Best Day of Week to visit Universal (Harry POtter!)

[dzaharchuk]

I have searched and found completely conflicting advice on this...We are traveling Sept. 27- Oct.4. Some say Sat. are best, as most arrive on weekends and head to Disney first. Others argue that locals make weekends more crowded. Any help appreciated!

We are usually Disney exclusive- feel like a cheating spouse!!

 

[heyitsmejosh]

mid week is always the best, the time you are going nothing is really crowded anyway

 

[ducky_love]

We let our UNI passes expire in March but I always thought Sunday was the best day. There is a UNI section of the boards and they will give you great information plus up to the minute crowd reports.

When I took my family for their one day at Universal this is how I did it:

- First thing stopped at the gift shop at the front of the park and look at all HP goodies. This gets swamped later in the day and I wanted them to see all their options.
- Next walk over to WWOHP and looked through all the shops / restaurant there and took a bunch of pictures before it got loaded with people (they all ran for the ride).
- Headed to the two smaller rides and rode / took photos of the lines.
- THEN headed to FJ. It had an hour line at that point so we did the castle tour (no line) and the single rider line (10min). After we rode FJ the shops were PACKED and it was hard to even get in. My family was really glad we did it this way.
- By this time (about 10:30) WWOHP was packed!!! So we left and did everything else we wanted to do.
- About 1.5 - 2 hours before the park closed WWOHP cleared out and we went back over there and closed it down. The shops stay open as much as an hour after closing. (this was on a day they were handing out return times before lunch time.. so it was croweded and still ended up empty before closing) Edit: we were also able to see Ollivanders during this time with no wait. (my sister was picked!!)

Anywho - just my 2 cents!

 

[GoofyKidd]

Just bring your wallet! We were there a couple of weeks ago on a Monday. There were no lines, granted this was January. But it was so expensive! Our 11 DD, my husband & I were $120 EACH for admission for one day for both parks. Our 8 year old DS was $114! Nearly $500 to get in for one day and one park closed at 6 and one at 7. Some rides & eateries were closed. And they actually offered us the "fast pass" you can buy to make admission even more expensive. They should be ashamed to even offer that option that time of year when there are NO lines. Unbelievable. Not to mention the expensive transportation there and back. I felt ripped off and called & complained when we returned home. I suppose I could have gotten a discount online, but I hesitated to do that in case the kids changed their minds once at Disney. We went for the sole purpose of seeing Harry Potter World, which was fabulous. But we would never go back. I thought the rides in both parks were rough and crazy. It's just not for us, it's not Disney & there's no magic. Good luck with your day there and bring lots of $$$.

 

[danny1649]

The exppppperts here can help you with your qustion

 

[jason10mm]

You might want to check the dates of the halloween festival at Universal. That brings in a LOT of folks. I think they are only on weekends, or at least the weekends will bring in lots of locals. Plus one park might close a bit early so they can set it up. It is fun, but expect brutal lines, like an hour wait for each "house". Not for little kids though.

 

[Lycaon]

Edit: ^^^ I forgot to mention that... I am pretty sure Halloween Horror Nights will be that weekend. It's held at Universal Studios, but a lot of people will come and spend the day at both parks. Definitely avoid Potter on Friday and Saturday, you should still be good on Sunday though.

I think you'll be fine with any day Monday through Thursday to see the Wizarding World. Sunday is a good day too, much lower crowds than the rest of the weekend.

After you check out HP, be sure to visit the other attractions in the park. Islands of Adventure is an amazing place with fun rides and fantastic theming.

 

[RMulieri]

Just bring your wallet! We were there a couple of weeks ago on a Monday. There were no lines, granted this was January. But it was so expensive! Our 11 DD, my husband & I were $120 EACH for admission for one day for both parks. Our 8 year old DS was $114! Nearly $500 to get in for one day and one park closed at 6 and one at 7. Some rides & eateries were closed. And they actually offered us the "fast pass" you can buy to make admission even more expensive. They should be ashamed to even offer that option that time of year when there are NO lines. Unbelievable. Not to mention the expensive transportation there and back. I felt ripped off and called & complained when we returned home. I suppose I could have gotten a discount online, but I hesitated to do that in case the kids changed their minds once at Disney. We went for the sole purpose of seeing Harry Potter World, which was fabulous. But we would never go back. I thought the rides in both parks were rough and crazy. It's just not for us, it's not Disney & there's no magic. Good luck with your day there and bring lots of $$$.

