I’m very familiar with WDW but not Universal. I’m planning a trip for a friend. They are spending 5 days at Disney and have set aside 1 day to do HP things at Universal. Is it even possible for them to go to all 3 parks in one day?? I’m not sure where to begin in helping them plan their day.
I haven’t been to Universal, but am currently planning my family’s first trip (with two tweens and a strong focus on HP). I found this All Ears vlog quite useful even just for the list of everything you can experience in WWoHP: https://youtu.be/krPuUJzwnmE I literally took a screen shot of that page to help with planning.
I love Mammoth Club’s Secrets in WWoHP vlogs. There are several of them, but possibly too long and detailed for the planning phase.
Hi! Welcome to the forum! Please ask anything as often as needed!
I love Universal and Disney, but go to Universal more often.
I adore the WWOHP. I’m one of those adults that wears a robe and does all the spells.
It is! Without any form of Express Pass (UXP) it will, likely, be the only things they do that day (no VelociCoaster, Marvel, Nintendo) Also, there’s no time to repeat rides.
It will require a park-to-park ticket for all three parks.
How you do it is completely up to them. Personally, I’d start at IOA (Hogsmeade) if they are staying on-site to qualify for Early Park Admission (EPA)
I say that because Epic should offer EPA as well, but not every land is open and Battle at the Ministry is still extremely unreliable to be open at EPA. It gets delayed routinely, like RotR used be at Disney.
After doing all things WWOHP at IOA go to USF / Diagon Alley via The Hogwarts Express. There’s plenty to do there.
IME - By the time they’ve explored all these areas, done spells (if buying a wand), done the rides, eaten plenty of food and seen the shows it should be around 3pm.
If they’re truly die hard fans they should take the Hogwarts Express back to IOA. This is because the train is not only a tram between parks, but a unique show experience in each direction.
If on-site, I would go back to the hotel to rest and then go to Epic for the evening. See the show in the Paris section and explore. Then I would end the day with Battle at the Ministry. (BatM) This way if the wait is 2+ hours they’ll be in queue near / park closing.
(Advise them to keep tracking BatM that day. If it seems to be experiencing delays / downtime make it a priority whenever they see it operating.)
I can get more specific, but I need a couple details about the trip.
Finally, if they only will have one day at Epic Universe, like a lot of guests on hotel packages, I would advise them to focus their WWOHP day only on IOA & USF.
There are too many great things at Epic to only stop by one Land / Portal.
Hope that helps!!
Thank you so much!
This is such great info! Thank you so much!
This is a great plan!
It is possible, but it will feel quick and it will be expensive.
I would just get Express Passes to make it smoother.
Love this whole plan too & I very much agree with the below advice. But I’d also just plan to add a day for Epic
(Who said that?)
We did a ‘Harry Potter Day’ during our trip in October. We didn’t attempt to include Epic because the journey time between it and the rest of UOR didn’t make sense. We did Epic separately and the Wizarding world attractions there are great, but there’s easily a day’s worth of HP themed entertainment at the other 2 parks. After really, really, really thinking about the best way to do everything in IOA and USP, (but with no previous real world experience of any of these attractions) plan was this:
Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure (IMO - the single best attraction in central Florida) Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey Hogwarts Express (Hogsmeade-Kings Cross)
Escape From Gringotts
BREAK (butterbeer at the Fountain of Fair Fortune)
The Tales of Beadle the Bard
Diagon Alley ( exploring and wand waving)
Celestina Warbeck & the Banshees
LUNCH (The Leaky Cauldron)
Hogwarts Express (Kings Cross - Hogsmeade)
Tri- Wizard Spirit Rally
Olivander’s (Hogsmeade)
Frog Choir
Hogsmeade village (exploring and wand waving)
Flight of the Hippogriff
Dinner (The Three Broomsticks)
Hogwarts Always
And that’s basically what happened. As it turned out the wait for the Hogwarts Express back to IOA after lunch was too long for an attraction we’d (almost) done before. The experience is different both ways but on the day we balked at the mid-day wait (I cant remember what it was but it must have been more than 40 mins, and we weren’t sufficiently excited by the idea of the return trip to do it. Instead we walked from USF to IOA which took about 15 mins. Other than that, Hogwarts Always wasn’t running on the day we were there, so we left the park after dinner, but as we’d been up since 6:00 am, that suited everyone fine. I agree with @darkmite2 though, if the party has the stamina, and the ticket situation allows, an UBER to Epic to do the Fantastic Beasts show and BATM would be excellent. My note of caution would be that BATM is inevitably a loooong wait which might not be how you want to end your day.
We were staying at Endless Summer, so had early entry (essential for getting on Hagrid’s with a reasonable wait) and I’d bought a wand the day before as a surprise for the kids. The spells are fun, but don’t always work and it can be frustrating for little ones. Before we went I thought it was an expensive and unnecessary add on, but the entertainment value of spell casting on that day for all five of us made it worthwhile. If money was no object I might have got one for everybody, but it was actually cool to be together as a family trying out and seeing the spell effects together,
I hope your friend has a great trip!
We went in Jan 2023 (I can’t believe we’re gonna be back in just 2 years time). DD11 at the time was a big HP fan (still is but not as much). We only went to USF and IOA for obvious reasons. The parks are super fun but the theming in those two areas was perfection. We managed Hagrids twice on two different days because the line is LONG and we did not have EP. It is an amazing ride and I have no regrets but our waits for between 60-90 and DD11 was not used to waiting that long (because her mom is a liner). We did Gringotts at ropedrop because that is also a long line a lot of the time. So both of those rides are gonna be big time eaters. You know what she loved the most was riding Forbidden Journey by herself in the single rider line 20 times. She loved wands (especially at night) and all the fun stuff in the shops. There are so many fun details to explore and there are a lot of videos that show you all the hidden gems of HP lands. I agree that if you are doing 1 day only AND you’re doing a bunch of other days at another park, that perhaps, just doing IOA and USF HP lands and rides should be plenty. Honestly your kid is gonna be exhausted otherwise and will miss out on going bonkers on Forbidden Journey ![]()
EDIT : your friend’s kid (not yours)
Here are the TP official Wizarding World One-Day/Two-Park Plans. Part one (USF) and Part two (IOA). Touring Plans has yet to include Epic Universe in this one day WWOHP Plan.
Here is a great plan as well by the TP Blog. It follows the Harry Potter timeline very well. Ultimate Harry Potter Touring Plan | TouringPlans.com Blog
Both plans start at USF. I’m assuming your friend is just taking a day trip and does not have Early Park Admission. USF is better to start at for sure because they will be on equal footing with everyone. Arrive about 1 hr. before park opening.
For newbies that are not familiar with the WWOHP, here are some helpful maps:
Diagon Alley Map.pdf (5.9 MB)
Hogsmeade Map.pdf (6.4 MB)