Too Ambitious?

Am I being too ambitious with doing a one day park to park hopper to try and conquer Universal Studios in one day? My wife and I went in May 2016, with a crowd calendar of 4-6, we had conquered the parks in one day and left early both days that we went spending plenty of time in both Harry Potter Worlds. Right now, our crowd calendar is expected to be a 4 for Friday, February 9th. Is it too ambitious of us to try and get it done in one day?

Here are my proposed plans, I have ideas for going to US in the AM, then IOA in the PM, but could also be happy to flip my plans and go to IOA in the morning and US in the afternoon since I believe we’ll spend more time in Diagon Alley, Mummy and Transformers.

IOA AM/US PM
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2871024
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2871031

US AM/IOA PM
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2870547
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2870991

Thanks everyone! Getting close =)

When I clicked on the link, it said I didn’t have access to the plan. Can you mark them public? Will you have Express Pass when you go?

Hopefully I got them published this time! And we will not be using Express Pass.

For some reason, it is still saying I don’t have access to the plans. Maybe when you publish them, it gives them new links and you need to repost the links?

Without seeing the plans, however, I would say if you are trying to do everything in both parks without EP, that will not be possible. If you are being selective about what you see, anything is possible!

You need to post the new links it gives you actually on the plan, not the url at the top of the page.

If you’re staying on property and can take advantage of EE, then I’d start at IOA. Otherwise, it probably doesn’t make much difference, but I’d probably go for USF to get Minions, Fallon, and RRR out of the way in the morning. That will make Hulk, FJ, and Kong long waits, but that’s going to be inevitable without EP.

I agree with @rebeecky that it will be nearly impossible to do a thorough tour of both without EP, even at CL 4.

IOA AM/US PM
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2871024
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2871031

US AM/IOA PM
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2870547
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=2870991

Sorry, I did not copy the correct links! I thought the one at the top of the page would work. Hopefully it is corrected now. Our family has certain rides/show they want to ride/see, while others we’re happy to pass on to save time.

Okay, now I can see them! I see that you are, in fact, not trying to do everything in both parks, so that helps.

That being said, there are some things that I think will prove to not be accurate in your plan that you may want to take into account. The one that pops out the most at me is only 45 minutes at Leaky Cauldron at noon. Under the best circumstances, that place has a bit of a wait to even order food, and right at high lunch time, I would expect you to need at least an hour, probably more, to wait, order and eat.

I also think that some of the wait times might be a little on the low side. A 6 minute wait for HE in the noon hour seems low, as does 9 minutes for Simpsons (in the morning plan), which always seems to take forever. However, it does show that you will be done with everything well before the park closes, so even if some of those times double, it looks like you will still have time per the TP. I find the TPs to be fairly accurate, so it looks like it may be possible. I would just say reoptimize your plans a day or so before you go and be prepared for longer waits on some of those things. But it looks like it is highly likely you can do what you want in one day before close!

1 Like

Sounds good! Thank you! I’ll adjust the plans accordingly, and I’ll make sure to readjust before going. I am sure we will want to ride some rides twice, Gringotts and Transformers are my wife’s and my favorite rides there. I heard there is now a castle projection show, so we’re excited to see that!

1 Like

Back from my trip to UOR and IOA on February 9th. My wife and I ended up going to rope drop UOR and got Transformers, Mummy and Gringotts done in the first hour of the park with no wait for the first two, and only ten minutes for Gringotts. Then onto the Hogwarts Express to go to IOA, where we rode the Hulk with a 35 minute wait.

My plans were a bit ambitious, but mainly due to my family and their lack of go at times. We bailed on our meal inside of Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks and instead just had drinks at the bar. Then ate at Lombards with no wait before it closed. It was a slower paced day then expected, but I got in all of the rides I wanted to do, and my wife and her family did some twice while I watched our nephew, other than Spider Man.

2 Likes

Glad to hear it went well overall!

1 Like

Thank you for the report! I’m glad you scaled things back and went with the temperature of your family. So many (myself included, at times) forget that in the end, it’s a vacation.

1 Like