We are planning on being at IOA the days prior to Thanksgiving, probably Sunday 11/20 - Wednesday 11/23. What kind of crowds should we expect? Are there specials that time of year? Would it really be necessary to stay at a partner hotel to take advantage of the early park admission? I've been looking at some places on VRBO, and they seem cheaper than staying in one of the partner hotels. We've been to these parks before (about 5 years ago), but we are very interested in the Harry Potter themepark. I've heard that the lines there are awful, so I'm curious if we should really do the partner hotel thing. When we were there about 5 years ago we lucked up on an online deal through the universal studios website that offered 5 day admission for each of us for only $100 ($400 for our family for 5 days...phenomenal). Do any of you know if there are ever any kind of promotions like that anymore? I've been checking the site and haven't seen anything yet. Any help that you can give to help us save some money and be able to enjoy the parks would be great. This is so silly, but my kids are also looking forward to having those frozen lemonade things again....hope they still have them. Five years later, and my children still talk about how good those frozen lemonades were. Thanks for your help!
