IOA and US in one day? About This Page:

[Melissa1214]

I haven't been to US in more years than I can thing and have never been to IOA. Is it possible to do both in one day? There will be 5 of us...2 adults, boy age 8 and girls ages 8 and 9. We're going to be in Orlando for a week, but keep adding things to the "must do" list and I'm afraid we'll run out of time. Trying to figure out how to do 10 days instead of 7!!!!

[cdnmickeyfan]

We did both parks in one day but that's virtually just going on a few rides. If you wanted to do rides, you'd need at least a day at each park. Have fun!!!!

[rlb38]

I think to do both in one day you would have to stick to the highlights. If I had to pick only one , I would do IOA.

[Carousel96]

It depends on what you mean by "doing both" parks. Just the highlights? Possibly, if they aren't crowded. But the parks are big enough that each one justifies a day of its own to do the rides, take in the atmosphere, etc.

[HiddenMickey]

I couldn't do it. I need at least one day for each park. If you can only devote one day to US/IOA, pick one park to do.

Personally, I like the US park best. But, I imagine you want to do the Harry Potter part, so will probably need to choose IOA for your day.

One last thought, I don't usually combine Universal and Disney in the same trip. Is there any way you could plan a future trip to do other things around Orlando and skip Disney? That way, you could do the Universal parks and Discovery Cove and Seaworld and maybe some other smaller attractions.

[MsPeggySue911]

Yes, you can do both parks in one day. I have done it both ways. The first time we went we did one park per day at IOA and US. But once you have been through the park and know which rides you like and which you can skip you can absolutely do both parks in one day. We usually only devote a few hours to US as it is a smaller park with less to do.

If you want to see all the shows US has to offer, which happen at different times throughout the day I think you might want to devote and entire day to it. But even if we devote an entire day to US we are usually done a little after lunch time.

If you only have one day then I would suggest doing both parks but if you can swing a day in each park then go for it. If I had to pick only one park to go to it would definitely be IOA hands down.

[jimmymac]

No, not really. IOA has a lot of thrill rides (WDW has absolutely nothing even remotely close), so if the kids aren't into intense rides (or don't make height minimum), you might be abl to do the highlights of both parks in one day

[sheldoal]

My husband and I just got back from Universal. We did both parks (park to park pass). Because you have 8 and 9 year olds, this won't work for you necessarily, but for others a good trick is to use single rider lines for popular rides like Forbidden Journey (IoA) or The Mummy or MIB (Studios). Wait time was 40 minutes+ on MIB, and my husband and I still rode side-by-side first go-through and in same car second go-through. FJ (HP ride), the wait time was 60 minutes, and they pulled us both from single rider to fill up a car. It was awesome walking past long lines of people and then waiting mere minutes (2-5) before getting on the rides. Second time around we were separated. No big deal. My husband was maybe three or four cars behind me. I waited for him in gift shop. Use single rider when possible. It will get you on more rides so that you can get your money's worth. Also, be waiting in line prior to opening. We jumped right on Hulk and Spiderman (no wait) because most people went towards HP part of park.

[Thomhazel]

We did both parks in a day in July with park to park express plus unlimited. Eliminating the queues makes it much easier to do. We are going next August and are only planning two days as we have an onsite hotel so will have front of line again. That was with three younguns 17, 13, 8. We had a sit down lunch at HRC and a compulsary sit down Ben and Jerry's in there as well but we were exhausted come 5pm. We didn't stay for the evening as we had been there for park opening and had done enough by 5pm
With queues another story. We bought the front of line pass in our second day after spending a whole morning waiting to get on spiderman.

[Ashli]

I could do them both in one day, but that's mostly because I'm not a huge fan of US/IOA and there's a lot I know I can skip. Are your kids Harry Potter fans? They may want to spend a lot of time in that area and it can get crowded. May be better to just go with IOA if you only have one day.

[Melissa1214]

The only thing on the list is HP, but I know there will be more we want to do once we're there which is why I want to do both parks. I will never be able to get away with skipping Disney because it's been so long since we've been and my kids will kick my butt! I'm thinking we can try to add a few days to the trip to work all of this in. 7 of the days will be in a timeshare, but I'm thinking we can find something reasonable for a few extra days.

[Tink and co.]

We couldn't decide on one or both parks for our one day Universal adventure. We decided to go with one park tickets and if we're done with IOA (Harry Potter is our focus too.) and have enough time we will upgrade to the two park ticket and "hop" over to Universal.

[jeneane]

Teenage daughter and I have done them in one day - just hitting the highlights - and had a great time. We'd been several times before so we know our way around and knew what we most wanted to do. Also, this was before Harry Potter was there. If you have never been before, I recommend reviewing the maps and developing a plan of action.

[PatV]

We just finished a combined Disney/UI trip in one week. We did UI/IOA in 2 days. By 9:30 am both days, Harry Potter World was at capacity and lines to just get into the area was over an hour. Forbidden Journey was a 2 hr wait just for the line. The coasters have height and weight limits so that might affect your choices. You would find plenty to do in IOA without UI. We did not feel that the attractions in UI were really worth the wait. The exception was Despicable Me and Rip Ride Roller Coaster. Consider getting the Express Pass - it shaves the wait times in half on those rides you can use it on.

[Tink and co.]

We were at IOA on 12/12 and the longest wait for anything was about 15 minutes. We had done everything including shopping, character meet and greets, shows, and lunch and were ready to head out by one o clock. We never even got to use our front of the line passes. I really think it depends on when you go. We had planned on heading over to US, but none of us were really interested. We were fairly underwhelmed except for HP. And we thought Whoville was really cute. The Grinch was great!