Goofy question, but I have to ask... [one or two day tickets for Universal?] - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Goofy question, but I have to ask... [one or two day tickets for Universal?]
We are "planning" a trip in January of next year. We'll be staying on Disney property, but with us all being big Harry Potter fans, US & IOA are a MUST. So...here's my question.
Can you see both theme parks in one day or should we get two day tickets? If we get two day tickets, then we'll have to stay one more night at Disney, (I'm not complaining!!). But we may stay off property and just stay at a local hotel when we got to US & IOA.
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I was there this past November. I stayed at the Universal Cabana Bay Hotel and it was EXCELLENT. Very convinient to tthe parks, buses really reliable. I would suggest 2 days; one at each park and plan on the whole day.
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Whenever we go to WDW, we leave 2 days open to do Universal and IOA. Now with Harry Potter in both parks, I think 2 days is definitely best! Also, you must remember to get the ticket that allows you to park hop - not one admission for one park per day, because the Hogwarts Express crosses into the other park and you cannot do it w/o having admission to park hop.
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If you stay at one of the luxury hotels onsite there, you'll get front of line passes to the parks. But they won't get you on FJ or Gringotts. You'll have to wait in line for those two. You'll also need the park-to-park passes or you won't be able to ride the Hogwarts Express. We usually do everything we want to do in both parks in two days. I don't think 1 day would be an option if you want to do the Harry Potter rides.
The Cabana Bay resort is new, but it's considered a value resort and doesn't offer the front of line pass. Depending on when you're going in January that may not be a deal breaker for you.
Without a child in tow, I was able to basically see and do all of the Harry Potter stuff at both parks in about 4 hours. The rides, Hogwarts Express, walking, shopping, Olivanders, and butter beer! This is without express pass but the ride lines were not too bad.
But we didn't see anything else. At all. So I would expect you will need two days to see both parks.
We think 3 days is optimal! And stay onsite to get FOTL passes. It's nit good for Harry Potter, but great for everything else. To see Gringots you must stay somewhere that has early entry privilege like onsite or a good neighbour? Hotel. Or wait 3 hrs on line. At least that was the usual wait when we were there. But with early entry we only had a 30 min wait.
Last August we did both Universal & WDW. So we stayed at Portofino Bay our first 3 nights and did 3 days Universal. Then we used a town car service and transferred to our WDW resort.
Just returned from Universal. We stayed at Royal Pacific and took full advantage of Express Pass. Spent two leisurely days (one short and one long day with a lunch break at hotel) plus a few hours on departure day to revisit favorites. In January you might elect to skip one or more of the water rides at IOA -- giving you more free time. Many years ago my (then) teen daughter and I were able to hit favorite attractions at both parks in one day -- but that was before the Harry Potter rides were there.
Last edited by jeneane; 06-12-2015 at 05:38 AM..
Reason: add more info
This is also a very old post but it's good to know that the advice still holds true!
DH and I will hopefully get back there this year! We haven't been in quite a few years, and we really want to see all the HP stuff. I imagine that could add a bit more onto what there is to do each day, but by the sounds of things, 1 day per park is still a good plan.
We agree two days is needed...three is nice because you can repeat the faves or catch the things you missed.
But, honestly, 3 days is enough...plenty for both parks even with crowds.
Can you imagine trying to do Disney in 3 days? Never! (OK...I would take just three days and make it wonderful...but we need way more days to do Disney!!!)
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I imagine that could add a bit more onto what there is to do each day, but by the sounds of things, 1 day per park is still a good plan.
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