All the posts here saying do a resort stay/get express passes are really stressing me out! We hate packing up to move hotels and the thought of doing it twice in two days was a real turn off for me and made me not want to do the "one night at a deluxe" option. So we were just going to visit Universal as a day trip from WDW. Would go mid-week to minimize crowds in March (but not during peak spring break weeks) and literally the only thing we want to do is Harry Potter stuff. From my count, there are really only five HP rides total, and one of them, Hagrid's, does not even utilize express pass. And we'd also want to do Ollivanders but it looks like no express pass for that either. So is it really all that unrealistic to get through all or most of that in one day without an express pass? Rest of the time we would just be wandering around, doing the interactive features with wands and checking out the harry potter sights, snacks and sounds.
For our family of five, buying express pass would be almost $900 for a single day, on top of the price of tickets, so that is not an option.
It would be cheaper than $900 to book a room at a deluxe hotel and just not use it. It would get you EP and EE, and give you parking if you need/want it. If you were going for 2 days, then it would be an easy decision to get the room. But it is still a lot of money for 1 day.
If you really only plan to ride the 5 HP rides and spend the rest of the time walking around and shopping, then you can pull it off in one day. There is a great writeup for the Perfect Potter Day at
https://www.disboards.com/threads/wizarding-world-touring-plans-and-details.3666427/. If you end up with a virtual queue for Hagrids, then the return time would guide your path. Assuming you could get one for the afternoon, here is what I would do:
US
- Get on your Universal App and look for virtual queue times for Hagrids. When we were there, they started at 8, 11, 2, and 4. Tickets went very fast. Might want to grab two times (on different phones) in case you want to ride twice
- Start in US and go straight to Ollivanders to book a time for your group.
- Ride Gringotts. The regular queue has a lot to see, EP won't help you out
- Hit the shops/knight bus while you wait for Ollivanders if you didn't get to do it first
- Do Ollivanders and get your wand(s) and go hit the casting spots
- Not sure what time Tales of Beedle the Bard is, but we enjoy that quite a bit
- Lunch at Leaky Cauldron? Or you could hit Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade after the train
- Once you've done enough, head over to the Hogwarts Express
IOA
- If Hagrids is not virtual queue, then you probably want to do that first. Given its proclivity to break down, I would not wait and hope to ride in the evening.
- Next would be FJ. I would expect the lines to be at their longest in the afternoon, so you could consider waiting until later to see if the lines shrink
- FotH is right next to FJ, so that would be next. Like FJ, if the line is too long, you can wait to do this later.
- Hit shops and casting sites
- If possible, a second ride of Hagrids in the dark/dusk would be great.
- Ride Hogswarts Express back to IOA, since the show is different in each direction