Any Universal/IOA experts?

[flortlebap]

Hi all

We are staying at HRH for one night on 9 Sept. Crowd levels are estimated as 4ish by TP.

My question is, is it possible to do both parks in a day? We don't need to do attractions aimed at younger children and will probably stick mainly to headliners.

Secondly, even with early entry, is it remotely possible to do both Gringotts and FJ without crazy waits? DH's limit is about 30 minutes!

Finally, do you need reservations for the City Walk restaurants or is it fairly easy to just walk up?

Thanks for any help

 

[SilentK]

I'm not an expert but just thought I'd add that FJ has a single rider queue that would be quicker although you miss some of the theming in the queue that way.

 

[godders]

FJ queues have not been so bad of late with DA taking in most of the HP crowd. I think you'd have to miss out on quite a lot if you want to do both in one day. US alone has enough to keep you busy for a day even without the things aimed at children.

I reckon if you went early entry onto gringotts then hotfooted it on the Hogwarts Express to FJ you might just about get on both before there is a major queue. But when I say early entry I mean getting to the gates a while before they open to make sure you're one of the first. Although, hopefully by September the crowds will be slightly lower and the 9th is mid-week so you might be ok.

Depends on when you want to go to the Citywalk restaurants. In the evening I would say definitely book just in case but if lunch time then I think you'd be ok to walk in and be seated fairly quickly.

 

[flortlebap]

Thanks both! I did consider the single rider line but even that was 30 mins plus on our last trip. It could work for us though.

I know we will be pushed to do it in a day but with FOTL I wondered if it was possible. We have express pass for one full day and we could theoretically go back again but without xpress pass.... Decisions, decisions!

I was thinking of queuing from 07:30 to head straight to gringotts

 

[scoobydooby]

It's a great shame to miss the line for Forbidden Journey, it is as much a part of the attraction as the actual ride. People are lining up in large numbers from 6am and earlier for Gringotts. However. FoL will get you around everything else. If your partner's queue limit is 30 minutes I think you're probably missing Gringotts. Not been snarly. My queue limit is that at the very most and only for something new I've never done before.

 

[chmurf]

We've done IoA the USF on the same day with unlimited express in early november when predicted crowds were 4ish
but we didn't do all the big rides

if you set yourself priorities, you might be able to do both park in one day, but expect it to be intense, and accept you might need to miss out on some of the rides/shows.

Riding both Gringott's and FJ with minimal wait during early entry ... probably.
I'd ride Gringott's first thing in the morning, ride the hogwarts express to change parks, then ride FJ. Depending on the line for FJ you might want to ride it Single Rider, it could cut your wait time down a bit, but you won't ride together.

The flaw in that plan (both HP zones + both parks in one day) is that both HP zones are at the back of the park they're in.

So, if you early entry into Diagon Alley in USF, then switch to Hogsmeade in IoA you'll be at the back of IoA when the parks open.
so if you want to tour IoA, you'll need to :

A - do the full IoA loop, then ride Hogwarts Express a second time (which is good since the outbound and inbound trips are different) and the you'll be at the back of USF, and you'll need to do 1 and a half loop around USF to tour that park

B - do 1 1/2 loop around IoA, exit and go through citywalk to reenter USF in order to only have to do one loop around USF


Whatever option you choose, doing Early Entry will require a little more time to tour both parks
you'd probably want to do that extra walking during the afternoon, as crowds tend to thin towards the last couple of hours before closing.


Booking restaurants in advance is always a good idea, most of them can be booked on opentable.
but some do not take reservations (Bubba Gump for example)

If you know where you want to eat, book your restaurant, but you might pull a walk on fairly easily at that time of year (similar resort crowd levels, we were seated at Bubba Gump within 10 minutes of arrival without a ressie)

 

[Tony Bush]

If you're staying at HRH for one night you can get two days worth of FOTL express. Arrival day and departure day - and two days of early entry. Do you only have a one day ticket ?
With two days you'll not miss anything.

