- Look over the different rides and determine what you want to do.
- There are a number of thrill rides, rides that cause motion sickness, and water rides. You may not want to do all of these.
- Expect the HP area to be very crowded, no matter what time of year you go.
- Take advantage of single rider lines if you need to.
- Headliners: Forbidden Journey (HP ride), Hulk (outdoor coaster), Dueling Dragons (twin outdoor coasters), Kong (fairly tame ride but new so popular) - these attractions get long lines
- Possible long lines: Dr. Doom Fearfall (gets a long line more bc it is a low capacity ride than anything), Spider-Man (can be hit or miss with lines), Flight of the Hippogriff (low capacity kiddy coaster gets long lines bc it is in HP), Trolley Train (low capacity ride that can have long lines when park is very crowded)
- Because Universal closes much earlier than Disney, you shouldn't have any problem leaving and eating dinner in Disney Springs if you want to. We usually eat dinner in Citywalk after the park closes when we go.
- Universal doesn't have any free equivalent of Disney's FP system. What they have instead is a paid system called Express Pass. If crowds are bad enough to actually need this system, you are looking at paying close to $100 a day per person. What people do to get around this is book a night at one of Universal's deluxe resorts. This gives you free EP tickets for each day of your stay, from check in day through check out day. So one night gets you 2 days of EP. The hotels are expensive, but still much less than paying for the EP outright. Guests who stay at a Universal hotel also get to enter one of the HP sections one hour before official park opening. This is very important for avoiding the HP crowds.
It doesn't sound like you guys will have EP or early entry privlages since you are making such a quick trip over and back. If you want to see everything, here's my suggested touring plan which can be tweaked based on the crowd level.
Arrive 30 minutes before opening time, whether opening is early entry or regular. You want to be first up at the turnstiles as that is where the back-up and wasted time usually occurs. If IOA is the early entry park, you can still enter the park 1 hr early even if you aren't staying at a Universal hotel. So if the regular park opening is 9, and early entry is at 8, arrive by 7:30. They will let you in and then hold you in the Port of Entry section until closer to the actual park opening. This will give you a head start on others. You can go ahead and get lockers, maps, go to the restroom, get breakfast at the bakery or Starbucks, or shop in the stores in this section.
If IOA is not the Early Entry park, you have two options.
Either 1) join the masses in a mad dash back to HP or 2) head to the other park headliners.
1) This is the HP is the priority plan. If you choose HP, you may have 30 minutes to an hour that aren't crowded depending on when the park opens, and another hour to hour and half that aren't too bad. If you take this road, do Flight of the Hippogriff and the wand show first. Neither attraction is worth a long wait, and there aren't any options to lesson these wait times. Next, explore the shops and try the wand spots if you are interested in doing those. Both get very crowded early on. It's no fun trying to look around the shops when all you can see are people. Then, I'd do FJ and Dueling Dragons using the single rider lines if needed based on crowds. For FJ, request to do the tour only option first. This will let you experience the preshow fully at your own pace, so you understand the premise before riding. I recommend this even if you are going through the standby line. They rush you through the line, and you usually can't get the full storyline in the standby line. After doing the tour, get back in line and do either standby or single rider depending on crowds. Last take time to check out the rest of the HP section, explore, watch the stage shows, send post by owl mail back home, take photos, and meet the conductor. At this point it should be getting near lunch, you can either catch an early lunch at the 3 Broomsticks, or head over to the Lost Continent and eat at Mythos (sit down restaurant) and catch the two attractions there.
By this point, the rest of the popular rides in the park may have long lines depending on crowds. Use the Univesal app that lists wait times and the single rider lines to tour the rest of the park.
I'd head back toward Jurassic Park and hit the water rides there and then in Toon Lagoon if those are on your to do list. As you want to ride them during the hottest part of the day, so you dry off. Then head to the headliners in the Superhero area using the single rider lines for those. You can then pop over and check out the Dr Seuss area last before leaving. Alternately, if you don't care about the water rides, from the Lost Continent head to the Dr Seus area and then over to the Superhero area.
Option 2)
If HP is not the priority and / or IOA is the early entry park, head to the left to Marvel Super Hero Island. Most everyone else will be heading to the right back to HP, but by normal entry time on an early entry day, the HP area will most likely already be crowded. Do Hulk (coaster), Dr Doom Fearfall (drop ride), and Spider-Man (simulator / intense indoor dark ride) first. Lines should be low at this time for those.
Then continue heading into the park. Go straight through Toon Lagoon to the Jurassic Park section and ride Kong. Hopefully, the line should still be ok for this as well as it should still be fairly early in the morning.
Continue on through the park to the HP area. By now, crowds will be high in this area. Turn left when you first enter Hogsmeade and head towards the castle. Tell the attendant you want to do the Tour Only. This will let you walk through the queue at your own pace, so you can see the full preshow and understand the premise of the ride. After doing the tour only, get back in line and ride the actual ride. If lines are long, use single rider. The way the ride is made, you can't talk to or see the person beside you, so unless you just want the ride photo, there isn't any point in riding together anyway.
At this point, you have a couple of options, stay in the HP area which will be very crowded or move to a different area of the park and try HP at the end of the day before closing. The other attractions are the Olivanders wand show, the Dueling Dragons coaster, and the baby Hippogriff coaster. There is also the Triwizard Ralley stage show, the Hogwarts choir stage show, meet n greets with the Hogwarts conductor, various shops, wand spots, owl post, and the 3 Broomsticks restaurant. If there is something that is a must do, I'd try to do it now. Otherwise, I'd pick and choose based on crowds and wait times.
By now, it should be around lunch time, either the 3 Broomsticks in Hogwarts or Mythos in the Lost Continent would be good options close by. If you want something more casual, there are quick service spots in each land as well. Although, technically 3 Broomsticks is considered quick service.
After lunch, you can either head back towards Jurassic Park and Toon Lagoon to do all the water rides. Prepare to get very very wet, I'd probably skip this if the weather isn't hot enough to dry you off quick. (They do offer people dryers you can pay to use, though)
Or you can head to the Lost Continent and see the Sinbad show and do the walking tour of Poseidon's Fury. You will see mixed reviews on both of these attractions.
This will leave only the Dr. Seus area left to do. Definitely ride the Trolley Train and Cat in the Hat as both are very cute in a WTP or PP type way. Take the time to really walk through this land as it is one of the best themed of them all in my opinion. You can try Moose Juice or green eggs and ham or simply stroll through the Truffula Tree forest.
This will put you back at the entrance to the park. Depending on time, you can either leave, or head back around to catch anything you missed, or head back to HP to catch anything you skipped.
A few things you may want to check out if you have time:
- Storm Force (basically teacups). I skipped over it earlier, in my quest to hit the headliners first.
- All the really cool photo opp spots in Toon Lagoon.
- Popeye's ship and the walking path nearby with fun gags along the water.
- The baby dinosaur hatching that takes place in the Jurassic Park Discovery Center
- The dinosaur meet n greet
- The talking fountain in the Lost Continent
