1st timer to Univeral? [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

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crow11ad

10-02-2005, 08:06 AM

I talked to DW last night and asked how about going 1 day to Universal and she said fine. Now we have never been and she does not like roller coasters. SO I guess it will be US and not IOA. Now let me get this straight. We are going this month, but won't be until the 24th. Jaws will be closed right? If so why? And is there anything not to miss? How long would it take to do US? Does City Walk only open at night or can you go there and shop during the day? How long minute wise is it from Univeral to Disney?

Thank you for all your answers.

phamton

10-02-2005, 08:24 AM

You are going when it isn't crowded. I would get the one day/two park ticket. It is only $10 more than the one park. There is no reason to avoid Islands of Adventure even if you aren't into coasters. IoA is much more than just coasters. There are only 2 major coasters, Hulk and Dueling Dragons at IoA. The park is simply amazing and Spiderman is a not to be missed experience in my opinion. You will also love Universal Studios. I would definitely do both parks if I were you. It will be very doable at that time of year.

crow11ad

10-02-2005, 08:30 AM

And we could do both parks in 1 day?

phamton

10-02-2005, 09:04 AM

And we could do both parks in 1 day?

Absolutely! You won't be able to do everything in both parks anymore than you would be able to do everything at Magic Kingdom in one day. But you can definitely hit the highlights and hit the rides/shows that you are interested in. It will give you a chance to see what both parks have to offer and may help you, in the future, decide if you want to spend more than one day there next time. The parks are only 5 minute walking time apart not like Disney when park hopping is more time consuming.

I do both parks often in one day. I can't ride everything but I can ride my favorites. IoA is an amazing park with themed lands. Even just walking through it is fun!

crow11ad

10-02-2005, 09:12 AM

Thank you. I talked with DW and we are going to do both parks in 1 day. Hey for only 10.00 more to do both, it will be worth it. I am just bummed that JAWS will not be running.

phamton

10-02-2005, 09:22 AM

crow11ad

10-02-2005, 09:34 AM

Glad to help a fellow Texan. When we first visited Universal (when we were still living in Texas), we didn't go to IoA. What a mistake that was! I prefer the ride/shows at Universal but the themeing of the lands at IoA is wonderful. You are coming such a long way to get to Orlando, I'd just hate to see you miss Islands of Adventure just because you don't like coasters. It is so much more than thrill rides!

I'm sorry you will miss Jaws but I am sure that you will still find some fantastic rides/shows on your visit.

Here are the park hours for your trip:
http://themeparks.universalstudios.com/orlando/website/phi_themepark_info_cal.html?calendar=uo_park_hours&template=uo_park_hours.html

I would suggest that you hit whatever park closes earlier first.

It's not me that doesn't like coasters, it's DW. :rotfl2: I guess I will ride by myself. Can you help me out with something though? I heard that at Universal you could walk around and drink(alcohol). We don't really drink, but just thought I would ask. Also, can you list what you believe is not to be missed at both US and IOA?

phamton

10-02-2005, 09:52 AM

Yes, you can drink at Universal just as you can drink at all the Disney parks except for Magic Kingdom. I don't drink either and have never had a problem with drunks except during Mardi Gras or Halloween Horror Nights, nothing major just a little annoying at those times. I've had more problems with rude drunks at Epcot but that's another story.

My favorite rides/shows:
Universal: Men in Black, Mummy (it does have a coaster at the end but the first part is a slow dark ride---even those who hate coasters usually enjoy it), Shrek ( like Philharmagic but better), Horror Makeup Show (fantastic!), Terminator (3-d show), ET (if you have kids), Earthquake and Twister (for your non-coaster loving wife), Back to the Future (simulator ride but is a little rough----avoid if you get motion sickness).

Islands of Adventure: Hulk (for you--not for the wife), Spiderman (Wow! just Wow!), Dudley (you will get wet so skip it if you don't like getting wet--similar to Splash Mountain), Popeye's (you will get soaking wet---similar to Kali's river ride at Animal Kingdom), Jurassic Park river Adventure ( this is not like the Jungle Cruise!--more like Splash Mountain but with man-eating dinosaurs no singing Brer rabbits!), Dueling Dragons coaster (for you--not the wife), Cat in the hat (fun ride for everyone--not just kids), One Fish, Two Fish (if you have kids---like Dumbo but with water.)

lc1965

10-04-2005, 09:35 PM

I am most definitely NOT a coaster fan & I prefer IOA, so I would recommend that for your wife. I will leave the rest of the details to the others because I don't know much about them.

Have a great time.

JohnnySharp2

10-05-2005, 01:19 AM

We are from the UK and love Universal and IOA.
A lot of people think they are not suitable for kids, how wrong is that?

