First time to Universal and trying to plan time for WWHP

[BrandonMuff]

First off, this is my first post, but I have been reading this board for several months and have founds great tips for our upcoming first trip to Universal. I am trying to finalize our plan for our upcoming trip on May 31. We are doing a single day 2 park pass without Express Passes for four adults and plan to see as much as possible but realize we will have to skip several things, prioritize and be very efficient with our time. After reading several posts, we are planning on spending the end of the day in both Harry Potter areas. We plan on starting in Diagon Alley around 5:30 and exploring until around 6:30 before taking HE to ride Forbidden Journey and returning to Diagon Alley via HE around 8:30 to get in line for Escape from Gringotts before 9:00pm. Is this plan reasonable or do I need to modify? Thanks for your responses.

 

[bchbetha]

If HP stuff is a priority then you should book end your day with it. You’re leaving things too rushed to do it all in the evening. Do it in the AM. At the very least, move up your WWOHP start time to 4pm.

 

[mamapenguin]

Start when the park opens. If you have early entry as a Universal hotel guest, use it. Book ends is a fine idea, just don’t skip the morning.

 

[glocon]

You are definitely going to need more time if your goal is to see and enjoy all of HP. If your only concern is the rides and nothing else you’ll probably be ok, but there is SO much to see in both HP areas. It is simply amazing, like nothing you’ve ever seen before!!!

 

[macraven]

I agree with what the other posters said

If you are a Potter fan, start your day with that
Crowds only grow larger on a holiday period



Check out the UO website map of the Potter sections so you have a general idea of where to go and to find the items of your main interest

The first year I went to check out Potter, I did it 3 hours before park closing

My loss for the rides there as they went down while I was in line and did not start up again
It was my last day in the park as I had an early flight home the next day

So close to get on the ride and it was shut down

You don’t want to have that happen to you

 

[BrandonMuff]

Thanks for everyone's responses.

 

[Wild4Walt]

We usually start out day as early as possible at UA because for us, there isn't as much that we want to see at that park and typically, UA closes before IOA. So we do the things we want at UA leaving the Potter area for last ( this is usually around 1p or so ). We do that area and take the HE to IOA starting with HP and then moving to the rest of the park.