WDW Fans: Will you go see Harry Potter?

[KellyNY]

you are so correct!
it is a great way to be able to tour the park without long waits.
and affordable.



KellyNY, Darkie gave a good suggestion.

i have been doing both parks since 1992.
i can not imagine traveling to orlando and not doing both the motherland and the darkside.

i used to stay exclusively at the disney resorts and rent a car to go to universal for a couple of days.

after the onsite hotels opened up, i started to do split vacations.
staying at disney at the beginning of my trip and then stay at UO resorts the last few days of my vacation.

i found it was cheaper for me to relocate to universal in the long run.
for what i paid for a 2 nights stay at universal loews hotels, i got 3 days of free, unlimited express line usage for rides and shows.

it was cheaper doing that then to pay for 3 days of express passes for myself and 3 sons.

AAA will give you about a 35% discount on the universal hotels.
i only get about a 10% discount on the disney resorts when i book room only.

if you stay at disney for most of your trip, then relocate to one of the universal hotels for the end of your vacation, you will come out ahead.

use the ME from the airport to disney.
use car service to transfer from disney to universal resorts.
and, back to the airport.

i pay less than $100 for my car service and also get a free 30 minute grocery stop.

since you are basically interested in doing the parry hotter part of the park, just book one night at UO.
try to get a late flight back home the next evening.
that way you will get one full day in the UO park for parry hotter and part of the next day.

just like disney, the UO hotels cost more on the weekends.

the days for the smallest crowds in the uo parks are generally mon-thur.

i do agree that is was very upsetting for us when universal did away with the free express line passes.

that is one thing that pushed us to stay onsite.

Thank you for such detailed review.
I see now it is much better to switch hotels. There are 3 of us and we planned 2 days at Universal. We have not been in a while, wanted to do it last time but I learned about HP and we decided to go when it opens. We do almost all rides at US and some at IA so we definitely would need Express Pass. For 2 days it is extra $180. 2 days transportation from Disney would be $120, so $300 total. Transportation once to Universal plus to airport I guess $60-$70 so we will have $230 to spare. If we do 1 night we can actualy even save, we stay at CBR, so it is less then $230 difference between it and US hotel. We always take a 8PM flight, so we would definitely have till about 4PM to explore parks. I did not know about such a big discount with AAA, thanks again.
I never understood why people switch to Universal for just couple of days, now it makes a perfect sence.

 

[scrappingizlife]

We will be going to both US and IOA. My BFF is coming with us, and he has never been to either WDW or US. So he wants to do both. He has the dumb notion though that WDW is going to be too kiddie for him. I guess he'll see just how wrong he is.
I am oober exicted about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

 

[roadtripper]

We have never been to Universal (DVC since 2002--about 14 trips) but will absolutely go in Feb 2011 for HP--huge fans. Looking forward to reviews and tips on this and the Universal board!

 

[Ben Gates Fan]

Hi, I'm Joe!

I'll be going to see Harry Potter at Universal too. I love my Disney, but Universal has some serious game when it comes to attractions. Spiderman and the Mummy are two things I hit every time I'm in Orlando.

 

[smidgy]

Joe, I am a thrill ride scardey cat!!! I don't do roller coasters (everest, rock and rollercoaster) tried Tower of terror once, hated it.
I love big thunder, and will do soarin'

I LOVE spiderman and mummy! the thrill level is "just" enough for me, the perfect amount.
most theme parks have either kiddie rides, or "the bigger, crazier the better" rides. that is why I LOVE those 2 rides.

 

[Ben Gates Fan]

Absolutely, I hear ya! They are 100% just right. And the f/x inside of those two... MAN. You know, Disney has to be toying with the idea of doing something along the lines of one of those two. I wish they would, the things they could do in the 3D Spiderman style with a Disney touch? I can't even imagine.

Soarin' I love... That and Philharmagic (<<<Spelling?) are my two favorites on the Disney side from the last several years.

