Oct 21-Oct 29 ? crowds, Halloween party

[lamchop]

Will be at Disney Oct 21-Oct 29, and planning to go to Universal for 1 day that week. Thinking about a 2 park/1 day ticket. mainly going to IOA for Harry Potter, Spiderman, Seuss and Jurassic park. Then would like to head over to Studios. I'm looking for input on crowds for that week in Universal. I keep reading that October is a lower crowd time, but does that include Halloween week? Where can I find last years park hours and dates for their Halloween party? Or does anyone have a good guess as to when they will be announced for Oct 2011? Is it even worth it to try to get to both parks in one day? We have been to both parks before, so just looking to hit some old favorites in both parks. We are staying at Disney, but planning to getting to Universal for rope drop. We definitely will not be going to their Halloween party!! too old to handle that kind of fright!! lol MNSSHP is more our speed!

 

[c3363]

I went last year at that time. US closed quite early during horror nights (5:00 p.m.) I believe. If you didn't have a horror nights ticket sold separately, you were not allowed to stay past 5:00. IOA closed fairly early too. I believe at 8:00 p.m. or so. I would say it is worth a shot if you can try to do both parks in one day. I would get an express pass. They are inexpensive at this time and guarantee that you will have little to no wait on most rides.

Definitely do forbidden journey, dragons, Jurassic Park, Bilge Rat Barges, Poseidon Adventure, and Ripsaw Falls and Spiderman in IOA.

In US do Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Simpsons, Mummy, ET, Men in Black, Twister and Disaster.

If you have to pick one over the other go to IOA. We waited close to 2 hours in the line for forbidden journey (express pass not accepted). On our second time, we used the single rider line and waited 10 minutes. We had no waits for all the other rides. We walked on everything.

 

[Csaks]

The best part is they actually clean out the park at 5. Not like Disney. c3363 is right they do close rather early so keep that in mind for your 2park/one day tickets.
Is that RRR roller coaster working now? When we were there last Oct. it wasn't running and the rumor was it wasn't going to be anytime soon. Something wrong with it but that came from two castmembers so who knows.

 

[Metro West]

Will be at Disney Oct 21-Oct 29, and planning to go to Universal for 1 day that week. Thinking about a 2 park/1 day ticket. mainly going to IOA for Harry Potter, Spiderman, Seuss and Jurassic park. Then would like to head over to Studios. I'm looking for input on crowds for that week in Universal. I keep reading that October is a lower crowd time, but does that include Halloween week? Where can I find last years park hours and dates for their Halloween party? Or does anyone have a good guess as to when they will be announced for Oct 2011? Is it even worth it to try to get to both parks in one day? We have been to both parks before, so just looking to hit some old favorites in both parks. We are staying at Disney, but planning to getting to Universal for rope drop. We definitely will not be going to their Halloween party!! too old to handle that kind of fright!! lol MNSSHP is more our speed!

Halloween Horror Nights is only in the Studios and doesn't often affect the crowd level at IOA. The crowds should be fairly low except for WWoHP...based on current and last year's crowds. HHN is every Thurday-Sunday in October and there will be a Wednesday or two thrown in as well. I'm guessing 10/19 & 10/26 based on last year but it depends on the school calendars. Whenever there is a Wednesday night, it's usually Hell Week and you can expect huge crowds at HHN.

The dates for HHN are usually released in the summer so you will have plenty of time to plan around it. Last year, the Studios closed at 5pm on those nights and IOA closed at 7pm or 8pm. I kind of expect the hours at IOA to be extended though...again based on the crowds. You could go to the Studios in the morning and then head over to IOA for the afternoon/evening hours.