2 days - enough time?

[Disney-leaf]

We are visiting WDW at the end of July (so soon - woooo!) for 10 days, and we currently have 2 days scheduled for Universal/IOA.

Is this enough time to see most attractions or should we try and squeeze in a third day? We are all massive HP fans, but I also really want to go on so many of the other rides too!

We currently have one day reserved for each of Disney's waterparks, so we are considering skipping one of them, or otherwise combining them into the same day. Thoughts?

Also, the Express Pass, yay or nay? They are pricey, but considering we are from the UK and don't know when our next trip will be (most likely not for years), I feel like we should shell out for them.

Any help is muchos appreciated!

 

[GLaDOS]

1) Being a huge HP means you will probably be able to spend nearly an entire day going between both WWoHPs. With that in mind, I'd recommend going three days. July will be peak season, so you will run into crowds, and three days will allow you some time to breath.

2) I'd mix the WDW water parks into one day. They can easily be done together, IMO.

3) Express is up to you. Three days should give you time to do the Uni parks comfortably. With that being said, I'd really recommend staying at Universal the days you're planning on going there. Makes things a lot more relaxing, and if you stay at one of the deluxes they give you Express.

 

[marni1971]

End of July? I'd try and squeeze a third day. One day in each park and a third to hop.

 

[BrerJon]

Yup three days definitely. If you've never been before, you could spend a whole day just doing the Potter lands. You need to at the very least eat in the two Potter restaurants and try all four variations of Butterbeer!

If you get a Universal ticket from the UK you should have 14 days unlimited use, which means you can always spend two days, then come back for a third, or even a few hours on a fourth if you feel like it, with no extra cost other than transportation. So no need to firm up plans in advance, and no need to book restaurants or Fastpasses or anything like that, and you could always combine a few hours at Universal with a water park or shopping day... you can totally make it up as you go along.

As for Express, I think you're much better to consult online crowd calendars like Undercover Tourist do and choose lighter crowd days. Do that and there's no reason why you should face particularly long lines for anything other than Gringotts or Despicable Me. Even those can regularly be down to less than an hour, everything else is likely to be 15-30 minute waits. If possible get there for park opening (I did every IoA ride in three hours recently by doing that!) but it's not the end of the world if you don't, as every attraction has waits that ebb and flow.

One tip to avoiding lines is to download the Universal app (free wifi in the park) when you're there to check wait times, and you'll be able to move between attractions and see when things are down without having to trek across the parks too much.

If waits really are bad, there's also Q-Bot which is a cheaper version of Express, where you get given a return time like a Disney Fastpass, so that's always an option too, but I don't think you'll need it.

 

[Mukta]

I usually have 2 full days at VERY slow times of year where i am walking onto everything, so 3 days in July would be better.

I think the Express Pass is great for busy times of year like July. If you won't cause too much hardship to your budget, it is well worth it.

 

[Bairstow]

We are visiting WDW at the end of July (so soon - woooo!) for 10 days, and we currently have 2 days scheduled for Universal/IOA.

Is this enough time to see most attractions or should we try and squeeze in a third day? We are all massive HP fans, but I also really want to go on so many of the other rides too!

...Also, the Express Pass, yay or nay? They are pricey, but considering we are from the UK and don't know when our next trip will be (most likely not for years), I feel like we should shell out for them. ...

Normally, two days is barely enough time to do everything, and that's assuming there's not going to be any major stoppages or delays due to weather or technical malfunctions.

With the express passes you could definitely at least ride everything in 2 days.
Last October we used Express Passes and were able to ride almost everything at both Universal parks in one day, but this was going from early-entry until close and moving at Park Commando pace and already being familiar with the layout of the parks. Plus, we had a second day lined up to mop up anything we missed.

I guess the real question is how long your total stay in Orlando is. If you've got two weeks to fill, 3 days and no express passes would be reasonable. If you're trying to fit everything into a week, 2 days with the passes (for one of the two days) will work.

We currently have one day reserved for each of Disney's waterparks, so we are considering skipping one of them, or otherwise combining them into the same day. Thoughts?

