littlejimmy
Registered
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2014
- Messages
- 1,097
Went to universal with my 19 year old daughter this past weekend. Stayed club level at pbh. and the weekend was fantastic. I wont bore you with the details, but I will post some tips that I hope you will find helpful:
1. If ioa has early entry, and you want to get to gringotts asap. go to universal studios at 8:10, gates will open by 8:30 and you will be one of the first people on gringotts. Even if the Hogwarts express starts early from ioa, you will still beat them to gringotts.
2. If you have ridden gringotts before, and want to ride it, the single rider line is a god send. the queue is themeless, but unusually empty especially in the first 2 hours that the park is open. we rode gringotts one time through the regular queue and 3 more times in the single rider line, all by 9 am. one time we even got to ride together. nice.
3. on sunday, june 14, both ioa and us had early entry. the lines at universal were much more crowded. not sure this is a trend, but it happened.
4. on that sunday, we queued up at ioa at 725, gates opened at 750. we went on forbidden journey, then took Hogwarts express to universal, and rode the single rider line over and over until 845. that is when the rest of the crowd poured(literally) into diagon alley. we then strolled to mib and had our own car for about 3 rides in a row. sweet.
5. minions is the dilemma here. if you don't go on it right away, there will be a wait, express or not. so my advice is...I really don't have any.
6. you CAN wear fanny packs on gringotts. the diagon alley workers will tell you that they need to be checked in a locker, as in the roller coasters. they are wrong. my daughter went on it all 3 days with her fanny pack on, and even asked the gringotts workers every time and they said no problem. so if you don't have to go to the lockers, don't.
7. skull island is going to be so cool. the construction that they have done looks awesome.
8. the short cut from Portofino to the parks through the hard rock parking lots to the right shaved off at least 5 minutes on our walk. I highly recommend it.
9. if you want a butter beer and the lines are long at the outside vendors(and they will be), go into the hogshead. shade, airconditioning, and short lines.
that's all the tips I have for now. hope they are helpful. enjoy everybody
1. If ioa has early entry, and you want to get to gringotts asap. go to universal studios at 8:10, gates will open by 8:30 and you will be one of the first people on gringotts. Even if the Hogwarts express starts early from ioa, you will still beat them to gringotts.
2. If you have ridden gringotts before, and want to ride it, the single rider line is a god send. the queue is themeless, but unusually empty especially in the first 2 hours that the park is open. we rode gringotts one time through the regular queue and 3 more times in the single rider line, all by 9 am. one time we even got to ride together. nice.
3. on sunday, june 14, both ioa and us had early entry. the lines at universal were much more crowded. not sure this is a trend, but it happened.
4. on that sunday, we queued up at ioa at 725, gates opened at 750. we went on forbidden journey, then took Hogwarts express to universal, and rode the single rider line over and over until 845. that is when the rest of the crowd poured(literally) into diagon alley. we then strolled to mib and had our own car for about 3 rides in a row. sweet.
5. minions is the dilemma here. if you don't go on it right away, there will be a wait, express or not. so my advice is...I really don't have any.
6. you CAN wear fanny packs on gringotts. the diagon alley workers will tell you that they need to be checked in a locker, as in the roller coasters. they are wrong. my daughter went on it all 3 days with her fanny pack on, and even asked the gringotts workers every time and they said no problem. so if you don't have to go to the lockers, don't.
7. skull island is going to be so cool. the construction that they have done looks awesome.
8. the short cut from Portofino to the parks through the hard rock parking lots to the right shaved off at least 5 minutes on our walk. I highly recommend it.
9. if you want a butter beer and the lines are long at the outside vendors(and they will be), go into the hogshead. shade, airconditioning, and short lines.
that's all the tips I have for now. hope they are helpful. enjoy everybody
