Convince me to purchase the Park to Park option

[cschaaf]

Just get the annual pass

I think that only makes sense if they are planning a second trip within a year and/or they find a great AP rate at a Premiere hotel

 

[cfoxga]

I would skip the park-to-park, especially since you are spending the first day at VB. With only 2 days at the parks, you won't really have time to switch parks. Even with EPs, we plan for 30 minutes from start-to-finish on the train.

Yes, you can ride all of the rides in a day at each park with EP, but you will not be able to do "everything" in the parks. There are just too many other things to do: shows, restaurants, or just walking around looking at all of the details. If you plan on riding no-EP rides like Hagrids or VC, then you need to make special plans for those to avoid hour+ waits.

I typically recommend 3 days at IOA and US for a first trip. One day at each, and then the third day to re-ride favorites or hit shows you missed...

 

[maverik85]

It's definitely a nice option to have beyond Hogwarts Express. Unlike Disney, the parks here are right next to each other so it is very easy to walk from one to another. With your free express passes you should be able to get through stuff in the parks in a timely manner.
That said, with it being your first visit you could probably spend a fairly full day in each park to check out all the shows and rides and redo favorites. The biggest thing that could help having the park to park will be if a ride is down for maintenance at a park the day you are there but open the next, then you would be able to hop over and ride it. For this reason you could make sure to hit all your must dos at both parks on the first day and then work around on both on your second day to hit whatever you missed and do any rerides. Also, as mentioned above if you don't spend a full day at the water park then you can hop over to the dry parks following that.

 

[WDWLODGE]

I would skip the park-to-park, especially since you are spending the first day at VB. With only 2 days at the parks, you won't really have time to switch parks. Even with EPs, we plan for 30 minutes from start-to-finish on the train.

Yes, you can ride all of the rides in a day at each park with EP, but you will not be able to do "everything" in the parks. There are just too many other things to do: shows, restaurants, or just walking around looking at all of the details. If you plan on riding no-EP rides like Hagrids or VC, then you need to make special plans for those to avoid hour+ waits.

I typically recommend 3 days at IOA and US for a first trip. One day at each, and then the third day to re-ride favorites or hit shows you missed...

We do plan on doing early entry @ IoA. The plan is to be in line at least 45 minutes early.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Park to park is the way to go because it’s convenient AND you can’t ride the hogwarts express (the best and easiest way to park to park) if you don’t have park to park. Plus if you do volcano bay and get there early and leave mid afternoon like we do you might want to head back at night!


Also-a friend and I were just discussing this. UOR and IOA both have rides we don’t enjoy and even without express pass we can do both parks in one day very easily. So if we have two day park to parks we can go slow one day and fast another

Maybe I'm reading it wrong. But if you go to VB (or any park) in the morning, leave, and want to return later in the day, you don't need a park to park pass for that.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong. But if you go to VB (or any park) in the morning, leave, and want to return later in the day, you don't need a park to park pass for that.

As far as I know when we stayed on property we needed park to park but then again our VB day was also our HHN night so we needed the separate tickets anyway.

I would call universal or use the chat function in the app

 

[CAPSLOCK]

But if you go to VB (or any park) in the morning, leave, and want to return later in the day, you don't need a park to park pass for that.

when we stayed on property we needed park to park but then again our VB day was also our HHN night so we needed the separate tickets anyway.

Right, @luv2cheer92 means going back to the same park again, for which you just need the one park ticket. To go to a different park (VB or otherwise) you would need park to park tickets.

 

[jdrum3]

If you have a serious HP fan, worth it, if not, no. Fast passes will make a huge difference except the day in VB and Hagrid’s unfortunately. A day in USO and one day IOA will “accomplish” everything. If you have coaster fans, they will want to ride Velocicoaster quite a few times.

 

[luv2cheer92]

As far as I know when we stayed on property we needed park to park but then again our VB day was also our HHN night so we needed the separate tickets anyway.

I would call universal or use the chat function in the app

Right, @luv2cheer92 means going back to the same park again, for which you just need the one park ticket. To go to a different park (VB or otherwise) you would need park to park tickets.

Right. Maybe I worded it wrong. If you leave one park in the morning and want to return to that same park in the evening, park to park is not needed.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Right. Maybe I worded it wrong. If you leave one park in the morning and want to return to that same park in the evening, park to park is not needed.

Correct. Park to park is not needed in that case

 

[MousetersInc]

Most of the discussion will revolve around Hogwarts Express, but since we're talking convincing, let's see if there's any other case to be made. Let's take the assumption that somebody doesn't at all care to ride the HE. Are there other good reasons to hop?

In my mind yes, though you have to decide what they're worth. The parks are small enough and close enough that you can hop several times in one day (HE can often be the easiest way, if the wait is short and you're at the back of the park, but you can walk from gate to gate in a few minutes). Sometimes early entry will be available at one park, and you want to prioritize it to rope-drop a certain ride, but you don't want to spend the entire day at that park. Maybe a ride goes down and you want to switch parks to ride other things (or switch back once it's up!).

For a 3-day stay, to my mind, you could pass on it. Spend one day at each, and then spend the third wherever you feel you have the most catching up to do. But I'd still get it and be able to hop.

 

[snoopboop]

We are a family of 4, aged 14 & up. We are longtime Disney vacationers and have finally decided to visit Universal. We are staying onsite at the Royal Pacific for 2 nights. We currently have 3 Park 3-day passes. We arrive at MCO @ 8AM and plan to spend our 1st day at Volcano Bay. On our 2nd day the Park hours are 8A-6P, so the current plan in Universal on day 2 with a 6:30 dinner at Toothsome. On day 3 which is also our checkout day we plan on doing early entry at IoA from 7A-9P.

We'll have the unlimited Express Pass, so I assume we'll be able to do most everything. With the exception of Hogwarts Express, since we don't have the park to park option. Is an added $200 really worth it. Are there other reasons I should consider spending the extra cash?

One other thing to keep in mind, @WDWLODGE , is that if you decide on day 3 that you want to go back to USF to hit a few favorites before heading out and so you upgrade to a park-to-park at that time, you’ll be paying the same amount that you would have to just get the park-to-park in the first place… but you’d have missed out on two days of USING the park-to-park option. There’s no discount or prorated pricing - you can’t just add it for one day of a ticket; it’s all or nothing. So if there’s even a chance you’ll want to hop, it’s best to just add it up front.

 

[WDWLODGE]

We're back from our trip. We had a great time and are happy we decided to give Universal a try. We did decide to add the Park to Park option. In the end was it necessary? I think we would have been just fine without it, but it was nice to have & we have no regrets adding it on. Thanks again everyone for your opinions!