Well I definitely would recommend against trying to do both on the same day. Waterparks tend to beat you up and leave you a lot more tired and sunburnt than theme parks will.
In fact, I'd even recommend against trying to do both of them on consecutive days. Most people just aren't going to be able to enjoy waterpark #2 unless they've had time to recover.
If you only see one, see Typhoon Lagoon, but if you're going to do both I'd put at least one normal park day between them. If you're going to have multiday park passes you might want to follow up a waterpark morning with a slower-paced evening in a park; it would be a good evening to do Fantasmic, Illuminations, or an elaborate meal like Boma or 'Ohana.

 

[Disney-leaf]

1) Being a huge HP means you will probably be able to spend nearly an entire day going between both WWoHPs. With that in mind, I'd recommend going three days. July will be peak season, so you will run into crowds, and three days will allow you some time to breath.

2) I'd mix the WDW water parks into one day. They can easily be done together, IMO.

3) Express is up to you. Three days should give you time to do the Uni parks comfortably. With that being said, I'd really recommend staying at Universal the days you're planning on going there. Makes things a lot more relaxing, and if you stay at one of the deluxes they give you Express.

End of July? I'd try and squeeze a third day. One day in each park and a third to hop.

Yup three days definitely. If you've never been before, you could spend a whole day just doing the Potter lands. You need to at the very least eat in the two Potter restaurants and try all four variations of Butterbeer!

If you get a Universal ticket from the UK you should have 14 days unlimited use, which means you can always spend two days, then come back for a third, or even a few hours on a fourth if you feel like it, with no extra cost other than transportation. So no need to firm up plans in advance, and no need to book restaurants or Fastpasses or anything like that, and you could always combine a few hours at Universal with a water park or shopping day... you can totally make it up as you go along.

As for Express, I think you're much better to consult online crowd calendars like Undercover Tourist do and choose lighter crowd days. Do that and there's no reason why you should face particularly long lines for anything other than Gringotts or Despicable Me. Even those can regularly be down to less than an hour, everything else is likely to be 15-30 minute waits. If possible get there for park opening (I did every IoA ride in three hours recently by doing that!) but it's not the end of the world if you don't, as every attraction has waits that ebb and flow.

One tip to avoiding lines is to download the Universal app (free wifi in the park) when you're there to check wait times, and you'll be able to move between attractions and see when things are down without having to trek across the parks too much.

If waits really are bad, there's also Q-Bot which is a cheaper version of Express, where you get given a return time like a Disney Fastpass, so that's always an option too, but I don't think you'll need it.

I usually have 2 full days at VERY slow times of year where i am walking onto everything, so 3 days in July would be better.

I think the Express Pass is great for busy times of year like July. If you won't cause too much hardship to your budget, it is well worth it.

Normally, two days is barely enough time to do everything, and that's assuming there's not going to be any major stoppages or delays due to weather or technical malfunctions.

With the express passes you could definitely at least ride everything in 2 days.
Last October we used Express Passes and were able to ride almost everything at both Universal parks in one day, but this was going from early-entry until close and moving at Park Commando pace and already being familiar with the layout of the parks. Plus, we had a second day lined up to mop up anything we missed.

I guess the real question is how long your total stay in Orlando is. If you've got two weeks to fill, 3 days and no express passes would be reasonable. If you're trying to fit everything into a week, 2 days with the passes (for one of the two days) will work.



Well I definitely would recommend against trying to do both on the same day. Waterparks tend to beat you up and leave you a lot more tired and sunburnt than theme parks will.
In fact, I'd even recommend against trying to do both of them on consecutive days. Most people just aren't going to be able to enjoy waterpark #2 unless they've had time to recover.
If you only see one, see Typhoon Lagoon, but if you're going to do both I'd put at least one normal park day between them. If you're going to have multiday park passes you might want to follow up a waterpark morning with a slower-paced evening in a park; it would be a good evening to do Fantasmic, Illuminations, or an elaborate meal like Boma or 'Ohana.

