Both parks on one day

phlms

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 4, 2019
Hi there!

My girlfriend and I will be in Orlando this November as part of our Florida round trip.
We plan to be there on the 22th of November which is a Friday. First we planned just to visit the Island of Adventure, bot honestly, I would like to see both parks and also ride the Hogwarts Express.
For convenience I'm thinking about booking Loew's Royal Pacific for one night, meaning we are close to the parks and - most importantly - get the Express passes.

Do you think that we can manage to visit both parks at this day? We are more into thrill rides and not into shows, so we will mainly do the rollercoasters and other faster stuff.
Or do you think it's absolutely stressful and we should either consider to do only one park or try to insert a second day in the parks?


Thank you in advance :) Greetings from Germany!
 
Both parks are easily doable in one day with the Express Pass, especially if it's a quiet time of the year which I'd imagine it is in November. Early Entry will be possible staying on site too so get there early and get a head start.
 
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@phlms If you book the one night at RPR, you'll have two days of EP. You'll want to check in as early as possible on 11/22 as you'll be able to use the EP as soon as you check in. You'll also be able to use it on Saturday, 11/23 even after you check out of the hotel.

Doing both parks in one day, even with EP means that you will be hoofing it from one ride to the next with determination. A good indicator of crowd levels with EP would be to check room availability at the three onsite hotels that provide EP; RPR, HR and PB.
 


As long as you check in as early as possible to take advantage of getting your EP and being able to do EE you definitely can do both in the same day. As someone who focuses on the SR rider aspect to get things done and often does half days, it surprises me the stuff I can get done. So, I would imagine achieving all that you wish to do within a whole day, especially with EP can easily be done. Also, that time of the year is more chill.
 
Can you do parks open to close? We can't so this wouldn't be possible, but with 2 able bodied adults, it'd be possible. You will miss a bit of the magic of the parks though. They are terribly underrated.
 


It'll be rushed and you'll miss some of the magic but if you did it open til close then it is possible.
 
One day is better than no days!!!!!!

I think it helps that you have the EP to be able to ride what you want without all the lineups...which will be a great time saver!

When I took our daughter three years ago, it was low crowds ( early December right after the Thanksgiving weekend ) and most of the rides we wanted to do...we walked on with very little wait. We had park to park tickets so we could ride the Hogwarts Express ( that was the dd's request ). We got to see most of both parks, we rode Kong, Forbidden Journey, Olivander's Wand show, Gringots, Dueling Dragons ( that made me very motion sick ) which is no longer there, We also rode the Mummy, Minions, and Shrek. We also did a Cat in the hat ride which was cute lol. We had lunch the three broomsticks. seen the Blues Brother's , and Marilyn as well.

There are some that we didn't get to do...just because I was too sick after Duelling Dragons, but would love another chance to go with our boys and ride them. We could have rode them...but I was just too sick - even the Gravol - the canadian version of Dramamine. We seen lots in our one day there.

My suggestion would be pick a few that are your top rides you want to do, Know which areas you want to visit most. If you get to hit other rides/places...bonus!!!!! And remember...one day is better than no Universal days :thumbsup2
 
Thank you so much for your answers :)

We finally made our decision:
We will stay in the Loews Royal Pacific from Thursday to Friday. I plan to check-in as early as possible (4 pm according to their website), because as far as I can tell from pictures and videos, the hotel is really nice so it would be worth to enjoy it from the beginning. We can discover the hotel, enjoy the pool, go to CityWalk and just enjoy our evening in one of the restaurants. Then, we can get up early next morning to be at the parks ready for the early access. After closing, we could still enjoy some food at CityWalk before taking our car from the Loews and drive to our next hotel.

I think doing it like this, we can get the most out of one day.
 
You can check in anytime and have your belongings held with valet

Check in time is 4:00 but if a room is available prior, you can get a room earlier

If the hotel was not sold out the night prior, it is possible to be assigned a room in the morning when you arrive
 
Good to know, thank you! :)
As we will not go into the parks or anything like this, we won't be there very early. We will come to Orlando from Sarasota, so we might stop in Tampa or some other places on our way. Anyway, we try to be in Orlando at around 3 pm, so our room might be ready and there is still enough time of the day to enjoy the hotel and the surrounding.
 
We have hopped between both parks in one day many times, but I couldn't say we see everything in both parks when we do it all in one day, but we also do re-rides when lines are short.

