Getting the Most Out of Universal Studios Parks and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Though it's been open for more than six months, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is still as popular as ever. And as a result, it has siphoned the business from every other part of Islands of Adventures and Universal Studios.

This is good news for visitors, because it means that one can comfortably visit both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures in one day. This will save money on admission because you can buy a one day ticket with access to both parks, which saves you almost $30 on the base ticket for each park.

The trick to it all has nothing to do with the park itself but where you sleep the night before. Orlando is known for its dirt cheap hotels but spending a little more on accommodations goes a long way. That's because staying at one of Universal Studios' on site resorts comes with a few important perks.

If you stay at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, Loews Royal Pacific Resort or the Hard Rock Hotel, you get to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter an hour before the park opens. And of that, your room key also doubles as a Express Pass, which enables you to skip all the regular lines.

With that extra hour, you can do everything in the Wizarding World twice if you wanted before the park doors open and the crowd descends on the area. Even if lines start forming, you bypass them by showing your hotel room key. By the time the rest of the park is open, you can breeze through the rest of the park in no time because most people will be at the Wizarding World. Even the Incredible Hulk roller coaster in Marvel Super Hero Island, which has never seen a wait shorter than an hour, is likely to be empty in the middle of the day.

By the time you finish all the rides and even if you sit down to rest and enjoy a frothy Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, it will be the middle of the day and you can hop on over next door to Universal Studios. The newest attraction there is the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster which opened in 2009 and is not nearly as popular as the Wizarding World next door.

This is a foolproof way to get the best of both parks and not get stuck in lines for hours at a time. It's a long day, but you'll be having so much fun, you won't even notice.