Best Bang for Buck on Time

[CHES94]

We leave in five days for our sww/wwohp trip to Orlando. In order to get the most out of just trying to do headliners, would next Sunday the 22nd or Monday the 23rd enable us to do the most at IOA/US? We plan to be at IOA an hour before the parks open.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Badge]

IOA will close at 8pm and Stuidos will close at 7pm either of those days. My suggestion would be to do Studios in the morning. Once you have finished, head over to IOA. As the evening goes on, the HP area will no longer require a wait to get into it. Also, the HP area at night is breathtaking and SO much better than during the day imo. Ideally you will be getting to IOA around 2pm which will give you 6 hours to see everything.

Are you staying onsite to get the express passes? Those will really help you see everything with only one day.

Also, school is still going on so I don't think either day would be that busy. I would pick the day I go based on the weather.

 

[CHES94]

No, with the pincode I got it was much cheaper to do the package through Disney and purchase tickets for IOA/US. In the last year though we have become quite the potterheads. So of course we couldn't be down there and not try and go!

 

[Badge]

Ok, since you are not staying onsite, you have the option to purchase the express pass at the gate. The passes for either day will cost $31.99 per person and will give you express access to every ride in the park (except the main HP one, a kid one in Jurrasic Park, and the Rip Ride Rockit) and will let you use the express line once per ride. It really depends on the crowds and how many rides you want to see. When we stay on-site, we are able to do both parks in one day riding just about every ride in both parks because of express...but we have to move it. You can't really stand around or go explore the parks. You just have to move from ride to ride. Keep checking the trip reports and looking at the wait time for rides (there is a site someplace that has the current wait times. Check it on sunday and monday to see what day seems to have shorter waits). If the waits seem to long, express will be your only option since Universal does not have a Fastpass system.

 

[tinydancer09]

I would like to say when I went in September we planned on going back into Wizarding world in the evening.. however when we returned 2 hours to close we found crowds galore everywhere! We couldnt even get into owls post and I waited in like for 30 minutes to buy a chocolate frog. I want to say we waited an hour+ to ride FJ. When the park closes earlier then crowds don't tend to wear down too much. I dont think you will have to wait to get into the area but I do think it will be very crowded. Also, at this time of year it's not getting completely dark by 8PM. Sunset is roughly 8:10 right now so you will only be hardly getting into dusk....


I would recommend getting to the park early like you said and heading straight to harry potter. If there is already a line to get in you can always turn around and go to US and come back later... but with a closing time of 8PM I really think morning is your best option. Infact when we went in the AM last year there weren't lines... anywhere except olivanders and FJ. we were the only one in honeydukes(we had early entry). But even after the 9AM entrance it took about an hour or two for it to get BUSY! We ate lunch at 11:00 and got through line and sat down within 10-15 minutes

 

[CHES94]

Thanks for all the advice!