Advice on Universal rough itinerary needed please!

[Allyfe]

We are going in less than two weeks, and I have entirely neglected to think about what we will do at Universal because I didn't need to book FPs or dining. However, based on some great advice from Dibbers on restaurants, I now want to book Mythos for when we are there.

With this in mind, I will need a rough itinerary.

We will get to Universal after a morning at Disney. We will need to check into the hotel, and then we will head over to Islands of adventure in the evening I guess. I thought that we could take the Hogwarts express over to Universal, and spend some time there. BUT, will it be impossible to drag my kids out of the Harry Potter area in IoA? Also, I know there are illuminations on hogwarts, but is there any other evening activity at Universal?

Plan is:

28th July: Late afternoon/early evening Universal; dinner in leaky cauldron
29th July: Snack breakfast; IoA (wander over when we want), late lunch at Mythos (1.30pm?), IoA until we wear out and back to pool. Citywalk for dinner.
30th July: Volcano Bay; citywalk dinner
31st July: Check-out day, themed breakfast? Favourite bits at Universal or IoA. Off to airport hotel as late as we want!

I have ideas for panda express and Bubba Gumps for dinner (we have a landry card).

I have no idea how long we will want to stay in the parks. My kids (and I) love Harry Potter. They are 143cm and 127cm respectively, and so there will be some rides they can't do. And I suffer from motion sickness, so I need to work out the rides I don't want to do! I hope they will be some of the ones my son is too small for!

All universal advice and suggestions for the itinerary would be very gratefully received.

[DFussy]

Hi.

As 143 your tallest child will be able to go on everything. the limit for things like hulk/rip ride is 137 I think.

If you were intending to buy/use interactive hp wands, then these take up quite a bit of time. I would suggest the evening might be better than in the heat of the day like us. Lots of waiting around for the rest of the party.

One of the highlights of staying onsite for us was being able to ride the coasters (hulk/dr doom) in the dark - In august closing was 9 or 10 so dark for maybe 1.5hr before closing. you've only mentioned being in park one evening. we ate early at panda express, about 6, on way back into the park, then saw a show etc before hitting the coasters to let our food go down.

I assume you are intending to do early entry at VB - this is one of our top tips for onsite stay. Did quite a bit before leaving at 10 to catch up with family and check out before going back into the parks.

On our day at universal without staying onsite we got there for opening and hit hulk twice, on to spiderman, and basically went round IOA missing out only Kong, did Hogwarts express over to us and did hp ride before before leaving around 2pm. Hit the popular rides like Hulk/Rip ride/Minnions & HP early if you don't have express passes.

Can you reduce your motion sickness with tablets? I seem to remember reading that forbidden journey and escape from gringots can both be hard on this.

Have a great time. Being able to stay over at Universal is a real treat.

[shrek1609]

I can ride everything after taking Dramamine non drowsy tablets which I buy at Walgreens once we land.
I take one every night before bed and can ride til my hearts content.
Love Universal, you have to ride Forbidden journey in IoA and Gringotts in US.
Also the Hogwarts Express is different in each direction so ride it twice from park to park.
Make sure you try a frozen butter beer... but would suggest you share one as sickly but lovely frozen.

Make sure you go back and ride some of the bigger rides at night... totally different experience.

We enjoy being onsite, live express pass, feels more relaxed and we also spend a couple of hours at hotel pool in the afternoons.

Some great places to eat, strangely mythos isn’t one of my favourites but both in the parks and city walk you won’t go hungry.
Watch out for the dragon breathing fire periodically above Gringotts.

The themeing for HP is amazing.
Enjoy x