Here is my trip....planners see if it looks okay, please!

[cissy]

January 14th -19th 2016


Leave NC mid afternoon on 14th

MLK vacation to US.

Drive from NC to Orlando arriving pretty late and stay somewhere cheap for the night.
Get up early to get to RPR before 6am to check in and drop bags. Head to park and be there by 7am for early entry. Do HP section of whichever park is open to us.
**here is first option.....grab train to other park and do HP there, spending most of our day immersed in HP world. We can hit other attractions in that park as we head out for the day.
**second option......stay in early open park all day and save other park for next day.

Saturday we get up early again and hit the park. Do whichever option from above. If we did option 1, we could go back and really explore HP and maybe ride stuff again. If we did option 2, we could be at train as soon as opens and get the other park and spend the day there.

My plan is to buy 2day P2P tickets for Friday and Saturday. No need for UE as we will be at an on site hotel. Also my plan is to move to CB Saturday, Sunday and Monday night to save some money. Then buy 2day non P2P tickets for Sunday and Monday. I know we won't get in early anymore but don't think we will need it as we will have covered HP.

Sunday we can pick a park, get there early at rope drop and explore the park that is not open early to hotel guests and Monday do the other park.

As for tickets. I think I worked it out that the best deal is for 1APH so we can get the free parking after first day and the discount on the rooms.

My other thought is that we would NOT do a park day on either Sunday or Monday and just hang at the pool. But then the ticket prices are so high for a one day that I am not sure. We could always sleep in one day and swim early then hit the park for dinner and the light show.

About us...2adults and DD13, DD14. We are morning people but kids old enough to stay up if we want. But we are definitely people who like to get things done earlier rather than later so being at parks early is not an issue. We DO want to stay for the light show one night. Since it gets dark early, we will get to see the parks at night all lit up, which is cool.

Any thoughts or ideas? Does this look doable? Which option would be best? And is it enough to be in the park 3 days instead of 4 or does the super high one day ticket price mean we should just go ahead and get the two day in case we decide to use it?

 

[cissy]

Oh, meant to include we would drive home Tuesday morning.

Thanks!

 

[angierae]

You still get early entry with Cabana Bay, you just don't get express passes.

 

[nkereina]

**here is first option.....grab train to other park and do HP there, spending most of our day immersed in HP world. We can hit other attractions in that park as we head out for the day.
**second option......stay in early open park all day and save other park for next day.

We were there last week and wanted to ride Hogwarts Express to hop from Universal to IOA. We had done all of Universal but wanted to go over to IOA just for the water rides, so we could ride those before heading back to RPR (you get soaked!). We got to HE around 1pm and there was a 45 minute wait so we just walked over to IOA. The next day was our full IOA day, so since we didn't get a chance to ride HE, we rode over to Universal around 10am and then immediately got back in line and rode back over to IOA. Maybe 5-10 minute waits on both sides. So, if you decide to hop on the same day, just try to do it somewhat early to avoid waits on HE.

We prefer to dedicate a full day to US and then a second day to IOA, so we can hit both parks at rope drop. We always have EP but some Potter attractions in both parks don't have EP, so doing those at their respective rope drops allows us to ride with minimal waits. If you're not going to have EP, you'll want to take advantage of rope drop for Despicable Me at Universal too. IOA usually only takes us a half day, so we tend to hop back over to Universal after that if there's anything we want to re-ride.

 

[cissy]

So, nkereina, would you recommend we split 2day P2P tickets and 2day regular tickets OR 3day P2P tickets and save the money by not doing a 4th day? If we skipped the 4th day, we might be able to swing another night at RPR for the extra day of express passes. Because I was not planning on purchasing express pases on the 2 days we at not at RPR.

Anyone else have thoughts on saving the money by not going on 4th day but staying at RPR on Sunday night as well?

 

[snoopboop]

IMO, it doesn't make sense to stay at RPR on Sunday but then not go to the parks on Monday.... Staying Sunday night will get you Unlimited EP all day Monday as well. It'd be a shame to waste that. I'm only seeing a $40 TOTAL difference to add on the fourth day. Is there something I'm missing?

 

[cissy]

This is why I ask! Cause y'all are awesome. And over the holiday weekend we are probably going to want those express benefits for sure.

 

[elaine amj]

Something I have discovered - the Early Entry perk is only worth it if you are actually going to be there early. AND because it is usually only IOA with Early Entry (I think it's both parks in the summer?), it can get really really busy. Last trip (Labor Day weekend), we walked over from RPR, leaving a little later than planned. We got there about 5 mins after early entry had started. By the time we made it to the back and got in line for Forbidden Journey, the sign said a 20 min wait. After 20 mins, we were STILL in the greenhouse and I knew we still had another 20-30 mins to go. We gave up and walked all the way out and the very long way to the Studios to get on Despicable Me. The plan had been to do Gringotts but the train line was getting crazy long and I knew by the time we walked back to Gringott, we would be really far behind the pack.

If we had gotten there even 10 minutes before we did, it would have been a whole different story. *sigh*

All in all, I found we didn't use Early Entry much. It is really only to ride FJ and unless you get there at the right time, it really isn't worth it. Since it's pretty much the only ride open during EE (other than Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff), every single person there is heading to FJ. You can get on FJ with a much shorter line in the last hour before closing.

As for tickets, it sounds bizarre that two sets of 2 days tickets will work out cheaper than 4 day tickets. On my first trip this year, I only needed 3 days tickets. But because of the pricing at the time, it worked out that it only cost me about $20-$25 (per person) more to buy discounted 4 day tickets that I upgraded to Annual Passes at the parks.

 

[VacaPlanner2012]

I might be missing something as well...a quick view at Undercover Tourist shows 2 day Park to Park at $200 and 4 day Park to Park at $226. I don't see the benefit of buying 2 days of base tickets for Sunday and Monday.