Impact of Halloween night on 3 day touring plan questions...

[gigi from canada]

I’m writing for a friend. She’s going to Universal with her husband and 2 boys 7 and 9. She’s been to Universal a few years ago. Her situation is a little different than my past trips to Universal as I stay on site and have EP.


-They are going 3 full days, dates 6, 7, 8 of October.

-They have park to park.

-While they are there it is Halloween night all 3 nights. They are not attending.

-Park hours are IOA 9-8 and USF 8-5.

-Early Park admission (that they can’t access) is at USF at 7AM


I am suggesting to them to start with IOA (arrive 30 minutes before opening) on day 1 and go straight to FJ and then go to Kong, Spiderman, Hulk. After that, they can take it easier and enjoy the other park offerings.


Question:

What would be a good strategic time to do Gringotts and the Minions in USF? To a lesser extent: Rip Ride Rocket, Simpson and Transformers.

Which park should they start with in the morning given the above?

Should they expect that IOA will be very busy after 5pm given that USF is closing at that time?

What impact will Halloween night have on their touring strategy during the day?

Anything else she should consider?

 

[georgina]

A few rambling observations -

We were there on Sat Sept 17, also a HHN night, and I was very surprised that there was not more of a crowd at IOA in the evening. We checked in that morning so we were not in the park at opening, but Spiderman and Hulk had very short lines around 10 AM. We ate dinner at 3 Broomsticks with no line at all. Rip Ride Rocket on Sunday was a walk-on mid-morning. Lines were longer for Minions and Simpsons.

We did one morning at US at 7 AM, and there were not a lot of people there that early. They may want to try 8 AM opening at US at least one day of the trip, if not 2. Some of the folks who were there at 7 may be hopping over to IOA after a few hours. Since Oct 6 is a Thursday I would expect lower crowds that day than the others.

 

[gigi from canada]

Thanks for your insight.

 

[tony67]

One other thing...although this may change.

If they take the train over to Diagon Alley around 4:30 PM on a HHN they can stay in Diagon Alley until 6PM (even though the park closes at 5) as long as they have a park to park ticket (and if it is still a holding area for HHN).
Most of the people there were there for HHN and really just hanging around and the HP stuff was pretty empty. I think the wait for Gringotts was like 10 minutes. So it might be a good chance to do some of that stuff.

(UPDATE: Looks like that is no longer an option)

 

[khgreen]

We were just there. The Saturday night we stayed late at IOA (Party at US) it was pretty crowded. Even the express line for Hulk was 45 minutes. By the time we got to FJ the line was manageable. We also enjoyed seeing the castle and Hogsmeade at night. I would recommend that to her.

I would suggest she begin one morning at each park. And perhaps two mornings at Universal. When we were there US opened early at 7:00 then to everyone at 8:00. She should arrive before 8:00. Head to Minions one morning then do Mummy and Transformers and RRR. On another morning go straight to Gringotts. Both the Gringotts and Minions rides are pretty long. Even when we walked right on to Gringotts the entire experience was about 20 minutes. I recall that Minions takes a while too.