How much time do we need at Harry Potter at Universal?
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Anonymous
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We are going to Universal this weekend. We have 3 days park to park tickets and staying on site so we will have 1 hour early entry and express passes. Our kids are young and we will not be riding the roller coasters. They will ride the tame kiddie HP coaster and I would like to ride the Forbidden Journey simulator ride but most likely I will ride solo while DH walks the castle with the kids.
How much time do we need to spend at HP at Universal and Islands of Adventure? It is hard to grasp how large this place is. I know it also gets very crowded. |
Anonymous
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Before the second half opened my sister and I spent 4 hours in the HP section day 1, and another 4 hours day 2. Now that they have the second section open I would double it (since you can take the train back and forth, definitely take it both directions, different scenery each way).
We're also HUGE HP fans though, others may not spend that much time there. |
Anonymous
| Are there other things at Universal that are worth doing with a 9 and 10 year old? They are huge Harry Potter fans, so don't know whether we should just skip everything else. Or hit a couple other big things. (And what would those be?) |
Anonymous
| Are there other things at Universal that are worth doing with a 9 and 10 year old? They are huge Harry Potter fans, so don't know whether we should just skip everything else. Or hit a couple other big things. (And what would those be?) |
Anonymous
| Most of the rides at Universal and IOA are of the big, scary roller coaster type. My kids are hugely into Harry Potter, so that's basically all that they wanted to see. There is also Minion Mayhem and Shrek 4D. Hogwarts Express was our absolute favorite ride. Have fun! If your kids are Harry Potter fans, they will not be disappointed - it's very well done. |
Anonymous
| I would spend the majority of the first 2 days at Harry Potter. The rest of Universal is not up to the same standards and the rides are basically just roller coasters. The difference is really stark. I think the Incredible Hulk coaster is closed now for repair too. They told us what over Labor Day that it would be closing for reconstruction. |
Anonymous
| I agree with the PPs' advice about spending 2 days at the HP portion of both parks. My kids really enjoyed the wand selection ceremony -- they wore their Hogwarts robes and were chosen for the ceremony. We enjoyed our meals at the HP eateries. |
Anonymous
Are you suggesting that one should spend 2 full days at HP? Is there enough to do to keep occupied for 8 hrs??? |
Anonymous
| Beginning at age 10, my kids (who admittedly love rides) all preferred Universal to Disney. |
Anonymous
My 12 yo prefered Disney and my 14 yo (a huge Disney fan) preferred the (scary) roller coasters at Universal. My 12 yo liked HP and disliked everything else at Universal, other than ET and the "Twister" show. |
Anonymous
| We are HP fans and found less than one day of things to do there. So disappointing. It is largely shops. No thanks, I don't need to spend money to spend money. And the rest of Universal was so old and depressing. We did like the ET ride. We did not do the big roller coasters. |
Anonymous
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We love Universal. Go to HP early both days. How old are your kids? Forbidden Journey is not that bad. My 6yr old went on it and loved it. The walk thru is amazing. Other rides/shows at both parks my kids loved was (besides HP)
Minions Transformers Shrek Spiderman ride Ripsaw Falls Jurassic Park Ride Popeye's Water barges Pterendon Flyers X-Men Excelerators the cat in the hat rides Woody Woodpecker coaster ET Simpsons ride Men in Black ride (like Buzz light year in Disney) The Jurrasic Park play areas were so much fun too. The Cat and the Hat show was cute Curious George play area. Even older kids LOVED this. Tons of water play areas and inside the building is a huge interactive ball shooting play area. I think my 6yr old spent 45 minutes in there. She loved it. We also tend to take breaks in the middle of the afternoon and go back to the pool. Unless the parks close early. Then we do the pool at night. It depends on the weather. There are a lot of fun restaurants/shops at Citiwalk too. |
Anonymous
We were going to skip the Curious George area. I will add it to our to do list. Will the kids need swim suits and water shoes for that or will they just get a little wet? |
Anonymous
| These parks are not huge - they are smaller than Disney parks (or maybe they felt that way to us since our kids were older when we went to universal than when we'd gone to Disney). We did the whole visit in 2 days with park hopper tickets, early entry and staying in a universal hotel so we got "fast passes." We generally planned for one park per day - we entered early and immediately walked to the HP section (which is in the back of each park) - did that in a few hours, rode the hogwarts express back and forth (it is a different ride each way), and then hit the rest of the park. My kids loved the parks at ages 10 and 12 - but think of them more as traditional amusement parks rather than the Disney experience. |
Anonymous
If you were a HP fan you would've admired how the parks "took" you to Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and really put you there. Yes, we absolutely spend hours wandering around the shops taking it all in. True fans will do the same, which isn't you. |