Never been, advice

[KellDy]

My husband is taking our two oldest (DS 10 & DD 7) for one day to Universal during our Disney trip while have a rest day with our two little ones. We will be there the 2nd week of Nov. How long of a day should we plan on them being there? Harry Potter is the priority for the day and will most likely follow a touring plan from the Unofficial Guide. Hoping they will be able to see most everything by 2 or 3 & then head to DHS for Fantasmic. Does that seem doable?

 

[Badge]

Well, since you are not going during Thanksgiving, the parks will close around 6 or 7. Also, if you are planning on doing both parks, you will have a busy day ahead of you. Its almost impossible to see everything in one day at both parks. Whiles the parks will not be extremely busy, there will still be lines (and most likely HP will still be packed).

Think about it like this:

Could you visit two Disney parks if you arrive there at 9am when the parks open and see almost everything at both parks by 2 or 3? I HIGHLY doubt it.
That would be 5 or 6 hours to see both parks. You will be there during lunch, so take away another 30 minutes to eat. Then, take away another 30 minutes to walk to the exit of one park and make it to the first ride at the next park. Thats already an hour gone and you have done nothing but eat and switch parks. To get your moneys worth and to be able to see everything, plan on staying at the parks until they close or at least 5pm. Fantasmic seems to be going on more than once while you will be there, so I would plan on watching it another day.

 

[tinydancer09]

Are you wanting to do US and IOA? If so, no you cannot do everything by 2 or 3.

You will want them to get there well before the park opens and instruct them to go directly to WWOHP. Once they are in there they do not need to leave until they are completely done! I'm not sure if there will be lines during that time of the year or not but I feel if they get there early enough they should be able to get in no problem. We got there at 8 and ended up leaving the area to ride jurrasic park and spiderman and then went back at 11 for lunch. Which means we did all of WWOHP +2 rides before 12, and we had express passes. That left 2-3 hours for everything else by your plan and I just don't see that happening unless they are the only three in the park.

Give the map a look and ask the boys if they are going to ride everything. If they are going to want to skip a lot of the rides such as the water rides or big rides like hulk then they might be able to make it out by 3 but they would have to be on the top of their game keeping up with the pace and have minimal lines.

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

We went for the one day, only islands of adventure option. This let us see Harry Potter Palooza and some of the other attractions as well. We got there a little after park opening (like, less than 30 minutes) and headed straight for HP. As I recall it was quite a walk from the car to the actual park gate and then more walking to HP, but traffic is directed in the morning. Just follow the signs and you'll do alright.

My recommendation is this: Go to HP first and see ANY SHOP you want to see FIRST. There will be lines for the stores soon after park opening. Then I would go the the big ride that takes place in the castle. If you are comfortable with it, do single rider. ALSO if you can afford it DON'T BRING ANY BAGS. There is a shorter line for guests without bags because ALL bags, even fanny packs, must be left in a locker (free, but wastes time). The twin coaster thingy didn't have a long line at all, neither did the hippogriff one.

After that, head in the direction of Jurassic Park and start riding whatever you want single rider. My friend and I never waited more than 20 minutes, and this was in early August, lots of people. We were done with everything except Lost Continent (and no shows) by (bad news here) 7 PM. Again, you could probably not spend as much time in the park if you cut out rides and DIDN'T eat at HP. That took a lot of time to do because the lines for lunch are crazy. Just grab a butterbeer. The food isn't any more HP than chicken fingers somewhere else.

So yeah, you'll want to spend more time there than you think is my answer.

 

[Metro West]

I would allow one full day to enjoy IOA instead of trying to squeeze it in a few hours...especially if you've never been. Fantasmic isn't going anywhere so take the day and enjoy IOA. During early November the crowds are generally light so you should have no problem doing most attractions at both parks although I would not recommend it. There are too many things at the Studios and IOA that shouldn't be rushed.

 

[EPRV We love Disney]

2nd week of November is typically "Jersey Week" which does impact the crowds at the parks when we, er, they descend upon you... I would plan for some crowded days at both parks, particularly the Thursday and Friday of that week.....

 

[ky07]

I would allow one full day to enjoy IOA instead of trying to squeeze it in a few hours...especially if you've never been. Fantasmic isn't going anywhere so take the day and enjoy IOA. During early November the crowds are generally light so you should have no problem doing most attractions at both parks although I would not recommend it. There are too many things at the Studios and IOA that shouldn't be rushed.

Totally agree

 

[Swank]

I went on Jersey week last year. (Go Jersey!). I recommend just going to IOA for the day. Get there a half hour before opening. Go to Harry Potter first, then see what you can do. If you want to see most of IOA then they should stay the whole day till closing. One thing that took us longer then anticipated is the water rides. My kids love the rides that make you wet so they went on those multiple times, then they were soaked, keep that in mind, because they should get changed after the water rides, or save them till the end of the day.

 

[KellDy]

We would just be going to DHS for Fantasmic & have an entire other day to tour that park. Just wondering how much of IOA could be completed from park opening until 3:00. We are trying to avoid touring DHS on a Fantasmic day, since the crowds are so big those days. But we dont want to miss the Fantasmic show this trip either. It's cheaper for us to add one more day onto our ticket than to buy park hoppers. I was thinking if we just do Fantasmic the night after IOA (touring all of DHS the day before), we can see the show, avoid touring DHS on a big crowd day, and see IOA.