Sorry you felt cheated..But it is expensive ,So is disney..There is absolutely no reason it should be any cheaper.they are direct competitors.It is much like Disney in that the LONGER YOU STAY, the cheaper it is.We found it wonderful, and yes magical.I went into it skeptical since I am a HUGE disney fan too.But we seriously enjoyed ourselves..AS for the express pass, they always sell them, there is NO free version of this to day guests( unless it is super crowded and then chances are they sell out).Resort guests get it free.Once Disney figures out a way to charge for it, they will.Park hours (even at Disney ) are shorter in the off months.As is restaurants and attractions down.I don't see why this is such a surprise.

 

[AnjieNet]

Yes, check out the Universal boards. Lots of folks well seasoned on the Darkside! In short, Tues/Wed/Thurs are your best bets for lower crowds. Fri/Sat usually have the highest crowds as do Mondays. Sundays is kind of a wild card. A lot of reports of this being traditionally a slower day.

 

[Blondie1216]

I have heard that Tuesday and Thursday are the best days to visit. Just a little tip here..if you plan on doing HP World, make sure you do that first! Also, if you want to do the Ollivanders show, do that before the Forbidden Journey as it gets very busy and the queue line for it is outside where as the Forbidden Journey queue is inside with AC That's what we did and it worked out perfectly! Also, take advantage of single riders. You don't get to see as much of Hogwarts, but it's usually only a 5 minute wait. After that head over to the Hog's Head/Three Broomsticks because that will get busy as well. As for the rest of the park..it's pretty much empty. One of the employees said, if there is 15,000 people in the park, 14,000 of them will be in HP World and boy was that a true statement!

 

[GoofyKidd]

Sorry you felt cheated..But it is expensive ,So is disney..There is absolutely no reason it should be any cheaper.they are direct competitors.It is much like Disney in that the LONGER YOU STAY, the cheaper it is.We found it wonderful, and yes magical.I went into it skeptical since I am a HUGE disney fan too.But we seriously enjoyed ourselves..AS for the express pass, they always sell them, there is NO free version of this to day guests( unless it is super crowded and then chances are they sell out).Resort guests get it free.Once Disney figures out a way to charge for it, they will.Park hours (even at Disney ) are shorter in the off months.As is restaurants and attractions down.I don't see why this is such a surprise.

I guess it was a surprise because none of the disney parks closed at 6 while were there(Animal Kingdom always closes at 5). And quite honestly I can only think of one restaurant that was closed at Disney that I noticed. Universal is not disney-that's why their parks had barely a 5 minute wait while all of the Disney parks were full. That's my reasoning as to why their admission is overpriced. It is a cool place just not worth $500 admission for one day in my opinion. That's the beauty of DIS-its full of different opinions.

 

[Brian Noble]

But it was so expensive! Our 11 DD, my husband & I were $120 EACH for admission for one day for both parks. Our 8 year old DS was $114! Nearly $500 to get in for one day and one park closed at 6 and one at 7.

Suppose you wanted to visit both Studios and Animal Kingdom tomorrow. A one-day park hopper would cost your 11 DD, husband, and yourself $127 EACH. Your 8 year old DS would be $121! More than $500 to get in for one day! And, one park closes at 6, the other at 7.

Shocking!

 

[GoofyKidd]

Suppose you wanted to visit both Studios and Animal Kingdom tomorrow. A one-day park hopper would cost your 11 DD, husband, and yourself $127 EACH. Your 8 year old DS would be $121! More than $500 to get in for one day! And, one park closes at 6, the other at 7.

Shocking!

No need to be so smart, your Highness. My opinion is just that-mine. You don't have to agree with it, but you can be kind and explain your point without being rude & condescending.

 

[Brian Noble]

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

 

[GoofyKidd]

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Whatever. Your Disney pricing is correct. However, in MY EXPERIENCE, we visit Disney for a week at a time, so the pricing evens out over the course of our trip. Our intent was to only visit Universal for one day out of our multi-day Disney trip, which seems what the OP wants to do. So while it may have cost us the same to visit Disney for a single day, if not more, I feel that I get more value for my dollar at Disney than I do at Universal & going for one day is expensive at either park.

 

[RMulieri]

I guess it was a surprise because none of the disney parks closed at 6 while were there(Animal Kingdom always closes at 5). And quite honestly I can only think of one restaurant that was closed at Disney that I noticed. Universal is not disney-that's why their parks had barely a 5 minute wait while all of the Disney parks were full. That's my reasoning as to why their admission is overpriced. It is a cool place just not worth $500 admission for one day in my opinion. That's the beauty of DIS-its full of different opinions.