Thanks all for the advice! I really wish our trip could be just a day or two longer to fit everything in comfortably! But I think we are definitely going to try and do 3 days at Universal, or at the very least 2.5 days!

This is our current plan:

Day 1: arrive in the evening (after 13 hour flight! )
Day 2: MK
Day 3: Universal
Day 4: Blizzard Beach & Cirque du Soleil
Day 5: AK
Day 6: MK
Day 7: EP
Day 8: Universal
Day 9: Typhoon Lagoon & Hoop de Doo
Day 10: HS
Day 11: MK and then flight home in the evening

The main tricky part is that we have booked dinners/shows in both of the evenings that we were planning to do the water parks, meaning that if we made one of those days Universal we would have to keep watching the clock to make sure we were back in time. I'd also booked us breakfast reservations, thinking we'd have a bit of a slower pace on this days, but I could always cancel one of those!

 

[BrerJon]

Thanks all for the advice! I really wish our trip could be just a day or two longer to fit everything in comfortably! But I think we are definitely going to try and do 3 days at Universal, or at the very least 2.5 days!

This is our current plan:

Day 1: arrive in the evening (after 13 hour flight! )
Day 2: MK
Day 3: Universal
Day 4: Blizzard Beach & Cirque du Soleil
Day 5: AK
Day 6: MK
Day 7: EP
Day 8: Universal
Day 9: Typhoon Lagoon & Hoop de Doo
Day 10: HS
Day 11: MK and then flight home in the evening

The main tricky part is that we have booked dinners/shows in both of the evenings that we were planning to do the water parks, meaning that if we made one of those days Universal we would have to keep watching the clock to make sure we were back in time. I'd also booked us breakfast reservations, thinking we'd have a bit of a slower pace on this days, but I could always cancel one of those!

Good plan, but here's an idea. Switch DAK with Blizzard Beach - DAK closes early and doesn't have masses of attractions so you will be comfortably done long before the dinner show. Then on day 5 hit the water park in the morning, then just after lunchtime, or whenever you're done with the water park, head over to Universal and spend the rest of the day there. If you coincide it with a day when Universal is open until 10PM, you'll get a good amount of time at both parks.

Having done a day at Universal already, you won't feel rushed at Blizzard Beach as you'll know whether you're in the mood for more Uni action or want a few more hours chilling in the water park. I find 3-4 hours is enough in any water park, but some people do like to spend the whole day there, and of course weather can affect plans too (I find the one day on any trip I schedule a water park will inevitably be the one day the weather is dull!), so having a bit of flexibility built in can't hurt.

 

[cheezbat]

If I were you I wouldn't spend 3 days at MK (or a whole day at DHS...hardly necessary unless you're a Frozen fanatic.)
I would definitely take a day for each Disney Waterpark....they get VERY crowded and busy in the summer...and giving yourself a third day at Universal guarantees you'll get to see everything.

 

[Frankie The Beer]

2 days is more than enough if you're staying at a Universal deluxe resort.

 

[Disney-leaf]

Good plan, but here's an idea. Switch DAK with Blizzard Beach - DAK closes early and doesn't have masses of attractions so you will be comfortably done long before the dinner show. Then on day 5 hit the water park in the morning, then just after lunchtime, or whenever you're done with the water park, head over to Universal and spend the rest of the day there. If you coincide it with a day when Universal is open until 10PM, you'll get a good amount of time at both parks.

Having done a day at Universal already, you won't feel rushed at Blizzard Beach as you'll know whether you're in the mood for more Uni action or want a few more hours chilling in the water park. I find 3-4 hours is enough in any water park, but some people do like to spend the whole day there, and of course weather can affect plans too (I find the one day on any trip I schedule a water park will inevitably be the one day the weather is dull!), so having a bit of flexibility built in can't hurt.

This sounds like a very good idea - thank you! I definitely think 3-4 hours will be enough ... as long as we get on Summit Plummet we should be satisfied!

