LOTS of questions. :)

[Sorsha]

OK, I come to all of you Universal experts on my knees, begging for your assistance. I have never had any great desire to visit Universal, and so have never really paid much attention to it. WDW is my happy place, and I have extensive knowledge on it, but know almost nothing about Universal.

That said, we are planning a trip to FL in September, and suddenly, with the development of Harry Potter World, my husband and oldest DD are dying for a visit to Universal. We plan to stay at Port Orleans, rent a car, and go to Universal for a day, while at WDW. OK, I can do this... deep breath... I will turn to the DisBoards for help.

Sooo.... opinions and info needed...

I have looked at the Universal website, and from what I can see, there appears to be very little, outside of the Dr Seuss area, that will appeal to my younger DDs. Is this a correct assumption? Neither of them enjoy very scary or overly rollercoaster-y rides, and DD6 is very small, only about 48 inches. I am very careful about the movies they watch, so they have never seen King Kong or Jurassic Park or Spiderman or The Mummy. FWIW I don't do thrill rides either; Star Tours is good, but Tower of Terror is SO off the menu, and I am not even really that fond of Expedition Everest.

We will have only one day to spend there, we will arrive at opening, and most likely stay till close. In that time period, DH and DD15 will want to ride most of the "thrill" rides, the younger DDs and I will want to do Dr Seuss, and we will all want to see Harry Potter. Is this reasonable? Will we be able to fit all that in?

We would like to try Emeril's restaurant. Opinions on it? Ok for kids?

How is the drive from Disney? How long does it take?

I guess my biggest question is this. Given that DD6 and I will not ride most of the "thrill" style rides, is there still enough for us to do to justify $100 each for a ticket? We could just stay back at the hotel and go to Disney for an extra day, and let the older kids and DH go to Universal. DH does NOT like that idea LOL, and I would really like to see the Harry Potter stuff, so I am not sure about that.

Opinions or ideas?

 

[damo]

There are some cool play areas that your DDs might like. The Jurassic Park playground is fantastic and the boat beside the Popeye ride is great fun too. They might also enjoy the Jurassic Park Discovery centre. It has some really neat interactive parts. As well, they seem to be getting the Triceratops Encounter ready again. It is a very neat thing to see a "real" triceratops.

Are you just planning on going to Islands of Adventure or are you going to go to Universal as well. There are lots of great things there for younger kids.

Emerils is great for all ages.

Drive from Disney depends on traffic but is around a half hour.

If your girls like the teacups at Disney, they would also enjoy Storm Force Acceletron.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Are you doing just IOA or both IOA and the studios?

At IOA, there is also the Jurassic Park play area and the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, plus Pteranodon Flyers. At the Studios, there is a bit more for non thrill riders - Men in Black (similar to Buzz), Jaws, Disaster, Twister, Shrek 4D, Jimmy Neutron and ET. And then there is also Fievel's Playland with a Woody Woodpecker coaster (similar to the Barnstormer) and a Curious George play area. If you are OK with Star Tours, you may want to try the Simpsons.

As for driving, it can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic. You should also factor in about 10 minutes to walk from the parking garage to the park.

If you are looking at Emeril's, I would suggest lunch rather than dinner (much cheaper). We've yet to have a poor meal there, and while it is more "fancy", we've seen many kids dining with their parents.

 

[Sorsha]

I plan on doing both IOA and US - the ticket gets you into both, right? I know we wouldn't be able to do everything in both parks in one day, we would have to pick what was most important to us and just hit the highlights.

Thanks for the info, keep the opinions coming!

 

[eculmone]

I plan on doing both IOA and US - the ticket gets you into both, right? I know we wouldn't be able to do everything in both parks in one day, we would have to pick what was most important to us and just hit the highlights.

Thanks for the info, keep the opinions coming!

Not necessarily. We have one park each day tickets

As well, I do not believe you will get it all in in one day without front of the line passes IMHO Best of luck whatever you choose.

