Are we crazy or is it doable?

[sailored]

Hello!

I'm debating taking a day during our upcoming trip (Monday September 21st) to visit Universal Studios (both parks). My husband and I have been to Universal Hollywood, but never the one in Orlando. We can only visit the two parks for a day, and we would like to experience the Harry Potter rides as well as the other attractions both parks have to offer.

Would one day be a reasonable amount of time to do a majority of the stuff offered? We would probably skip on the stuff that the Hollywood park has, as the rides are probably the same.

Which park would you start with, touring plans do you recommend? I was looking at touringplans and they don't have a two-park one-day plan or the option to customize one.

Any information would be super helpful in helping us make our decision. Thank you so much!

 

[macraven]

be in the entrance line before it opens.
hit potter areas in both parks.

then cover the rides/shows for the rest of the day.

i haven't been to universal hollywood so not sure which rides would be repeats for you.

check the rides out at www.universalorlando.com
if the rides are the same, skip them to lessen the amount of new rides you want to try.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I have done both parks pretty thoroughly in one day, but it was an extended hour day, and we had an express pass. Plus, it was before Diagon Alley, and we skipped the big coasters. We were in the parks 11 hours. I think it would be hard to do both parks thoroughly on a shorter day, but being there in lower crowds would help. I haven't been to the one in Hollywood, so I don't know how much overlap there is.

You could mock up a touring plan by estimating the number of hours in each park. Moving between them only takes a few minutes.

 

[sharona]

Duplicates rides/shows: Mummy, Despicable Me, Transformers, Simpsons, Animal Actors (there may be others but these are the ones that stand out)

 

[chmurf]

You could mock up a touring plan by estimating the number of hours in each park. Moving between them only takes a few minutes

and it doesn't take any time at all (non essential time) if you switch parks through the hogwart's express, since park switching happens during the duration of a ride.

 

[damo]

Make sure you ride the Mummy as the ride is different from Hollywood. I would definitely go for it as September is quite slow. I'd skip Jurassic Park, Transformers, Despicable Me and Simpsons.

 

[Imagineer5]

Ditto on Mummy - Orlando's Mummy ride is 1000 times better than Hollywood's. Hollywood's Jurassic Park ride is way better than Orlando so definitely skip that! You should def do it! You'll get a lot done!

 

[keishashadow]

/\ what they said. Unless you are feeling really nostalgic, skip the terminator...USH's preshow was much better as to actors (likely due to the talent pool there).

the two Orlando parks are more spread out imo, need to jump between the two but the HP train makes that more convenient.

 

[sailored]

Thank you SO much everyone! I think we will do Despicable Me, mainly because we haven't been to USH since before that one was built. I think we might just go ahead and visit their for the day.