If you want to see the new HP ride, you'll likely have to spend a good chunk of time in line to see it.

If you make a point of arriving early - minus the new HP ride- you'll be able to cover a fair amount pretty early.

Weather is also a factor to consider. summer = hot afternoons and often storms. Storms usually = HEAVY downpours, NO outdoor coasters, and NO boats. Storms last 5min to 5+ hours.

If you arrive at 3pm-5pm, swimming might not be an option, until after the storms pass.

afternoon traffic might also be an issue. We've done the Tampa to Universal/WDW drive a number of times, and simply, the I-4 highway becomes a slow slog in storms and during rush hour. Tampa also has heavy morning/afternoon traffic delays. You'd do well to watch the weather reports, and avoid rush hour in both cities. Having learned from experience, if possible, I suggest trying to arrive at RP by 2:30pm.

Over in Tampa, oh, you have some fine beaches to see!
 
We have done it a few times without express pass as well. Most recently April 11, we arrived at open did US side of Harry Potter, Transformers (x2), Fast and Furious, Jimmy Fallon, , Minions (skipped shrek as seen it before and Mummy), then went and had a relaxing lunch in city walk. Started the Afternoon at IofA doing all the trill rides and Harry Potter. Our longest wait of the day was King Kong (30 minutes in single rider, regular was and hour), rode hogwarts express did gringots a second time, MIB, simpsons, some shopping, tracked down MIL lost wallet and got Voodo Donuts all before park close.
 
Thank you so much for your answers :)

We finally made our decision:
We will stay in the Loews Royal Pacific from Thursday to Friday. I plan to check-in as early as possible (4 pm according to their website), because as far as I can tell from pictures and videos, the hotel is really nice so it would be worth to enjoy it from the beginning. We can discover the hotel, enjoy the pool, go to CityWalk and just enjoy our evening in one of the restaurants. Then, we can get up early next morning to be at the parks ready for the early access. After closing, we could still enjoy some food at CityWalk before taking our car from the Loews and drive to our next hotel.

I think doing it like this, we can get the most out of one day.
That’s a great plan! It’s how we always do our annual Cedar Point Trip- arrive around 3-4 the day before our park day, enjoy the resort, sleep then hit the parks ASAP! Aim to be over at the parks at least 15 minutes before opening and have a plan. :)
 
Thank you for all your feedback :)

If you want to see the new HP ride, you'll likely have to spend a good chunk of time in line to see it.
Do you think the huge lines will be still like now in November? I hope that it calms down, also I read somewhere that the ride is already included in the Express Pass?

Weather is also a factor to consider. summer = hot afternoons and often storms. Storms usually = HEAVY downpours, NO outdoor coasters, and NO boats. Storms last 5min to 5+ hours.
If you arrive at 3pm-5pm, swimming might not be an option, until after the storms pass.

We will be there in Mid-November, so this is hopefully no problem anymore. :D

afternoon traffic might also be an issue. We've done the Tampa to Universal/WDW drive a number of times, and simply, the I-4 highway becomes a slow slog in storms and during rush hour. Tampa also has heavy morning/afternoon traffic delays. You'd do well to watch the weather reports, and avoid rush hour in both cities. Having learned from experience, if possible, I suggest trying to arrive at RP by 2:30pm.

That's actually a valid point I didn't consider much yet. Orlando will be our last station of our Florida round trip, so by then I should be experienced enough to estimate how long a 2 hour ride is in reality including traffic. Thank you for reminding me!

Aim to be over at the parks at least 15 minutes before opening and have a plan. :)

Definitely planned! I think we won't take breakfast in the hotel (no time for buffet anyway and the regular offers are quite expensive), so we just might grab something on our way to the parks at CityWalk. So we will be at the park doors before opening anyway! :)
 
Do you think the huge lines will be still like now in November? I hope that it calms down, also I read somewhere that the ride is already included in the Express Pass?

The wait should be a lot lower in November compared to now, however it is still a new ride, so it might still be a little bit of a wait 1 (avg) - 2 (max) hours. I don't know where you read that, but there's no EP for Hagrid's coaster yet and it's unknown when it will be included.
 
I found it, I read it on the Wikipedia page of the Express Pass and of the coaster itself. 🤔 But this information is not given on the Universal page...
 
Hagrid's will indeed have Express pass.... one day....... but no one knows when as Universal has not announced anything on when it will have Express pass.

By November they *might* have it..... but it's anyone's guess at this point.
 

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