 

[Purseval]

If I were you I would arrive at the entrance to IOA 30 minutes early. Not the parking lot, the turnstiles. As soon as they let you in head to Harry Potter because that will be the equivlant of what Toy Story Mania was when it first opened. When you finish Harry Potter it would be best to split up, with you and the 6-year old heading to Dr. Seuss and DH and the older child going to the thrill rides. Arrange for a meeting point in case you don't have good cell phone reception. When you have seen what you want to see and meet up you can either tour things you can do together or head over to Universal. You could all Do Jimmy Neutron and Shrek together (If you are a major chicken the front row if Jimmy Neutron is stationary) then once again you can split up, with you and young one heading towards ET and the other 2 doing whatever thrill rides they want. You should once again have a designated meeting place, perhaps at Men In Black because you could all do that together.

What you really need is a list of priorities so you can set up a better plan. Your part is easy: youg kid stuff and gentle rides. The other 2 have to decide what they want to do then we can work out a plan in more detail.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I plan on doing both IOA and US - the ticket gets you into both, right? I know we wouldn't be able to do everything in both parks in one day, we would have to pick what was most important to us and just hit the highlights.

Thanks for the info, keep the opinions coming!

If you have the 2 park ticket yes. There are 2 different ticket options - one park access and 2 park access. (or I think they call it "park to park access" now)

 

[MissDisney121]

I am planning a one day excursion to IOA as well to see the wizarding world of harry potter. We don't plan on renting a car as we have no use for it other than that day. We will be staying at the Poly and my plan was just to take a cab. Is this the best way? Also how much would this cost?

 

[kathy884]

This post isn't answering any questions. I'm just commenting.

I bet IOA is really going to be busy. Our favorite park is Sea World. We usually do an annual Orlando trip with two days there and one day at a Disney park. This year, with Harry Potter opening we'll be going to IOA for a short visit. I bet there are lots of people changing normal plans to see Harry Potter, just like several of us on this post are doing. Even those of us who aren't Universal / IOA fans at all will be giving the park/parks a visit.

Here's our touring plan. Note though (This is probably not a good plan for anyone else except us) as we are missing most of the IOA attractions, and we'll have a short day at IOA or maybe not depending on lines. Really we just want to see Harry Potter and do a few coasters. My son has been on everything at IOA before (Most things he really didn't care for). He reviewed all the attractions and just picked the limited number of things he wants to do again. Our plan will be to 1) be at IOA at rope drop, 2) do all the Harry Potter rides, 3) then backtrack and ride the Hulk before the line gets really long -- my son says this is a really fun coaster, but that if you don't do it early in the day the line is horrible, 4) next we'll head back to Dueling Dragons not far from the Harry Potter area where we originally were and ride the Dueling Dragons (both tracks, so two rides) -- also good coasters as rated by my 14 year old, 5) visit the theme stuff in the Harry Potter area -- gift shops, etc, and 6) check out the Jurrasic Park Discovery Center (My son liked this too). After that we'll go back to our resort and relax or go to Sea World where we have Season passes.

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

I am planning a one day excursion to IOA as well to see the wizarding world of harry potter. We don't plan on renting a car as we have no use for it other than that day. We will be staying at the Poly and my plan was just to take a cab. Is this the best way? Also how much would this cost?

Duelling Dragons will be a Potter ride. They're retheming it to Dragons Challenge.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I am planning a one day excursion to IOA as well to see the wizarding world of harry potter. We don't plan on renting a car as we have no use for it other than that day. We will be staying at the Poly and my plan was just to take a cab. Is this the best way? Also how much would this cost?

I think it will cost you about $40 one way, but here is the link for estimating cab fares - http://www.mearstransportation.com/TaxiFareEstimator.asp
You can also schedule a shuttle through Mears for much cheaper - I believe it's something like $18/pp round trip.