1 Day, 2 UOR Parks: Decisions, decisions!

Good morning!
I’m planning a 1-day, 2-park, no EE day with my DD13. She has never been to UOR before.
I’ve done this before when DS was 14. We ROCKED the parks, rode just about everything over the course of 14 incredible hours. GO GO GO! It was awesome. And…I was younger then :wink:

Our plan this time is to do all the WWoHP rides and some poking around in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, but we’re not really into shows or shopping. We like rides/attractions more. We’ll stop for brief meals, prob both in WWoHP, one each park. We like to MOVE and conquer as many attractions as possible. Goes without saying we will be there for RD, although not EE.

Ok! So here’s my question. The parks aren’t open as many hours as I toured with my son. We will have to cut some things out. We definitely won’t do any kiddie rides. We’re open to all the headliners. I just can’t remember which of the popular attractions were NTBM. Personally I really liked Mummy. I remember I thought MiB was not worth the wait. Transformers …I think by the time we got there I was a little fried, didn’t really appreciate. Hulk was down for the day and Kong had not yet opened, so I haven’t tried those.

What’s your opinion? WWoHP top priority, and if you could choose a half-dozen other attractions, what would you choose (or skip)? Anything that’s going to look enticing to a 13yo, but is really not worth it?

Thanks!!

Well there are only 2 HP rides in IOA and 1 in US so you could do them all but I’d skip Flight of the Hippogriff personally, it’s really a kiddie coaster. Try to do the Hogwarts Express in both directions. Get butterbeer, watch a couple of shows - I love the Tales of Beedle the Bard. Maybe watch the wand choosing at Ollivanders. ETA Ryan’s post has reminded me that there’s also Hagrid’s. It’s a brilliant ride but unpredictable. Waits are usually shortest at RD and around 1pm - if it’s up and running at those times.

Hulk is amazing but I’d skip Kong, the wait is so long even with Express Pass. Spider-Man is a must do but Transformers is exactly the same ride except not as good. The Mummy is fantastic. Rip Ride Rockit of course. The Simpsons is good, we love Men in Black. Avoid Fast and Furious like the plague. We only like to do Jurassic Park of the wet rides. And I can’t skip Cat in the Hat, but it is a kiddie ride. I also like meeting him, and Thing 1 and 2.

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We love almost all the rides there. However, if I’m down to one shorter day at both parks, this is what we’d pick (but with the HP rides, too) : The Mummy, Jimmy Fallon or Simpsons, Transformers, ET, HRR.

At IOA: Spider-Man, Hulk, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Kong (but only if the wait is under 20 min), and the HP rides.

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Hmm. I disagree with this whole-heartedly. I absolutely loved Kong, even more than Spider-Man and some of the other simulator rides. We did it twice on our last trip.

My favorite ride is probably The Mummy. Other faves: Rip Ride Rock’it. Hulk. Forbidden Journey. Gringott’s. The Simpsons. Spider-Man. And Kong, of course. (I assume I would add Hagrid’s to this, but I’ve not yet been on it.)

Other rides I enjoy, but aren’t necessarily top choices (skippable): Dudley Do-Right’s, MiB (fun if enjoy Buzz Lightyear), Despicable Me. Jurassic Park River Adventure (maybe).

Anything else I might do, but I wouldn’t care if I missed, including Transformers, Shrek 3D, etc.

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The ride is fine but with a posted wait of 75 minutes, we waited 50 mins with Express Pass. With a single day, that’s a wait you don’t need.

Here are links to the three parts of the UOR plan that we did in January. It covers all of the HP stuff in depth plus all the other attractions that TP has designated as NTBM. The only things missing are water rides, which I prefer to do last so that I am not touring around soaked. This plan worked pretty well with XP - the one big time-waster was Flight of the Hippogriff which is slow as Christmas even with XP.
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=3991291
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=3991294
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=3991300

You can get a little more detail on how the day went in my trip report - see the entry for Jan 30:
https://forum.touringplans.com/t/trip-report-5-days-in-orlando-and-no-mouse-sort-of/69917

You raise a valid point. In our case, one time our wait was under 20 minutes. The second time, the wait was less than 5 minutes. :slight_smile:

I think Kong is an awesome ride. Not to be missed. But I was disappointed by how long the line was — and I had the Express Pass.

My A list (must ride, very disappointed if I cannot)

Hulk
Spider-Man
Kong
Hagrid
Hogwart’s Express
Gringott’s
Diagon Alley
Jimmy Fallon

My B list (great rides but not essential)

Hogwart’s Castle (but not FJ)
The Mummy (it’s Gringott’s but not as good)
Rip Ride Rockit (not as smooth as Hulk, too fast to really take anything in)
Fast and Furious (yeah, that’s right, I like it; sue me)

My C list (if I somehow have too much time)

Transformers (it’s Spider-Man but not as good)
Minions (cute characters but same as Fallon, but not as good)
Simpson’s (funny and pretty, but NB motion sickness)

My D list (not interested)

Forbidden Journey (I just don’t think it’s very good and it’s a motion-sickness trigger)
Men in Black (dated, boring)
ET (dated, boring)
Jurassic River Journey (dated, boring except the last five seconds)
The two water rides (too wet)

My E list (anything else — they’re so bad I can’t even remember them)

Since you asked for a dozen…

My Top 12 USF/IOA rides not in WWOHP - for a teen that loves thrills

(In Order)

The Mummy

Rip Ride Rocket

Spider-Man

Dr. Doom’s FearFall

Jurassic Park River Adventure

Simpsons

Kong

Poseidon’s Fury

Hulk

Dudley Do Right – You will be soaked! No Joke!!

Men in Black

Jimmy Fallon

We’ve skipped this every time we’ve been, mostly because I had no idea what it is…but having read up on it, I’m actually looking forward to finally experiencing it our next trip.

It’s sooo underrated. A couple of the effects are unique and stunning.

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Happy to see Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall on the list! I always skipped it but brother dragged me on it on our last visit, and it was not what I expected. Loved it.

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My top 6 non-HP:
Hulk
Rip Ride Rockit
Spider-Man
Mummy
Dr. Doom
Tie: JP River Adventure/Jimmy Fallon

Noone had mentioned Storm Force Accelatron. It’s a fun fun fun ride and rarely has a large wait. It’s NTBM for us.

Curious about the EP waits for Kong @ryan1 and @missoverexcited
Is 3rd of SB not a good indication for that line? Does it take longer? Do you think there’s a particular time of day to hit the EP line for Kong?
We will probably only do this on the 2 days we have EP as we want to avoid the scare actors in the SB line. Don’t want to waste lots of our EP time on it though.

HEY!

I mentioned it, too!

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I have never had the EP, so my experience is only the SB line.

Interesting note about the queue for Kong…the first time we did it, they had the lights turned down way too low. Having just come from out in the sun, my son and I couldn’t make out where we’re going. Twice, I literally walked straight into a wall not seeing it.

I think it was a mistake on their part, though. Our second time riding it on another day, we could see fine.

Scare actors? There were no actors in the lines for us both times we went.

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There were no scare actors the time we did it standby, and the wait was much longer than posted that time too!

The express pass line doesn’t seem to actually miss out much of the queue, or it certainly didn’t on this occasion. I didn’t keep an eye on wait times as I obviously didn’t realise it was going to take us so long (2/3 of the posted standby wait) so there would have been shorter waits at other times of the day I’m sure, but I don’t know when.

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I had a scare actor the one time I went SB. It was right after park open and I was the only one walking through at the time. It scared the snot out of me!

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