No its not Disney.Nothing is.Which is why I take off my "disney goggles" when I go elsewhere.Otherwise I would never go anywhere else and enjoy other destinations for what they are.You are not the first person to venture over to universal and complain about the cost, and won't be the last.Anyone that ventures over from Disney for a day or 2 will find it pricey.There is NO reason to expect it to be economical, they are a buisness and in direct competition with Disney , and since Harry Potter opened, the prices have gone up...Like I said if you did a Disney park for 1-2 days instead of a week it would not be anymore economical.I stayed strictly at Universal this trip( 5 nights) and for Resort and tickets and transportation to and from the airport, it came out almost $1800 LESS than what I would pay at Disney for the same length of time in a deluxe resort. The wait times have nothing to do with it.Hang around here often enough and you will hear about heavy crowds and wait times depending on the time of year.Is it Disney sized crowds?Yes and No... Universal has its share of capacity closures too..You went at a lower crowd time of year, it isn't as busy.I went Jan 22-27th and it wasn't really busy either, and I was glad because the 2 prior weeks were pretty packed.

 

[damo]

Just bring your wallet! We were there a couple of weeks ago on a Monday. There were no lines, granted this was January. But it was so expensive! Our 11 DD, my husband & I were $120 EACH for admission for one day for both parks. Our 8 year old DS was $114! Nearly $500 to get in for one day and one park closed at 6 and one at 7. Some rides & eateries were closed. And they actually offered us the "fast pass" you can buy to make admission even more expensive. They should be ashamed to even offer that option that time of year when there are NO lines. Unbelievable. Not to mention the expensive transportation there and back. I felt ripped off and called & complained when we returned home. I suppose I could have gotten a discount online, but I hesitated to do that in case the kids changed their minds once at Disney. We went for the sole purpose of seeing Harry Potter World, which was fabulous. But we would never go back. I thought the rides in both parks were rough and crazy. It's just not for us, it's not Disney & there's no magic. Good luck with your day there and bring lots of $$$.

Sounds to me like you got a lot more done in your one day than you would have been able to get done in one day at Disney. Perhaps Universal should start charging more since you are able to get more done.

Universal has nothing to do with the price of your transportation. Who did you call and what were you complaining about?

 

[Lucky4me]

No need to be so smart, your Highness. My opinion is just that-mine. You don't have to agree with it, but you can be kind and explain your point without being rude & condescending.

So sorry you were disappointed.

We went November 2011 and paid less than $120 for a 14 day ticket!
We only used four of the days, but we had a blast! I read this board and planned like crazy. I think being prepared is the key before you fork over that kind of money in any theme park.

 

[finalwish]

So sorry you were disappointed.

We went November 2011 and paid less than $120 for a 14 day ticket!
We only used four of the days, but we had a blast! I read this board and planned like crazy. I think being prepared is the key before you fork over that kind of money in any theme park.

do tell on how to get $120 for 14 days ...

 

[Momw/aplan]

Just bring your wallet! We were there a couple of weeks ago on a Monday. There were no lines, granted this was January. But it was so expensive! Our 11 DD, my husband & I were $120 EACH for admission for one day for both parks. Our 8 year old DS was $114! Nearly $500 to get in for one day and one park closed at 6 and one at 7. Some rides & eateries were closed. And they actually offered us the "fast pass" you can buy to make admission even more expensive. They should be ashamed to even offer that option that time of year when there are NO lines. Unbelievable. Not to mention the expensive transportation there and back. I felt ripped off and called & complained when we returned home. I suppose I could have gotten a discount online, but I hesitated to do that in case the kids changed their minds once at Disney. We went for the sole purpose of seeing Harry Potter World, which was fabulous. But we would never go back. I thought the rides in both parks were rough and crazy. It's just not for us, it's not Disney & there's no magic. Good luck with your day there and bring lots of $$$.

I'm sorry you were so disappointed during your trip (and please read this as genuine, not snarky). Neither Disney nor Universal is for everyone I suppose (though we happen to love both).

We're in the process of planning our third trip to Orlando. We spent a week at Disney a few years ago and a couple of days at Universal the summer before last. For this visit we're planning to stay onsite at Universal so we can have the free Unlimited Express Pass and Early entry to WW but while we're there we'll also take a couple of day trips to MK and Epcot.

We tried pricing out the 7 night trip with many different combinations of Universal and Disney with split stays or Disney only but the best price by FAR was staying all 7 nights at Universal. Plus our four day park-to-park (aka park hoppers) at Universal is going to cost us $588 for 3 "adults" and 1 child, while the two day base tickets (MYW non-hoppers) for Disney will be $701 scared1. We fully expect that we'll be standing in line much more while at Disney as well.

That is a ton of money at both places, I don't deny it, but we know that going in, so I can't imagine feeling ripped off about either one after the fact.