So, you are considering taking your brood to Universal Studios Park, drawn like flies to the shining flame that is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. But, before you find yourself standing in a non moving line of only 3 people as you wait to be checked into your hotel by a surly teen, or in a 3 hour long line to get into "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey", let me plant a thought in your head. "Knowledge is Power". Repeat it. "Knowledge is Power". And again. "Knowledge is Power". If this seems like an intense concept for something as seemingly trivial as a theme park trip, then you have never been to a theme park with kids. Or you have been only once, and vowed on the life of your dearest never to return again. As I have often said, you need to have a plan before you step into any theme park with kids under 10. This past December, we not only planned to go to Universal with the kids...we planned to go on the Disney Cruise, visit WDW and THEN go to Universal Studios. Oh, and that would be AFTER taking the 9 hour plane trip from Paris to Florida. This kind of venture is not for the weak or the ill prepared...it is also arguably only for the quasi masochistic. So, as a public service, I thought I would jot down some of the learnings that I gathered during our Florida themeparkpalooza. This particular section of the blog is dedicated to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
One umbrella theme of Universal is that it is NOT Disney
. I will get into that further below, but generally speaking, you will need to plan MORE for Universal than for Disney. So the "Planning and Prep" stage of your journey take on so much more significance. So, without further ado, here are what I consider to be the "golden rules" of planning successful visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
1) Take Pride in Becoming an "Insufferable Know-it-all": A vacation to Universal is far from cheap, particularly if you don't happen to live in the area. So, to insure that you have the best time possible, do a little "risk mitigation" before you book. Before you commit time and money to a vacation here, consider traffic flow and season. What are the busiest days of the week at Universal? (Monday and Thursday, supposedly) What is the slowest day of the week? (Most say Sunday because people arrive on the weekend and start with Disney). What are the least crowded months? The most crowded months? Benchmark the height restrictions in the park to the ages of your kids, then decide if the trip is worth it and, if so, how much time you will commit to it
. The truth is that, outside of Seuss's Landing, there is not too much for the 4 and under crowd. You should also consider your own tolerance when it comes to heat and cold. if you hate the heat, you don't want to be crushed in with the sweating hordes in July. If you can't deal with a little nip in the air, then January or February are not for you. Although, to be honest, this Florida...it doesn't get THAT cold. Also, the Internet is out there...USE IT!! Be annoying and read some of the roughly 4,000,000 forums that exist about this. Just a few will give you an overview. In short, channel Hermione Granger, and you will be on the right path.
2) Get that Human Touch: Like all major theme parks now, Universal has a website that purports to tell you everything you need to know. There is no way to say this tactfully, so I won't try....it's not a great website. It's disorganized and hard on the eyes. For example, the basic organization of the vacation purchasing process is really poorly designed
. There is a tab on their website that says "tickets". So, of course, one would think to go there to get your tickets. And here they offer tickets, as well as Express Plus tickets ( see below). There is also a hotel tab. So one would think this is the place to book your hotel. But hold it, there is an additional tab that says vacation packages. This gives you the current "featured" vacation offers. If you want something that is NOT on that menu, which by the way is generally as clear as mud, you need to call someone. My recommendation is to cut to the chase and just get on the phone with someone. I almost NEVER recommend this, but at Universal the small annoyance of having to talk to a human can be a blessing in disguise. Why? Because you may have a snowball's chance in hell of finding out what is actually happening at Universal by calling and asking that question: "is there something specific or interesting going on while we are planning to visit?" I did this, and this was how I found out about the Harry Potter "package" that included the breakfast at the Three Broomsticks. When I was researching this last summer, this was not particularly prominently displayed on the website, but the nice man I spoke with at Universal gave me the low down on it. I will continue this story as it underscores the value of talking to a human, so indulge me for a moment.
When I spoke to the first Universal Rep, he said that the Harry Potter package was available but only for a 4 day stay
. As Universal was the last stop of our theme park marathon, I was unsure if we had 4 days to spend there. So I told him that I would call back. After thinking through the schedule, I decided that we really didn't want to give up a couple days in Animal Kingdom to spend 4 in Universal. So I called back to ask if there was a way to simply purchase the option to eat early at the Three Broomsticks (see next section about money). This time when I called I got a really surly girl who sounded like she wasn't out of her teens. When I asked the above question, quite nicely for me I might add, she just snarled "no". Then, she compounded the issue by hanging up on me. In the UK, I would have been really pissed off about this. In France, I would have been mildly pissed off but not surprised. In Hong Kong, I probably wouldn't have been pissed of because it is likely she would have said it in Cantonese. But as I was dealing with a U.S. based company, I was ELATED. I think I actually pumped my fist in the air, and said "Yeeeesssss". The reason for this celebratory outburst was that I know the American customer service culture. The U.S. takes customer service very seriously. Some companies take happy and perky to the point of it being a religion. I swear I have often wondered if they have trolls patrolling the Disney call centers with cat-o-nine tails raised. "You forgot to say 'have a magical day', worm!!". Whack. I am not saying that I have any problem with this, I have just wondered.
