Going in Sept

[RyannB]

We are going to Universal for one day in Sept. We plan to do both parks (only because of HP). Our main focus will be on HP. Should we get the express passes? I figure it's going to be much busier than it would normally be in sept since Diagon Alley will be so new. There are 5 of us, so it's going to be an extra $229. Worth it you think? It's basically going to cost us $900 pls food for a day at Universal. Geez...that's a lot!

 

[RMulieri]

I would wait and see if you need it..The new Harry Potter stuff wont likely take express pass.OF the older HP stuff , forbidden JOurney ( inside Hogwarts ) and Ollivanders do not take express.Only Flight of the hippogrif and Dragon Challenge do.

 

[damo]

I would wait and see if you need it..The new Harry Potter stuff wont likely take express pass.OF the older HP stuff , forbidden JOurney ( inside Hogwarts ) and Ollivanders do not take express.Only Flight of the hippogrif and Dragon Challenge do.

Exactly.

The express pass can be purchased INSIDE the parks. So you don't have to guess if it is going to make a difference or not, you can actually see the wait times and then decide if you want it.

 

[flfun]

We are going to Universal for one day in Sept. We plan to do both parks (only because of HP). Our main focus will be on HP. Should we get the express passes? I figure it's going to be much busier than it would normally be in sept since Diagon Alley will be so new. There are 5 of us, so it's going to be an extra $229. Worth it you think? It's basically going to cost us $900 pls food for a day at Universal. Geez...that's a lot!

depending on your dates in september you might get a decent hotel rate at one of the resorts which, of course has unlimited express. it just might be cheaper (did i mention unlimited) to book a one night stay.

 

[RyannB]

It has to be on Universal Studios property to get the Unlimited, right? Not just ny hotel package they offer on their site?

And does the unlimited include all the rides, or jusst the same ones that the daily express pass does?

 

[RMulieri]

It has to be on Universal Studios property to get the Unlimited, right? Not just ny hotel package they offer on their site?

And does the unlimited include all the rides, or jusst the same ones that the daily express pass does?

Unlimited express can be purchased, it isnt cheap and very often it is cheaper to get a room at one of the resorts..
The only resorts that offer it as a perk are the 3 DELUXE resorts: Royal Pacific, Portofino Bay and Hard Rock.
The newest resort which is a value/moderate, Cabana Bay, does not come with the express passes.None of the offsite hotels offer it either.

 

[RyannB]

Thank you. We are going to spend the day at US in the very middle of our trip, so I checked rates for moving it to beginning or end of trip, and it's just not going to be better. I think we'll just plan on skipping the EP.

 

[draybook]

Thank you. We are going to spend the day at US in the very middle of our trip, so I checked rates for moving it to beginning or end of trip, and it's just not going to be better. I think we'll just plan on skipping the EP.

Even with the second expansion opening, I doubt you will need EP for the most part. We always go in September and it's really not bad at all.

 

[evcollins]

Even with the second expansion opening, I doubt you will need EP for the most part. We always go in September and it's really not bad at all.

Can you tell me more about going in September? We are going mid-September and staying off-site. On-site is not an option at this point. Two days in the parks, so should we consider the park-to-park or do one park each day? That time of year, will we be okay just arriving at gate time? I need so much advice b/c we don't know anything about Universal. The more I read here, we're getting more and more excited. One more thing, we plan to have lunch at 3 Broomsticks. Can you recommend a restaurant for the second park day? Thank you so much with any information you can offer!!

 

[RMulieri]

Can you tell me more about going in September? We are going mid-September and staying off-site. On-site is not an option at this point. Two days in the parks, so should we consider the park-to-park or do one park each day? That time of year, will we be okay just arriving at gate time? I need so much advice b/c we don't know anything about Universal. The more I read here, we're getting more and more excited. One more thing, we plan to have lunch at 3 Broomsticks. Can you recommend a restaurant for the second park day? Thank you so much with any information you can offer!!

If you are at all interested in riding the Hogwarts Express, You will NEED A PARK TO PARK ticket..That is one of the requirements to ride it

 

[schumigirl]

If you are at all interested in riding the Hogwarts Express, You will NEED A PARK TO PARK ticket..That is one of the requirements to ride it

yep definetely go for park to park for the HE.

September is a fantastic time to go. This year may or may not be busier than normal with DA opening, but if you are there first thing you should be good to go.

In the Studios, Louie's for pizza......amazing and very cheap

For table service Finnegans is hard to beat......Lombards while nice, can be a hit and a miss.

If you don't fancy eating in the 3B's when you are in IOA.........try Confisco Grille or Mythos......both are fantastic and very reasonably priced........love them both

 

[janetkay272]

Can you tell me more about going in September? We are going mid-September and staying off-site. On-site is not an option at this point. Two days in the parks, so should we consider the park-to-park or do one park each day? That time of year, will we be okay just arriving at gate time? I need so much advice b/c we don't know anything about Universal. The more I read here, we're getting more and more excited. One more thing, we plan to have lunch at 3 Broomsticks. Can you recommend a restaurant for the second park day? Thank you so much with any information you can offer!!

