US/IoA in 1 day, impossible or doable?

[Batty Man]

Obviously I would pay for the EP. These would be what I'd like to do (This isn't a current trip so don't worry about closures)

IoA: Incredible Hulk, Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, Dudley-Do Right's Ripsaw Falls, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Dragon Challenge, Cat in the Hat (Would be nice to do the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride and Flight of the Hippogriff as well. Would do Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges but I don't really care)

US: Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, Men in Black: Alien Attack, The Simpsons Ride, ET Adventure (Would be nice to do Transformers: The Ride and Shrek 4-D. Would do Terminator but I don't really care.

And Hogwart's Express between the parks obviously. To give perspective I can do MK just fine in one day.

 

[damo]

Depends on when you are going. That would influence crowds and park hours.

 

[dduncan6er]

My fiancé and I felt we could have done both parks in one day when we went last May. As long as it's not a crowded day and you don't go to any shows you should be able to get everything done. I would start at US and then move on to IOA. Others may have a different opinion but if you get there first thing in the morning I think it's doable.

 

[Liberator]

Did it on Jan 12 without EP, I was VERY worried about tour groups.

Started for rope drop at IoA because there was Early Entrance for Hotel Guests at the Studios. We started with FJ and then something bad happened...my friend forgot her glasses in a locker at FJ. She went back and was told that this particular locker is in use again. She had to wait until the new "owner" of the locker came back from the ride. This person has not seen the glasses in the locker because the locker room is quite dark. She got her glasses back, but this whole process took about 45 minutes. BAD!!

Nevertheless, when we went on, we did all the headliners with no to little wait. We found that Jurassic Park River Adventure is still one of the best rides at IoA, we loved it!

We did not do Dudley-Doo-Right's. It was a sunny day, but not hot enough to enjoy the ride without clothes for changing afterwards, so we just stood on the bridge and watched the logs going down. Popeye's rafting was closed for yearly maintenance.

Had lunch there and then went to the Studios with the train (we were completely blown away by the stations, the train and this whole experience). We had to wait for some rides 10-30 minutes, Gringott's had a 45 minute wait time. We had some breaks for getting some snacks and drinks and enjoyed people watching. Gringott's was worth every minute waiting. This is one of the rides I would queue up for 100 min and up! Just wow, we were amazed what they created.

We had to get back to IoA in the evening because we had our backpacks stowed in a locker at the IoA entrance. We used the last minutes to ride the ex-dueling dragons again and we rode FJ twice again with no wait at all. We sat in one of the last enchanted benches that were sent to accompany Harry and his friends this evening. It was nice that we were able to skip the whole queue and I think they sent us through the single rider line.

We skipped some rides: E.T., this lame Sindbad thing, Minions, Shrek, Terminator.
Hulk was also closed because of the grand refurb.

I wanted to ride E.T, but as we did several breaks and stops to enjoy and not to hurry we were running out of time and decided to go back to IoA for re-riding the Dragons and FJ instead of queuing up for E.T.

Crowdwise it was considered a low crowd day, but I think the sunny weather draw in some folks. I only saw one tour group in the morning. About 20 teenagers. Well behaving, no clapping, chanting, running, arm linking. I guess we had luck this day.

I like it that there is constant moving in most queues. E. g. Transformers, Spiderman, Dragons. Not standing around for ages in the same spot makes a 30 minute queue time almost enjoyable.

With ~ 150 $ per 1day-ticket I thought this quite expensive, BUT: It is worth every single $! We really enjoyed our day. My favourites are Jurrassic Park River Adventure, Gringott's, Forbidden Journey and Rip Ride Rockit.

 

[klo1335]

We did it this summer with the main purpose of doing HP and Jurassic. We got there are rope drop at 9am, parked and walked to IOA. Got to Jurassic and did the Perantadon Flyers and the River Adventure (no lines). From there we went to Hogsmeade and did Journey with a 15 min wait. By the time we got out (we did a child swap), it was very crowded. We purchased wands and left towards the Suess area. Stopped to talk to the fountain. It was about 11am at this time and kids were hungry. We ate lunch at Circusmagucus (sp?). Then we did Cat in the Hat, Trolley in the Sky and decided to take the train to Diagon Alley. We got there and saw the Knight Bus, got ice cream. Wait for Gringotts was 45 min, which isn't bad but kids were tired as it was about 2pm at this time. Took the train back to Hogsmeade and towards Jurassic. Stopped at the center there for a bit and made way towards the exit. Right before the sky's opened up and it stormed big time. We left around 3:30pm. We couldn't stayed but the kids wanted to go back and swim.

While we didn't get to do everything, we knew we only planned one day just to do HP and Jurassic. And it was August and hot and there were crowds. We are going back this coming Nov for 3 days.

Hope that helped.

 

[atricks]

That's going to be difficult, particularly with Minions in there. Really depends on time of year. If you are there when Kong or Hulk is open, you'll probably want to do that also. If it's a busy day, you aren't going to get all of that in.

 

[DisLaw]

Thinking of doing this in a couple of weeks! Taking a very short Disney trip but want to do HP sections again and minion ride. We've been to US/IOA multiple times over the past 4 years so this is just a way to hit the favorites while we are there. A pricey way I will admit!!

As a side note, what is the very cheapest way to get just a one day park to park ticket? I wish Costco still sold the three day tickets as they were good for a couple of years. I know we will be back so I'd spring for a multi day ticket if I didn't have to use it all in 2 weeks.

 

[damo]

Thinking of doing this in a couple of weeks! Taking a very short Disney trip but want to do HP sections again and minion ride. We've been to US/IOA multiple times over the past 4 years so this is just a way to hit the favorites while we are there. A pricey way I will admit!!

As a side note, what is the very cheapest way to get just a one day park to park ticket? I wish Costco still sold the three day tickets as they were good for a couple of years. I know we will be back so I'd spring for a multi day ticket if I didn't have to use it all in 2 weeks.

There really aren't any discounted 1 day tickets.