Only one full day and it's Grad night...help with planning

[bakerjay]

Hi all -

We're headed to Universal next week. We arrive 4/12 and leave late afternoon 4/14. So, we have half of Thursday, all of Friday and half of Saturday to do both parks (no Volcano Bay). We're staying onsite so have EP and I bought park to park tickets...I would love some help planning out how to see and do everything in those days with our limited timeframe.

1) On our arrival day, where should we head first? We could get there as early as 10am or later in the day if that makes more sense crowd-wise. We're coming from the west coast of FL so departure/arrival time is up to us. Looks like parks are closing at 8 and 9pm that night...

2) Which park should we do for our full day knowing that they both close at 6pm that night? Or should we do both?

3) We have until about 3pm on our last day to do whatever...

I would love advice on how to best plan the trip out knowing our time is somewhat limited. We will be a party of 6, 4 adults, a 15yo and an 11yo. Not huge HP fans, three of us love thrill rides, three of us don't. Not sure what other details will help.

 

[georgina]

In my opinion, with the express, it will be no problem to see and do everything, some multiple times. Take a look at the attractions to see what you are most interested in. I do enjoy the parks at night, and you only have one later night for both, which makes it tough. I like riding both Rip Ride Rockit at Universal and Hulk at IOA in the dark. Both Harry Potter areas are nice in the evening also.

The 3 rides that can get you wet are all in IOA. I usually plan to ride those just before I leave the park, so maybe save that for later Friday afternoon? Otherwise, it is very easy to go between parks. Start at one park, take a break at your resort if you want, go back to a park. It really doesn't matter where you start, you have plenty of time. Saturday you can re-do whatever were your favorites.

Even though you aren't big HP fans, you should try the HP rides.

 

[schumigirl]

Check out the park maps on the website, it’ll give you an idea of the layout and what rides you want to do.

With EP you should do ok.

I agree with PP about Potter........both areas are phenomenal and should be experienced.......even non Potter fans think they are both amazing......and the rides are darn good too!!

 

[bakerjay]

Check out the park maps on the website, it’ll give you an idea of the layout and what rides you want to do.

With EP you should do ok.

I agree with PP about Potter........both areas are phenomenal and should be experienced.......even non Potter fans think they are both amazing......and the rides are darn good too!!

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. I'm glad to hear that we should be able to get a lot of good stuff in while we're there. And yes, even though we're not HP fans, we definitely planned to experience it at both parks.

All that said, my Type A personality would really love for someone to tell me which park we should go to the day we arrive and what time makes the most sense! We're coming from about 2.5 hrs away. Should we kill ourselves to get to the parks by 9am (we'd have to stop at the hotel first to get our room keys/EP, so 9am might be more like 9:30/10) or would it be ok to be a bit more leisurely, eat an early lunch and get to the parks more like 12:00/1:00 knowing that we have until 8/9pm? Part of me wants to get up and get out early but part of me also knows that the family might appreciate a little less rushing super early in the morning.

 

[christophfam]

I’ll be there next week as well. Crowds will be lightest on Thursday and heaviest on Saturday. You’ll only have one night and that is your arrival day. If it’ll be difficult to keep everyone going until closing that day if you get them up early, then sleep in. Rushing to get there at 10am around the time crowds start to build only to petter out early will gain you no ground. Nighttime will be better than 10am.

As far as where to start midday it really doesn’t matter with ep. Download the uni app and see which park has lower wait times (less people) and go there. I’d avoid the hp areas until crowds start to thin later in the day. Then Friday morning get up and hit the hp areas again. Mornings and evenings are the least crowded times. I’ll probably do ioa Friday regular opening as I don’t want to do 7am ee at studios.

Have fun!