anyone want to help me plan our day

[momtotwins]

we are going to universal and IOA on either tuesday may 23 or wednesday may 24th. its dh and i and our 4 year old ds's. the girls have just hit the 40 inch mark. the park is open 9-8 and we plan on being there at park opening. can someone please help me come up with a plan for the day.

here are the things we want to accomplish:

-forbidden journey(parent swap)-would be nice if we could do this 2 times
-flight of the hippogrif
-woody woodpecker coaster
-spider man(parent swap)
-simpsons
-seussland
-desipicable me(if open yet)
-ET
-shrek
-Peterandon Flyers
-eat at 3 broomsticks
-walk around harry potter world
- cinematic spectacular
-rip ride rockit


if we have time
-any of the other coasters
-sinbad show
-one of the kids play areas
-possibly olivanders(we do want to do this but not willing to wait forever for it)
- the new afternoon parade(not sure what time this will be at)



we will probably need to take a break in the afternoon and are not staying on property. is this too much for a day? how would you plan your day around these activities? and am i missing any not to miss rides either for us or the girls?

 

[Badge]

This is WAY to much for one day! Without the express passes and needing a break, I highly doubt you can do that whole list.

Keep in mind that the stuff you are wanting to do are in two different theme parks which requires you to spend roughly 30 minutes from the time you leave the last ride in one park to the time you reach the first ride in the other.

I am going to take a stab at it, but like I said, I highly doubt you can do all of this. I am putting it in order of what you should do first.

You MUST get to the park BEFORE park opening so you can line up to get into IOA RIGHT away. You can not waste any time getting back to the HP area. Plan on getting to the Universal parking area ONE HOUR before the parks open to find a place to park, take the long walk to citywalk and line up.

-FJ (do not even think about doing this twice unless the line is shorter than 15 minutes which is doubtful)
-Flight
-spend a few minutes walking around the HP shops
-Eat at 3 Broomsticks
-Backtrack to Suess (DO NOT stop to ride the rides in Suess as you walk back to the HP area...you have to walk through this land to reach HP but just keep on walking. HP has to be the first thing you do!)
-Spiderman
-Head over to US
-Des. Me if it is open
-Rip Ride Rockit
-Shrek
-ET
-Woody Woodpecker
-Simpsons
-Nighttime show

I left off the Peterandon Flyers because the line for this is normally ALWAYS insane and it is not worth the wait at all.

Honestly with you wanting to take a break in the middle of the day and having a list of things you want to do at IOA that are in your "If we have time" section, you really might want to think about going for two days. I have a hard enough time riding everything I want to do at both parks in one day with the Universal Express passes. I see no way of you being able to do everything you want in just one day. Plus, you left off some amazing rides on your list that you might want to add. Things like Mummy and MIB at US and Jurrasic Park River Adventure, Dudley Do-Right, Popeye, Storm Force and others at IOA that you might want to ride.

If I was you I would visit for two days or I would cut out one of the parks to just focus on getting one done. Either that, or trim up your list of rides. You are going when most college's are out and even some public schools. Lines will start getting longer. Things like Rip Ride Rockit, FJ, and Spiderman can all easily reach 60 minute waits in about an hour or two after opening. You can hopefully avoid the 60+ minute wait at FJ, but the odds of you having that long of wait for the other two rides are fairly good, so thats two hours that are gone for just 2 rides.

 

[momtotwins]

thanks for hte reality check. we will not be waiting in any 1 hour lines so i will def pare my choices down.

my top 3 choices are FJ, spiderman and the simpsons. the rest i can move into maybe's....most of those were for my girls anyway

 

[momtotwins]

ok what if we started the day this way:

hit spider man first then head back to FJ and then the rest of potterville, hitting seussville on the way back to the front of the park? how long will this plan take us would this get us out at a reasonable time for a break?(1-2)

thought if that would work we would take our break and switch parks at the point and try to hit our top contenders at the studios

 

[Badge]

It might work, but keep in mind that HP is the main focus for everybody. Also remember that hotel guests can enter the HP area 1 hour before the park opens so the lines will already be forming even before the park is open.

While a quick stop to ride Spiderman first might be a good idea, head right over to HP and do FJ (walk past all the shops and stuff). By the time you get over to the HP area, the park will have been open to eveybody for about 30 minutes which means the HP area will have been open for an hour and a half. The line for FJ might be 20-30 minutes, but I would plan for 45 minutes or more. 3 Broomsticks starts serving lunch at 11am (I think...might be 10:30). Ideally you will be done with both Spiderman and FJ by 10:30. If 3 Broomsticks is open, enjoy a lunch. If not, spend the 30 minutes walking around the shops.

Suess has 4 ride so I would plan on about an hour and a half being there. If lunch starts at 11, you can be done (hopefully) around 11:30 to spend some time at Suess before leaving the park at 1.

Are you staying far away offsite? The walk to and from the parking lot is LONG. If you leave Suess at 1pm except to get to your car around 1:30-1:45. Then lets say you are staying 15 minutes away, so you get to your hotel at 2:00pm. Nap for an hour and then leave at 3:00pm. Your not back to the parks until roughly 4:00pm depending on traffic and stuff.

I know you have kids and they will most likely be tired, but ideally you will want to just take an extra long lunch for them to relax. Having to walk to the parking area, fight traffic too and from your hotel, and then spending an hour at the hotel for a nap easilly takes 3 hours out of your day. In your last post you mentioned having the break from 1-2. If that time is when you wanted to be at the hotel resting, you will need to leave the parks at noon which gives you only three hours to explore two whole lands (one of which, HP, most people can easilly spend 4-5 hours exploring if they are HP fans), eat lunch, and ride Spiderman. I just don't see how it is possible.

If you have been to Disney (I assume you have) think about it like this. Could you go into MK, ride 4 rides in Fantasy Land (Winne the Pooh, Dumbo, Snow White, the carousel), eat lunch, then ride Space Mountain and Pirates in only 3 hours? That is basically what you want to do at IOA. While it might be possible if the crowds are super light, I just do see it happening.

If you really must see all of these rides, then I have a suggestion. One idea is to purchase the Universal Express option which lets you skip all the lines except for Rip Ride Rockit and FJ. However, the cost of this might be high.

The other idea would be to stay onsite. Onsite hotel guests get the unlimited Universal Express access so they never have to wait in line (except for those rides I mentioned). You would also get access to the HP area one hour before everybody else. Plus, then you have a hotel room minutes away from the parks so you don't have to waste ~3 hours going to your offsite hotel.

Again, if you don't want to spend the money for express access (or an onsite hotel), then I would really try and do away with the rest time at the hotel and just spend a little more time at lunch to rest.