Best way to maximize time at Universal?? Crowded day longer hours vs. less people and short hours?
Curious for folks advice. I grew up near Universal Hollywood (Los Feliz) so I spent many weekends at the CityWalk and had a semi-annual trip to the park. I haven't been back since I was a teenager and a lot has changed since then. I want to take my kids for the first time (4 and 8 years old) in a couple of weeks and they finally published the hours. My choices are going Tuesday September 1st where the hours are 10 am (9 am with early admission) to 6 pm or Labor Day Monday September 9 am (8 am with early admission) to 8 pm. The extra three hours seems like a lot of time, but I wonder if it cancels out with the crowd?
We want to do upper and lower lot. I expect we will spend the most time in Mario Land, Minions Land, and Harry Potter World. I'm sure my kids will want to play in the water play ground and we will also want to do Water World Show and Studio Tour. We will do most of the rides (but not the Mummy, Transformers and Fast and the Furious ride). We could probably take or leave the Simpsons ride. I was going to grab a dinning reservation Toads Stool Cafe. Could we do it all on a shorter day? My dad also has mobility issues, he will be in ECV, and we won't be running around the park. Plan was to do lower lot in the morning with early access hours then finish at upper lot.
We really only have one day to do it because of family commitments and it is my kids' first time so I want to do as much as possible. Any feedback would be much appreciated.