Tips on Doing One Day of Harry Potter During our WDW Visit

[jackirkh]

My fiancee and I are doing 8 full days not including arrival and departure days for our honeymoon in May. We are casual fans of Harry Potter and have been contemplating visiting the themed attraction at Universal Studios. We would like to do about a half a day then return to WDW by maybe 2:00PM or earlier. We are driving our own car so transportation to and from will not be an issue, but we are concerned about whether it would be worth doing this. We really only have interest in Harry Potter and tickets are like $90 a pop, right? We want to get our money's worth but at the same time we would like to spend the last half of that day at WDW. Is there enough stuff to do/see at HP?

So... Is it worth paying the entrance fee for only a half day of HP? We have never really had any interest in Universal. We don't have a large budget and we want to get the most out of our Disney visit, not to mention that I dont think that Universal will accept DDP so we will be spending additional precious funds!

Anyone have any advice on this? I'm sure many Disney/Potter fans have done this!

 

[Upatnoon]

My fiancee and I are doing 8 full days not including arrival and departure days for our honeymoon in May. We are casual fans of Harry Potter and have been contemplating visiting the themed attraction at Universal Studios. We would like to do about a half a day then return to WDW by maybe 2:00PM or earlier. We are driving our own car so transportation to and from will not be an issue, but we are concerned about whether it would be worth doing this. We really only have interest in Harry Potter and tickets are like $90 a pop, right? We want to get our money's worth but at the same time we would like to spend the last half of that day at WDW. Is there enough stuff to do/see at HP?

So... Is it worth paying the entrance fee for only a half day of HP? We have never really had any interest in Universal. We don't have a large budget and we want to get the most out of our Disney visit, not to mention that I dont think that Universal will accept DDP so we will be spending additional precious funds!

Anyone have any advice on this? I'm sure many Disney/Potter fans have done this!

You are correct that mixing Disney and the other Orlando-area theme parks is very expensive. I suggest picking one or the other when on a budget.

Islands of Adventure, where Harry Potter is located, is a great park and certainly worth a full day visit. If you don't want to take the time to really enjoy it, I would not spend the money to rush in just to see one part of it.

 

[disnemimi]

We did WWof HP at Islands of Adventure last March while staying at Disney. We arrived at 8:45 am in time for rope drop and went straight to Harry Potter and stayed in that area until 1:30 pm. Since we got there early and did Olivander's Wand Shop ceremony first and then rode the other rides, did butter beer and lunch at Three Broomsticks and some shopping we were satisfied with our time there. It really did get crowded there around 11 am so pick the things that you are most interested in to do first. Do budget in parking, that was $14. And it is a long, long walk from parking to the entrance of Islands of Adventure so allow plenty of time to be there early. Hope this helps. My grandchildren and I are big Harry Potter fans and it was essential we take out time from Disney to go to this park. If you have any other questions, just ask away.
Disnemimi

 

[LBKMAMA]

Hi you mentioned the walk from parking to entrance.
We are staying at Shades of Green for 3 nights at the end of our Feb. vacation and will be in Universal 2 days. Sat/Sun..... you said to be at rope drop at 8:45
How long is the walk from parking to rope drop. My parents are a bit slower so I want to give us enough time.

Also would you suggest doing the meal deal ticket?

 

[disnemimi]

It can easily take 20 minutes from the parking lot to the entrance to the Islands of Adventure. I have a bad knee and walking fast just isn't going to happen so it took me at least 20 mins. It really depends on where you park in the garage also. Be sure to look up the park hours on Universal's website, it really varies and they did let us in 10 mins early to get to the area they keep you in before rope drop. My research on the dining plan was not for us; it was a little limiting in restaurant choices. We really wanted to eat at Three Broomsticks in WWof HP. Food was really good there & you could get your butter beer there with lunch. Hope this helps and we are going back in March again.
Any other questions?
Disnemimi

 

[Sillyminny40]

Just waiting to go hme at airport and my HP tips?..
Stay at a universal hotel so you can go one hour early to park. I totally agree wand shop first!!!! Take the whole family so cool!!!! More than shop.
Zip over to castle for that ride, they don't advertise single rider but do it as u don't see your seat mates anyway on the ride.
Do hippogriff ride grab butter beer do dragon ride which is the old dueling dragons ride, go to zonkos and candy shop. Three broomsticks has a great meal for $49 for four but honest to gawk it feeds 5 to 6 easily!
Then get the heck out of there!!!!!! That's my opinion for the busiest time of the year but we chatted with lots of staff who say it is crazy there all the time!

 

[Redarrow5150]

We did HP back on December 21st and will tell you one day is not enough. I would highly suggest doing two days as the crowds can be quite overcoming. We used the Mears package with early park entrance and we didn't schedule enough time as they picked us up at 6PM as we had dinner reservations in DTD. The other reason why I say schedule two days is because the park is just awesome and if it is extremely busy it will give you another day to comeback. We are possibly going back to WDW this year and if we do there's no doubt we will do two days at Universal.