Need 1 day plan for both parks

[stickerstyler]

My son and I are leaving the wife and duaghter at Disney and want to do both parks. We are only interested in the thrill rides and neither one of us would be upset if we missed the shows. My son has seen all the HP movies so that is a must. I saw a great one day two park plan a month ago but I can't find it now. Any input would help and yes I know that it will be exhausting but I can always rest the next day back at Disney.

 

[mesaboy2]

I don't have a specific plan for all the thrill rides, but if you don't have the Express Pass remember you can use single-rider queues to speed your way. That is, if your DS is old enough.

SR queues are often available at Forbidden Journey, Hulk, Spiderman, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Revenge of the Mummy, and Men in Black.

 

[Metro West]

I don't have a specific plan for all the thrill rides, but if you don't have the Express Pass remember you can use single-rider queues to speed your way. That is, if your DS is old enough.

SR queues are often available at Forbidden Journey, Hulk, Spiderman, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Revenge of the Mummy, and Men in Black.

 

[stickerstyler]

How much quicker are the single lines?

 

[mesaboy2]

How much quicker are the single lines?

I'd say it's not unusual to save 20-30 minutes or more every time you make use of single-rider. Obviously depends on how busy the park is, though.

I should add that SR queues skip many of the queue elements, so you'd miss those. In the case of Forbidden Journey, that's saying something. Fortunately FJ has a third queue line called Castle Tour that will allow you to see most of what you miss in the normal queue by taking SR. This CT queue is usually, but not always, open depending on crowds.

 

[Needafix]

My son and I are leaving the wife and duaghter at Disney and want to do both parks. We are only interested in the thrill rides and neither one of us would be upset if we missed the shows. My son has seen all the HP movies so that is a must. I saw a great one day two park plan a month ago but I can't find it now. Any input would help and yes I know that it will be exhausting but I can always rest the next day back at Disney.

I was hoping you'd find that 1 day/2 park plan because that's our goal for our first trip to Universal too - HP and thrill rides, no shows necessary. We're staying on site, so hoping that helps us achieve our goals.

 

[Skitheboat]

If you're staying on site, you'll have an express pass. This will make it much easier to work through the parks. I'd start at IoA & head straight to Harry Potter & then make my way through the parks. I've done both parks in one day with 2 kids & we had no problems hitting all the rides. Take advantage of early admission through your hotel too!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We did Universal and IoA for the first time last December in one day. It was a gloomy Thursday so that probably helped crowd-wise too. We got to Universal right at opening. We went to the right and did E.T. first, then the Simpsons, then Men in Black, then Jaws (R.I.P.). My brother and fiance did all the more intense rides by themselves and I kind of just wandered around with my parents. We're not show people so no shows were seen during our time there.

My brother and fiance rode the Mummy and Rip Ride Rocket. By this time with an average wait time of 10-15 minutes for each ride, it was almost noon. We walked over to IoA as we had a reservation at Mythos. We walked through the Seuss area and stopped at Mythos to eat lunch. After lunch (approx. 1:30), we went back to Dr. Seuss area and did the Trolley in the sky (longest wait of the day, 40 minutes, and sooo not worth it) and Cat in the Hat. We skipped Harry Potter as it still looked crowded and rode the Jurassic Park river ride. We wandered around the Toon area and rode the two water rides there (no wait 'cause it was cold and cloudy). My brother and fiance did Hulk and Spiderman as I consumed a whole bag of cotton candy . We made our way back around to Harry Potter at approx. 5 p.m. (I believe they closed at 6). The place was like a ghost town. Forbidden Journey was a walk on (but the shops were still packed). We spent plenty of time there, got a butter beer, and were headed towards the exit a few minutes before 6.

It was a busy and fun day. We ended up going back later in the trip (we hadn't planned to, but we had 3 day passes that don't expire and we decided to go back on one of our unplanned days).

I'm sure this plan would be harder to follow if it was very busy and/or you couldn't stand getting to the Harry Potter area so late in the day . We never felt rushed and felt like we got to do most of what we wanted in that day.

 

[Needafix]

Thanks everyone. I'm very psyched and can't wait to get them to Universal. We're staying on site, so definitely going to take advantage of getting there early and going to the front of the lines. I expect crowds, it will be the end of June, but I've managed Disney that time of year, so I'm sure we'll manage Universal. They're all giving me a hard time about getting up early. I told them there's no way I'm paying that kind of price for Hard Rock Cafe to have them sleep till 11am!

I can't wait! Thanks again.

 

[Skitheboat]

Arrive at the gate a good 20 minutes before early admission. They will often open early if all systems are good to go. And then gogogogo to Harry Potter. It is quickest to go to the right through Suess land, them by Mythos, right to the Wizarding World. Have a great time! We are taking our kids back in August & it's a surprise. They will flip when they find out!

