One Day, One Park, No EE

[AthenaBolina]

Sorry if I am asking the question that has been asked a million times, but I couldnt find an exact answer to my question.

Hubby and I are trying to plan a WDW trip in mid to late may, and I desperately want to take one day at IOA. We only have one day because he can't get much time off at all due to a deployment, so if we do it at all, it's going to be one day. We'll be staying at WDW, so we'd have to get a cab from our hotel to IOA.

My question is this...can we do IOA and WWOHP in one day with no EE? We can be there first thing in the morning and stay till closing. I've done IOA and US/UO before with the kids four years ago, but we had three days. I know what we want to see, and that's pretty much WWOHP, Jurassic Park, The Hulk and a few others etc etc. My only concern is that since we won't be staying on site, is it even possible to do this? We'd come on a week day. Originally we had planned to come Oct 2015, but circumstances change and we're going early, therefore missing Diagon Alley, but I digress....I'll just go there in a few years with my sister I suppose. I'm craving some butterbeer!! lol (And I want to get my kids the Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3 and Thing 4 tshirts again in bigger sizes )

Thanks!

 

[Metro West]

If you are only doing IOA then yes...you can do the park in a single day. However...what Diagon Alley opening this summer at the Studios, the Hogwarts Express will keep WWoHP crowded so that's where you are going to spend most of your time.

 

[AthenaBolina]

I don't think that Diagon Alley will be open by mid May though? If that's the case, I may have to rethink my plans and skip it.

I wonder if it would be possible to do UO and IOA...probably not, but it's wishful thinking. There are only a few things from every park we'd do anyway.

How can I get to WWOHP and do it effectively if we do not have early entry?

 

[rowan555]

Diagon Alley won't be open in May.

I've been looking at the crowd calendars for May b/c we're going then as well, and up to mid-May, it's always a 4/10 or under on weekdays. At the end of May it goes up. If you've done the parks before and know what you want to do, I see no reason you couldn't hit the highlights of both parks in one day if you stay from open-close (when we were there in August, Universal Studios closed an hour later than IoA, so we'd spend the first half of the day at IoA, have lunch at City Walk, then end the day at US to maximize our time).

 

[AthenaBolina]

Diagon Alley won't be open in May.

I've been looking at the crowd calendars for May b/c we're going then as well, and up to mid-May, it's always a 4/10 or under on weekdays. At the end of May it goes up. If you've done the parks before and know what you want to do, I see no reason you couldn't hit the highlights of both parks in one day if you stay from open-close (when we were there in August, Universal Studios closed an hour later than IoA, so we'd spend the first half of the day at IoA, have lunch at City Walk, then end the day at US to maximize our time).

You don't think there would be difficulty in getting to WWOHP at opening though? the crowds still seem low-ish for the 3d week of may, so I am hoping this works to our advantage. I know last time the kids wanted to ride that huge red coaster (Rip it?), but it was down so they couldn't. This at least would let us do the highlights. Last time we found US a bit of a waste, but we did like a "few" things like MIB, Simpsons, Mummy, ET. That combined with WWOHP, Hulk, Jurassic Park and a bit of shopping might give us a nice full day, as long as we aren't waiting in endless lines..which I am worried about. And we could do a couple water rides as well.

eta: forgot to mention, we will also do DD, but I can skip Flight of the Hippogriff. That, along with barnstormer, and other tiny rides like that, scare the crap out of me lol. They're too wobbly. Yet I'll ride the Hulk three times in a row hahaha

 

[damo]

You don't think there would be difficulty in getting to WWOHP at opening though? the crowds still seem low-ish for the 3d week of may, so I am hoping this works to our advantage. I know last time the kids wanted to ride that huge red coaster (Rip it?), but it was down so they couldn't. This at least would let us do the highlights. Last time we found US a bit of a waste, but we did like a "few" things like MIB, Simpsons, Mummy, ET. That combined with WWOHP, Hulk, Jurassic Park and a bit of shopping might give us a nice full day, as long as we aren't waiting in endless lines..which I am worried about. And we could do a couple water rides as well.

eta: forgot to mention, we will also do DD, but I can skip Flight of the Hippogriff. That, along with barnstormer, and other tiny rides like that, scare the crap out of me lol. They're too wobbly. Yet I'll ride the Hulk three times in a row hahaha

I know what you mean about those little coasters. My DH used to be terrified of coasters, mainly because he had only ridden the crappy little ones. Once we started him on the larger coasters, he was much better!

As long as you stay away from Memorial Day weekend, you should be okay.

Watch out for Diagon Alley soft opening announcements. From what I hear, they are a bit behind, so there may not be any in May at all. When Wizarding World opened, there were May soft openings.

 

[islandtimect]

Yes I think what you want to see is doable. Just leave your resort early morning. If you stay at a Disney resort and don't already have a discounted tix for Universal, its probably cheaper to purchase the Universal tix with round trip transportation from Disney. A shuttle will pick you up at your resort. I booked it for a family of 4 and it only added $40 to the price of the ticket.

