Help, first time to US/IOA with our kids who love Harry Potter

[akadada]

I definitely need to watch the movies over the next two weeks! I just don't know Harry at all. I'm going to loop my wife in too here since she's read it all.

Very helpful, though. Thank you.

I would say, head to HP area on day 1 and see how the day unfolds. If you just do HP, great. If you do other rides/things intermingled, great. It's vacation, don't stress about it. And don't be so stuck on a "perfect day" that you can't be flexible in the moment.

Day 1: In addition to hanging out at the hotel, I would add exploring some of the stores at City Walk.
Day 2: Harry Potter is not like CarsLand in Disneyland or Pandora in WDW. Harry Potter is spread over two parks. You can do both sections (Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley) in one day, but it's a real marathon and not the best way to do it since you have multiple days.

Here is where you should rethink your itinerary. Break it up by theme park. A day in Universal Studios, another day in Islands of Adventures, and a day to revisit the favorites or the things you missed. Having Park hoppers is fantastic because if one park is super crazy busy, it might be a bit less crowded in the other park. Also, depending on weather, more rides may be open in one park than the other in case some rides have to close for rain. Allow for flexibility (which you can do because the parks do not require advance registration beyond buying a ticket and you will not be reserving a time to ride).

Some of the rides require lockers. It's not a big deal. They are part of the queue or right near it. Unless you have a giant backpack or diaper bag you will be fine.

It is expensive, but if you are looking for a fancy couples only dinner, The Palm at the Hard Rock Hotel is wonderful.

Thanks everyone. Okay, so we're a few weeks out and here's the plan (unless strongly recommended change):

Not getting a rental car since it seems unnecessary, plan to Uber from airport and Uber on date night only. V. car rental at $600 for five days plus parking costs. Should be about half that with Uber.

1. Day 1 Arrive MCO, Sapphire by 4:00. Explore hotel and City Walk. Cowfish dinner.
2. Day 2 (Thursday) No express pass, rather just soaking in the parks since never been and kids are Harry Potter fans. Plan to use Early Access to IOA to get on Hagrid's, the get them wands, from there, plan to stand in line for other rides. Plan to focus on HP stuff most of the day or whatever kids want to do. Dinner at Bigfire however considering Palm as well if not needing to do City Walk again. Is Palm worth it over Bigfire and City?
3. Day 3 bought unlimited Express Pass and plan to crush rides all day among both parks. But plan to start at IOA to do Velociraptor first thing. Hoping to just let the kids tell us what they want to do all day. Hopefully since day one was leisure and taking in sights and Harry Potter shopping, they'll want to crush rides....eat along the way and then Wife and I going on a date night to Sear & Sea (Uber)
4. Day 4. Open day to do what we want or if we missed something. Will use Early Access for either Hagrid's or Velociraptor depending on family interest. Maybe buy another Express Pass the day before if it didn't go up a lot in price AND we want to crush rides again, however playin by ear and ideally not buying another Express unless strongly recommended. OR ...if we're content with the two days at US and IOA, and weather cooperates, might just do early access at IOA for a few hours and then use park to park to get to Volcano. Basically open to whatever... Family dinner at Bice
5. Day 5. Leave late in the day so hopefully use the hotel pool until we early afternoon and then have to Uber to the airport. Assuming they let guests store luggage until they leave.

Any opinions/objections?

Thank you!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

5. Day 5. Leave late in the day so hopefully use the hotel pool until we early afternoon and then have to Uber to the airport. Assuming they let guests store luggage until they leave.

They will hold your luggage. Once you check out, grab a (free) "pool key" from the front desk - your key card will be deactivated once you check out IME. You are still welcome to use the pool after checkout, you just need the new key for access.

 

[akadada]

Hi everyone,

We just cancelled. We were supposed to go this week, but I'm not chancing it. I've been through TD and Hurricanes in FL before and they are no joke. At a minimum it's going to be wet this week.

Costco and US were both really easy to work with. The airline not so much. Bought refundable tickets and they're making it super hard to get the refund. May end up just using it for the rebooking anyway since we'll need a new flight, but it's super frustrating to buy refundables from an airline and then they make it so hard to get a refund.

We're rebooking the trip over the coming months either way. Found a new package at a different time where we actually get a Royal Pacific room with express pass daily for a total cost that was only $300 more than what we were paying via Costco at Sapphire with only one out of pocket Express Pass. Also, US cancelled our non-refundable express pass for us for this week which saved us $800. They were super easy to work with. I'm honestly more excited about this new package than the other one and "hopefully" the weather will cooperate for us!

