Just one day at Universal from our WDW trip?

[kristie73]

So this will be our 2nd time to WDW and we are going for 10 days (2 days are flying). We fly from Colorado. We want to add a day at Universal. I know about getting a room at Universal and getting the express passes but what if we don't? How can we make it work?
I want to use the transportation provided by Disney to get to our Disney Resort (POR again ). Then in the middle of our Disney trip, take a cab or Uber to Universal and just do one day hopper tickets. We are just interested in the highlights and get introduced to Universal. We aren't die hard Harry Potter fans, it will be cool to see, but we can skip a ride if we have to. My kids are not that ride adventurous, ages 9 and 13 so I'm sure some things will be okay to skip. We are thinking of planning it for a Wednesday so perhaps a lighter day for lines and crowds.

Is this possible to do, have others managed this? What else do I need to consider? Please tell me it will be fine.

 

[BrianL]

Sounds like you have a good plan. In October you should be okay at Uni crowd wise, especially if it's a weekday (though they may stay open later on a weekend). Use an Uber and get there early. Your hopper tickets will allow you to ride the Hogswart Express park to park. I would enter on the US side, work back to the Diagon Alley area and check that out, then ride the train over to the Hogsmeade area then work through IoA from there.

Note that IoA has some water rides that really put the WET in "You will get wet." Jurassic Park is the safest one, but if you're in the front, get ready for a soaking. Rip-Saw Falls and Bilge Rat Barge are both guaranteed to soak you (but they are very good rides!). No other concerns, though I do recommend the restaurant Mythos at IoA if you want a very good sit-down meal in a beautiful location.

Have fun!

 

[wilkeliza]

A couple years ago we did a similar trip in February. We did 5 days at Disney parks, 1 rest day, 1 universal day and then the 2 travel days. We felt like we got a ton of stuff done at Universal.

If you can swing it budget wise you can always buy the express pass. Yes it is expensive for the entire family but there was another trip where the fiance and I only had 4ish hours to spare (post cruise trip) so we bought the express pass and did all our must do in 3 hours. It was awesome.

 

[BoltzNBrew]

DH Here...I actually moved Universal to Tuesday Oct 18, the plan wasn't working with MNSSHP on so many nights so had to move MK to Wednesday PM EMH so we can experience MK at night, for now anyway. We will skip all the rides with inversions(coasters) and potential for motion sickness(Simpsons, FJ). Main things we absolutely have to do are Jurassic, Spiderman, Minions and probably Kong so the "must do" list is not long. I keep reading good things about Mythos so penciled that in for lunch.

The plan so far is:

Minions Seems like the logical place to start since waits are always long.
Transformers
Mummy
Gringotts
Hop to IOA
Lunch at Mythos
Spiderman
Ripsaw
Kong
Jurassic
Harry Potter
Hop to US
Then do whatever else we can fit in like MIB,ET, T2, Shrek

 

[Canuck16]

You should be able to get a lot done on a weekday with low crowds if you are OK with missing some things.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

You should be able to get a lot done. We went to universal for the first time in December. We drove there and purchased park hoppers mainly to see Harry Potter. We got everything done and walked around the parks for a while. One day for both parks worked for us.

 

[DisneyOma]

We used to do a day (3/4 of a day) at IOA during our disney trips. With two HP sections, we now do either a full day with park to park, or two half days with park to park tickets. We don't do the huge thrill rides, not many of the simulator rides (which seem to be the big thing at Universal now?) but get the HP stuff done and a few other rides that we like. We do go back to Disney and either go to EPCOT for an evening, or do Disney Springs.

 

[kelleybean]

One thing to keep in mind is that Halloween Horror Nights is during October. I can't remember whether they usually have it on Wednesdays or not. But Universal Studios closes early on those nights (although Islands of Adventure is open later). So you might want to do IOA at the end of the day.

 

[connie1042]

Just remember you will get soaked on Universal water rides. Do them last, and have dry clothes to put on.

 

[Lady Hiss]

We went to Universal today and found one day worked okay for us. The only glitch was that we didn't realize that the 'express pass' isn't accepted at some of the headliners (Escape from Gringotts, HP and the Forbidden Journey). Those rides had posted wait times of 30 minutes, when the actual wait times were more like 45.
Lunch at Mythos was very good and worth a 30 minute wait for a table.
After experiencing Universal, I appreciate WDW even more.

 

[kristie73]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm feel better about doing one day.

 

[JenMac10]

I second doing water rides last. They are absolutely a blast to ride but you will be soaked to the point you will literally be wringing water from your clothes! One day is plenty of time for what you wanna do, we have went last two years in May and there were tons of school groups but we still did all we wanted (which is almost everything ride wise). Also we stayed at POR and got a taxi van (6 of us) to take us. There is actually a drop off and pick up area at Universal so when we were ready to leave there were plenty taxi's in the area. They actually have an attendant working the area that helps get you in a taxi.

