Wizarding World Touring Plans and Details

[disneyinthespringtime]

I think you'll be hard pressed to do the first 3 items in under an hour before IOA opens, even if doing Gringotts with EP. The first 2 will eat up most of that first hour - physically getting through the gates, walking up to DA, then say 5-10 minutes in the Queue, plus doing the attraction itself. Followed by a bit of a wait (albeit small) to get into Ollivanders for the "show", plus the show itself of the wand choosing the Wizard..... It'll leave you probably little to no time to actually explore DA and do spells.

I'd recommend the first two bullets, then line up for HE to get over to IOA for FJ (you probably don't want to walk all the way back to USF entrance, and then go through IOA main entrance only to walk way up to Hogsmeade). Then after that you can do some exploring in Hogsmeade and doing the spells there, followed by a few of the headliners in IOA (like Spiderman, Hulk, and Kong) then head back to HE to go back to Diagon for some exploration and spells there plus Gringotts again etc.

Thank you! Very helpful.

 

[TommyJK]

Thank you! Very helpful.

On a lark I decided to lookup via Google Maps the walk from Gringotts to Forbidden Journey (i.e. if you were to go back through the main gates of USF and into IOA). It's 1.1 miles and a 22 min walk. Would definitely take the HE instead

 

[macraven]

From entrance of the studios park to IOA entrance was a 5 minute, tops, walk for me

 

[TommyJK]

From entrance of the studios park to IOA entrance was a 5 minute, tops, walk for me

Yes, but tack on the walk from DA to entrance of studios, plus entrance of IOA up to Hogsmeade. It's quite a trek in total.

 

[schumigirl]

Yes, but tack on the walk from DA to entrance of studios, plus entrance of IOA up to Hogsmeade. It's quite a trek in total.

To be honest, you can wait much longer than 20 minutes for the HE if you don't have EP.....

We walked it once and only took around 15 minutes. We didn't stop and did walk at a fairly decent pace. We cut through in front of HRC from Studios. It sounds worse than it is.

 

[disneyinthespringtime]

Thanks for the mapping out of point to point. I was thinking of entrance to entrance and comment that it is a quick walk between those two.

Since we will be trying to make the most of the day minimizing excess walkingbto keep up our stamina would be good!

 

[WaterLinds]

This thread is awesome, thanks everyone! I’m trying to nail down our universal plans for March and having these ideas for HP will be great.

One question—do people tend to find toddlers/preschoolers are amused enough by all the going’s on to be happy while the rest of the party is taking in all the theming? My seven year old is a huge HP fan and will wanted see everything, but my 3 year old has no clue about any of it. I know he’ll be amused by people watching for a bit, but possibly not long enough!

One of the things I’m pondering is whether the little one will have enough fun to make universal worth it, or if he and my mom would rather hang out at the pool while I take the big kid on this trip.

 

[mitsukoshi samurai]

Did you get them wands and robes

 

[Candycane83]

This thread is awesome, thanks everyone! I’m trying to nail down our universal plans for March and having these ideas for HP will be great.

One question—do people tend to find toddlers/preschoolers are amused enough by all the going’s on to be happy while the rest of the party is taking in all the theming? My seven year old is a huge HP fan and will wanted see everything, but my 3 year old has no clue about any of it. I know he’ll be amused by people watching for a bit, but possibly not long enough!

One of the things I’m pondering is whether the little one will have enough fun to make universal worth it, or if he and my mom would rather hang out at the pool while I take the big kid on this trip.

My DS at 2.5 loved Seussland. He alternated one fish two fish red fish blue fish and he carousel. He loved the ball park too. But he was a little afraid of the dragon in the HP area and he cried when he saw the goblin in the money exchange. Lol! My DH took him out of there and he was fine. He is 4, almost 5 now and he still remembers Seussland

 

[WaterLinds]

My DS at 2.5 loved Seussland. He alternated one fish two fish red fish blue fish and he carousel. He loved the ball park too. But he was a little afraid of the dragon in the HP area and he cried when he saw the goblin in the money exchange. Lol! My DH took him out of there and he was fine. He is 4, almost 5 now and he still remembers Seussland

This one usually loves things that seem scary, he tends to find them funny, so at least we *should* be ok on that front!

I’m mostly worried about him having the patience/interest while the big kid wants to spend hours absorbing the details. I’m pondering doing a short visit with the whole group as part of our general touring and then maybe the next day taking the big kid on his own to soak it all in properly. I’m trying to figure out which tickets to get for us all, we have several days to play with but might rather use some time for pool/beach day/other sights. I should start my own thread to figure that out, since it’s only partially HP related!

