HELP! Brand new to Universal!

[PrincessTiffany]

We are WDW veterans. We know the parks like the back of our hands. We know every ride, restaurant and resort. We don't know anything about Universal, but with the addition of Harry Potter and the fact that our kids are a bit older now, we would like to do 2 days at Universal on our next trip to Orlando this December. We plan on doing Universal on Wednesday, Dec. 15 and Thursday, Dec. 16. I need help planning! Our kids will be 8, 9, 10 and 13. We are pretty adventurous and will ride most anything. I need help planning!

There are two parks right? Universal and Islands of Adventure? Correct? Which one is HP in? Should I just buy a two day combo ticket? Are there any discount hints? How will the crowds be on these dates? Can we buy the "Front of the Line" option? Or is it just for US resort guests? Anyone willing to share an itinerary for these two parks? What are your best tips? Favorite rides, shows or other attractions?

Any info you US pros have would be MOST appreciated!!!!!! We are so excited to finally get to vist US!!!!

 

[Jonny_Duck]

We are WDW veterans. We know the parks like the back of our hands. We know every ride, restaurant and resort. We don't know anything about Universal, but with the addition of Harry Potter and the fact that our kids are a bit older now, we would like to do 2 days at Universal on our next trip to Orlando this December. We plan on doing Universal on Wednesday, Dec. 15 and Thursday, Dec. 16. I need help planning! Our kids will be 8, 9, 10 and 13. We are pretty adventurous and will ride most anything. I need help planning!

There are two parks right? Universal and Islands of Adventure? Correct? Which one is HP in? Should I just buy a two day combo ticket? Are there any discount hints? How will the crowds be on these dates? Can we buy the "Front of the Line" option? Or is it just for US resort guests? Anyone willing to share an itinerary for these two parks? What are your best tips? Favorite rides, shows or other attractions?

Any info you US pros have would be MOST appreciated!!!!!! We are so excited to finally get to vist US!!!!

Yes two parks, Harry is in IoA.

Two day combo ticket is your best bet.

Its cheaper if you purchase from Uni site in advance then it is at the gate.

The "Express" passes are roughly $20-$50 ish in prices for a day per person and allow FOTL access once. If you stay onsite then you get unlimited times through.

Crowds should be manageable about that time. Does get busy around Christmas but early to mid Dec traditionally seems less crowded. However with addition to HP...Who knows if that will make them overly flock. But imo you should be good at that time.

I tend to go in circles when I go....I like to get there at opening and visit Hulk(if im riding), then go to Spiderman and keep moving that way around the park. The one bad thing about that is I think its what most ppl do.(Which is why I get at opening to stay ahead of crowd) Also the water rides don't usually open till around 10. But if you do intend to get Express you shouldn't have a problem.

I would say the same for Universal side....Probably won't be too busy so you can take your time going around and decide which rides you would like to do. But generally going left to right would be HRRR, Shrek, Jimmy, Twister, Mummy, Disaster, Jaws, MiB, Simpsons, ET, Nutty coaster, then back up front for T2.(Didn't rly post shows because they happen at specific times) I do usually do Uni backwards because I like T2 and MiB first so I usually go to those and hop on Simpsons before crowds come in. But personal choice how to do it. =)

Favorite rides would be The Mummy and MiB. My fav show type thing would be T2:3D.

Anyway have fun...Be glad to answer any other questions if ya got em.

 

[damo]

You can purchase express passes but you may not need them yet at that time in December. You don't need to purchase them in advance, they are available inside the parks.

HP is in IOA. I would get the two park access. It is really tough to predict the crowds since this is the first of everything with the Wizarding World.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Great info! Do you think I should do US and IOA on a particular day? Like would Wednesday be better for IOA and Thursday for US. We would definitely be getting there at park opening and he heading the HP first thing. I assume it opens when the rest of the park does?

 

[Jonny_Duck]

Great info! Do you think I should do US and IOA on a particular day? Like would Wednesday be better for IOA and Thursday for US. We would definitely be getting there at park opening and he heading the HP first thing. I assume it opens when the rest of the park does?

Someone can correct me if im wrong but then I believe you would want to go right as you enter the IoA port of entry for the fastest/best route to HP.

Likely they will have the same hrs but I would look at that and if one is open longer on a particular day I would make up mind that way.(or prices of Express passes)

Tough call which to do first....I doubt the crowds will vary much in that one day unless they have a special event or something on one. But I think I would do IoA on day one to get it out of the way and see what you enjoy so if you enjoy it so much you could skip something in Uni to redo the IoA thing. If you do it second day and love HP you may run out of time to do a re-ride.

 

[Purseval]

You are going at one of the slowest times of the year. Even with Harry Potter crowds should not be a problem. In fact you might want to look into the price of a hotel room for the day. Rates should be cheap enough to make it less expensive than buying express passes for everyone in your group. The only problem you may have is that you may have 6 in your group while the max per room is 5. That can usually be worked around once you're inside the parks but if you wanted to take advantage of early entry it could pose a problem. You also have the advantage of being able to pay for 1 day of the hotel and get 2 days worth of FOTL and EE so it's worth looking in to.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Thanks for the input everyone!

Anybody else have any tips or tricks for touring US? How about characters? What kind of characters will we see at US? Do they have character meet-n-greet areas like WDW?

 

[Jonny_Duck]

Thanks for the input everyone!

Anybody else have any tips or tricks for touring US? How about characters? What kind of characters will we see at US? Do they have character meet-n-greet areas like WDW?

Wish I could help more with this question but I haven't done the meet and greets so I'm not 100% certain. There are some though. The ones I know of...X-Men and Spiderman at IoA, Cat in Hat at IoA, Thing One and Thing Two also in IoA.

At US they have The Simpsons family, Scooby, Woody, Marylin Monroe, Also a crazy lookin Mummy on stilts, Doc Brown, Shrek and Donkey, Man with hat and that monkey...

I believe there are more but those are the only I can think of.

 

[torinsmom]

Where are you staying? If you stay onsite the one night, it would cost you about $240(RPR). This would give you the unlimited express for the 15th and 16th. It would also give you parking for 2 nights for $16, I believe, vs. $14 each day at the parking garage. You can take a boat or walk to the parks much more quickly than the parking garage also. Max number of people in a room is 5, but I would just register for 5 and then buy the VIP Express ticket for the 6th person(admission plus unlimited Express)

Looks like you can get the regular Express pass for $19.99 per day on the Universal website now for the days you are looking at. So for your family to do one ride on each Express ride, it would cost $240 plus tax, same as the hotel room. Its nice to be able to go on a ride you like more than once without waiting. With the hotel room, you would also save whatever you were spending on a room for that night, and save on parking and gas as well.

OR you could just get regular tickets and get there early. With the Express passes being so cheap, I bet it will not be very crowded those days.

As far as getting around the parks, US and IOA are not hard to get around, because they are fairly small compared to the Disney parks. When we went and did not have Express, we started at the back of US, with Simpsons and Men in Black, then worked our way up.

Marsha