Two days, all 3 parks (VB, UO, IOA)

[d0naldduck123]

Hello! I haven't been to UO in a while, I think last time was 5 years ago. This time DH and I are doing a short trip in mid-June and staying on property so we have early admission. Right now, we have two days of park time, so our plan is:
Day1: UO/IOA (one day park-to-park ticket)
Day2: VB (one day VB ticket)

We don't have to do all the rides of course, but we would like to experience some/most of the new ones since we've last been (Hagrid's motorbike, velocicoaster, Kong, Hulk, Jimmy Fallon, Bourne stunt show). I haven't bought tickets yet, but now I'm thinking with summer break crowds, is my plan even feasible? How would you allocate the parks between two days?

If it's near impossible, I was throwing around different options:
Opt1: Buy two day 3-park park to park ticket (So we can do VB in the morning of Day2 and go to the parks later in the afternoon)

Opt2: For the Day1, add EP (which is an additional $450 for the two of us)

Opt3: Add a night to our hotel stay so we can have one more day in the land parks

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I do not think VB is an all day park, and no way to do a reasonable job at the other 2 parks in 1 day, unless you are really only looking at doing those new rides and maybe 1-2 others. I would opt for option 1 or 3. On your list, EP will not help with Hagrids, Velicicoaster, or the Bourne Stuntacular. Plus if Hagrids is having a rough day you might be SOL trying a single day. Or if the weather is terrible that day.

 

[DisneyMom93]

I personally wouldn’t do less than one day in each park, especially if you don’t have EP.

We’ve done the HP train ride between them before so I wouldn’t pay extra for park-to-park just to do that ride again if I was only going for two days. (We do pay extra for park-to-park so we can do both parks on our final day since we usually do the parks for 5 weekdays.)

Must you do volcano bay? We never do the water parks at Disney or Universal because we can do water parks by our home (Northeast) during the summer. We can’t do Universal or Disney anywhere other than Florida (or California) so we would rather spend our precious Florida time at the main parks. They have a few rides you can get wet on too.

EDITED TO ADD: I would do option 3 if I had to choose only one of the three choices listed.

 

[snoopboop]

Have you checked for availability at one of the hotels that offers Unlimited Express Pass for the nights of your stay? That would give you EP at the dry parks for the length of your stay. For me, VB is a half-day park - I’d recommend a full day at the dry parks, then the next morning do Early Admission at VB, stay there until early afternoon-ish, and then spend the rest of the day at the dry parks again. Paired with hotel EP, this would be the best way to manage two days and hit all three parks, IMO.

 

[d0naldduck123]

I do not think VB is an all day park, and no way to do a reasonable job at the other 2 parks in 1 day, unless you are really only looking at doing those new rides and maybe 1-2 others. I would opt for option 1 or 3. On your list, EP will not help with Hagrids, Velicicoaster, or the Bourne Stuntacular. Plus if Hagrids is having a rough day you might be SOL trying a single day. Or if the weather is terrible that day.

Thank you for pointing that out! I completely forgot that EP isn't available on the new rides. We've never been to VB but glad to know it's not an all day park. Depending on if the hotel is available for an extra night, will probably go with Opt 1 or 3 like you said. And I also didn't realize Hagrids is so prone to delays/problems! Hopefully we'll get to ride it on one of our days

 

[d0naldduck123]

I personally wouldn’t do less than one day in each park, especially if you don’t have EP.

We’ve done the HP train ride between them before so I wouldn’t pay extra for park-to-park just to do that ride again if I was only going for two days. (We do pay extra for park-to-park so we can do both parks on our final day since we usually do the parks for 5 weekdays.)

Must you do volcano bay? We never do the water parks at Disney or Universal because we can do water parks by our home (Northeast) during the summer. We can’t do Universal or Disney anywhere other than Florida (or California) so we would rather spend our precious Florida time at the main parks. They have a few rides you can get wet on too.

EDITED TO ADD: I would do option 3 if I had to choose only one of the three choices listed.

Last time I went to Universal I did almost the opposite of your experience We did 3 days (without park-to-park) and we had plenty of time to do everything...except Hogwarts Express, which is why we're doing the park-to-park this time. We're staying on property for the first time and VB is so close, we thought why not? Unfortunately, we don't have that great waterparks near home

 

[d0naldduck123]

Have you checked for availability at one of the hotels that offers Unlimited Express Pass for the nights of your stay? That would give you EP at the dry parks for the length of your stay. For me, VB is a half-day park - I’d recommend a full day at the dry parks, then the next morning do Early Admission at VB, stay there until early afternoon-ish, and then spend the rest of the day at the dry parks again. Paired with hotel EP, this would be the best way to manage two days and hit all three parks, IMO. ☺

I checked those hotels that includes EP but no availability It's probably because we're booking so late. I agree, what you suggested would be the best way without it having to cost us too much. I'll keep an eye out for those hotels! Even if we can't change the hotel, I'll definitely do VB in the morning and visit the dry parks later on.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Hagrids is much less problem-prone than it was last year. But you still can hit an off day, or weather will shut it down (I can assure you that you do NOT want to ride it in significant rain!).

 

[onegai]

I think your original plan is fine. As pointed out, VB isn't a full day so you can hit one of the other parks you want to see more of on this second day.

 

[d0naldduck123]

I've been checking hotels and looks like we might not be able to add a day to our stay as I'm not seeing availability. So for now our plan is spend a morning at VB to give us 1.5 days of dry park time.