Universal - both parks one day?

[disneyfamily05]

A friend and I want to go to Universal IOA to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We are debating if we can do both IOA and Studios in one day. Neither one of us do roller coasters - so we will not be in line for those, and will not have any children with us (so rides for the wee little ones are not a worry). I have been to the Studios side, but not IOA - so not real sure what to expect. Any thoughts on doing both in one day if we get there at opening? We will be there in the fall.
And, does anyone know when they will list the Universal Halloween party dates? We would prefer to go on a non-Halloween party date so the park would be open longer (I assume).

[disneymaster]

If you are staying at one of the on site hotels, then yes, you should be able to do both parks if you get there when they open. However, if not, then you will most likely need two days.

For starters, Harry Potter will stil be VERY new so the whole land is going to be packed! I would expect about a 3 hour wait for the main new ride. Not to mention all the shops (which are very small inside and will have another line outside to wait in before they let more guest inside to shop). If you are staying on-site, your room key becomes a front of the line pass. For most rides, you show your room key to the person out front and they send you to the Express entrance. The longest I have ever waited in this line is 10 minutes and the normal line was 2 hours. However, with Harry Potter, you can only use the room key ONCE per day for the rides, unlike the other rides which you can ride over and over again without issues.

Next, Universal's hours stink...always! Heck, this summer the main park closes at 9 and IOA closes at 10. During Oct. when they have the Halloween event going on, the parks normally close around 6pm. This year is going to be a MASSIVE Halloween Horror Nights becuase it is #20! The rumor going around is that they are going to use BOTH parks again for this event, which means BOTH parks will be closing around 6pm or maybe even 5pm. If they only use one park, the other park tends to stay open a little later (normally 7 or 8).

This again can become a problem. My advice would be to do IOA first thing to do Harry Potter while it is still early. However, then you run the risk of being in Universal with a lot of the halloween quests. So, that park may be packed as well. Normally, the event is held every friday, sat, sun. It also runs on Mon, and Thrus some years and nights. The week of halloween they call "hell week" becuase typically, they have the halloween party every night! On nights that there is no party, Universal still closes around 6 or 7.

I don't know what Universal's deal is with hours. When we went for the 4th of july last year (when the disney parks were open till midnight or later) IOA closed at 8pm and Universal closed at 10. To make things worse, almost ALL the stores and food places closed at 8 pm at Universal. There was one hot dog stand open past 8 that had a line of over 60 people trying to get food and drinks. While I love universal, they REALLY need to learn how to keep there stuff open longer. Why close shop when all you need is one family buying 4 bottles of water totaling $10 to pay that persons wages for the hour, lol. Anyway, ranting off.

So, unless you are staying onsite (which will cost you about $150 at the Royal Pacific which is an amazing hotel for the price!) you will most likely not be able to see everything they have to offer. If you do stay on site, and still want to go two days, your room key front of the line pass will work BOTH days even if you stay one night. It will work the day you check in and the day you check out. So, one night hotel will get you unlimited front of the line for 2 days to see your favorite rides!

[joonyer]

We went to Universal Orlando last October. On a weekday, IF you get there at park opening you can do all the major attractions in one park very easily in 1/2 a day. We did it several days in a row. If you skip the coasters, It will be even easier to do. We DID NOT have the express pass. You won't need it in October unless you don't arrive until after lunch and want to ride the most popular attractions multiple times. For instance we arrived at the parking garage about 8:15, this gave us plenty of time to walk all the way to the park entrance (quite a hike) and enter right at 9:00. We went straight to Rip, Ride & Rockit (coaster). Then saw Shrek 4-D, Revenge of the Mummy, and Twister all with less than a 5-minute wait. By the time we got over to Jaws, It had about 30 minutes wait, as did Simpsons, but we waited only 10 minutes for MiB. We still did ever major attraction, (we skipped Jimmy Neutron, and the kids area (except for ET), and the Terminator show, (which we saw on another day) and were out of the park by 1:00. Then went to Islands of Adventure and saw everything there also (incuding the coasters) by 8pm (park closing). There was a HHN at Universal that night, so it closed at 6.
BUT I expect that you will likely see much longer waits in the Wizarding World, so if you are planning on experiencing that Island, I would probably devote a whole day for IOA.

[NJGIRL]

We vacation in October and go to Universal each time we visit Florida and IMO you really need two full days to do the parks. If you try to cram two parks into one day you will be missing most of the attractions. I find without an express pass the lines at Universal are longer than at Disney during the same time of the year. From the buzz I am hearing about Harry Potter, even people who have never bothered to go to Universal will be going this year and of course if they are in the park they will be doing more than just HP. Don't short change yourself, either take two days to do the parks or just choose 1 park to do.

[joonyer]

I would add to my remarks above that we were able to do both parks in one day on a WEEKDAY. I wouldn't count on being able to do it on Saturday or Sunday. And this fall, when the Wizarding World of HP is open, I wouldn't count on being able to see IOA in a half day on any day of the week. There will be a lot more people visiting IOA after the new "island" is open.