Printable View
I am trying desperately to plan a last minute trip to Harry Potter World in Orlando with my two kids. I would like to go mid-late May, but have no time to plan and no clue how to begin planning. Is there a travel agent that could help me? Any recommendations...thank you so much!
Jennifer
There isn't a park called Harry Potter World (some folks think it's a stand alone park so just mentioning). HP stuff is in both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
It really isn't hard. What has you stuck? Just book at one of their hotels. This isn;t a task that requires a travel agent There are no fast passes to book like Disney. Dining reservations aren't a big deal.
If you're a Costco member, they have Universal packages. You can simply book that way.
If budget allows, book Royal Pacific, Hard Rock or Portofino so you get express passes included (unlimited front of the line passes). RP is usually the cheapest of the 3. All are very nice and close. You really can just pick randomly between them and wind up at a fine hotel. If budget doesn't go that far, book Sapphire Falls or Cabana Bay. Both have handy family suites. No express passes but early entry.
Don;t book packages- buy your tickets separately. They charge fees if you modify packages but not if you do everything a la carte.
For tickets, see how much they are on the Universal site vs Undercover Tourist. Pick the better price and call it a day.
YOu want park to park tickets because it's the only way to ride the Hogwarts Express.
Orlando Informer has complete itineraries you can use. Touring Plans gives poor plans so I wouldn't choose them for Universal.
I don't know if you're stuck because you've done Disney and think that's hard. Universal is a totally different thing. It's like going to your local amusement park. You can just show up and have fun. :)
Universal doesn't require nearly the amount of planning that Disney does. If your budget allows, you can get the express pass to all the rides so that you don't have to worry about long waits. If you stay onsite at a select Universal resort, the express pass is included. If it were me, that's what I'd do: stay onsite and get the unlimited express pass. portofino or royal pacific or hard rock.
We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel a couple years ago. There was a booking special at the time, so we got club level, which gives you free breakfast, water bottles/sodas and free evening snacks, which were almost enough for dinner (crudites, egg rolls, mini tacos, etc.). There may be afternoon snacks, too, can't remember. So the added club level fee was worth for us.
As PPs mentioned, you get the Express Pass which is such a time saver. You will soon learn that the EP doesn't cover most of the HP rides. So we would go on those first thing in the morning, esp since we could also get early entry. It was a quick walk across the parking lot to the Universal entrance. It was pretty close to go back if we forgot something, or just to rest in the afternoon before heading out again.
We were going to rent a car, but Universal is so walkable, we ended up using Lyft (we deleted our Uber) to get there from the airport. We even Lyft'd to WDW, and then rode Magical Express back to the airport.
You probably know that Universal has a lot scarier rides than WDW. My kids (9,11 at the time) are thrill seekers and went on all of the 3-4 times in a row. They also have 3-D type of rides. My kids actually like US more than WDW! I was really surprised.
Waver- Express Pass covers all the Harry Potter rides now.
Cool! Any idea when this changed?Quote:
Originally Posted by SnuggleBuggles
July last year, I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by klwa
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk