January at IOA/Universal?

[lvdis]

My family and I are thinking of taking a trip to Disney in January 2012 and maybe doing a one day trip to IOA/Universal. We've never been, but our main goal will be to see the new Harry Potter stuff and then whatever else we have time for. Do you think this would be a slow time and we could see/do a lot in one day? It would be sometime during our trip Jan 7 - 14. Is there a better day of the week to go?

I can't decide whether to use Dreams Unlimited which gets you the 1 day 2 park pass and transportation to/from Disney or just buy a 1 day 1 park pass and take a taxi. Any experience with which is best? Thanks! Oh, and it will be me, my husband, and our kids (17 and 20).

 

[MrMittman]

It's completely dead that time of year. I was there in 2001 for the Super Bowl and had to stay at the Hard Rock in the week leading up to it (because there were no rooms in Tampa). Went to the parks a few days and most everything had little or no wait. Since the water rides won't be a factor at that time of year, it is possible to get a lot done in one day.

 

[hops&dreams]

I was wondering the same thing. I'll be at WDW from Wed Jan4- Fri, Jan13. I'll be racing during marathon weekend, but we thought we'd want to check out WWofHP. Looking for reasonable ways to do this. Will look forward to seeing responses of your thread.

THanks

 

[lvdis]

Does anyone know what their typical hours are in January?

 

[Mtnman44]

9am to 6pm, at least it was this last Jan when we were there. Everything was indeed fairly non crowded, except Harry Potter of course, which was stuffed with people.

 

[Metro West]

9am to 6pm, at least it was this last Jan when we were there. Everything was indeed fairly non crowded, except Harry Potter of course, which was stuffed with people.

 

[n2mm]

We have gone in January many times and it's almost a walk on for most rides. When we were there this past January I think the FJ was a 20 minutes wait and that was probably the walk to the ride. We don't go on weekends, only week days.

 

[sahm2two]

MLK Jr. Day is the 16th of January in 2012, so that Friday might be a little more crowded with people starting a long weekend vacation. I would try to do it in the middle of the week since you only have 1 day there.

 

[Belle0101]

Thought I'd jump in here too since we're also considering January 2012. Our dates would be Monday, January 2nd through, at the latest, Saturday, January 7th. Good time? Low crowds?

My thought would be to stay onsite for the FotLP. We did on our last trip, and only trip, and were totally spoiled by it!! Would paying extra to stay onsite that time of year for use of the FotLP vs. finding less costly offsite accomodations plus shorter hours dramatically affect wait times? (i.e., by not having the FotLP)

Thanks so much (and keep your fingers crossed that I can make this trip happen). DS11 is a die-hard HP fan.

 

[macraven]

belle............for those dates, yes, low crowds.....

 

[lvdis]

If we went in the middle of the week, like January 10 or 11, which is a Tues and a Wed, do you think we would be able to see/ride most everything? Do you think a 2 park pass would be worth it or just stick with one park since we will most likely only spend one day?

 

[macraven]

If we went in the middle of the week, like January 10 or 11, which is a Tues and a Wed, do you think we would be able to see/ride most everything? Do you think a 2 park pass would be worth it or just stick with one park since we will most likely only spend one day?

if you go on mlk day, you will see more peeps in the park.


buy the one day one park pass.
if you find you have time to explore the other park, go to guest services and upgrade your ticket to a 2 park pass.
january is a light crowd month.
don't spend the money in advance if you don't need it

 

[the Dark Marauder]

The week where New Year's Day falls is the Great Variable. 1/1/2012 will be on a Sunday, so that whole first week will be busy, but will dwindle fairly quickly. There will be a small spike for MLK weekend, but after that it will be Slow. Around that time, the water rides start closing for annual refurb.

 

[lvdis]

Now we are toying with the idea of staying one night on-site at the beginning of our trip to gain the Express pass and early entry into Harry Potter. If we did that we would be staying Saturday, January 7 and going to IOA on Sunday, Jan 8, then moving to Disney Sunday night. Would the on-site benefits be worth it for this time frame (2nd weekend in January)? This is a week before MLK day.