I was starting to try the tool here and it seems that whenever I add the Hogwarts Express to the plan I cannot add any other attraction after that. As the Hogwarts Express finishes outside the part, it shows “N/A” for the walk time to the next attraction. Because of that it seems it breaks the software as all other times for the subsequent attractions appear as “N/A” and the totals go to over 9000 min… Any ideas to deal with this?
Add a return trip on Hogwarts Express. I’m not sure if it would have to be before or after the “break” in the plan but it would get you back into the park.
When it comes to the Harry Potter areas, it can take as long as you want or as short as you want. Personally, I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, and can easily spend an entire day doing nothing but Harry Potter, watching the shows, shopping in the shops, doing the spells and riding the rides. On one trip I spent 6 hours in Diagon Alley alone, not even counting the time I spent in Hogsmeade.
I always start in Diagon Alley so that I can see things the way Harry did in the books, continuing over to Hogsmeade after he had done all of his shopping in Diagon Alley.
That worked perfectly, paulasc! Thank you!
Your suggestion makes a lot of sense, rebeecky! I’ll create a plan starting from Diagon Alley and see how it looks. Thanks a lot for your input!
Cheers!
Daniel
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Our whole family is a huge Harry Potter fan (I’ve read the books through 4 times myself…mostly…well, book 7 is a chore and least favorite of the series, but that’s a topic for another day!).
Anyhow, our trip in February, we did all of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade (starting from park opening) by 3:00 pm. You can read our full trip report here: Trip Report, Universal Feb 5 through 9
Now we were there when crowds were lighter, but I still think you can get through everything easily in a day since there are really only 3 rides (Forbidden Journey, Gringott’s, and Hippogriff). The train is kind of a ride (definitely an experience) and needs to be ridden both directions for a complete experience. The rest of the time will be “experiential”…that is, doing Olivander’s, exploring Knockturn Alley, etc.
You might even have time to do Skull Island or another ride. But if you start in Diagon Alley and then end up back there, you will want to pick rides in the Universal Side. Spidey and Kong are both on the IOA side. Our two favorites at Universal were The Mummy, and Rip Ride Rocket. When you exit Diagon Alley, head to the right to do those. Or, alternately, if you head right to exit, you can hit up MiB (which is a lot of fun) and The Simpsons.
Skull Island is probably one of my favorite non-coaster rides at either Universal or IOA, but you can easily experience it another day. While it was too scary for my wife, DD14 and DS8 to ride, my DS15 and I rode it twice.
Just wondering if you think it would be too stressful to try to pack both parks into one day? We are doing our short trip in December and want to go to UOR but if I give it 2 days then I have to cut out a WDW day.
One other option would be to see how our day goes and if we feel we need more time, we can add a day onour check out day since our flight leaves at 4pm We could go back into UOR for the morning. We are staying onsite at PFB so will have express pass and the CL look low (I think a 4 or maybe even a 3)
When in December are you going? It will depend on the overall crowds.
I think 1 day is probably a challenge. You will feel rushed and will have to make hard choices in terms of what to do/not do. 2 days is enough to get through most things. We did 4 days, but left by 3:00 each day and did several things more than once.
Happy planning! 
I missed that you said you would have the Express pass. What ages of kids? I mean, will you want to do, for example, Seuss Land, etc?
They are 13, 11, 7. The older 2 are thrill seekers. Low crowd levels, 4 and I think a 3.
We should really plan on the 2 days I know but I hate cutting out a WDW day! (If we cut one out then we will only have 2 . one will be MVMCP, the other is a park hopper day to fit in as much as we can).
I was wondering if we have one full day at UOR and then have the next morning from open until about 1pm, if that would be enough?
The ages are tricky, because you are straddling pretty much all the rides. If your youngest was, say, 10, then you could easily skip some of the younger things. But I imagine at 7, riding Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat in the Hat ride at least would be desirable.
