Thank you very much for your reply and helping us!
I do like the idea of walking farther early. Thank you!

I asked my daughter (and touring partner), Luna, what advice she’d give. She pointed out that when both parks open at the same time the Hogwarts Express train should start running right away. This should make traveling between Diagon Alley & Hogsmeade a bit quicker than usual in that first hour.

Her thought is since you’re staying at Portofino you should go to Islands of Adventure first. This is farther from your hotel so you can do the walk when you’re fresh, go to Hogsmeade first, then hop the train to Diagon Alley to see that before it gets too crowded. She suggests making your way out of the park for a break at your hotel during lunch or early afternoon.

I checked my trusty copy of The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando http://amzn.to/1TQaos7 – and the author confirms that the train should start running at park opening. (Pick up a copy of this book if you can – it will really help with your touring strategies).

Having the option of early admission at both parks is a great problem to have, but it also means Universal expects a very busy day. Right now Universal Studios is the more popular park, probably because Diagon Alley is still pretty new. With that in mind, I’d say to go there first.

But if your top priority is to ride Forbidden Journey multiple times, you should use your early admission at Islands of Adventure. Either way you should be able to ride both Gringotts and Forbidden Journey within the first 90 minutes or so after early park opening.

If you’re lucky enough to have more than one morning at the parks you can do both 🙂

Definitely be sure to get up early for those days that both parks have early admission. You might be looking at capacity crowds by lunchtime. Good luck and have fun!