Help with plan/itinerary?

[mrsincredible3]

Hi,
We are staying onsite with Express pass for four nights over spring break. We will have three full days, plus afternoon on arrival day and maybe until 2pm on departure day (so like four total days), we are not doing volcano bay. I realize with Express pass we don’t need a minute by minute plan (like I typically have for Disney lol),but I am looking for which rides/attractions I should get to first thing in the morning or at certain times of the day. We will probably utilize the early admission at least 1-2 of the mornings we are there. How early do I need to arrive on an early admission morning, or even a regular opening morning for that matter? Can I achieve everything with Express pass or do we need to line up 45 minutes before opening? We will have park to park tickets. How should we best utilize those, especially in regards to the potter sections (my kids will want to do wand spells, shop in potter shops, see the details of those sections. Any touring advice is appreciated. We will likely be up early in the mornings, but it would be nice to know we can be leisurely on a couple or mornings. Thanks.

 

[mrsincredible3]

Also, where is a good place to start when we arrive around 2pm... we have two boys ages 5 and 10, what’s a good section to start in?

 

[macraven]

If you don’t get any answers, check out some of the threads on the first two pages of this forum

Different peeps have been answering similar questions on touring advice

The trip report forum has various personal accounts of people’s park days and many include pictures

Since all 5 onsite hotels, soon to be 6
allow ee, I would be at the park entrance a good 15-20 minutes before it opens
Main potter ride will be open besides another ride

In some trip reports it sounds like potter is less crowded and easier to take your time exploring the shops there at ee period
Also seems like near end of the day is another time you have less peeps
Use your wands in those sections



Suggest you look at the park map on the uo website so you have an idea of locations and info of everything in the park
First aid and restrooms are marked on the maps and will be helpful for you to know where they are in advance

Pick up the park map at your hotel or in the parks
You will see time info for street shows entertainment and potter entertainment

 

[GoldmanTrust]

It’s really hard to tell you with any certainty where to go on your first day.

I recommend you get the Universal app and just go with the flow that day, take it all in and just get your bearings.

The Harry Potter stuff is best done in the early hours. So day 2 should probably be an EE day. Start with the rides and then go to the shops for Wands and stuff when they open for service. The parks are also less crowded and nicer in the beginning of the day, so waking up super early is worth it.

Don’t hesitate to do a few hours early, head back to the hotel around 1pm and come back a few hours later after a nap. We do that all the time.

 

[bobbie68]

Hi I am glad you asked for advice and happy to oblige

I agree with pp that you have to make the decision what your family would like to do but I will share our touring plans.

We usually go for 5 park days. We now include VB so I will share my plans before VB. We use to come in around the same time as you. We would check in to HRH about 2 or 3 then go over to City Walk for lunch. It had been a long travel day so we were looking for good food. Then we use it as a resort day to be honest. We unpack, we go swimming, tour the resort. However, if you want to go to a park that day it honestly will not matter which you go to first. If there is a ride someone is dying to do then I would. A few years ago when we went when Diagon Alley opened my DD wanted to go there first before anything.

On your first full day I would be at the gate about half hour before EE hours if you like to do that. We do EE at least two mornings so we can get the HP worlds done. We really enjoy them first thing in the morning with less crowds. Also if your children will want to do Ollivanders I would do that as soon as you get in to the area. This can get pretty busy during the day and no EP works for that line. We go in the summer and both parks have EE so we will alternate the HP worlds. I am not sure what will be open on Spring Break but if you can do DA in the studios first I would. This area is a little more compact and narrow and gets crowded. You could do Ollivanders there I didn't see a difference in the two parks. The Gringott's ride is my favorite so we do this a few times. I would then take the HE over to Hogsmeade in IOA. If it is still relatively early. If your finding yourself done in one HP world late morning early afternoon, I would wait till later. HP worlds are busy between 11:00 and early evening. These areas thin out at night and they are really pretty lit up.

Other than the HP worlds it really doesn't matter your schedule of what to do. It really as everyone says a go with the flow. You can ride the same ride over two or three times in maybe 30 minutes. I know when you find that ride you like re rides are the best. What is nice with EP is you don't have to cue up for any rides. Just show up and see the time. You will get very spoiled with this.

If you are not doing EE then it really doesn't matter about lining up to far ahead. If you want to get in around opening I would allow like 20 minutes. The security checks are pretty quick and they are at the water taxis, or city walk garage or at the walking paths. Once you get through that your good.

Everyone here is great and loves to help so just keep asking away

 

[gotomu212]

At this point our family skips early entry when we have express. EE is a great perk for non-EP hotels, but we’ve found it more crowded than necessary since all those folks are trying to get in. With 3 1/2 days and EP please believe that you don’t have to rush to get anywhere. Take your time in the morning.

We avoid HP until after 4. Diagon Alley is great at nights and things really thin out. For the first day, just what I would do, but we’d go to Ioa and do Spider-Man and marvel area. It’s fun with boys that age and from there you’ll get a feel for how EP works.

Using park to park- we jump back and forth multiple times a day. Between hogwarts express and park proximity it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to switch between parks depending on where you are in the park. We treat it more like lands at Disney World than separate parks.