Universal newbie needs all the help she can get!

[klitteral2009]

So we're finally taking our trip back home for a week to WDW!!! In the time we've been away, I have a 10 year old who has gone Harry Potter crazy so we've planned to take one day and visit WWOHP. Let me say holy price tag batman! Tickets and when I tried to add express passes I came up with over $1800!!! FOR ONE DAY! Needless to say we're not going that route but I'm now looking for all tips, tricks and advice about hitting Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade in one day and not being in a line for days on end. We are getting the 1 day 2 park passes because I know Universal (cleverly) split up all the HP goodness between both parks. Honestly it's all we're going for so getting into Universal or IOA itself for any other rides would be icing on the cake. I'm doing all the research I can because I know nothing about the world of Universal lol. I wasn't sure if there was another way, possibly a 'throwaway' room to gain any early entry benefits or not. I appreciate you all for any info you give! We're really looking forward to it!

 

[limace]

I’d consider doing two days, and getting a room at one of the Universal deluxe hotels for free express passes. We started our last WDW trip there and loved it and have since decided we will end trips there going forward-with EP and easy walks to the park it’s so much more relaxing than disney.

 

[bchbetha]

I would also suggest 2 days and do a stay at one of the 3 Universal hotels that includes Express passes.

If 2 park days doesn't work then just do one but still book the room. Wrap up Disney early one afternoon and head over to Universal. Check into your hotel late afternoon, hit the pool, go eat dinner, scope out Citywalk and the park entrances (you can see the rides easily from there so it'll also get you excited and give you the lay of the land a bit). Early bedtime. Wake up, roll out of bed, grab something quick (better yet, just pack something easy like a Kind bar and plan to eat in the park a bit later), hit early entry and enjoy your day! Head back to your hotel then Disney after a successful Universal day.

Or end your trip at Universal so you don't have all the back and forth.

 

[macraven]

What date for UO?
Avoid Saturday as they tend to be busy.

 

[cfoxga]

So we're finally taking our trip back home for a week to WDW!!! In the time we've been away, I have a 10 year old who has gone Harry Potter crazy so we've planned to take one day and visit WWOHP. Let me say holy price tag batman! Tickets and when I tried to add express passes I came up with over $1800!!! FOR ONE DAY! Needless to say we're not going that route but I'm now looking for all tips, tricks and advice about hitting Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade in one day and not being in a line for days on end. We are getting the 1 day 2 park passes because I know Universal (cleverly) split up all the HP goodness between both parks. Honestly it's all we're going for so getting into Universal or IOA itself for any other rides would be icing on the cake. I'm doing all the research I can because I know nothing about the world of Universal lol. I wasn't sure if there was another way, possibly a 'throwaway' room to gain any early entry benefits or not. I appreciate you all for any info you give! We're really looking forward to it!

In general, Universal is much cheaper than Disney, but the single day ticket is the exception. To be fair, Disney does the same thing for a single day, park-hopper ticket. It is the reason that we never do Disney and Universal in a single trip. Most of the money saving tips involve stays of 2+ days:

1. Deluxe hotel for 1 night gives 2 days of EPs for up to 5 people. Even for a single day trip, this could save money.
2. Upgrade one ticket to an Annual Pass, to open up APH rates for the room. The upgrade price is oven less than the savings for the APH rate.
3. For 2+ day stays, upgrade to an Annual Pass and make a second trip. It usually doesn't cost much (around $20) to go to a Seasonal AP.

Our daughters were 9 and 10 for our first trip (4 nights at CB), and they absolutely love the HP areas. You can rush through them in a day, but you will just be scratching the surface. Four years later, and we've gone through 5 trips (averaging 5 days per trip) across 2 sets of Annual Passes. While they've added new favorites, like the Simpsons/MIB/Minions, we still find ourselves spending a ton of time in the HP areas each trip...

 

[klitteral2009]

What date for UO?
Avoid Saturday as they tend to be busy.

We had planned on March 31, 2021. I picked a Wednesday because I knew weekends would probably be insane. But to be fair, Universal crowds are looking nuts that week anyway. I guess we're just going to have to make the best of what we can. Only other day we could possibly do that would be a Sunday or Saturday.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Get there at park opening. Actually, plan to be parking about an hour before park opening, because you'll spend some time going through security & CityWalk, then you can be at the gates or even inside the park. If there is early entry to the park you start with, anyone can be through the gates during that open hour. There is a fence later where you can keep going if you have EE, and otherwise you can explore the areas up to the fence. Right at the end of EE is often a great time to jump on the HP rides - the EE folks have ridden them and are ready to move on, so the lines are short. This applies to Hagrids too.

Mornings and evenings are the best (lowest crowd) times to explore the HP areas.

Download the Universal App for ride wait times and show schedule. Note that Hagrids wait time is not always accurate - a full queue takes about 30-40min from the archway of the official queue. The extended line before that is what you want to look at - hop in line if it is not looped down into the Poseidon area, or if it is not going through a lot of switchbacks back there. It'll take a few min to get to the lockers and the archway, but smooth sailing after that. I've waited 30min when the App said 90, so pay attention to the actual line rather than projected wait for Hagrids.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

To add, even if you spend an hpur in line for each of the major HP rides, you can absolutely do them in a day. And the queues are interesting, so it's not as bad a wait as a boring sidewalk. More likely, you may hit a few hour waits and a few that are more like 30min, especially at the end of the day. Hagrids at night is cool, and you can hop in line right before park close so it's not eating up park time. You can also explore the HP areas after close, but just can't go in the shops.

So, while EP is nice, you can have a successful day without it.

 

[nkereina]

Whenever we have 7+ days to work with, we'll spend 5 days at Disney and 2-3 days at Universal as a split stay. This gets us express pass/early entry at Universal, and allows us to enjoy different resorts making it feel like two vacations in one. We also like to do Universal after Disney, because its a nice reprieve from the planning and strategizing and the "go go go" mentality I have at Disney trying to cram everything in. With express pass at Universal, we can sleep in and do the rides in any order we want at our leisure, making for a much more easy going day.

FWIW, much like Disney, the per-day and per-person prices for Universal become much more palatable if you can spend 2-3+ days. The resorts have "stay more save more" rates, the ticket costs per day have nominal jumps. People will also consider purchasing annual passes because that allows for unlimited entry into both parks while also providing AP rates on Universal hotels, which can often be a significant savings.

If a split stay is not in the cards for you, its definitely worth pricing out a "throwaway" room both for early entry and express pass. Your options would be Hard Rock, Portofino Bay, or Royal Pacific if you want express pass too, and Royal Pacific tends to be cheapest. IMO, with EPs, you'd have enough time to do both Potter areas plus other rides in either park as well.

We are getting the 1 day 2 park passes because I know Universal (cleverly) split up all the HP goodness between both parks.

Plus, you need to have a 2 park pass in order to ride Hogwart's Express.