Both parks in one day?

[CantWaitToGo2007]

I am bored at work so I decided to work on our budget for our orlando trip next summer. Do you think it would be possible to do both parks in one day? We are rope drop type of people (it would be me and my 19 year old son) and plan on staying in the park until closing. I was just going to do 1 park, but with harry potter in both parks (smart thinking universal!) we need to do both. I really only want to have to travel off Disney property once though.

So do you think it would be possible to see most of each park in one day

Thanks for your input.

Nanette

 

[damo]

Time of summer makes a huge difference. Parks are open late during prime summer, but not so late in early and late summer.

 

[owensamo]

We're looking at something similar in November. Mostly DD wants to hit the Harry Potter stuff, and then we'll likely try to ride Transformers as well. We were there last summer and couldn't find enough to do in the parks to spend more than a half day in each - but we're not thrill ride people, so a lot of the lines with longer waits weren't on our priority list. So I'm hopeful we can hit Harry Potter (both parks), Lunch, and Transformers all before 4pm so we can make a 4:30 Raglan Road reservation prior to a MVMCP that evening.

Given we managed to do FJ, hop over to US for the day and make it back to the resort by 3 last year (though we skipped the 2hr line for Transformers) - all without Express Pass - I think we'll be fine! I just hope we haven't bitten off more than we can chew for one day!

 

[TaylorsDad]

Well, I have heard there are some at WDW who have managed to do all 4 parks in one day so I guess it definately doable. We usually like to spend all day in one park though revisiting our favorites. I would think at the very least you may be able to hit the highlights of each. Like Damo said though the date and park hours could make a big difference.

 

[jsh1975]

Honestly depends on what you want to do and if you are staying on property. If you only do rides no shows and stay on property you can be done with IOA by 1. This gives you depending on time of year up to 8 hours to do US. Once again if you do no shows you can knock the rides out within 5 hours. We are thinking about doing that one day and on our 2nd day do the shows and longer attractions like twister and any repeat rides with the express pass.

 

[DOOM1001]

There's too many threads lately asking this question and after the new Potter area opens I think you're going to need 3 days to do both parks,at the bare minimum 2 days.I was counting how many attractions are in each park and I believe USF had almost 20 and IOA almost 15,I mean that's a lot of attractions to try to squeeze into one day.Unfortunately the days the parks stay open really late are during peak periods when waits are long,either buy the expensive express passes or stay at one of their resorts that gives you front of the line to at least attempt this and even with these options it would still be hard to do most or all the attractions in.

 

[macraven]

totally agree with DOOM1001

 

[kathy884]

That's what we did last time (our last visit, though was before all the Harry Potter add ons), and it's what we are planning to do in December. One day is plenty for us for both parks. We are mostly going to see the Harry Potter stuff too. And although we think the Universal parks are really nice, we are bigger Disney / SeaWorld fans than Universal fans.

I will say, though, we are going the week before Christmas week and that has super low crowd projections. The crowd level is a 3 our of 10. What I did was get the touringplans.com add on subscription for the Universal parks for under $5 with discount code, Wizard, and played around with two custom plans (9 - 1 at Universal) and (2-6 at IOA) to see what I could reasonably get in based on their projections. I started with a copy of their adult touring plans and started subtracting stuff. There were lots of attractions we didn't want to do anyway from these plans, as we had done them once before and once was enough for us. That made it super easy for us to cut a bunch of stuff right off. And then there were some attractions we'd be happy to do again that weren't must dos for us in anyway, shape or form, so we took out a bunch of these to make the day work at a reasonably relaxing pace and leave time for the Harry Potter stuff old and new. If you aren't familiar with the attractions, the site has detailed descriptions of everything, an authors rating and comments about the attraction and reader rating by age group. This is very helpful for deciding what to do and what to skip. // I love the plan I ended up with and am really looking forward to our day there. // They were smart to put Harry Potter stuff in two places. We would have just gone to IOA even though there isn't really a full day of things for us to do based on our interests, but 9 - 2 would have been great. However, instead of $96 for one park we are forking over $135 for the one day park hopper to see all the Harry Potter stuff, and it looks like it will be a 9 - 6 day and a really fun one.

