One day IOA for teens

tmfranlk

Love hanging at the World with my sweet girls.
Joined
Sep 17, 2001
Messages
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We're total Universal novices. On spring break (March 14-23) we have two hoping to visit IOA primarily for Harry Potter. They are both high school seniors (17/18) and I'm planning to send them to/from PO-R via Mears shuttle. Plan is to put them on the first shuttle to arrive before opening, they'll have print at home tickets in hand or will pick them up at Will Call (I'm assuming they'd need my credit card to scan and claim?). Planning one-day, one-park tickets. Now how do they tour? Do they just deal with early entry crowds already there and go straight to Harry Potter area? Or do I send them with this plan?
*********************************/universal/ultimate-islands-of-adventure-1-day-touring-plan/

Any advice for them would be more than welcome! Are there areas they may want to skip or are expendable depending on crowds?

Thanks everyone!!
 
We're total Universal novices. On spring break (March 14-23) we have two hoping to visit IOA primarily for Harry Potter. They are both high school seniors (17/18) and I'm planning to send them to/from PO-R via Mears shuttle. Plan is to put them on the first shuttle to arrive before opening, they'll have print at home tickets in hand or will pick them up at Will Call (I'm assuming they'd need my credit card to scan and claim?). Planning one-day, one-park tickets. Now how do they tour? Do they just deal with early entry crowds already there and go straight to Harry Potter area? Or do I send them with this plan?
*********************************/universal/ultimate-islands-of-adventure-1-day-touring-plan/

Any advice for them would be more than welcome! Are there areas they may want to skip or are expendable depending on crowds?

Thanks everyone!!

Um, what plan? If that's a web address, you're missing the beginning of it.

Print at home tickets would be your best bet, in case the will call people want to see the actual person the credit card belongs to.

The park opens at 9AM for regular guests, but guests staying on property get into IoA at 8AM and have access to the WWoHP rides at that time. When we went in October, the line at 9AM was 90 minutes for the Forbidden Journey.
 
My guess is the plan is from a website that is banned on the disboards.Bein spring break time it is going to be busy no matter what plan you use.Harry Potter crowds are heaviest right after general public opening, but the problem of waiting till later in the day is that IF Forbidden Journey has technical issues ,it can cause them to miss it altogether.Also it depends on how heavy the spring break crowds are. Personally , I would head to Harry Potter first thing.It seems like that is what they want to see the most and I wouldnt run the risk of missing out.Ollivanders first than Forbidden Journey.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. I didn't catch the *** on the address until later but yeah it must be a banned site. It's one that has a lot of free Universal info and touring plans. I think I'll look at the Harry Potter touring plan and then have them add on the rest of the rides after Harry as they have time and interest. RMulieri have you used those plans or any others you'd recommend?
 

Thanks for the advice so far. I didn't catch the *** on the address until later but yeah it must be a banned site. It's one that has a lot of free Universal info and touring plans. I think I'll look at the Harry Potter touring plan and then have them add on the rest of the rides after Harry as they have time and interest. RMulieri have you used those plans or any others you'd recommend?

I am a big fan of that site and it has valuable info.I never used the touring plans since we stay onsite exclusively and that doesnt require any plans really other than the Harry potter stuff.
 
We're total Universal novices. On spring break (March 14-23) we have two hoping to visit IOA primarily for Harry Potter. They are both high school seniors (17/18) and I'm planning to send them to/from PO-R via Mears shuttle. Plan is to put them on the first shuttle to arrive before opening, they'll have print at home tickets in hand or will pick them up at Will Call (I'm assuming they'd need my credit card to scan and claim?). Planning one-day, one-park tickets. Now how do they tour? Do they just deal with early entry crowds already there and go straight to Harry Potter area? Or do I send them with this plan?
*********************************/universal/ultimate-islands-of-adventure-1-day-touring-plan/

Any advice for them would be more than welcome! Are there areas they may want to skip or are expendable depending on crowds?

Thanks everyone!!

When DS and I went, we purchased the Dreams Unlimited 1 day 2 park tickets with transportation, which is via Mears shuttle (basically, the shuttle ends up being free). Anyway, with those tickets, we were allowed into the WWOHP an hour early because when you print them, they say "Universal Travel Company on them."
 
