1 day plan

SamFaniam

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 8, 2019
We haven’t been to Universal in at least 15 years, and It was definitely before Harry Potter was built. Thinking about a one day side trip over from Disney, with the primary focus being on Harry Potter. I assume we would need a one day hopper ticket so that we could see both Diagon Alley and Hogwarts. I know the tickets would be expensive, so I suppose we should also consider whether to add the express pass to get more done. We would plan to go on a weekday the week of Dec 14. Suggestions for 2 adults are welcome.
 
My ideal strategy is this:
Leave Disney mid-afternoon the day before your Universal day and check in to Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal Pacific. Chill at the hotel, pool, eat dinner at the hotel or CityWalk and just enjoy the amenities onsite. Early bed. Wake up, hit the parks with both early entry and Express Passes (currently included at those hotels)! Leave your bags at bell stand and just enjoy a fun day! You’ll get to explore somewhere new, you won’t be rushed in the AM to commute, price will be a wash between buying EPs out of pocket vs paying for a hotel room so might as well stay overnight for the perks (and superior to Disney hotels!).
 
It is difficult to predict how things will be in December, but the good news is this is before the big holiday crowds arrive. The website shows $90 for regular EP and $110 for unlimited EP.

With only one day, I would highly recommend getting at least the regular EP. You will definitely need park-to-park tickets to see everything. For Harry Potter fans, this thread has some great info: https://www.disboards.com/threads/wizarding-world-touring-plans-and-details.3666427/
 
It is difficult to predict how things will be in December, but the good news is this is before the big holiday crowds arrive. The website shows $90 for regular EP and $110 for unlimited EP.

With only one day, I would highly recommend getting at least the regular EP. You will definitely need park-to-park tickets to see everything. For Harry Potter fans, this thread has some great info: https://www.disboards.com/threads/wizarding-world-touring-plans-and-details.3666427/

Thank you so much. The suggestions on that link are exactly what I was looking for.
 


My first visit to Universal was a one-day visit with my family with a focus on HP as well (although before Hagrid's opened). Before we went, we decided on which rides were our priority, which were second-tier, and which ones we wouldn't mind skipping if we didn't have time.

We started on the Universal Studios side and caught a couple of the big-name rides first at rope drop to try to beat the crowd (I think we went to Rip Ride Rocket first and then Mummy), and then we headed in for the HP sections. We started in Diagon Alley - Gringotts, Ollivander's, and general sight-seeing there, and then we headed for the train to go to Hogwarts. I liked the idea of experiencing all the Harry Potter stuff "in order" based on where Harry went first in the first book.

After exploring Hogsmeade and doing the Journey to Hogwarts ride (and then recovering from the resultant nausea because that ride is really bad for my sister's and my motion sickness, although it has improved slightly since then with the clearer video upgrade), we then went for the rest of IoA. Hulk was closed at the time and Kong hadn't been built yet, but I think we did Posiedon (again, that was partly to give stomachs time to recover), Spiderman, and Jurassic Park. And then at that point we had our priority list out of the way and we sat down for a bit to plan out which of our second-tier preferences we wanted based on the time we had left.
 

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