 

[KBoopaloo]

I did pretty much this exact thing back in October. We took an Uber back and forth from the Beach Club and did both parks in one day. We did buy the Express pass and it was certainly nice but we could have managed without it. We did not get there at opening (we probably arrived around 10:30 or so) and did not stay until close, I think we left around 5:00.

We were able to do all of the following:
Gringotts (did this first)
Simpsons
ET
Transformers
Rip Ride Rockit
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem
Men in Black
Revenge of the Mummy
Hogwarts Express
Forbidden Journey
Dragon Challenge (one side)
Jurassic Park
SpiderMan

The Hulk was closed for refurb when we were there and Dudley Do Right's was temporarily down. We actually probably spent about 20 minutes waiting around to see if Dudley's would re-open. We also stopped for Butter Beer, a counter service lunch and an ice cream snack and we probably spent about an hour to an hour and a half shopping throughout the day. Again, we had the Express pass but paying attention to the lines and the wait times, we would have been able to do everything even without it if we had moved a little faster and stayed until close. We really took our time.

The Uber was super easy and very reasonable.

 

[epcotty]

I really don't think express pass is necessary, we've never used it and have always been able to do everything we want and more

 

[Mjkre]

One thing about Minions. If the wait time is really long, go at the very end of night. Although the posted wait time may say something ridiculous, it's extremely exaggerated. My kids waited maybe 10 mins when the wait time said 90! Gringotts, btw, is not a coaster and my extremely sensitive to motion sickness self was able to ride it and love it. But it is dark and potentially a little scary for some. Single rider is a great option for that if not all are riding.

 

[disneyseniors]

So this will be our 2nd time to WDW and we are going for 10 days (2 days are flying). We fly from Colorado. We want to add a day at Universal. I know about getting a room at Universal and getting the express passes but what if we don't? How can we make it work?
I want to use the transportation provided by Disney to get to our Disney Resort (POR again ). Then in the middle of our Disney trip, take a cab or Uber to Universal and just do one day hopper tickets. We are just interested in the highlights and get introduced to Universal. We aren't die hard Harry Potter fans, it will be cool to see, but we can skip a ride if we have to. My kids are not that ride adventurous, ages 9 and 13 so I'm sure some things will be okay to skip. We are thinking of planning it for a Wednesday so perhaps a lighter day for lines and crowds.

Is this possible to do, have others managed this? What else do I need to consider? Please tell me it will be fine.

Hi Kristie73! Yes, we did just that last year, from POR too It is just me and my husband, and we had been to IOA before, so only wanted one day at Universal studio side. We booked the day before with Mears to take us to and pick us up at Universal from POR at 7am the next day. Well.......we were still waiting at 7:45am with no one in sight! So we got the porter to call a cab, one came immediately, and whisked us to Uni. in record time! Going back to the resort was just as easy, as there are many cabs at the bottom of the escalator in the garage at Uni. So, no worries there
We also got express pass one day and one park, which we used mainly on the Minions, Shrek. The others were pretty much walk on. HP does not use EP, but we went there first and had no problem. The rides on the Uni side might be too intense for the 9 y/o? The other side has milder rides which my Granddaughter rode last time, Seussalville. Both sides have really nice rides/attractions. We went on a Tuesday, and it was really great crowd wise. We loved being able to wander and ride what we wanted without looking at fp's or adr's.
I would only recommend not using Mears. We thought since it was affilitated with Disney that it would be good. We had read bad reviews on various sites, but decided to try it out ourselves. Sure, the cabs cost more, but we felt it was worth it. There is also uber, but we don't know much about it.
Hope this helps.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We dedicated one day at IOA to water rides. DW & the girls all wore bathing suits under their clothes & flip flops. I wore my trunks, a tank top, and water shoes. We left all our electronics behind & just carried our park tickets, one CC, keys, and a little cash in a waterproof phone case. And yes, we got drenched!

 

[showers2flowers]

Make a reservation for Mythos. There are usually lots available and you can do them the day of, but if you walk up without one, your wait can be pretty long. Even with a reservation, they often run behind, so expect to wait at least a few minutes and be pleasantly surprised if you don't have to!

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

agree 100% about getting soaked. Last time at US we did Jurassic Park near the beginning of our day and got soaked beyond belief. I had ridden it previous visits and do not remember getting that wet! I had jeans on they took forever to dry. Denim is not the best fabric to get wet!

 

[PurpleKomodo]

We did a single weekday at Universal this past summer. Since it was summer, the crowds were pretty high, but we were still able to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish without express pass. You should be fine.