Universal Hollywood - one day strategy

[ksun]

DD turns 13 in Sept and we are doing 4 days at Disney and a surprise 1 day at Universal Hollywood. They are a huge HP fan so I want to bring them there for that. I'm going to buy them a cameo from Oliver Phelps for a bday gift telling them we're going to Universal.

HP is our priority, anything else is a bonus. I know there are only 2 rides and that Olivanders is currently closed, but how busy in normal times does the HP area get? I've never been to Universal before (been to City Walk) so I know nothing about it. Can you make reservations for Hogs Head or Three Broomsticks?

Any advice is appreciated. Like I said, HP is the priority and any other rides the 2 of us can go on will be cool but not hugely necessary.  I know Secret Life of Pets, Jurrasic World and Simpsons are big there also. 

[revolution]

edit:  reading comprehension fail.  oops!

[ksun]

Jun 23, 2021 12:02:19 GMT -5 revolution said:

Universal has 2 parks and if you want to ride Hogwarts express, you need tickets to both parks as it connects them. We did both parks in one day by using the express pass. I highly recommend splurging for the express pass if you can!

I'm talking about Universal Hollywood, not Universal Florida. 

[dearprudence]

I'm not sure how things are functioning currently, or will be in the future, but I can speak to how it's been in the past.

We were always able to get early entry- not sure if they will reinstate that. I think it was 30 minutes early with certain types of tickets. Head into Wizarding World first thing. We've always been able to ride Forbidden Forest about twice before a real line formed. Or Forbidden Forest once and Flight of the Hippogriff once (although that line hasn't ever seemed out of control). The first time we went, we spent the rest of the morning doing Olivanders, playing with wands, going in shops. After that first time, we just headed to the lower lot after rides to hit up Jurrasic Park/Transformers/The Mummy which are the first to get longer lines. We would come back and do the other Wizarding World shops and shows as a break from lines.

Three Broomsticks and Hogshead share a space and you can't make reservations, but we've never had a problem with that. (Again not sure how that works now) They're counter service, so you purchase your food and then find a table to sit in.

Since Wizarding World is your priority, I'd just spend as much time there as you want and then you can fit in whatever else with remaining time. There really isn't a ton to do there, so you'll have time to check out other areas/rides. If you download the app, it had wait times for rides, so you can decide what you want to go on when you're ready to do something else.

Also, have you heard about the mailbox trick? You can post letters from Wizarding World and they'll arrive with a Hogsmeade postmark. My kids like to bring letters to friends and family to send from there, but you could also potentially surprise your daughter by sending a letter for her to receive when you get home.

[rootbeerfloat]

We did HP on a weekday in March (2018), which wasn't busy. I would arrive early, hit HP first, and get in line for the rides, then browse the shops and get some butterbeer. We didn't eat in either restaurant, so I can't speak to that.

Before HP, we would start with the the rides in the lower lot (Jurassic World, etc), which tend to have the longer lines, then work our way up. I think it's totally doable in 1 day.

[ksun]

Thank you! And thanks for the mailbox trick!

[Doggy Mommy]

Like others said, the last time we went it wasn't too busy. We went straight to HP and rode Forbidden Journey twice before the line got bad. We just did the Hippogriff ride once because it's about 10 seconds long lol. I also love doing the spells with my wand (I bought my wand in Florida but brought it to CA and it worked there too). Then we took the huge escalators to the bottom section and did the studio tour, which is super fun and I would definitely recommend it. Then we went on Transformers, Mummy, and I went on Jurassic Park (husband hates any ride where he may get wet!), then back to HP to eat. We ate, went in the shops, rode FJ again, went on a couple more rides, and we left fairly early.

If I were you, after going straight to HP and riding Forbidden Journey a couple times, I'd probably go to Ollivanders, watch the show if they're doing it, buy a wand, and go around and do the spells and go in the shops. My other tip for organizing your time is that it's more time consuming than you'd think to ride the escalators to get to the bottom section, so once you go down the escalators plan to do whatever you want to do down there all at once before coming back up. My favorite rides are Forbidden Journey, Studio Tour, and Jurassic Park.

Have fun!!

[Mushe]

We (me and 9 year old son) just spent the day there! It was our first time coming to Universal. I booked before things opened up again, and woof, it was pretty busy. Since I don’t have a frame of reference, though, I’m not sure if it’s still better than normal.

My coworker also came recently, but for 2 days, and she really talked up Express/upgraded tickets. We didn’t do that and rode everything we wanted, more than once.

We stayed a mile away and took a Lyft, which was cheaper than parking and saved us the hassle. We arrived before opening (9am) and it was very smooth to get in with the QR code from our pre-purchased tickets. We went straight to Jurassic World since that was our must ride, and were on right away. We also did Transformers (6x throughout the day!) a few times and Jurassic World again, as well as the raptor experience, before going back to the Upper lot. My son wouldn’t ride the Mummy ride, but my friend and her 12 year old did it 6 times.

We only did the Hippogriff (edit misspelling because I don’t Potter) ride (meh, reminded me of Seven Dwarves in that it was a long line for a short ride), but I was tracking the other HP ride and it got down to 40 minute wait. I couldn’t convince him.

The studio tour was really fun although the line was long when we went.

Long story short: Get the app, although it was glitchy sometimes. You can set alerts for when a line goes under your target, but my alerts were canceled several times saying the wait was 0 minutes, which was very clearly not the case. Get there as early as possible and start with your main target.

Water was annoying! They disabled the fancy coke machines so you can’t get water from them, and the water fountains are only that. I ended up refilling my bottle with ice and drinking the water as it melted. You can pack in up to 2L, and I wish I’d brought a bigger bottle since I carried a backpack.

[Mushe]

One last tip - we used the single rider line liberally, and it worked out great. We made friends with some Transformers crew in the morning, when their ride was down and I was trying to convince my son to ride the Mummy. When he kept wanting to come back, they shooed me in to the Express line and then he felt comfortable enough with the setup to do single rider. It’s very well set up for that, as is Jurassic World.

Those lines were between 75-120 min (allegedly!) when we basically walked on as single riders.