US/IoA in 1 day with express, or 2 days without?

[Juliet25]

So, it looks like I’m going to the dark side on my next trip to Disney. We’re going to go to Universal for the first time. We’d like to visit both parks and wonder which makes more sense … buy a one day two park ticket with premium express pass, or a 2 day/2 park ticket without.

We mostly want to do the HP stuff as well as Spider-Man. Probably won’t do the extreme coasters. The advantage to doing it all in one day is having an extra vacation day to relax (we’re still doing Disney as well), but I’m concerned that we might not get a chance to see everything in just one day. We’ll be there during spring break, so we’re fully expecting crowds.

 

[macraven]

Depending on the dates of your trip plans, would help us to share if a one day or two day would be best

Weekends bring out the locals more and certain months can have crowd lines

When is your next planned trip?

 

[Juliet25]

It would be Sunday and then Wednesday. Sunday probably isn't ideal, but my family couldn't do 4 straight days of parks. We have TL water park planned for Tuesday.

Mid March, so very high crowds anticipated.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I’d do two days without express. EP doesn’t cover the two most popular rides (Velocicoaster and Hagrid’s), and at peak times, the wait can be substantial even with EP. I think one day will be more stressful, especially if you hit a snag like Hagrid’s going down. You will be going from ride to ride, and probably won’t have time to really take in the details of UO or do much in the way of non-ride attractions.

Plan to rope drop both days to get at least one headliner out of the way. Monitor the app to check for drops in waits on rides you want. Use the busiest part of the day (usually late morning and early to mid afternoon) to do the less popular rides, take in the atmosphere, and see some of the shows. Jump into line at the end of the day to take advantage of the lower wait times. You may have some long waits, but they’ll be spread out over two days, and interspersed with other fun stuff. Plus some of the standby queues are so well done that they are worth doing for their own sake.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Another vote for 2 days.

In addition to what @ClapYourHands said, a poor weather day will really limit your options if you only have 1 day. Plus you can enjoy more of the ambiance. You can have actual lunch breaks without worrying about "wasting" Express time.

 

[Kit Jackson]

If you want to ride the Hogwarts Express, you need a park to park ticket. This is something to consider since you mentioned Harry Potter fans.

 

[Kjdisney]

My DH and I just finished a WDW/universal trip and I think if we were to do it over, I would have done one of the group VIP tours with the 2 parks for one day.
But then it was just the 2 of us. If I was bringing kids over age 8, I would stay at one of deluxe resorts that included express pass And do 2 days in the parks. We did this, and while we did enjoy the experience, was very glad we did it before WDW. We would have been disappointed had we already been to WDW.

The two HP areas are wonderful, we liked US side best. All 3 HP rides are great. But because this is the most popular area it is way too crowded to really enjoy. I loved the new roller coaster, which really surprised me because they aren’t usually my favorites. Mummy and Jurassic Park were closed which was disappointing since this was first time to the parks. Overall we enjoyed going but we rode every ride except Hulk and water rides, some twice and we were done by noon the second day. We both felt that Universal was overpriced for the experience compared to Disney

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I’ve done both but is check crowd calendars (also always get a park to park ticket even for the two days)

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

So, it looks like I’m going to the dark side on my next trip to Disney. We’re going to go to Universal for the first time. We’d like to visit both parks and wonder which makes more sense … buy a one day two park ticket with premium express pass, or a 2 day/2 park ticket without.

We mostly want to do the HP stuff as well as Spider-Man. Probably won’t do the extreme coasters. The advantage to doing it all in one day is having an extra vacation day to relax (we’re still doing Disney as well), but I’m concerned that we might not get a chance to see everything in just one day. We’ll be there during spring break, so we’re fully expecting crowds.

It's worth noting the Spiderman and other Avengers stuff is the old school stuff so if you're looking for Tom Holland, Chris Hemsworth, etc. you'll be disappointed. It is a good ride though.

 

[Juliet25]

Thank you all for the advice! We’re definitely not going to try to do it all in one day now. It looks like we may get the 5 day ticket on promo and spread out the park visits, or do a two day park-to-park with a deluxe stay in there.