 

[Disney-leaf]

If I were you I wouldn't spend 3 days at MK (or a whole day at DHS...hardly necessary unless you're a Frozen fanatic.)
I would definitely take a day for each Disney Waterpark....they get VERY crowded and busy in the summer...and giving yourself a third day at Universal guarantees you'll get to see everything.

Definitely not a Frozen fanatic! We are really looking forward to the water parks actually so it would be a shame to have to skip one! Which park do you think would take more time to see? AK or HS?

2 days is more than enough if you're staying at a Universal deluxe resort.

A girl can dream! We are currently 4 adults (2 couples) sharing a room at All Star Movies! We're on a bit of a budget!

 

[BrerJon]

Definitely not a Frozen fanatic! We are really looking forward to the water parks actually so it would be a shame to have to skip one! Which park do you think would take more time to see? AK or HS?



A girl can dream! We are currently 4 adults (2 couples) sharing a room at All Star Movies! We're on a bit of a budget!

Ah, so no kids involved? That does make things easier, for sure.

DHS would probably take more time to see due to how crowded it gets. The park only has five rides, but because of that the lines are loooooooong, like over an hour for each one on busy days, and there's four or five shows too, and all that soon adds up. So while it's not a very repeatable park, for a first visit there's easily a solid day, but if you try to choose a light crowd day, then you could probably be done by mid-afternoon.

DAK you almost certainly would be done mid-afternoon, as lines are nowhere near as bad there, use Fastpass and you've pretty much covered it, but one of the great things about that park is much of the attraction is the theming, landscaping and animals, so it's quite relaxing without having to hare around from ride to ride.

Also remember you're not tied to one park per day as you can always park hop, so if there's a show you wanted to catch at DHS or wanted to get a couple of early rides in MK before the crowds, there's no reason why you can't hop from one park to another, so you may find your last couple of days are more of a 'pick and mix' of things you still need to do and things you want to do again.

 

[mahnamahna101]

Ah, so no kids involved? That does make things easier, for sure.

DHS would probably take more time to see due to how crowded it gets. The park only has five rides, but because of that the lines are loooooooong, like over an hour for each one on busy days, and there's four or five shows too, and all that soon adds up. So while it's not a very repeatable park, for a first visit there's easily a solid day, but if you try to choose a light crowd day, then you could probably be done by mid-afternoon.

DAK you almost certainly would be done mid-afternoon, as lines are nowhere near as bad there, use Fastpass and you've pretty much covered it, but one of the great things about that park is much of the attraction is the theming, landscaping and animals, so it's quite relaxing without having to hare around from ride to ride.

Also remember you're not tied to one park per day as you can always park hop, so if there's a show you wanted to catch at DHS or wanted to get a couple of early rides in MK before the crowds, there's no reason why you can't hop from one park to another, so you may find your last couple of days are more of a 'pick and mix' of things you still need to do and things you want to do again.

Great Movie Ride has FP+ all day, while Star Tours has 20 min waits even during the summer. It's RnRC, ToT and TSMM that have the 60 minute+ waits all day.

And if you get FP+ for TSMM, ToT and Star Tours, with RnRC at rope drop, and then you pick up FP+ for Great Movie Ride later in the day... you're done in 3 hrs. 6 hrs if you want to do a few shows, too.

 

[BrerJon]

Great Movie Ride has FP+ all day, while Star Tours has 20 min waits even during the summer. It's RnRC, ToT and TSMM that have the 60 minute+ waits all day.

And if you get FP+ for TSMM, ToT and Star Tours, with RnRC at rope drop, and then you pick up FP+ for Great Movie Ride later in the day... you're done in 3 hrs. 6 hrs if you want to do a few shows, too.

I was forgetting outside Star Wars Weekends that Star Tours lines drop.

Even so though, I think your suggestion sounds a bit ambitious. Remember Fastpasses have to be reserved in threes, and subject to tiers. So in advance, with enough early booking, you could get a Toy Story, ToT and Star Tours. If you managed to get them at the start of the day, close together, then once they were done you could get a Fastpass for either RnR or GMR, but then you'd have to wait until that slot expired to get one for the remaining ride. Trying to do all that in three hours, for four people, relying on two day-of Fastpasses, sounds tough to me.

