Hello all. We are visiting Universal for two days only…July 27 and 28th. We are staying onsite so, will have early entry both days and universal express passes. On the 28th, we will need to leave the park by 4:00 in the afternoon. I am trying to put together a touring plan that would allow us to see everything at WWHP and all of the “main” attractions in both parks. I was looking at the two day/two park plan but, as both plans are scheduled from park opening to park close, that won’t work for our 2nd day. Should I do the one park per day option and then just use the evening of the 1st day for “extra” attractions? Or try to combine the 2nd day of the two park plan into a shorter version? If so, which park will take the longest to visit? Thanks so much in advance for the information!
This is just my suggestion and I am a A Type planner. DO NO PLANNING (ok a little). There really isn’t much in WWOHP to ride - thought both areas are simply amazing. My suggestion - is get there early and do whatever WWOHP side is open early that day. Do either GRINGOTS or ESCAPE as the lines get long fast. If you ride and there is no line - do it again if you want.
Flight of the hippogrif (sp) isn’t worth a long line. Dualing Dragons is cool though. You can use your Xpress pass on both of these. You CANNOT use it on GRINGOTS / ESCAPE or HOGWARTS express.
Get the phone app to check wait times etc. But then go onto the next ride you want. We did MIB about 3 times and then moved on to the next ride - we just kept checking the line times and did what we wanted. ENJOY the freedom that the XPRESS pass gives you. Also have lunch at MYTHOS (near entrance to WWHP on Islands of Adventure side). Doing it in 1 1/2 days is certainly doable. Just ENJOY it though. FYI - for Dualing Dragons the XPRESS line is RIGHT WHEN YOU GET TO THE CASTLE - we missed it one time and were sorry.
I was able to do most every attraction in both parks and within a single day with the Express Pass. This was in the Summer and just months after Diagon Ally opened. At the time (maybe now too?), all HP attractions were excluded from Express, so we did those attractions during Early Entry. Otherwise and w/ few exceptions, everything else was a walk-on w/ our Expess Passes to the point of where a touring plan wasn’t really helping us out. Based on my limited experience (we did this on 3 seperate trips w/ the same result), you need not worry but should just focus your planning on attractions excluded from Express. You might also consider hitting attractions where the lines build on the earlier side even with your Expess: Minion, Rip Ride, etc for example.
Personally, I am a HUGE HP fan and love to absorb everything WWOHP has to offer. What I would do is take your first day and devote it to WWOHP. Ride the rides, see the shows, explore the shops, get a wand and cast spells. When you are done with WWOHP that day, you can move on to other rides. Start your second day by doing DM and then move around to all the other rides you want to do. EP will definitely make your life easier!
If you like Harry Potter, you absolutely want the 2 park option for each day so that you can travel on the Hogwarts Express and switch back and forth. The last time we went we took advantage of the early park admission to ride Forbidden Journey, then rode the Hogwarts express to the other park and got into Escape from Gringotts before the line was too long. Later in the day the line even for the Hogwarts express was long.