Touring plan for Universal / IOA

[catherinesian]

Signed up to touring plans this morning in readiness for our September trip, but disappointed to find that there isn't a combined Universal / IOA touring plan. We have 1 day to do both parks - we realise we won't get everything done but want to focus on headliners and Harry Potter (main reason we are going). We are 2 adults and will aim to get there for rope drop, go all day until park close and if need be make use of single rider queues (rather not, but if it means the choice between going on a ride or not then we will).

It's been 10 years since I went so I can barely remember anything and it's probably changed beyond recognition anyway.

The day we are thinking of going (Mon 23rd Sep) the estimated crowd level is 2/10 for Universal and 3/10 for IOA and it looks like Universal open til 7pm and IOA 8pm if the predicted opening hours are correct.

I know it will be a hectic day and would do 2 days if we could but we only have 11 days and want to prioritise Disney.

Has anyone got any advice over what park to start with, where to head to first, which rides to prioritise in terms of queue times, etc.

Are there any parades / shows in either park that are worth trying to fit into the schedule?

TIA

[Inky]

Harry Potter rides very popular, Kong gets busy quickly as well. Wouldn’t bother with universal parade. There are some good shows in Wizarding worlds , and the horror makeup show is excellent

[rafjen]

I prefer to make a personalised plan- can you combine both parks if you personalise the plan. I think there is a touring plan yo tube video giving advice on covering both parks.

[rafjen]

When we where there last August Harry Potter rides got quiet late in the day. Avoid the park with early opening to hotel guests especially if you are heading straight to Harry Potter rides- start in the other- and hit the headliners first.

[dx4100]

Simple...

Create two plans for the same day... That is all I ever do...

Day 1 - Universal Studios (starts at entrance finishes on hogwarts express)
Day 1 - IOA (starts at hogwarts express entrance and set plan start time to the correct time)

[chrisblanc]

We did something along the lines of this and had tons of time to spare.

Universal Studios - Diagon Alley and then Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure
IoA - Did Harry Potter, then Kong, then walked to Marvel Land and started a clockwise walk doing everything we hadn't done (Popeye 4 times lol)
Then back over to US to do everything we hadn't done there. By 5pm everything was 10 mins or less when we were there )early May)

This was fine and wasn't too much rushing about. It was 4 adults though, so not a lot of wasting time or shopping atc. We also didn't stop for the parade, though we did watch at least the Blues Brothers show and stop for a couple of beers lol

[LOUISEACAT]

create two personalised touring plans - one for morning and then one for afternoon at whichever order of parks you are going to.
Create a few different ones messing about with times etc and see which you prefer the look of.

[voyagers_uk]

Er, there are two day touring plans.
Go to touring plans section
Click on either of the parks
Click on touring plans for adults
Voila!

[catherinesian]

Thanks everyone. I had a lot of fun last night doing two half day touring plans and tweaking the transfer time and which park to start with to get the best results. It's a fab website and according to the plans we can get much more done than I had anticipated

Voyager, there are touring plans for each park but I need both parks on one day, which isn't there - hence me having to do a personalised half day ones.

[dx4100]

Originally Posted by catherinesian

and according to the plans we can get much more done than I had anticipated

See more...

They are awesome but just keep in mind you need to factor in toilet breaks and browsing and just taking in the whole place.

I have two kids so I put a toliet break into the plan every hour and set the walking pace to as slow as possible and our plan still felt like it was always going away from us. The plans presume your just doing ride - walk - ride - walk. You need to add in some sensible breaks into it and then they work even better. Two days into our trip i modified them based on my experience (only slightly with some breaks and taken a couple of things out) and then the plans worked much better to reality.

I would recommend add a 10 min break every hour to space the plan out and also under plan a day by a couple of hour. One hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to buy yourself to shop and just enjoy the place.

Good luck