Depends on what you are looking for. If you want to stick with and authentic harry potter vacation then you have got to eat at the new leaky cauldron restaurant that will open when the expansion opens. Hopefully the food is at least as good as the three broomsticks. I personally plan on eating at the simpsons fast food blvd on my second day in the park. Before you completely disregard it here me out. Lisa's Teahouse of horror has wonderful fresh salads wraps and fruit and you can't miss the chicken and waffle sandwich from cletus' chicken shack. They also have some good seafood over there. Lots of options but if that's not your thing confisco is pretty good but it's not fast service.

 

[draybook]

Can you tell me more about going in September? We are going mid-September and staying off-site. On-site is not an option at this point. Two days in the parks, so should we consider the park-to-park or do one park each day? That time of year, will we be okay just arriving at gate time? I need so much advice b/c we don't know anything about Universal. The more I read here, we're getting more and more excited. One more thing, we plan to have lunch at 3 Broomsticks. Can you recommend a restaurant for the second park day? Thank you so much with any information you can offer!!

I would absolutely invest in the park-to-park tickets. We do three days and we always get the park-to-park tickets. Arriving at the opening time will be just fine. I'd say that there are usually about 100 people or less gathered at the gates when we get there and by the time they open the gates it's not more than 150 people. As a matter of fact, we got to "open" the Studio park last year. The kids got to say the opening "spiel" and we got a nice 8x10 of it. Plus they gave us buttons to wear that said "Opened the Park" and it got us to the front of the line on several attractions and some free snacks.

As far as dining goes, we have limited experience in that department. If you're talking about regular counter service, we like 3 Broomsticks, the food court at Springfield, and Mel's Dine In. For table service, we've only had dinner at Pat O'Briens and Pastamore. Both were quite delicious and had stuff that our picky kids liked.

Just another tid-bit. Are you staying at a Universal partner hotel? There are plenty of lower cost partner hotels that give you early access to HP at IoA and sometimes they have free dining, although I don't think they'll have it this year with the second expansion opening this summer. Make sure you search for the vacation packages on the Universal site and pick off-site hotels. I think last September we paid like $850 for a partner hotel, 3 day p2p tickets and had free dining for 2 days. It was fantastic!

Any more questions, I'd be glad to give any information I can!

 

[rowan555]

From what I have read lately, the partner hotels no longer offer early entry to the parks unless purchased as part of a Universal vacation package with tickets, etc. The off site hotel we stayed at last year no longer lists early entry as a perk, and when I came here to see why that might be, I noticed several threads indicating that they are removing this perk due to Cabana Bay opening.

 

[draybook]

Yeah, it was a package deal with tickets. It wouldn't make sense to pay for tickets separately, that would jack up the price.

 

[evcollins]

Thank you, everyone, for the information! It helps tremendously. Keep the advice and tips coming. We're taking it all in!! Unfortunately, staying on-site is not an option for us. We are staying at POR for a week and some family members cannot afford to pay another hotel expense for EE and EP. We're hoping with your advice, we'll get the best possible experience!

 

[glocon]

Remember that if Harry Potter is an important part of your trip, you *will* need park to park tickets to ride on the Hogwarts Express. Since the HE starts in one park and ends in another, a single park ticket will not work for you.

VERY important!

 

[vrajewski10513]

Definitely go online and work out a great touring plan.. One day is going to be REALLY tough to get through both parks, especially with the DA opening this summer

 

[evcollins]

Remember that if Harry Potter is an important part of your trip, you *will* need park to park tickets to ride on the Hogwarts Express. Since the HE starts in one park and ends in another, a single park ticket will not work for you.

VERY important!

Thanks! We are not big HP fans, however, just being there, we'll be very excited to experience everything. Question, though. We have two days in the park. We planned on doing a whole day in one park and the second day, same with the second park. Again, we're going in September. Do we want to go park-to-park? Take out the train aspect. My thought is that each park would keep us busy for the whole day and there wouldn't be time to park hop or even necessary. IDK!!

Thoughts?

 

[RMulieri]

Thanks! We are not big HP fans, however, just being there, we'll be very excited to experience everything. Question, though. We have two days in the park. We planned on doing a whole day in one park and the second day, same with the second park. Again, we're going in September. Do we want to go park-to-park? Take out the train aspect. My thought is that each park would keep us busy for the whole day and there wouldn't be time to park hop or even necessary. IDK!!

Thoughts?

We always get park to park..The parks are literally right next to each other.We found it very convenient to hop .IOA we were able to get done in a day.The studios took longer.We go in slower times and the shows often run on abbreviated schedules and often at the same times as each other, so in order to see them we would hop.Also attractions like Disaster are 26 mins long and that is not including any wait times in the queues ( we waited about 10 mins in the express pass line for the next show to start)