 

[Disney-leaf]

Ah, so no kids involved? That does make things easier, for sure.

DHS would probably take more time to see due to how crowded it gets. The park only has five rides, but because of that the lines are loooooooong, like over an hour for each one on busy days, and there's four or five shows too, and all that soon adds up. So while it's not a very repeatable park, for a first visit there's easily a solid day, but if you try to choose a light crowd day, then you could probably be done by mid-afternoon.

DAK you almost certainly would be done mid-afternoon, as lines are nowhere near as bad there, use Fastpass and you've pretty much covered it, but one of the great things about that park is much of the attraction is the theming, landscaping and animals, so it's quite relaxing without having to hare around from ride to ride.

Also remember you're not tied to one park per day as you can always park hop, so if there's a show you wanted to catch at DHS or wanted to get a couple of early rides in MK before the crowds, there's no reason why you can't hop from one park to another, so you may find your last couple of days are more of a 'pick and mix' of things you still need to do and things you want to do again.

Yes, no children this time! (The girl in the photo is my niece).

We have changed our plans, thanks to your suggestion, and it makes SO much more sense now! And I'm not stressing that we won't have enough time at Universal .

It's now:

Day 4: AK (which closes at 5), dinner at Boma & then Cirque du Soleil
Day 5: BB, lunch at Beaches & Cream and then Universal until closing (10pm)

So we'll have 2 full days there and then a long afternoon until close, AND we still get to spend time at both water parks!

Thanks so much for all your help!

 

[BrerJon]

We have changed our plans, thanks to your suggestion, and it makes SO much more sense now! And I'm not stressing that we won't have enough time at Universal .

It's now:

Day 4: AK (which closes at 5), dinner at Boma & then Cirque du Soleil
Day 5: BB, lunch at Beaches & Cream and then Universal until closing (10pm)

One other thing, will you have a car? That's the only thing that could slow things up if you don't, as you'd have to take a bus from Blizzard to the Beach Club, then get a taxi or Uber to Universal, but with a car swinging by the Beach Club for a pit-stop lunch in between parks will be very easy.

You've got a great plan there, just keep an eye on the crowd calendars (I use https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/july-2015/#calendar) and try to avoid red days (with Universal if one park is super crowded you can always take the Hogwarts to the other where crowds will likely be less).

Do report back with how it went anyway!

 

[Disney-leaf]

Thanks so much!

No car I'm afraid! I wish!! Two of us don't drive (I've been meaning to learn for years, but it's so hard in central London when you catch the tube everywhere!) and the other two are fairly new drivers and would be pretty terrified to drive on the other side of the road!

Hopefully the buses will be OK for us, and we're planning on Ubers to Universal. I'll make sure to leave lots of time to get around though.

And yes, hopefully I will write a Trip Report! (That's the plan, anyway)

 

[fosse76]

To be honest, you only need two days, especially if you have Express Passes. Universal Studios is a little trickier that Islands of Adventure because of the large number of shows that you have to work around the show times, but it is manageable, even with large crowds. In my experience, Universal Studios has lowest attendance in the mornings and Islands of Adventure has lower crowds in the late afternoon. But if you get the Express Pass you'll be fine no matter when you go (and I strongly recommend them if you can afford it).

 

[Disney-leaf]

To be honest, you only need two days, especially if you have Express Passes. Universal Studios is a little trickier that Islands of Adventure because of the large number of shows that you have to work around the show times, but it is manageable, even with large crowds. In my experience, Universal Studios has lowest attendance in the mornings and Islands of Adventure has lower crowds in the late afternoon. But if you get the Express Pass you'll be fine no matter when you go (and I strongly recommend them if you can afford it).

Thank you I think we will are definitely going to get the Express Passes. We don't visit often (our first trip in 10 years!) so I want to make sure we get on as much as possible. Thanks for the crowd advice!