Q: Do you think that Universal [Orlando] can be done in one day?

A: Short answer is yes, our family has done both parks in 1 day on several short trips. Universal Orlando could be done in one day depending on a few different factors. As of now there are 2 main theme parks Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The 2 parks are next to each other, and you have park to park tickets you can take the Hogwarts express between them or you can easily walk to them via CityWalk. If you are wanting to experience a lot of rides you may want to upgrade your ticket with express pass which lets you bypass the regular standby lines for the rides. If you are visiting during a busy time of year like during the school breaks the lines can get quite long so express pass will be worth it. I would recommend having the Universal Park app the number 1 reason is because the parks no longer have paper maps, you can see the current wait times and even mark your favorites to watch for the best time to ride. I would also recommend ordering your food in the app so you don’t have to stand in line to order, you can also see the menus at each dining location, and we will normally plan what we want to eat while waiting in the ride lines.

To make the most of your day I would plan to be there at park open and eat breakfast before you get to the park or we like to grab a quick doughnut from Voodoo in Citywalk. The Wizarding World rides tend to have long waits during the day so if they are on your list like Hagrids motorbike or Gringotts I would make your way to those first. We like to grab a quick lunch when it starts getting really hot out so we can cool off in the AC. A great thing about Universal is that a lot of the rides have a single rider line that can also help cut down on your ride wait times the only think to keep in mind is that you will get split up from anyone with you because they are filling seats when groups have odd numbers.

If you only have a day in Orlando you can definitely have a fun day at Universal because both parks are small enough that you could do plenty in one day.