Both parks one day, no EP

[mjmouse77]

Thinking of going in mid June, weekday. It looks like it will be crowded and lines will be 30 to 90 minutes. Is it possible to get much done? It's over $300 for 2 adults, both parks, 1 day. Looking to do HP, spiderman, transformers, and a few others. Thoughts? Express pass is not an option, it would be over 500.

 

[glocon]

I don't think you would get both parks done in one day. Can you check prices for staying onsite?
One night onsite at RPR, HRH or PBH will get you two days of express pass. It might be less expensive then buying ep's. That is if you would want to go for two days....

 

[georgina]

If that is all you are looking to do, it will be doable with waiting in line. Definitely get there early. When we had only one day, we chose to just do one park (IOA). But the HP stuff at US is great too, and they added Mummy and Transformers after our first trip, so now we go multiple days!

 

[Disxuni]

All I can say is that it would be extremely hard, but if you do not stay on-site (which most, but not all, of the hotels offer free EP with it) these are my suggestions.

- Go there a little early (even though you can't do EE), as even if you do not have early entry, they still let people in at least 15 minutes early. That can make a big difference.
- Hit all the must see things you truly desire to see first.
- An addition note on must see things, if you must go on a ride that requires you to use a locker (Hulk, RRR, Dragon Challenge) do those attractions first, as even when the wait times are low it can be frustrating and claustrophobic to get a locker sometimes. It would be even worse if you wait later in the day, as you would be waiting not only for the attraction, but wait to have use of the locker.
- If you're willing to part from the person you're going with during the duration of the ride, riding as a single rider can greatly help you. If there is any must see rides that are single rider I suggest you doing them not necessarily first, but relatively early. As the single rider line is normally much shorter of a wait and sometimes even shorter than EP. However, the down side is during long wait times for rides typically people use the single rider line as a way to move past the line faster, which equals to more people in the single riders line. And while normally more people in line doesn't mean a terrible thing, it isn't a good thing for single rider lines as these lines move very slowly. Therefore, that's why I suggest doing it relatively early (even if the ride has a low wait time, the little time you're saving could make a difference). Luckily for you some of the attractions you mention (HP, Spiderman, Transformers) have single rider lines.

The full list of attractions who have it are...

Universal
- Men in Black
- Mummy
- Transformers
- Gringotts
- RRR

Islands of Adventures
- Forbidden Journey
- The Hulk (which isn't re-opening until late summer)
- Spiderman

I do not now about covering everything in two parks in one day for that time frame (perhaps if you were going during a different time of the year), but you can probably cover all your must-see attractions and shows perhaps.

 

[georgina]

I wouldn't recommend single rider lines for Forbidden Journey or Gringotts as you would miss too much of the queue experience, which for us is a big part of those rides. The others I don't really care much about the queue.