Need ANY advise for US & IOA planning our trip and lost!

[nicunurse]

Our family is heading to Dis in May and we have set aside two days in which our Dis planner has us being shuttled over to Universal Studios. That's as far as she can help us.
We have two kids. One 15 who is crazy about HP and one who is 5 who is crazy about minions.
I have been reading the threads and post but still need any advise or help on how to organize our trip.
I have not purchased tickets yet (where is the cheapest and safest?)
We still have dinning at DIS so we planned to do breakfast over there and then eat lunch/dinner at Universal so where are the best places to eat? We are pretty easy going with our food.
I read about the hogwarts express. Is it worth paying the extra $ per ticket just to ride back and forth? Our thoughts were to do one park one day and the other the other day.
Does it matter which park we do first?
Anything else anyone wants to throw at me would be wonderful, we havnet been able to go since our oldest was 3 so we are super excited about this!

 

[damo]

I would get the park to park ticket. The Hogwarts Express is a nice thing that you can all enjoy together. Your Potter crazy child will be missing quite a bit without it.

There is a food sticky that you can go through. There are polls about favourite restaurants as well as menus. I think that you will probably want to eat at one of the restaurants in the Harry Potter sections. I would seek the advice of your Potterhead. Let him/her look at the Harry Potter sections of www.universalorlando.com and give you some advice.

I would start at Universal just because your Harry Potter child will want to start where Harry started.

 

[glocon]

It is best to be at rope drop if possible so you get the most out of your day as possible. So, if you can eat breakfast really early at WDW and still get to rope drop at UO, that would be to your advantage. I must tell you that we did enjoy our breakfasts at both the 3B and Leaky Cauldron though.

And if you are going to UO to make a Potterhead smile, then you should definitely get the P2P passes and do the HE. She will love it and you all will enjoy it too!

And if you get the Mousesavers Newsletter, there is a link to get UO tickets there (that's what we used last time). People on these boards also say Mapleleaf is a good and reliable option.

And lastly, there are always ep's available for purchase if you choose to do so- it will help you get on more rides if the parks are crowded (but is not usable on FJ, HE, or EFG). That will cost a bit but while you are spending quite a lot anyway, it might help you get the most value for your time and money.

Have fun!