At any rate, after the rude customer service person incident, I was fairly certain that I would get what I wanted, as long as I presented it the right way
. So I called back and asked to speak to a manager. When he got on the line, I was as sweet as molasses. I told him that Universal had gotten the coup of the century when they landed the rights to Harry Potter. But that they had to realize that they were right next door to Disney. As a result, they could not afford to have this kind of customer experience. He agreed completely. Then he did the thing that any smart manager would do. He made me happy. He told me that, normally, you have to have the 4 day stay but he understood that I had to return to France. So, he made an exception and added it to my package. He basically undid my other reservations and re-booked everything as a package. This actually saved me money. So we got exactly what we wanted and with less hemorrhaging of cash. A few days later, I sent off an email to Guest Services at Universal, giving the name of said manager and telling them that he had done a fantastic job in reversing what had been a bad customer experience
. I didn't give many details, just the "I was converted" message. So, in the end, everyone was happy. None of this could have been accomplished via the website! So, grit your teeth and talk to a real human on this one, they are actually useful.
3) Nurture your internal Marie Antoinette: Universal has quite a few practices and policies that Disney does not, but one of these can help you tremendously if you can stomach it. This is their blatant capitalist underpinnings. What do I mean by this? I mean that you can buy your way into a better experience. OK, this is partially true at WDW as well, in the sense that you can stay at a hotel and get extra magic hours, but they balk when it comes to their "Fastpass" system. At Disney, the Fastpass is open to everyone, it's just about making the reservation, as it were. Universal, on the other hand, has no problem with allowing you to openly purchase Fastpasses. This is called an Express Plus Pass
. It allows you to access to a significantly shorter line at most of the attractions, without having to book a time in advance. You can buy this for one or both parks. The caveat is that it is limited to one use per ride. The bigger caveat is that it isn't applicable on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It costs anywhere from thirty to seventy dollars per person, depending on your age and the time of year. BUT WAIT, you can avoid that whole "only ride the ride once" problem by purchasing an VIP ticket. This allows you to ride the participating rides as many times as you like, using the express line each time. This is convenient but pricey. You can enjoy this lovely benefit for a mere $150 to $350 dollars per person...once again depending on age and time of visit. It still doesn't help with the "Forbidden Journey" conundrum, as this one is still not included in the participating ride list. BUT THERE'S STILL MORE, if you stay in one of the onsite hotels, you get BOTH an unlimited Express Plus card and entrance into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter an hour before it opens to the general public. This is giving you the option of having the aforementioned snowball's chance of getting on the Forbidden Journey WITHOUT waiting for upwards of 2 hours. The negative side of this is that you will have to deal with their hotel staff, but I will get to that in another post. I am assuming you are seeing the green. At Universal, it is all about the money. If you are willing to fork it over, you're experience will be much smoother. While not everyone can stomach this, either financially or ethically, it is available to take advantage of, if you so choose. There are other ways to get around this, but I will get to that in a bit as well.
The irony of all this is that, for all their interest in the money, the website is not set up for you to easily track down the above mentioned information
. This is why I have created the nice hyperlinks above, so you don't have to spend the time digging through the useless junk. However, be aware that this is indicative of Universal in general. If you are expecting a Disney level of organization, you will be sorely disappointed.
3) Manage Everyone's Expectations BEFORE You Enter the Park: While I don't want to give too many "spoilers" about "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" , I will say that the juxtaposition between this part of the Universal Park and every other part of the Universal park is jolting. You can feel J.K. Rowling's steely grip on everything having to do with the WWOHP. The ambience is perfect. The food is spot on. The shops carry the stuff found in the books. The people waiting on you in the shops are "Hogwarts students" who act the roles of their houses. Even the snack cart is healthy and "in character". The attention to detail and nuance is, well, at a "Disney" level. Hmmmm, maybe Ms Rowling will be the next Walt
. Crazier things have happened. However, all this disappears when you ventures forth to other areas of Universal. The rest of the park, or Islands of Adventure at least, feel sort of tired. Some areas, like the "cartoon" area feel sort of slapped together, disjointed and weirdly depressing. The Jurassic Park area feels dated. The "Sinbad" stuff feels kind of dopey. And the onslaught of merchandising everywhere is just short of being obscene. There are roughly 3 to 4 stores per actual ride. And most of them just carry the same, uninspired, merchandise. The one other exception to this (outside of WWOHP) is the Seuss's Landing...which is really well done and charming for younger kids.
