Touring Plan needed?

We are planning on 2 days at Universal Jan 25 & 26 Mon/Tues. We are going to get park to park tickets so we can go back and forth and ride Hogwarts Express. I see crowd levels of 3/4 predicted for our days. Half of our group has never been to Universal, they are 2 adults, 1 teen and a 2 yr old. Our family is 2 adults, 1 teen. And we have been several yrs ago and didnt use a plan. I was messing around with touring plan and wasnt sure how to incorporate both parks ? Example, do both harry potter areas on same day ?

You’ll have to make 2 separate TPs. Adjust the “Start times and End times” for each. First park will end with Hogwarts and the second park you can choose the plan to start at “Hogwarts Express Arrival”

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I didn’t feel the need to make a set plan when we had 1.5 days and it was our first (and still only) time there. I just made a short list of the must do items. You have much lower crowd levels than we did. We had a great time although we didn’t do it all. My goal was to see as much of Harry Potter as possible and also get the other highlights. We did that. But, we did have Express pass so that helped with the crowd levels we had. Using the Hogwarts Express to go back and forth is both fun and useful. It’s a different ride the other direction. I definitely want to go back to UOR with more time at some point, but we loved it.

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Basically start in IOA one day with Harry Potter, Kong, Marvel, Toon Landing and Jurassic Park then take the express over and finish up in USF that day concentrating on shows in Universal this day like horror make up show which my teens hadn’t seen in years and just loved this last time, they also liked Bourne and Animal Actors. Shrek if you time after that or some of the street shows like Blues Brothers, Celestine Warbeck, Tales of Beedle the Bars and if it is showing catch the nighttime show.

The second day you start in USF with Harry Potter, Rip Ride Rocket, Despicable Me, Mummy, Transformers, Simpsons, MIB, Jimmy Fallon and ET and then take the train over to IOA concentrating on Seuss Landing and The Lost Continent(which was closed so not sure if Poseidon is open yet) this day and if it’s showing by then catching the castle nighttime show.

I don’t think the playgrounds are open and I think the only way currently to catch the castle nighttime show is a guided tour. But if any playgrounds are open they are the absolute best and I’d say Universal has more than Disney of top quality. The rider swap is amazing at Universal (much better than Disney) with a dedicated indoor sitting room. So you wait together until you get close enough telling all cast members you want to swap and someone stays with kiddo in a room very close to the ride that has a tv and then gets to have a family member go with them for two times for that lucky person when it is their turn.

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Thanks so much. Such great tips and info. Especially for the rider swap. We have never used it before , so the details are great.

I love making these things…so here’s what I’d do if it were me…however this doesn’t account for if you have early entry, express pass, nor does it account for your personal taste or someone taking 2yo or the adults back for a nap. :wink: So adjust accordingly but as a starting point…

Day 1 AM: Disney and Universal Touring Plans
Day 1 PM: Disney and Universal Touring Plans (and I’d do dinner in Citywalk at Cowfish, the teens might get a kick out of Toothsome as well but the food is better at Cowfish and it has teen/toddler appeal)
Day 2 AM: Disney and Universal Touring Plans
Day 2 PM: Disney and Universal Touring Plans

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Do you miss any important / interesting queues by using Express Pass? I believe you do at Forbidden Journey but any other rides?

Actually Forbidden Journey’s Express is almost the entire line and I think has something the regular line does not. I’m pretty sure they took what used to be the castle only tour and that’s the express line. I would say MIB and Mummy you miss some stuff but SpiderMan it’s different stuff to look at. You don’t miss anything in Gringotts. I think Kong is another one you might miss some stuff as well. I believe you briefly get to see the witch…but I’ve never had scare actors though I think right now those are gone anyway.

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Actually we went through the regular queue at FJ in order to see everything. We knew we might miss parts with the Express, and we were only there for the queue, as I can’t ride rides like FJ (much to my chagrin—that one looks good).

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I plan to do the same thing! I love the queue but the ride made me so sick I will never do it again!

Don’t go on a full or empty stomach, and take Dramamine less drowsy. That’s what I learned. It also helps on this ride if I sit on the outside and look over the side when I am in the screen rooms because the same exact movements don’t make me sick in the rooms with the actual animatronics. Universal is hard on people who don’t like virtual rides like these…so many of them.

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Well that sure is a shame! :disappointed: FJ is fantastic.

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I get sick on Star Tours and even FoP but I still stomach through it and am fine 10 minutes later. FJ was unbearable and ruined the rest of my day. I very nearly lost my lunch on the ride and hovered near the trash can right at the ride exit for a few minutes. Dramamine helps with Star Tours but I’m not even going to attempt FJ again. I can watch the YouTube videos any time and that’s good enough for me. :slight_smile:

I feel that same way about Simpsons which did the same thing to me so I very much empathize. My parents, my kids, my mother in law and my hubby are giggling and enjoying themselves and I have ringing in my ears and can barely walk as I vomit in my mouth. Not pleasant at all.

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We went first week of Feb this year and I had plans but didn’t use them. Crowd levels were low enough that if a line was long we’d just come back later. Of course we were there for all week. The thing I noticed was that crowds were a problem in the HP areas shortly after official open until 3-4pm. So, do HP early admission and late. Then spend the middle time in the rest of a park. The thrill rides seem to get long lines, but single rider was available for us and DD doesn’t do those. Hagrid’s will be the tricky one. If there are virtual lines for that, you’ll need to concentrate on that. If there aren’t watch the predicted wait times graph for that day. When we were there it stayed about 90 minutes all day, so we made that our post-lunch ride. Otherwise, we just picked a direction and went that way. With EA you start out in the back of the park, so going against the crowds.

P.S. It was a lovely time of year to go, Rain was a low as it gets in Florida and the temp was just chilly enough to make HP Robes a benefit.

We’d be going then again this year but I was too late to get the AP rates. I want to try Premier this time.

That must depend on when you go. When I went last December, you missed quite a bit in the EP line, so I took the regular line once to see it all. That may have since changed. To be on the safe side, if you are a Harry Potter fan, I would try to plan for doing the full line at least once. If possible, the end of the day is the best time to do this.

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i tried opening your plan links and it says invalid plan ? Dang. I am going to try to create one with the info you mentioned before though :slight_smile: We have been watching youtube videos and reading up. Currently watching HP for the umpteenth time LOL We are super excited for our trip at the end of the month. Just gotta stay healthy until then :slight_smile: We had COVID exposure , but thankfully all tested negative. I will also be able to get the vaccine tomorrow as I work in medical field. Thanks so much for your tips! I am going to check out Cowfish menu right now :slight_smile:

Doh (in my best Homer). I deleted them a couple of days ago because I was confused why I had created them. Now I remember. Let me know if you want me to link some fresh ones. :slight_smile:

that would be wonderful if you dont mind ?

Okey done. Standby…