Our little boys favourite rides are Popeye's barges (you will get soaking wet though), Cat In The Hat, ET , Jaws and Woody's Nuthouse coaster.

Barney's playground and the Curious George play area are also good for kids.

Cannot wait till our next trip, 3 weeks in August 2006.

Kell-Bell

10-05-2005, 08:07 AM

Another Brit here!

Horror Make up Show! It was hilarous!! They picked my 72 year old grandmother as the 'volunteer'!! :rotfl2:

Fantastic! :teeth:

mill4023

10-05-2005, 12:06 PM

On our trip this year, we did all the Disney parks and USF, but not IOA.
I'd skip Back to the Future. It's really really rough and not very fun at all.
Mummy is a definite must-do. I wouldn't call it a slow dark ride, it's much more thrilling than that. A bit similar to Dinosaur at AK but much better.
Earthquake and Twister are both interesting, but not worth waiting 45 minutes for.
Shrek is a lot of fun and definitely worth seeing.
Terminator is the best 3D show I've seen.
If you have kids, Jimmy Neutron is a lot of fun. Because it's animated and you can see the other ride vehicles, it's less scary than other motion simulators.

crow11ad

10-05-2005, 04:22 PM

pixiepower1971

10-05-2005, 04:58 PM

Jimmy Nuetron is worth a ride...it always makes me laygh!

chraaaa

10-07-2005, 09:15 AM

I posted this in another thread and it should help you:

We just got back from Orlando last week, and while we had slated 2 days for Universal, we only needed 1, and we were able to hit all of the big rides. We were in Universal on 09/29. Here's how we did it:

- Arranged for Mears pickup at 8:30am from our disney resort.
- Arrived at Universal at around 9:15am (after a stop at Sea World).
- We wanted to do the Studios first so we headed there. Everyone else seemed to be rushing into Islands of Adventure.
- We bought our tickets at some automated kiosk, which didn't give you all the options for ticket buying, so we just got 2 two-park/two-day passes, which includes a free third day, for $105 each.
- Proceeded into the Studios, and noticed some of the rides/shows didn't open until 10am or 10:30, but that's okay. We headed back to E.T. where it was just us and about 5 others. It was about 9:40 at this time and the park was near empty.
- Did E.T., Back to the Future, and Men in Black, all with zero lines. Had to figure out the free locker thing for MIB since you can't bring in bags or backpacks.
- Headed leisurely towards Jaws - which is currently CLOSED! - and posed with the big shark.
- Did Earthquake with zero line.
- Came to the Mummy's Revenge - this ride turned out to be our favorite of all the parks, it is just THE BEST. Put our stuff in the lockers, rode it twice with about 5 minute waits each time, and got our stuff from the lockers.
- Headed to Twister, which took about a half hour to do because it's a 'show' with the initial wait, the pre-movie, the next-movie, and then the twister experience. It gets very hot waiting outside for this one, which took about 10 minutes.
- After Twister, we headed to the Richter create-your-own-burger place for lunch. It was really not as good as i thought it would be but for a burger it was fine. Lots of napkins.
- After lunch, we went to Shrek 4-D. About a 15 minute wait to get in the door. But do not miss this one, it is fantastic. And I've never even seen Shrek. (i know, i know...)
- Went to Terminator, had about a 20 minute wait until the next showing, so we just lounged around for a few minutes, got a drink, and headed into the theater, which was half empty. it was around 1:30pm at this point.

So at 2pm, we figured we were done with the Studios. We had done all of our rides, and we had taken time to appreciate the nice surroundings and NY style streets.

We headed towards Islands of Adventure, and noticed at the ticket gate that you could get a 1-day, 2-park pass for $69. So we tried to downgrade our tickets and get some money back, and they said no at first. But we went to guest services, explained that the machine didn't give us that option for the $69 ticket (I don't know if it did or not, but we just played dumb) and the nice woman refunded us $75 and converted the ticket, no problem. This was GREAT!

We went into Islands, got a beer, and then did Spiderman twice with about 5 minute wait. This ride is our second favorite now. Just awesome. Then:

- Made our way to Jurassic Park. They said we couldn't go on the flyers because we didn't have a small child. So i guess that's just for kids? They never mention that in the brochure. The other Jurassic ride - everyone getting off was completely drenched, so we didn't do that. I hear it's underwhelming anyway, although they could have made something really cool out of it. So Jurassic park looked nice, but was otherwise useless. a bit disappointed.

- Popeye land was boring

- Suess land was kids stuff and actually hurts your eyes to look at.

- We were confused and disoriented by the park's layout. everything is around this big lake and you can't tell how to get anywhere so we did a lot of backtracking and guessing. It started getting frustrating.

