Both Parks in One Day?

[tstottle]

Hi! I am trying to decide between two days at Disney Parks or two days at Universal Parks. Schedule won't allow both. We have been to both and know our way around, but have not been to Universal since the newest HP stuff opened up, and we are highly interested in that.

Can you do both Universal Parks in one day? If we did, we would get Express Pass (we're going in July) and stay on site for early access. We feel like it can be done based on what we used to know...so just are unsure how much time that new Harry Potter stuff will add on. We have teens; won't do any kids areas, and are pretty used to moving along at a fast pace, getting there early and staying late! Our main priorities would be both Harry Potter areas, The Jurassic Park water ride, Transformers and some of the thrill rides. We are not that into shows.

We know Disney and it would be hard to do what we love in one day, but don't want to cut short our Universal/Harry Potter experience because that's the main reason we are going to the parks overall.

What do you think?

Thanks!
TS

 

[Newsies]

You can definitely do both parks in one day if you want more Harry Potter stuff. My family was able to do them both in the same day in 2012 and we had a fun time, covering everything we wanted to do

 

[macraven]

You can definitely do both parks in one day if you want more Harry Potter stuff. My family was able to do them both in the same day in 2012 and we had a fun time, covering everything we wanted to do

Jaws didn't close until january 2012.
diagon alley opened last year.

it was a lot easier to do both parks back in 2012.
HP has been drawing many to the parks now.


tstottle
staying on site for a july vacation this year and since you have already been to the darkside, you'll do fine doing diagon alley completely.
if you want to catch all the shows at DA, it may cut into your time there.
i know you posted you are not into shows but you might want to catch a few of the hp ones.

go early, use ee and you should be good in covering the new section on this trip.
take HE to hogshead when you are done with the studios side of potter.

 

[tstottle]

Thanks! Still open to more opinions, but glad it can be done. I feel like there are a lot of things at Universal that we don't feel bad about missing. We like our favorites, and doing them more than once if possible. Still trying to figure it all out though; lots of decisions! Thank you!

 

[kathy884]

We did one day with a park to park ticket in December on a crowd level 3 day. We did not have early entry or express pass -- got there at opening and left a 6 p.m. (park was still open two more hours). We really had a great time. DS was there in 2008 and besides the new things just had a handful of things he wanted to repeat, which made it easy to put together a very reasonable touring plan for one day.

Here's what we did that may give you an idea of what you can do in just one day. We didn't do a lot of rushing around and stopped to "smell the roses" whenever we wanted. Our list was not overly ambitious, meaning it was actually a pretty relaxing day. We started an Universal with Minions, Rip Rocket, Transformers, and Mummy. Then we took the train to IOA and did Dragon Challenge and Forbidden Journey. Next it was time for lunch, so we took the train back and ate at Leaky Cauldron -- very good for theme park fare. We next hit Gringotts. We then wandered around Diagon Alley for an hour or so and saw a show there too. Next it was back to IOA for the Jurassic Park river ride. We would have like to spend some time at the Discovery Center, but it was already closed. We then finished off our day with a few extras at the front of the park -- The Dr. Doom freefall ride, the teacups -- twice, and the hulk twice. Except for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey -- 45 minute lines, our other lines were walk on or under 15 minutes. // The park wasn't crowded except for the Harry Potter areas. Those were packed with people even on a crowd level three day.

 

[tstottle]

Thanks Kathy, that's very helpful. We'll have much higher crowds than you, but hopefully the Express Pass will help a lot with that (realizing that not everything uses it, though). We've only been to Orlando parks during the summer (and May, which wasn't much different) so we kind of know what to expect there (like barely being able to move in the Harry Potter areas once the park is open to the general public!). Your plan sounds a lot like what we would do and it's nice to hear that it wasn't rushed. Good tip for lunch too. We'll have more open park hours than you which I think will help...we found that evenings-close are REALLY good times for going back to the Harry Potter areas.

So...I would imagine that the best way to get between the two parks is the old way, walking, as the train would be a long line?