@Krupp Dogg During the summer, weekend vs. weekday won’t matter at all. You can see more on our crowd calendar: http://bit.ly/oiuocalendar.

Jessbrazil The general admission tickets you purchase from Universal Orlando never expire until they are used for the first day, then any remaining days on the ticket expire after 14 days. So if you bought a regular Park-to-Park ticket today, assuming you never used it, the ticket will still be valid next October.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind this is for *general admission* tickets. If you purchase any sort of discount ticket or special promotional ticket (like the “buy two days get the third day free” ticket they’re offering right now), it may have an expiration date even if it is not used. 
Anyway you decide to go, it is best to call Universal to place your order and clarify exactly what you’re looking for: 407-224-7840 or toll-free at 1-877-801-9720.

“Hi there Just read your post regarding Diagon alley, very exciting but am now confused about when to buy tickets. We will be visiting next October from the UK but want to combine it with a night at Halloween Horror nights, would we be better off buying tickets at lower rate prior to May price increase or waiting to purchase Halloween tickets as an add on, I know these tickets are not released until later in the year. We also want a night at the Lowes Pacific , not sure if they do packages which offer discounts. Also do you think the crowds would still be unbearable mid week in October, we have a little boy who has autism so a bit worried. (Getting babysitter for the Halloween event!) Hope you can help!”

In case other readers have similar concerns, here’s the answer I provided:

Yes, you’ll be able to purchase tickets now and still buy discounted HHN tickets next year. You’ll buy HHN Stay & Scream tickets, which offer a discount to HHN if you already have your daytime admission tickets. To take advantage of this offer, it doesn’t matter how or when you got your daytime tickets. However, if you buy now, just be sure you’re getting tickets with no expiration until after they’re first used (which is Universal’s regular tickets, but promo tickets may be different).
Staying on-site doesn’t get you discounts on tickets, nor does having tickets get you discounts on room rates, so those two things you can definitely book separately.
Regarding crowds, I can only speculate for now, but yes, I think it will be very busy in Diagon Alley even in October. The good news is that our site has two contributors with Autistic kids (Maureen and Debi), so by October of next year we will be able to provide you with tons of vacation planning help via the new content on our site, like our ‘Special Needs are Universal’ column: https://orlandoinformer.com/wpold/category/special-needs-are-universal/.
Hope that helps!

OrlandoInformer Kristen DC Thank you so much, Dan! You’ve been so helpful! Financially, Spring 2015 looks more probable at this point for us, anyway (after Spring Break, of course), but if we can swing it, we might still go in Nov, that is if I can convince the Hubby! 🙂

DougJenkinsNothing yet. Universal didn’t do well with AP previews for the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter (in other words, they didn’t have any). However, they did quite well with AP previews for Transformers. So I’m not quite sure what to expect for Diagon Alley. I think it will come down to how on-target they are for delivering the completed expansion by grand opening, which we really won’t have a good sense of for a few more months.

Kristen DCIt’s difficult to answer this question with any real certainty since Diagon Alley hasn’t even opened yet. But here’s what I’m thinking: I expect the actual Diagon Alley space to basically be busy to extremely busy for all of 2014. The most important thing to remember when considering crowd levels is that Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are designed to give guests a feeling of intimate spaces and boutique-style shopping. As a result, everything is designed on a smaller scale that one would typically expect for the busiest spot in Orlando. You know this well if you’ve visited any of the shops in Hogsmeade when there are more than a dozen guests in them.

The effect of this design is as follows: even when crowds will be moderate to slow for Universal Orlando overall — as you would usually experience in November — Diagon Alley itself will likely feel very busy. Remember, basically everyone who comes to Orlando next year will want to visit Diagon Alley.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t plan your own visit in 2014. It just means you’ll need to plan it well, which we will help with over the next several months.

Does that help?

PS. Strictly in terms of crowds, planning on spring 2015 will likely be better than fall 2014 if and only if you avoid Spring Break — but we’re a bit too far out right now to start predicting Spring Break 2015 crowd timing.