I think with Express Pass, you MIGHT pull off a single day if you really decide ahead of time what are must-dos and what to skip. I have recommendations, but only you can know your own family
Must dos, Universal:
- Gringott’s
- Rip Ride Rocket
- The Mummy
- Hogwarts Express
Highly recommend, Universal:
- Men in Black
- The Simpson’s
- Despicable Me
Skip (unless you have time), Universal:
- Transformers
- Shrek
- E.T. (sorry. Wish I could recommend it, but it is just…well…trying to be Disney’s Peter Pan’s Flight, but just not as nicely done)
Must dos, IOA:
- Hulk
- Skull Island (but possibly too scary for your kids)
- Forbidden Journey
- Spider-Man
- Cat in the Hat (for the 7-year-old)
If you have time, IOA:
- Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls (unless you don’t want to get wet)
- Red Fish, Blue Fish
- Jurassic Park River Adventure (again, unless you don’t want to get wet)
- Hippogriff (line is slow, but if you can get on quickly)
Any others I haven’t mentioned are more of the “if you have time” variety, and person preference.
ETA: I forgot to mention that this list doesn’t include the sight-seeing aspect, particularly for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. As mentioned before, you could spend a lot of time on JUST that (doing Olivander’s, exploring Diagon Alley, etc). So you will have to be quick about that kind of thing if you go a single day.
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Thanks for all of the great info! We are HP fans. I am wondering if we were to go back for the second half day if we could make that extra HP focused time and feel it was enough. We would still see it on our day 1 but in addition to all of the other rides.
Hey, ryan!! Thanks again for your great input!! I’ve read your trip report and it sounded a lot of fun! I’ll likely feel the same when comparing Disney and Universal (my wife and I are also “Disney people at heart”! ), but I think my 8-year-old boy will love Universal. Let’s see…
I’ve created some personalized plans starting on Diagon Alley (9AM), going to IOA (around 10:30) and getting back to USF around 2:15PM. Based on the evaluated results from Turing Plans (and considering that we’ll be there on a Crowds 2 level day for this first visit), it seems it would be possible for us to explore nicely those areas (included 40 mins of general exploration of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade) and still go to Spider-man, Skull Island and Mummy by 3PM.
Now, my main doubt at this point is: does 40 min of free exploration at Diagon Alley and another 40min at Hogsmeade makes sense? Or is it too little to enjoy the areas?
You can get a general feel for both of those areas in 40 minutes each, but if you want to do a more extended time, I would put all 80 in Diagon Alley. In my opinion, it is superior to Hogsmeade. Also, do you plan on doing spells? That could take a lot of time.
I can see you are in a pickle with this. If you only have 3 days for Disney total, and 1 day for Universal…wow. I mean, honestly, if I were you (or you were me?) I’d make the trip about one or the other, but not both. This year for us was all about Universal (and a tiny bit of Disney at Disney Springs). We could dedicate our trip to Universal and enjoy it fully. But I wouldn’t attempt to cram both sets of parks in just 4 days like that.
You will spend your time sacrificing one thing for the other. Plus, doing that ultimately makes the entire trip more expensive (or in the very least, less “optimized” in terms of costs). I mean, going to a 4-day park hopper ticket for Universal costs way less than having a day or two at Universal plus 2-3 days doing WDW. The extra money could be spent in other ways…like buying wands, extra Butterbeer, etc.
Regardless, I think you need to decide what is most important to you and focus on it. If you do a single day at Universal, and want your focus more about WDW, then I’d say make Universal about experience Harry Potter first and foremost, and then add in any extras you can if the day allows for it. But don’t TRY to make it about getting as much in from Universal as possible.
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I’m with @rebeecky on this. I think you need more exploration time. Yes, you can rush through it, but it is all the little nuances that make it so spectacular that you’ll miss. For example, you’ll want to take time to pee in the restrooms in Hogsmeade, or else you’ll miss out on Moaning Myrtle. Even if you don’t buy wands, it is fun to watch OTHER people use their interactive wands.
@kjsprouse_577366, I agree with this 100%. You are working with limited time, and if you really like Harry Potter, devote your one day to Harry Potter in its entirety so you can truly appreciate it. Otherwise, you will end up just rushing from one thing to the next to try and get it all in.
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Thanks for the input! What do you think of the plan to do one full day experiencing it all including HP especially at night. And then a half day (open until 1) focused on HP only? We will have the express pass, early entry, and low crowd level days in our favor. Also 2 parents to divide up if interests take the kids in different directions.
You can do it that way. I’d be more inclined to focus on HP on Day 1 as much as possible. You will get through it all no problem for sure, and then do other things in the parks that you want. Then, if you go the second day, you can make it a “highlights” day, or a day you do things you didn’t the first day. With Express Pass AND Early Entry, you’ll get through all of HP on Day 1 by 3. Rest of the day devote to other things.