Tony

 

[flortlebap]

If you're staying at HRH for one night you can get two days worth of FOTL express. Arrival day and departure day - and two days of early entry. Do you only have a one day ticket ?
With two days you'll not miss anything.

Tony

I can see how that would come across as confusing! Basically we will arrive at HRH straight from the airport at around 18:00, so it's doubtful we will be doing anything but eat and sleep! We could then do another day but drive up from WDW and have no FOTL, so it's preferable to cram it into a day.

 

[flortlebap]

Ps, thanks everyone for your input. Looks like lining up at 6am and high tailing it between both parks will be in order!!

 

[Tony Bush]

I'd do early entry to Diagon Alley, ride Gringots and then train across to IOA to to FJ. Pick the headliner rides to do with Express pass ! Good luck !

Tony

 

[DLPDreams]

Yep, if you can get there for about 6 am, they have been opening the gates at 6.30 am the last week or so. The queues are still very, very long - with waits of up to 4 hours reported for Gringotts still. But, I have read if you are there early and the ride doesn't go technical (it is doing this ALOT), then you could be in and out in an hour max.

As you are going on your first US day, you will no doubt be up early anyway so that is an advantage. In addition, the children will all be back at school, so it is a slightly quieter time.

In addition, I wouldn't chance trying to do Gringotts at the end of the day (unless you find the parks are fairly empty as you go round) as the queue is so long, they often cut off any newcomers by about 5 pm!

As for restaurants, I recall reading something about getting preferential seating if staying in a Universal hotel, but I can't recall where I saw it? Maybe worth googling. We hope to eat at Bubba Gumps too (love the look of the place) but as you can't book, I can see us being in for a looooong wait in August!!

 

[edinburghlass]

Yep, if you can get there for about 6 am, they have been opening the gates at 6.30 am the last week or so. The queues are still very, very long - with waits of up to 4 hours reported for Gringotts still. But, I have read if you are there early and the ride doesn't go technical (it is doing this ALOT), then you could be in and out in an hour max. As you are going on your first US day, you will no doubt be up early anyway so that is an advantage. In addition, the children will all be back at school, so it is a slightly quieter time. In addition, I wouldn't chance trying to do Gringotts at the end of the day (unless you find the parks are fairly empty as you go round) as the queue is so long, they often cut off any newcomers by about 5 pm! As for restaurants, I recall reading something about getting preferential seating if staying in a Universal hotel, but I can't recall where I saw it? Maybe worth googling. We hope to eat at Bubba Gumps too (love the look of the place) but as you can't book, I can see us being in for a looooong wait in August!!

Really useful post as I have a friend going to Universal next month and they were asking me about it. Did you find Gringotts was worth the wait and the very early start?

 

[Disney Frenhines]

I would say you could do both, head over to WWoHP first thing and get all those in, September should be pretty quiet, it was when we did it at the same time you are going. I always do IoA first as it is the busier of the parks in the morning and only gets busier. You should get an Express pass as you are staying onsite anyway and that will help. If you can do the line for FJ, it is so good almost as good as the ride itself.

I've never had a problem getting into any of the restaurants at City Walk without a reservation, but, if you do get preferential seating that's all the better.

 

[DLPDreams]

Really useful post as I have a friend going to Universal next month and they were asking me about it. Did you find Gringotts was worth the wait and the very early start?

I haven't been yet! I am just going off what I've read (and believe me I've read a lot, I was away last week and had laptop access but wasn't able to post, so lots of reading research done ).

I would strongly recommend doing US first as opposed to IoA, owing to DA and Gringotts. If you want to ride Gringotts, get there early and make a beeline for it imo. You can then transfer to IoA on the Hogwarts Express if you want, or do the rest of US, save IoA for the next day, or whatever. Queues for FJ in IoA have reduced considerably with DA opening.

As for Gringotts being worth the early start, I have read a mixed bag of reviews - HP fans LOVE it, some people who aren't fans aren't that fussed by it and can't understand the huge queues. I think the advice is, if you want to ride it, you won't begrudge the early start as it means you'll be on it much quicker and still have best part of your day to do other things!