Oh yeah, forget that, just let them loose in the park. If they don't have something that gets them early entry into the park, tell them to head straight back to HP, and ride Forbidden Journey if the line is under 90 minutes. Since it's prone to breakdowns, the line will only get longer as the day goes on, and if they don't ride it when they can, they may miss it. Dragons next, front row of Ice (or whatever they're calling the blue one now) and back row of Fire are best seats. There's a re-entry cut through as you leave the ride that keeps you in the castle so you don't have to walk all the way out and back in again. If they're really into HP, they should ride Flight of the Hippogriff, cause it's some pretty cool themeing. JP, ride River Adventure and run around Camp Jurassic if it's cool enough (yes, it's a kids playground, but trust me, it's fun to explore). If they don't want to get soaked, skip Blutos, but Ripsaw is generally OK. Spiderman is worth about a 45 minute wait, Doom I wouldn't wait more than 10-15 minutes for, it's fun but not that long. Hulk front row is awesome, but I'd stay away from the back row or two, they're pretty rough. Storm Force Accelatron is basically the Tea Cups ... would have been 100x better if they'd put it inside and had a light show going at the same time. Cat in the Hat is always fun, as is the Caro-Suess-el if you catch it during boarding times. One Fish Two Fish is a skip unless the line is really short, it's got a horrendous load time. The sky trolley (I don't remember the new name for it, originally it was going to be ::deep breath:: Sylverster McMonkey McBean's Very Unusual Driving Machines) is pretty cute, too, but again, skip it if the line is long. If I Ran the Zoo is cool to wander through, too (of course, I don't know the ages or interests of the teens), and there are all kinds of neat things to find on Seuss Landing (by the way, there are no straight lines in the architecture of Seuss Landing, ignoring the lines in concrete of course ... even the trees are bent, they came from an area damaged by Hurricane Andrew). Poseidon's Fury is a great walk-through, even if it is a bit cheesy; the water vortex and the fight effects are awesome. The 8th Voyage of Sinbad is a stunt show, and is rather impressive if they are there when it's about to start. For food, I recommend Thunder Falls Terrace in Jurassic Park, their BBQ wings are to die for.

If they get souvenirs, they should ask about package pickup, so they can just grab them on the way out, or wait until they're about to leave so they don't have to lug them around all day. Oh, and make sure the memory card on their camera is empty, and the battery is fully charged ... if they're HP nuts, they'll be taking a *LOT* of pictures.
 
When DS and I went, we purchased the Dreams Unlimited 1 day 2 park tickets with transportation, which is via Mears shuttle (basically, the shuttle ends up being free). Anyway, with those tickets, we were allowed into the WWOHP an hour early because when you print them, they say "Universal Travel Company on them."

I dont think they have this deal anymore, and once cabana bay resort opens, I am willing to bet the pkg deals with partner hotels that offer the early entry will also be eliminated
 
I dont think they have this deal anymore, and once cabana bay resort opens, I am willing to bet the pkg deals with partner hotels that offer the early entry will also be eliminated

They definitely still have the ticket/transfer deal but whether or not you would be able to get in early, who knows. It wasn't something that was advertised to us....I read about it on here and gave it a shot. Worked both times we went.
 
Thanks all! I had heard of those tickets, but hadn't found them yet. I've sent the girls a ride list link to decide if they want to hop parks. They'll get there early enough hopefully that I'll have them at least see if they can early entry with the tickets they have if we go this route. It wouldn't hurt to ask at least.
 
Forbidden Journey has a single rider line that moves much faster than the regular line if they don't mind the possibility of not riding together. When we got there the line wasn't bad (20 min) so we waited in line to be able to see the castle. After that we rode several more times using the single rider line. Posted time for the regular line was 45 min -60 min at that point and we only waited 5-10 min in single rider.
 
They definitely still have the ticket/transfer deal but whether or not you would be able to get in early, who knows. It wasn't something that was advertised to us....I read about it on here and gave it a shot. Worked both times we went.

Last I checked they werent allwoing the early entry with the transfers.At least that was the case this summer when my friends used it.
 





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