 

[PharmerJan]

We would just be going to DHS for Fantasmic & have an entire other day to tour that park. Just wondering how much of IOA could be completed from park opening until 3:00. We are trying to avoid touring DHS on a Fantasmic day, since the crowds are so big those days. But we dont want to miss the Fantasmic show this trip either. It's cheaper for us to add one more day onto our ticket than to buy park hoppers. I was thinking if we just do Fantasmic the night after IOA (touring all of DHS the day before), we can see the show, avoid touring DHS on a big crowd day, and see IOA.

Just returned from a trip on June 6. They will not be able to accomplish much (sorry!)

We got there at 8:25 for a 9AM open. Crowds were let in at about 8:40. We went straight to HP (along with everyone else!). Took until afternoon to do just a few things (Olivanders - v.v. long line, dragon challenge - with express pass was still a 35 min wait, Forbidden Journal - 90 min wait!! Yes, 90 min. Never got better until after 6pm. Then we had lunch at 3 broomsticks and moved on to other areas. This took us into 12:30/1pm.

They will never make it back by 3pm. The rides at IOA/US are state of the art, and if your kids are ride people they wont want to leave. Im a die hard WDW fan, but the rides at universal were outstanding!! Consider changing your plans, consider going to fantasmic without them or consider skipping IOA in favor of fantasmic. It would be a gigantic waste of $$ to leave the park in early afternoon. They close early as it is (8pm on the day we went, and we didnt leave until everything closed down!).

 

[Badge]

Well, since it sounds like money is an issue based on not adding park hopper, I would skip Universal and add park hopper at Disney since it is really nice to hop around. Its going to be about $238 for that ONE day at Universal and only going to IOA ($328 if you wanted to see stuff in both parks in one day), and you are wanting to leave about 3-5 hours before the park closes. Is it really worth spending that much money for only 5-6 hours of park time? Plus, with only 5-6 hours of park time, you will not be able to do/see everything. If you big HP fans, the HP area can take you 3 hours or more. Then you have other major rides.

If Universal is something you really want to do, then either forget about Fantasmic or go to DHS on a day that offers Fantasmic. Now I do not know your travel dates, but Nov 13th has Fantasmic and is an Extra Magic Hours night so you get three extra hours to explore the park. The park will be open on the 13th from 9am to 11pm with Fantasmic at 6:30. You will have more than enough time to see and do everything at DHS, becuase the park is not very big.

 

[damo]

Just returned from a trip on June 6. They will not be able to accomplish much (sorry!)

We got there at 8:25 for a 9AM open. Crowds were let in at about 8:40. We went straight to HP (along with everyone else!). Took until afternoon to do just a few things (Olivanders - v.v. long line, dragon challenge - with express pass was still a 35 min wait, Forbidden Journal - 90 min wait!! Yes, 90 min. Never got better until after 6pm. Then we had lunch at 3 broomsticks and moved on to other areas. This took us into 12:30/1pm.

They will never make it back by 3pm. The rides at IOA/US are state of the art, and if your kids are ride people they wont want to leave. Im a die hard WDW fan, but the rides at universal were outstanding!! Consider changing your plans, consider going to fantasmic without them or consider skipping IOA in favor of fantasmic. It would be a gigantic waste of $$ to leave the park in early afternoon. They close early as it is (8pm on the day we went, and we didnt leave until everything closed down!).

The crowds in November will be quite different from the crowds last week. Many schools are already out and lots of people are enjoying summer vacation.

That said, there are lots of things for young boys to do that takes a lot of time at IOA. Spending good time at the Jurassic Park Discovery Centre and Playground in itself can take a few hours. Add on to that time with the super heroes and a few spins on Spiderman, the Sinbad show and Poseidan's Fury, you've got a full day.

Sure you can leave at 3 o'clock but that is way too much money to spend for a few attractions.

 

[poeticdiabetic]

No, you can't do everything by 3 at both parks. But you can do a highlighted tour.

Here's what you can do: find a map and mark out the attractions that you want to visit most. Then, go to rope drop, IOA's rope drop.

For instance, one day we did a quick tour of both parks. We started at rope drop and headed to Hulk. We walked on. Then, we walked onto Spiderman. Then, we passed a lot of rides to go the FJ. We were on the ride in 45 minutes. Then, we walked backwards to Jurassic Park and hit both water rides. We left IOA at around noon.

We walked over to US to hit the Simpsons and MIB. We crossed over to ROTM and rode it twice. We spent the bulk in line at Rip Rocket and left.

We missed a lot of rides. We didn't take advantage of a lot if things, but we rode what we wanted to ride. And we left around 2:30 or so.

But in order to ride everything and take advantage of everything, you need at least 2 days- 3 if you can get them.

(oh, and the reason why we went on a highlighted tour is because we spent a previous day at the parks, but it rained from 10-3.)

 

[KellDy]

Looing back at my subsscribed threads & found this one. Oh how so much changes in 3 months. Now that Fantasmic is offered every night we are there my fam will have as much time as they would like at Universal. We even have an extra day on our passes since our original plan included going to DHS one evening. Extending our trip by half a day to visit any Disney park we want the morning before the long drive home. Thanks for all the advice.