- Did Hulk with about 15 minute wait. Our ride stopped halfway through for about 5 minutes and we were stuck up there with no explanation. But it is a fantastic ride. We would have done it again but we thought they were shutting it off.

- Headed towards Dueling Dragons, it takes a while to get there. On the way was Poseidon's adventure, but this was also closed for refurbishment.

- Dueling Dragons is great, we rode it 2 times - once on each track and they're both good. The blue and red trains get pretty close to each other and it is a unique experience, because they launch both trains at the same time.

- After that we got a turkey leg and a beer, and in the process had to deal with Universal employees - rude, telling me my ID looked fake, lazy (4 people standing around and no one can even take your food off the hot plate and put it on a tray and hand it to you. We had to ask them to do that.) These people are not disney employees, they are younger, don't smile, don't look like they care about making your vacation special. You truly can notice the difference, and thankfully one day off disney property was all we needed to do both parks. I don't think that Islands is making money, it wasn't crowded, restaurants were empty, and people just didn't look like they were having a great time. There are a couple of good coasters, a couple of good rides like spiderman, but otherwise there isn't much to it. Oh and we did that Dr. Doom free fall thing, which lasts about 10 seconds. Very underwhelming.

The Studios were definitely our favorite, and we did both by about 6pm, and caught the 6:30pm mears shuttle back to our resort. Mears charges $14 per person round trip, and is very easy with good service.

We didn't really have a plan for Universal, but it ended up working out great, just get there early, get the right ticket, and enjoy yourselves.

crow11ad

10-07-2005, 08:27 PM

Wow. Thank you. THat helps alot. I am at a cross road. See we are leaving my dads in Boynton Beach at 4 am on a Monday. Driving to Disney to check in and I was thinking we would go straight to Universal for our first day. Keep in mind we will be at Disney for 8 days. If we do Universal, then we will be at Disney 7 nights, 7 days. Which is cool. Now to do both parks at Universal it will be an extra 138.00 + tax. I am just trying to justify if we should spend that or not. I mean I have always wanted to try Universal, but really wanted to go on Jaws. I know we could wear panchos. I am just trying to think. It's good to know we can do both parks in 1 day. I hope the crowds that you experience we will as well if we decide to go. Maybe some others could suggest if we should go or not...

etink67

10-07-2005, 10:00 PM

crow11ad

10-08-2005, 12:04 AM

I would go, but I don't think I would go on your first day. If you are getting up at 4am you will be tired and trying to fit two parks in may be too much. We went to Universal over the summer for the first time and LOVED it. I agree with a previous poster that the employees don't have that 'disney' service but some of the rides are better. If you like Kali in AK then you will LOVE Pluto's bilge barges. It is much better themed but you get VERY wet. Spiderman is awesome!

I hear what you are saying. The first day is going to be the only day we will be able to go. The rest of the days we have adr's planned out, cirq, a tour, 2 MNSSHP to go to, and we are on the dining plan. DW can sleep in the car. I will be fine. Give me some caffine. :rotfl2: I plan on going to bed the night before pretty early. Plus with US/IOA closing at 6/7 pm, that means we can get to bed early. I will also be on vacation for 6 days before we get on the plane. So I will sleep then. Oh what am I thinking. No I wont'...

I have been thinking all night about this. Is it praticle to spend the money to go or not. If we don't go I will wonder what if and DW has already said this is it for a while. She loves to go, but she wants to do other things and we will want to have a kid soon and I don't knwo when we will be able to come back to either US or Disney. So if we go, yes that will be close to 200.00 to get in, but hey it's only money and that is what vacations are for, right? :confused3

phamton

10-08-2005, 09:42 AM

Just go. If you travel that far to get to Orlando, why would you pass up such an amazing theme park as Universal/IoA? Skip MGM if you must as both Universal and IOA have much more to offer.

crow11ad

10-08-2005, 10:00 AM

We probably will go, but we can't skip MGM. Not TOT and RNR. And plus DW promised to ride TOT for my bday...

mill4023

10-09-2005, 07:46 PM

Just go. If you travel that far to get to Orlando, why would you pass up such an amazing theme park as Universal/IoA? Skip MGM if you must as both Universal and IOA have much more to offer.

Can't comment on IOA, but I definitely disagree about Universal. We had a good time and there are some great attractions. We enjoyed it enough that we are planning on spending a day at both IOA and USF on our next trip. But if we had to make a choice between Disney-MGM and USF, we would definitely pick MGM.

crow11ad

10-09-2005, 09:25 PM

Oh we are going to MGM. And we are also going to US/IOA. I just know from reading these boards that after a trip to Universal, you can tell the difference in the magic of Disney and Universal.

phamton

10-09-2005, 09:35 PM

I just know from reading these boards that after a trip to Universal, you can tell the difference in the magic of Disney and Universal.

