the park longer as a result.

 

[Eeyore5]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am so exited about my trip. Toffeywoffy, thanks for the info about parking. I hadn't though about that.

Does anyone know if you rent an ECV at US can you take it between the two parks?

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am so exited about my trip. Toffeywoffy, thanks for the info about parking. I hadn't though about that.

Does anyone know if you rent an ECV at US can you take it between the two parks?

Toffeewoffy posted above that she was able to.

Universal Orlando's website is not clear about it,
https://www.universalorlando.com/Resort-Information/Rentals.aspx

They do let a number to call for requesting one ahead of time, so should be able to answe your question: 407-224-4233

 

[Eeyore5]

I wasn't sure if it was rented on site or off site. I know at Disney you can't take park ECVs from one park to another one.

 

[SueM in MN]

I wasn't sure if it was rented on site or off site. I know at Disney you can't take park ECVs from one park to another one.

The big difference is distance.
All of the Disney parks are prett far apart. It is possible to walk between Epcot and the Studio, but is about a one mile walk. To go between any of the other parks requires using some kind of transportation. Each park has its own parking lot.
Because of all that, WDW would need to do a lot of transporting ECVs if they allowed them to go from park to park. Also, stealing ECVs would be pretty easy.

Universal and Islands of Adventure are right next to each other. They also share
A parking ramp. It's very easy to go from park to park.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

Sue, just to clarify, I hired my scooter from Florida Mobility Rentals. I took delivery first thing on our first full day, and it was collected at 4pm on our last day, just before we had to leave our hotel (AoA) for the airport. THB, I've never noticed where you can rent scooters at Universal: I assume they have them ...

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the clarification - I misunderstood.