I haven't been lucky enough to see Everest yet, I can't wait. I'm hoping to do a trip late summer/early fall, to check out Everest and the Harry Potter land.

 

[mikeandkarla]

We are planning to visit US/IOA to see WWOH in June. If for some reason it is not open yet, we will spend the full week in WDW. I wonder if they will open WWOH if it is not 100% done. I mean, if all the exterior building is done, but the ride is unfinished. I hope they announce that if it is the case.

 

[goofy868]

We have been going to Disney & staying on property since 2000. We have consistantly made at least 2 trips a year and usually more. We have never went to another park until now. I purchased tickets for universal/IOA the other day before their price hike. The prices are getting so high at Disney I don't think we will be going back for a while after our Annual Passes expire:-(

 

[Metro West]

I wonder if they will open WWOH if it is not 100% done. I mean, if all the exterior building is done, but the ride is unfinished. I hope they announce that if it is the case.

Actually I heard the opposite...the ride is pretty much finished but the building is a ways from being completed.

 

[rie'smom]

We're going to Uni for a couple of nights at the end of our trip, partly to see HP. It's the way we end our trips because we can relax and not rush around the parks to get FPs. Our favorite Uni onsite is the Royal Pacific.

 

[Rip]

Actually I heard the opposite...the ride is pretty much finished but the building is a ways from being completed.

I heard pretty much the same thing, that the moving portion of the ride itself (tracks, cars, etc.) is in place and operational, but that very little of the theming for the ride is done.

 

[KellyNY]

I heard pretty much the same thing, that the moving portion of the ride itself (tracks, cars, etc.) is in place and operational, but that very little of the theming for the ride is done.

That is why I do not book yet, nobody knows for sure when they done and I cannot have 2 vacations a year.
BTW, when did Universal change their prices, I am shocked. 7day pass now not that far from Disney 7 day pass esp. if you add Express Pass since they do not have free pass system like FP anymore. As much as I love Universal, it is only 2 parks.

 

[Captn Jack Sparrow]

After all the midnight book buys and movie watching, and sadly, the birthday party we threw for HP I am pretty sure my family will go to check it out.

We have never been to US but this gives us an excuse to finally visit the park and not feel like we are missing the mouse...much

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We would LOVE to go to WWoHP but we are on such an abbreviated schedule that we are skipping it. DS(3) is crazy about Harry, must have had something to do with me reading the books to him as a newborn, but I cannot justify the cost of going off property with public transit. This is our last WDW trip for at least 5 years, so I really want to focus on it. Maybe next time.

 

[kathy884]

For our March 2010 trip Orlando area trip, as WWHP won't be open, we won't be going over there, but we will plan to spend a partial day (maybe it will be a full day because of lines) at IOA in March, 2011 as we are looking forward to seeing the HP theming. We will totally skip US.

Different people have different tastes. That's all I can say. I've heard US is better than it used to be, though, from my mom who is in her 70s. The last time I went was in 1995. I tried everything at US (IOA wasn't open), and personally I did not care for the park. It just didn't give me a good vibe or feel wholesome the way Sea World and Disney do. I thought the rides/movies seemed cheesy/lame.

My son went to US/IOA in 2008 (He is 14 now and was 12 at the time). He does not, however, like simulator/3D movie type rides which is a big part of these parks. Despite that, he had a good day, but ranks the parks in this order 1) Sea World // 2) Cedar Point -- he and I both love coasters // 3) All the Disney Parks // 4) IOA // 5) Universal // 6) Six Flags (our local Six Flags park is really bad).

We know IOA is bound to be crowded, though, as even people like us who are not big US/IOA in any way, shape, or form will be checking it out. My son and I looked over a list of all the US/IOA attractions, as I wanted to see what he liked there and what he'd like to see again to see how much time to allocate, if I should look into possibly staying onsite there, etc. There was nothing at US (not a single ride or attractions) that he wanted to do again, so that means just a 1 day/1 park pass to IOA. At IOA, we want to see Harry Potter (My son is really excited about seeing this and so am I), but other than that there were only three things he wanted to do again: 1) The Hulk Coaster // 2) Dueling Dragons -- I could count this as two, as he wants to do both tracks, and 3) The Jurrasic Park Discovery Center.