For attraction counts on this level 3 day, it looks like we can get in our seven favorite attractions (three being HP things we haven't done before) and one show we are interested in at Universal between 9 and 12:45, have lunch, and then do six things at IOA (two Harry Potter and our other four favorites) between 2 and 5:30. This will be a perfect day for us and let us do all our favorites and a few second tier things we like too. Also FYI, we have a full hour allocated time wise to London and Diagon Alley (Universal) and a full 45 minutes allocated to the Three Broomsticks area). This is the exploring timing recommended by the Unofficial Guide.

 

[glocon]

One day would never be enough for my family to do both parks, but my son is a thrill ride lover, and he and I are both huge Harry Potter fans. There is no way I could only spend one hour exploring the two HP lands- that would be way toooooo rushed for me. And I would definitely want to eat at both Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron.

I guess if we HAD to I would do it but I would rather not be that rushed.

 

[RMulieri]

There's too many threads lately asking this question and after the new Potter area opens I think you're going to need 3 days to do both parks,at the bare minimum 2 days.I was counting how many attractions are in each park and I believe USF had almost 20 and IOA almost 15,I mean that's a lot of attractions to try to squeeze into one day.Unfortunately the days the parks stay open really late are during peak periods when waits are long,either buy the expensive express passes or stay at one of their resorts that gives you front of the line to at least attempt this and even with these options it would still be hard to do most or all the attractions in.

agree

Give the parks their fair due and don't try to cram both into one day.It is like trying to cram 2 disney parks in one day.It is ok if you have been there before and are only going to do certain things, but not recommended if you have never been before

 

[Slapshot1188]

No... it's not possible as a first timer to see MOST of both parks. This is ESPECIALLY true if you are going to want both Potter areas covered. The Diagon Alley area alone will take you hours, even if you get there at rope drop (especially if you don't have early access from an onsite hotel). Even if you somehow ere the very first person on one of the rides, by the time you came out the other ride would have a 60+ minute wait. That's not including exploring the rest of the area.

Now if you JUST want to see the two Potter areas and maybe a handful of selected rides you are most interested in, then you can do it. But there is ZERO chance of seeing everything in both parks in one day.


PS- If you are NOT staying at an onsite hotel with Early Entry you have to count on several hours just for the two Diagon Alley rides. Also don't forget that the Hogwarts Express will take you to the other park. So unless you visit the HP area after finishing the rest of the park (which will make the lines even longer) you will have to ride or walk back to the initial park.

 

[Metro West]

No... it's not possible as a first timer to see MOST of both parks. This is ESPECIALLY true if you are going to want both Potter areas covered. The Diagon Alley area alone will take you hours, even if you get there at rope drop (especially if you don't have early access from an onsite hotel). Even if you somehow ere the very first person on one of the rides, by the time you came out the other ride would have a 60+ minute wait. That's not including exploring the rest of the area.

Now if you JUST want to see the two Potter areas and maybe a handful of selected rides you are most interested in, then you can do it. But there is ZERO chance of seeing everything in both parks in one day.

 

[Parker Clan]

We barely see one park in one day.. For the last three years we only spent one day or more like half a day at IoA.. In the HP world alone u could spend hours.. Waiting in line for the ride probly over an hour. Plus two years in a row the HP ride was shut down for a few hours due to technical difficulties so we had to wait to go on that. In one day or half a day we have only done 3-4 rides due to wait times and no free FP like at disney. Spider-Man ride and HP are by far my faves . But there are other awesome rides too like Jurassic park water ride ! This year we are doing two full days @ US and IoA to experience everything .. And I bet even that won't be enough

 

[Parker Clan]

I recommend more than one day.. Two years in a row there were technical difficulties on the main Harry Potter ride and we had to wait a few hours to get on the ride. Not to mention the hour or so wait time to get on. We did maybe three or four rides in one day.

 

[CantWaitToGo2007]

Thank you for all the replies. Guess we will just have to plan a second trip to be able to do universal. We are going next august/September and staying on disney property. Sounds like we will need to stay at a universal hotel to be able to do any justice to those parks.