 

[macraven]

Waterlinds
Feel free to make a stand alone thread asking for suggestions and other peeps thoughts

You will get help from our readers

On weekends, threads don’t get as much activity as work week days but you will have others guide you

Make the thread in the main section as it is read by many

Are you staying onsite or off and how many park days do you have planned?

You have P2P tickets?

 

[automaticsoap]

I plan on going solo later this week and basically only doing the Wizarding World. I'm trying to decide if it's worth getting the AP that has early entry. How important is that extra hour if I'm solo and planning to ride single rider when the queues are long?

 

[MITB]

Great info on this thread will be travelling with 10 year olds in August for first trip to Harry Potter world.

Has anyone tried a VIP tours? If so is it worth it??

 

[Sheila E.]

A throw away room is where you book a room at one of Universal’s three deluxe resorts that you don’t plan on actually using solely to get the free EP privileges that come with it.

EP is included at no extra charge to guests staying at RPR, HRH, and PBR. You get unlimited EP for the day you check in through the day you check out. This means a 1 night stay gives you 2 days of EP. If you are a family of 4 and plan on buying EP anyway, it is almost always less expensive to buy 1 night in a hotel, than to buy EP outright.

For instance: Let’s say 1 night in a standard room is $400 / night. That gives you EP for 2 days for up to 5 people, the max occupancy of the room. It would cost a family of 4 around $100 a day per person to purchase EP, so $800 verses $400 for the hotel room. If you can catch deals on the room, it can be an even better deal. I’ve gotten rooms as low as $200 / night with my AP rate before. However, I’ve noticed a trend recently in the rooms running more and more expensive. I haven’t seen a $200 room in a long time.

You still need to check in and check out of your room each day, even if you aren’t sleeping there. You will need either an EP pass provided by the hotel or the room key to access EP. The policy seems to change. Currently, it is a room key. You can check in as early as you’d like in the morning of your first day. Having a throwaway room can also be nice simply for the fact that it provides a room to nap in and allows you to access to the pools in the afternoon for breaks or as a place to change wet clothes from the water rides and store belongings.

We are getting a room at Roya Pacific one night just for the passes and being so close to the parks and early morning entry, we figured it was our best bet to see everything we wanted since were only doing one day. We saw Hosmeade but haven't seen Diagon Alley so if we have time we'll see Hogmeade again and Kong since we haven't seen that yet. Hubby and I are going the first week in December.

 

[skylock]

Great info on this thread will be travelling with 10 year olds in August for first trip to Harry Potter world.

Has anyone tried a VIP tours? If so is it worth it??

I did a public VIP tour once. I wasn't happy with it but by reading other people's experience on them I seem to be in the minority. It was very possibly the other family in our tour. But it did turn me on to the value of having express pass, so for that I am thankful.

Personally, I think having the express pass is far more valuable to my vacation than another VIP tour.

 

[WaterLinds]

We’ve gone from tinkering with our plans to a complete overhaul (thank you, Universal, for allowing last minute planning unlike some parks!). My big kid and I are now planning a solo day to do Harry Potter pretty much exclusively—if we get time to venture into the parks and do other stuff we will, but it won’t be a priority.

The plan is to have express pass, but we will not have early entry. It will be next week (I know the crowd calendars have been all kinds of wrong lately, they seem to be calling for Saturday the 16th to be the lowest day so maybe then but we’ll see how it fits in), which is peak spring break and busy.

Given that, I’m not sure if we will want to do both Gringotts and Forbidden Journey standby? I had planned to start in the Studios with Gringotts (like the plan here), Diagon Alley, etc., and do IoA after, but by then the line for FJ is going to be huge. If we only do one ride standby, should it be FJ to see the full queue? Or should I convince my kid it’s worth the wait to see the details? (He balked at waiting a whole 15 minutes for the safari at AK yesterday, my mastery of FP has apparently spoiled him...)

 

[SarahWeasley]

If we only do one ride standby, should it be FJ to see the full queue? Or should I convince my kid it’s worth the wait to see the details? (He balked at waiting a whole 15 minutes for the safari at AK yesterday, my mastery of FP has apparently spoiled him...)

You see almost everything in the FJ queue when you use the Express Pass. (And you skip the greenhouse, which isn't very fun at all.) I wouldn't bother waiting in a long line to do the regular queue.

 

[CindyBeth]

Great Info!!!

 

[EmJ]

Question about Forbidden Journey. Lo those many years ago, you used to be able to do a "castle tour" where you could walk through Hogwarts without waiting in the queue to see the castle and all of the thematic elements, but not board the ride at the end. Is that still a thing? If so, is there anything similar at Gringotts?

 

[irt9206]

We have our trip planned June 23rd-30th. Touring plans has the crowd level at 8 or 9 everyday. So I looked into the possibility of going the 16th-23rd and the crowd levels are 5 or 6. Im surprised there that low with it being so soon after the new coaster opening.