Our touing plan will be 1) to be at IOA at rope drop, 2) head over to WWHP and do new HP rides, 3) back track and do the Hulk coaster before that gets too crowded (I heard lines are crazy / busy for this later in the day), 4) head back near where we were before and do both Dueling Dragon tracks, 5) spend time looking around at WWHP -- gift shops, etc. take our time (See everything we are interested in that isn't a ride.), 6) Go the to Jurrasic Park Discovery center, and 7) head back to our resort to relax or if it was a really short day (probably unlikely because of lines even with our extremely limited activities), go over to Sea World where we have season passes.

 

[melly]

Neither scared nor judging a book by its cover in my case. I hate thrill rides, my children are grown, and my grandchildren are too young. Disney is a big part of my childhood. I grew up with the classic movies and the original Mickey Mouse Club. Universal holds no interest for me -- it's that simple. .

Stuff like this astounds me. What you are saying is that your not even willing to give Universal a try? I mean you can't have been there otherwise you'd know there are only really 4 true thrill rides (DD's, Hulk, Dr Doom and Rip R Ride) and the rest are of a similar intensity to that of Disney. Jurrasic and Ripsaw falls are no more intense than Splash Mountain, the Mummy no more intense than Everest or Rock n Rollercoaster....the list goes on. I can always understand people who go, dont like it so dont go again but it is quite unbelievable when someone flat out refuses to even see what its like. Its almost as if they are scared of going in case they like it.

As far as I am concerned, there's nothing "like" Disney, .

And you've come to this conclusion by going to Disney and nowhere else? Can you not see the flaw in this view? You cant possibly know if there is nowhere else like Disney unless you actually go to other places and try it out.

 

[Riviera510]

I would love to go to US and see Harry Potter when we are down there in November.

However *I* would be the only one interested in it. DH isn't and my kids are a bit young. They know who HP is but it doesn't interest them as of yet.

If DH and I were going to FLA by ourselves it would be a definite must do though.

 

[jamstew]

Stuff like this astounds me. What you are saying is that your not even willing to give Universal a try? I mean you can't have been there otherwise you'd know there are only really 4 true thrill rides (DD's, Hulk, Dr Doom and Rip R Ride) and the rest are of a similar intensity to that of Disney. Jurrasic and Ripsaw falls are no more intense than Splash Mountain, the Mummy no more intense than Everest or Rock n Rollercoaster....the list goes on. I can always understand people who go, dont like it so dont go again but it is quite unbelievable when someone flat out refuses to even see what its like. Its almost as if they are scared of going in case they like it.

You must have missed my post that says I am going to see HP, so I will see what it's like. There are probably a bazillion places on planet Earth that I'd enjoy if I went there, but it's called a personal choice. For goodness sake, I'm 64 years old. I think I can make up my own mind about where I do or don't want to go for whatever reasons.

You cant possibly know if there is nowhere else like Disney unless you actually go to other places and try it out.

Yeah, I do actually know there's nowhere else like Disney. It's about the theme and the nostalgia connected to it.

 

[Shmily1]

Geez, this is getting intense. Maybe I shouldn't say I haven't been to US before or else I might get blasted by the US lovers too. This is the Disney Theme Park board though....

Anyway, I've not been to US or IOA before (had a free ticket and didn't even go then... did drive past though). I am tempted because I love HP!! I may have to go so I can see that part... probably not when it first opens since it will be crazy busy, but I could see myself venturing over there to see HP. Just don't tell my mouse friends.

 

[paintnolish]

I will absolutely go see HP! I haven't been to US for years and years, but I will definitely check out US for a day once HP is open. I will always spend the majority of my time at WDW, though.