Thanks!

 

[Skywalker3]

Hi everyone,

We just cancelled. We were supposed to go this week, but I'm not chancing it. I've been through TD and Hurricanes in FL before and they are no joke. At a minimum it's going to be wet this week.

Costco and US were both really easy to work with. The airline not so much. Bought refundable tickets and they're making it super hard to get the refund. May end up just using it for the rebooking anyway since we'll need a new flight, but it's super frustrating to buy refundables from an airline and then they make it so hard to get a refund.

We're rebooking the trip over the coming months either way. Found a new package at a different time where we actually get a Royal Pacific room with express pass daily for a total cost that was only $300 more than what we were paying via Costco at Sapphire with only one out of pocket Express Pass. Also, US cancelled our non-refundable express pass for us for this week which saved us $800. They were super easy to work with. I'm honestly more excited about this new package than the other one and "hopefully" the weather will cooperate for us!

Thanks!

Sorry you have to cancel, but it sounds like you have a better deal with postponing!! Royal Pacific will be more convenient for sure, and EPs included. Hope the airlines will work with you. Now you'll have more time for research/prep, etc. too. Happy planning!

 

[Kit Jackson]

@akadada I am glad you were able to get a much better deal/package, but I am sorry the weather forced you to cancel your plans. I know I posted this in an earlier message, but I discovered the link didn't work. Now that you have more time to plan the trip, I thought I would post a better/working version of the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Universal-Orlando-Guides/dp/1628091355

Best of luck with your planning and enjoy your trip whenever it ends up happening.

 

[MousetersInc]

I definitely need to watch the movies over the next two weeks! I just don't know Harry at all. I'm going to loop my wife in too here since she's read it all.

Very helpful, though. Thank you.

If nothing else, simply watch the first movie; it has the most "world-building," and will explain/introduce most of the areas you're going to encounter: The notion that you can slip through a wall in London and find yourself in a secret wizards-only street, "Diagon Alley," or through another wall in King's Cross Station and find the train to Hogwarts. It also establishes the aesthetic "feel" of the world that you'll find throughout. Some rides will contain "spoilers" or things that might not make sense unless you've gotten all the way through all the books/movies—Escape from Gringotts specifically handles material from the last movie. But if you don't mind that, the first movie alone will get a Muggle on firm footing.

 

[MousetersInc]

Hi everyone,

We just cancelled. We were supposed to go this week, but I'm not chancing it. I've been through TD and Hurricanes in FL before and they are no joke. At a minimum it's going to be wet this week.

Costco and US were both really easy to work with. The airline not so much. Bought refundable tickets and they're making it super hard to get the refund. May end up just using it for the rebooking anyway since we'll need a new flight, but it's super frustrating to buy refundables from an airline and then they make it so hard to get a refund.

We're rebooking the trip over the coming months either way. Found a new package at a different time where we actually get a Royal Pacific room with express pass daily for a total cost that was only $300 more than what we were paying via Costco at Sapphire with only one out of pocket Express Pass. Also, US cancelled our non-refundable express pass for us for this week which saved us $800. They were super easy to work with. I'm honestly more excited about this new package than the other one and "hopefully" the weather will cooperate for us!

Thanks!

Besides the free express passes, you might have already learned just how close you are to the park with Royal Pacific—truly walking distance, like a third of a mile! I envy your theming; I found no availability at RPR for my dates and went for the equally-close Hard Rock Hotel, but the aesthetics of RPR are more my speed.

 

[akadada]

If nothing else, simply watch the first movie; it has the most "world-building," and will explain/introduce most of the areas you're going to encounter: The notion that you can slip through a wall in London and find yourself in a secret wizards-only street, "Diagon Alley," or through another wall in King's Cross Station and find the train to Hogwarts. It also establishes the aesthetic "feel" of the world that you'll find throughout. Some rides will contain "spoilers" or things that might not make sense unless you've gotten all the way through all the books/movies—Escape from Gringotts specifically handles material from the last movie. But if you don't mind that, the first movie alone will get a Muggle on firm footing.

Hah! We're into now. We are actually onto the 4th movie this week. So with the rescheduling, I think we'll be able to see all of them.

Cheers!

 

[Kit Jackson]

Hah! We're into now. We are actually onto the 4th movie this week. So with the rescheduling, I think we'll be able to see all of them.

Cheers!

Awesome! Someone close to me who hadn't read the books had trouble following the movies after the 4th one. Enjoy the movies, and if anything doesn't make sense you can ask the Potter fans in your life or look for a summary online.