Universal First Timer - Help with my touring plan

[Tbird2281]

Hi Everyone! I will be at Universal the Sat. after Thanksgiving 2016. This will be my first time at Universal along with the 7 other people with me. I have taken charge of planning/researching everything. I am concerned I am trying to do too much...or setting up unrealistic expectations. Can you see below and give me your opinion? Couple things to mention...I'll be traveling with my 4 year old and 2 year old...and we are buying express passes for my husband and his father who plan to do the more 'thrilling' rides. Thank you for your help!

Universal Studios
All - Despicable Me
Kids/Women - ET Adventure, Woody Woodpecker Nuthouse Coaster, Fievel's Playland, Curious George, Twirl & Hurl
Men - Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, The Simpsons Ride, Men in Black
All - Diagon Alley - with the men maybe riding Gringotts
Lunch - either Leaky Cauldron or Three Broomsticks
All - Hogwarts Express

Islands of Adventure
All - Hogsmeade
Kids/Women - Flight of the Hippogriff
Men - Dragon Challenge, Forbidden Journey
Kids/Women - Seuss Train Trolley, Caro-Seuss-el, One Fish, Cat in the Hat
Men - Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, Doctor Doom's Fearfall, Increadible Hulk

If there is time, I wouldn't mind checking out the Jurassic Park area....but I'm guessing there won't be time for that...which is okay as it will give us something to look forward to on our next trip when my kids are older....

Again, we are only going to be at Universal one day as it's really a Disney trip given my kids ages but my sister-in-law and I want to visit the HP areas and I think the guys want some thrill rides so we are making it a day. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks!

 

[VacaPlanner2012]

It will surely be tight, but doable with EP. The big omission I see is Kong!!! There are rumors (and hopes) that the termination of the castle tour at Forbidden Journey will result in Express Lines when Kong opens.

A couple of thoughts, just thoughts (every group is different) - Keeping 8 people on the same plan is difficult. Make sure you have the must dos and the not so importants. Everything can't be top priority. As my screen name suggests, I am the planner in my family, so I feel your pain. I usually ask each person in the group what their "must do" is and I try to make that happen. Having planned for groups ages 5 to 65, with young girls and young boys, this list may be varied, but usually possible.

With the younger ones, don't limit time in Fievel's Playland and definitely check out the Jurassic Park area, the kids area is definitely next level fun! This may result in splitting up the group. That is OK, it sounds like a long vacation, you may want to split after spending the holiday together...lol! No need for Disney like ADRs, but you might want to have an idea of food arrangements and use that as time to meet up.

Think of it similar to touring Magic Kingdom and Epcot on the same day with hoppers. If you only have time for one day, you could still have a great day and want more when you leave. Now imagine having a FastPass for every ride sans 2-3 of the major ones. That should be your expectation - you will miss out on shows and parades and some of the wonderful details, but still an awesome day.

 

[Tbird2281]

Thank you so much for your help....these are some great ideas...I definitely think we will be splitting up for much of the day...there is just too many rides the guys want to go on that the two younger ones won't be able to....

 

[TommyJK]

A few pieces of feedback:

- you will definitely need to split up IMO. Your Husband and his father will need to split off to do their bigger rides while you guys do the Kids/Women stuff
- Guys will definitely need express pass as Saturday's are generally busier and this being the Saturday after Thanksgiving it will be busy.
- also have a look at this page as I think it will definitely help you (if you're the planner):

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/wait_times.php?a=history

It shows historical wait times throughout the day for every ride for a given day in the past year. So if you go to that page, go back to see Sat. Nov 28th last year (Sat after Thanksgiving) and then select either IOA or US, then you will be able to pick the rides and see what the wait times were each hour of the day. Something that might be tough is Hippogriff in the afternoon as it gets up to an hour wait, but gets better in the last 2 hours of the day

So my overall high level plan that could (should) be doable is something like this (Parks should be open 9-9 that day since it's a weekend)

Morning:

• 9:00 - Get to Universal side right for rope drop and head straight to Despicable Me. It's line builds quickly and stays an hour plus wait all day
• 9:30 - 11:00 Then split off the two groups.
  • Women/kids head east to kidsville where you can do ET, followed by Nuthouse Coaster, and then spend some play time in that whole zone
  • Men go to Hollywood RRR, followed by Transformers, then Mummy, then MIB
• 11:00 Two groups meet up again in Springfield. Men ride The Simpson's Ride, kids ride Twirl and Hurl
• 11:30 Then Head to Diagon Alley together. Men ride Gringotts, Kids can check the shops, maybe catch "The Tales of Beedle the Bard"
• 12:30 Grab lunch together at Leaky Cauldron
• 1:30 Go to Hogwarts Express

Afternoon:

• Resist the urge to do Daigon Alley, it will be really busy at this point.
• 2:00 - 4:00 Split the groups again. Walk your way down through The Lost Continent
  • Kids stay in Seuss Land do the various attractions there.
  • Guys walk over to Marvel Island. Do Hulk, followed by Spiderman, followed by Dr. Doom's
• 4:00 - 6:00. Meet up in Jurassic Park.
  • Men could do River Adventure, then *maybe* Reign of Kong, but I have no clue what wait time will be. Could be well over an hour.... You'll need to play this part by ear.
  • Kids could do Camp Jurassic, Pteradon Flyers, Discovery Center.....
• 6:00 Dinner. You could do 3 Broomsticks in Hogsmead or Thuderfalls Terrace in Jurassic Park
• 7:00 Hogsmead
  • kids could do Hippogriff (should have shorter wait now), then explore Hogsmead
  • guys can do Forbidden Journey and Drago Challenge
• 8:30 - you should all take Hogwarts express back to Daigon Alley, the "story" is different on the way back.

 

[TommyJK]

Actually one more suggestion. You guys should all go through Hogwarts castle (if the line for Forbidden journey isn't too long). It's such a fantastic queue that the kids would enjoy too. Then you can do rider swap so you too can enjoy Forbidden Journey. It's such an amazing ride.

 

[Tbird2281]

Thank you for your great feedback. This helps a ton! And, yes, we plan to have the guys do their thing while we do the stuff with the kids...sorry, I was a little confusing in my original post. We definitely don't plan on doing all of that together. We figure we should 'divide and concur'. THANK YOU!!!