At this point I should also warn you about the staff at the park. Outside of those at the WWOHP, they seem to be sometimes nice but most of the time clueless. When I inquired about the appropriateness of the Spiderman ride for my 6 year old, the response of the guy manning the "front door" was "oh, it's fine
..as long as he isn't scared of the dark". We then went on this ride, and all I can say is WTF. This was a really really scary ride. It scared ME! It's in "4D" and people shoot at you, spray acid at you, and do a whole variety of other scary stuff. My normally fearless son spent the whole ride with his eyes shut. Also, don't trust the height restrictions to guide you on this, they are absurdly generous. We had some milder versions of the same thing throughout the park. (see blog on Rides at WWOHP). Once again, this seemed to be less of a problem at WWOHP, although I am not sure why. Maybe JK training the staff as well?!?
Even if you only stick to the WWOHP, there is the glaring problem of crowds. If you have a mental image of you and your kids happily trotting through the charm and majesty of a recreated Hogsmeade Village and Hogwarts castle, stopping to gasp in wonderment at things in the windows and strolling effortlessly on to the rides, then you will have a rude awakening
. This place is packed. No, it is beyond packed. There are times of the day where you will have to wait in a 1 hour line just to get into a shop. No, I'm not joking. And let's not even discuss the amount of time you have to commit to have the "wand experience" at Olivanders. This place gets so hot that it feels fairly warm even in the winter, let alone the summer months. To top all of this off, the aforementioned lack of organization does not help all this. Traffic flow through is awful and it is actually hard to walk from the gate to the castle without experiencing the theme park equivalent of road rage. So, given all this, is it still worth it? It depends. My answer was yes but pay attention to what I said in 1) and what I am going to say in 4).
4) Go for the Gloaming: So, is there a way to avoid the crowds? Not completely. However, as a general rule, you have better luck if you go first thing in the morning or just before closing
. Basically, when it's dawn or dusk. It truth, the WWOHP is really beautiful when it's dark, and feels more authentic. However, people are less likely to be there at these times because it means either a) getting up at the proverbial crack of dawn and/ or staying in a hotel or b) getting there at the end of the day and taking the risk that you won't have time to do something you really want to do. This is why it is imperative to have a plan. Be aware that this is not an area that you want to spend a whole day experiencing, at least if you want to keep your blood pressure to a norm. So you need to find a way to bifurcate your day to take advantage of the best times of the day.
5) Short is Sweet: At this point in time, I wouldn't over commit time at Universal in general unless you have children old enough to enjoy the other thrill rides. I have a cousin who goes here with his older children and they all love it. However, for the under 10 crowd, there isn't much here. Even the WWOHP has few attractions that are really adapted to children under 6. For the 6 to 10 age group, you might want to stay in the park long enough to get 2 mornings and 1 evening with Harry and filling in the rest of time randomly with other attractions...or in the pool at your hotel. If you have two children, one of the 6 and older group and one of the 4 and under group, consider splitting up at some point and taking the little one to Seuss's Landing. We spent 3 days here and spent the last day with Dr. Seuss or in the hotel pool. But as I mentioned, this is really dependant on the ages of your kids.
****
As a final note on the planning and prep, I should say that considering all of the factors above resulting in a fabulous trip for our family to the WWOHP. We were able to soak the ambience early in the morning with the kids over breakfast at the Three Broomsticks. I rode "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" once with my 6 year old and 3 or 4 times with my husband ( along with Dragon Challenge). We rode the "Flight of the Hippogriff" multiple times with our 6 year old. We contributed to Ms. Rowling's bottom line by purchasing more than our fair share of memorabilia. And we spent more time than I care to mention eating "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean" and cackling with joy when someone got a "vomit" flavored one. We even spent a surprisingly lovely morning in Seuss's Landing eating Green Eggs and Ham.
So, this experience can be absolutely fantastic, but it is NOT for the under prepared. :)
Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Planning & Prep
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Orlando, Florida, United States
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2025-02-13