Disney Vet..Universal Newbie, I have a few questions.

[ranthony]

Hi,

My family of 5 is booked for 1 night in March at RP to take advantage of the Express Pass perk for 2 days prior to our Disney stay. My 3 sons 9, 5 and 5 are really looking forward to experiencing the Harry Potter addition. DH and I have been to US only (not IOA) and it was MANY years ago. The kids have never been.

We're not staying with any sort of HP package, just a room only reservation. From what I've read it sounds like we'll be able to enter the park an hour early by showing our room keys. Which parts of HP will be open then? Am I correct in saying that Olivander's and FJ do not have any sort of Express Pass option? Would the best thing to do be Olivander's first and then FJ right at 8am? I'm not planning on buying a wand...should we just bypass Olivander's altogether?

Also, we'll probably 'sneak' back over to US/IOA for 1 or perhaps 2 of the days while we're at Disney. What things should we put off for these days when we're without the advantage of Express Pass?

TIA

 

[damo]

All of the Wizarding World will be open for early entry as long as everything is operational. Occasionally Forbidden Journey will be down.

Both FJ and Ollivanders do not have express passes. However, getting there for early entry takes care of that. Ollivander's is cute and is worth doing when there isn't a line...so first thing in the morning before anything else.

 

[Darcy03231]

The biggest thing I can recommend is without the Express Pass get there for park opening. You can do a lot in the first couple of hours before the lines start to form. We found that the lines really didn't start until about 11 am.

The other thing I can tell you is that we did the same thing you did one year. Once we got to WDW all the kids did was complain about the lines (they got used to that Express Pass really fast). They also kept wanting to go back to US/IOA (they were older than your kids so you might not have this problem with the ones that are 5). They said the rides were lame (I also have adreniline junkies who love coasters). In retrospect I wish we had done WDW first and US/IOA last.

 

[Macgyver91]

We are having the same problem. We have Disney down to a science but now (with addition of Harry Potter)we just "have" to go to Universal. If we are staying on Universal property can it be done in 2 or 3 days? We are going early June. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[notaprincess]

We are having the same problem. We have Disney down to a science but now (with addition of Harry Potter)we just "have" to go to Universal. If we are staying on Universal property can it be done in 2 or 3 days? We are going early June. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

2 days is good, 1 in each park, a 3 third day is better- to return and do the fav's again...and again

 

[Brit_Jude]

Check out the trip reports forum over here they are so helpful and also the Universal Orlando website has some good links to the rides and attractions with some videos and photos of each one.