 

[idgy]

Don't forget to relax and enjoy your surroundings...You'll miss some of the best stuff if you rush too much.

 

[stickerstyler]

We are going to go on the 15th so we are hoping that nothing major is going on that day. I still haven't told my kids about the trip yet so he is going to lose his marbles about going to Universal.

 

[Metro West]

We are going to go on the 15th so we are hoping that nothing major is going on that day. I still haven't told my kids about the trip yet so he is going to lose his marbles about going to Universal.

Park hours for 6/15 indicate normal hours (at least I'm assuming you're going on 6/15)...so it doesn't look as though anything is going on...at least for now.

 

[stickerstyler]

Park hours for 6/15 indicate normal hours (at least I'm assuming you're going on 6/15)...so it doesn't look as though anything is going on...at least for now.

Actually I am going this month. We leave for Orlando next Friday.

 

[Metro West]

Actually I am going this month. We leave for Orlando next Friday.

Have a good trip. It's gonna be hot for the next few weeks.

 

[stickerstyler]

Just got back and was able to do both parks no problem in one day. Got there at 7:30 and the ticket dude let me in at 8:15. No line ups today I guess we were really lucky. I will give a list of what I did when I get home. Potter twice and both times walk on.

Was pretty awesome.

 

[mesaboy2]

Just got back and was able to do both parks no problem in one day. Got there at 7:30 and the ticket dude let me in at 8:15. No line ups today I guess we were really lucky. I will give a list of what I did when I get home. Potter twice and both times walk on.

Was pretty awesome.

Glad to hear it!

 

[stickerstyler]

This is a quick post of my one day. Not sure this will help anyone because I think we had a pretty low crowd day.

7:00 drove from POP to Universal and arrived at Universal with only 5 cars in the parking lot.
Got tickets at 7:45. A booth was open because I hadn't bought tickets yet.
At 8:10 a Universal employee allowed us to go in with the resort guests. Again probably because only my son and I were the only ones sitting there. That was a pretty awesome surprise.

Now the rides

Forbidden Journey - no wait - don't miss 5 out of 5
Hippogriff - little kid coster
Dragon Challenge - 4 out of 5
Park opens and everyone heads to Potter Land so we are off to Super Heros
Spider Man - no wait - 4 out of 5
Hulk - no wait - 4 out of 5 we did this twice
It is now 9:45 so we decide to hop over to the other park
Rockit twice - no wait - best coaster for me 5 out 5
The Mummy - 4 out of 5
Disaster - 1 out of 5 -not sure why I dislike this so much but I did
MIB - 3 out of 5
Simpsons we did twice - 5 out of 5 Weird but my favourite ride of my whole trip. I love the Simpsons.
ET - 3 out of 5
Terminator - 4 out of 5
Twister - 2 out of 5 - Only gets a 2 because of the cow flying by us.
Shrek - 4 out of 5
Back to Island. We wanted to do Rockit again but it was closed because of lightening.
Hulk again - why is Hulk open but not Rockit. We look back and Rockit is now running.
I didn't do the next two rides but my son did and was soaked from head to toe and loved it.
Popeye
Ripsaw Falls - my son said was better then Splash Mountain which I love. I just didn't feel like getting soaked (lame old man)
Jurassic Park - 4 out of 5 - I did this one and yes I got wet but my son got drenched
Did a walk around Potter and walked on to main Potter ride again.

My son then saw the wands and I bought a Valdemore and magically my day ended. This kid with all this energy just wanted to go back to the resort (yay). So we left and arrived back at POP before 7 with the park still open for another 2 hours. That was a tiring 12 hours and quite pricey but it was well worth it. My son enjoyed Universal more then any Disney Park but I can see why people do it in two days.

Not sure if this will help anyone but I was looking to see if could be done and if you get lucky and have the energy I think you can get a lot done.

 

[Needafix]

Stickerstyler - thanks so much for the run down of your day at Universal. That helps a lot. I'm certain we won't be so lucky with crowds but we'll be staying at HRH so the front of the line pass should work out for us. Thanks also for your quick review of each ride. We've never been, so all information is greatly appreciated.

 

[budafam]

We went to Universal for our first time almost 2 weeks ago. We did both parks in about 6 hours. We hit up Forbidden Journey, Jurassic Park, Spiderman, The Hulk, E.T., Simpsons, The Mummy, Shrek in that order. Most were walk ons. The Hulk was 15 minutes. We could've easily fit in more but we were both feeling pretty queasy by that time (too much motion simulators).