 

[AthenaBolina]

Yes I think what you want to see is doable. Just leave your resort early morning. If you stay at a Disney resort and don't already have a discounted tix for Universal, its probably cheaper to purchase the Universal tix with round trip transportation from Disney. A shuttle will pick you up at your resort. I booked it for a family of 4 and it only added $40 to the price of the ticket.

Oh that seems pretty great! We are a military family, so I can get a discounted ticket for 2 parks/1 day for $128/adult, or 1 park for 90 something I think. Or maybe it's cheaper, I have to do more research. I'd like to have the tickets beforehand if we can so I can suprise the family. Where did you get your tickets and shuttle from?

 

[AthenaBolina]

Ok, if we can do WWOHP and some other IOA rides, could we throw in a few from US, or would that be too much? I'm really thinking just The Mummy, Rip Ride coaster, MIB, Simpsons. We can skip the shows like Disaster, Twister etc.

Guess it depends on ticket prices too....but man, WWOHP is calling my name. FJ is my favorite ride of all time.

 

[damo]

Don't forget that you can use the single rider lines too and that will save lots of time.

 

[AthenaBolina]

Don't forget that you can use the single rider lines too and that will save lots of time.

Totally forgot about that! Thank you

 

[rowan555]

You don't think there would be difficulty in getting to WWOHP at opening though? the crowds still seem low-ish for the 3d week of may, so I am hoping this works to our advantage. I know last time the kids wanted to ride that huge red coaster (Rip it?), but it was down so they couldn't. This at least would let us do the highlights. Last time we found US a bit of a waste, but we did like a "few" things like MIB, Simpsons, Mummy, ET. That combined with WWOHP, Hulk, Jurassic Park and a bit of shopping might give us a nice full day, as long as we aren't waiting in endless lines..which I am worried about. And we could do a couple water rides as well.

eta: forgot to mention, we will also do DD, but I can skip Flight of the Hippogriff. That, along with barnstormer, and other tiny rides like that, scare the crap out of me lol. They're too wobbly. Yet I'll ride the Hulk three times in a row hahaha

We did EE for Forbidden Journey and waited almost 90 minutes to ride it. The wait when we got out, once the park was open to all, was only 45 minutes, and MUCH less for single riders. We didn't know about the single rider option, or we'd have done that instead!

Simpsons had a LONG line, even with Express Passes, most of our day at US. We ended up riding it right at 9, when the fireworks and movie thing was showing, and we found there to be a much shorter wait then.

The lines for Dragon Challenge were less than 10 minutes every time we rode it - also, you can hop back into the line to ride again without going all the way to the exit/entrance, which saves some time. Flight of the Hippogriff is a big waste of time (IMO) - it's jerky and gave me a headache and was not at all enjoyable.

When we rode MIB, our guns didn't work, and we found it to be pointless; we're skipping it in May. We'll probably ride Revenge of the Mummy a dozen times, though

 

[AthenaBolina]

We did EE for Forbidden Journey and waited almost 90 minutes to ride it. The wait when we got out, once the park was open to all, was only 45 minutes, and MUCH less for single riders. We didn't know about the single rider option, or we'd have done that instead!

Simpsons had a LONG line, even with Express Passes, most of our day at US. We ended up riding it right at 9, when the fireworks and movie thing was showing, and we found there to be a much shorter wait then.

The lines for Dragon Challenge were less than 10 minutes every time we rode it - also, you can hop back into the line to ride again without going all the way to the exit/entrance, which saves some time. Flight of the Hippogriff is a big waste of time (IMO) - it's jerky and gave me a headache and was not at all enjoyable.

When we rode MIB, our guns didn't work, and we found it to be pointless; we're skipping it in May. We'll probably ride Revenge of the Mummy a dozen times, though

Interesting that you had to wait longer with EE than not. When I went Oct 2010, we had EE and waited about 45 minutes I think. I had rider swap, so I went twice in a row and then we went back that night again too I think. Can you get EE if you're not staying on site?

 

[rowan555]

Interesting that you had to wait longer with EE than not. When I went Oct 2010, we had EE and waited about 45 minutes I think. I had rider swap, so I went twice in a row and then we went back that night again too I think. Can you get EE if you're not staying on site?

Only with a vacation package through Universal. That was NOT the case when we went, all the partner hotels granted EE. Perhaps that's why they eliminated that perk being given out so widely? We found it INSANELY busy during the EE hour.

 

[RMulieri]

I think that once Cabana Bay hotel opens, the offsite hotels that offer early entry with a pkg might be going bye bye.Cabana Bay is adding 1800 rooms onsite.No need to offer early entry to offsite hotels to entice people

 

[islandtimect]

Oh that seems pretty great! We are a military family, so I can get a discounted ticket for 2 parks/1 day for $128/adult, or 1 park for 90 something I think. Or maybe it's cheaper, I have to do more research. I'd like to have the tickets beforehand if we can so I can suprise the family. Where did you get your tickets and shuttle from?

The ticket with transportation from DW option is available directly from Universal.