Well it seems you have already made up your mind. I personally would wait to form an opinion until you have at least gone to Universal. I feel I have wasted a lot of time answering questions to help you have a "magical" trip.

You do realize you are posting on a Disney fansite board. That alone will color the responses. Try posting on a Universal board like IOACentral.com and see if you get the same Disney bias.

Metro West

10-09-2005, 09:40 PM

Well it seems you have already made up your mind. I personally would wait to form an opinion until you have at least gone to Universal.Exactly...Universal doesn't go for the "magic" anyway..they go for the thrills. If you like ToT and RnR, you'll LOVE Hulk and Dueling Dragons as well as ROTM. But, as Phamton said, make your own conclusion and I doubt you'll be disappointed in either Universal park. :teeth:

reddfrogg

10-10-2005, 02:47 AM

Or if U have AAA U can get a 10-15% discount. U definitely need 2 go!!!!! I would help U out but I don't arrive till Fri. at about 5 p.m. I live in Minnesota, and I have APs to Disney and US/IOA, just for the savings I get!! :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

My wife and I will be in Orlando from Oct. 14-22 Staying 5 nights at the Poly and 3 at Royal Pacific. Have a great time and enjoy!!!!! :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

I agree some what with the 2 above comments, although I feel Disney is better themed, I don't feel they have the better rides!!!!!! I Luv US/IOA!!! :wave2: :wave2:

chraaaa

10-10-2005, 09:19 AM

I don't think it would matter if you did Universal on your first day. We were undecided about going there because we thought we had too much planned at Disney, but we just took a day and did it, and while it was an expensive day on top of everything else, it was definitely worthwhile.

Be careful about high expectations for Jaws - they don't mention anything on their website, but right at the ticket line there is a sign that it is closed for refurbishment, so it will be closed for a while. It wasn't a temporary sign, it was painted right on the permanent sign that says "Entrance" or something, so I don't think it'll be open anytime soon. Maybe it'll be even better when it reopens.

Even still, there is just enough to fill up your morning at Universal and afternoon at Islands. Arrive early, start at the Studios, head right when you get in the park, and just go counterclockwise around it doing everything, and then hit the shows in the middle. At about that time everyone else will just be realizing that Jaws is closed, and you'll be heading over to Islands.

crow11ad

10-10-2005, 09:35 AM

Hey cool...a strategy. But isn't there a big jaws hanging so you can at least get your picture taken? Also, since IOA closes at 6 and US closes at 7 for the day we are going, shouldn't we do IOA first and then US 2nd? :confused3 :goodvibes

chraaaa

10-10-2005, 10:30 AM

I think the Studios is better to do first. Everyone gets there, sees the big coasters and says wow, I want to ride that, and heads into Islands. Also, everyone will know that the Studios will be open later so they should go to Islands first. That means there will be more people at Islands. If you go against the grain I think you'll probably have better luck.

But I wouldn't even worry about it, the crowds won't be too big until the holidays. Don't get me wrong there will be a hefty amount of people inside the parks, but compared to peak times, it really isn't that bad. no than 5 - 10 minutes for anything. Most people spend so much time walking around trying to figure out what to do that the actual lines aren't that crowded. If you have somewhat of a plan, know what you want to see, you'll be able to hit all of those things plus things that you weren't expecting to be able to do. And don't be afraid to deviate from "The Plan", for instance you may cancel dinner at Epcot's France to get dinner at Italy. We made several last minute reservations, and several walk-ins, and had success. They like to scare you by telling you everything is "all booked", but when you consider that WDW does not reserve or hold tables, that doesn't mean so much. We had ADR's at Cinderella's Castle for dinner and still waited 45 minutes, but waited less than 5 minutes at the Coral Reef at Epcot without reservations. It all works out with a mix of planning and sponteneity. Just don't be like the guy we saw in the Italy pavilion who made an *** of himself yelling at the hostess that he had booked a table and it wasn't ready. People get very angry when things don't work out just the way they planned it, but you can't let it get to you. Italy was too crowded that night so instead we walked back around to the Land, watched Soarin again and had dinner in the cafeteria there - some great chinese food and the freshest chicken ceasar salad.

Also, having ADR's for every night can get EXPENSIVE. By the third night you'll be longing for a $9 cheesburger and a $3 soda. Plus, if you eat a couple of smaller, cheaper meals at Epcot, you can share a slice of cheesecake in France, get some gelato in Italy. Sorry I'm rambling, i just like thinking about the whole trip, it was so much fun.

Peteyi

10-11-2005, 12:12 PM

Hello,

I wouldn't think of going to Orlando without going to US/IOA. I still call it going to "Disney", but to me that automatically includes the Universal parks (Sea World also).

Me and 9 other family members are going to SSR for 8 nights in November and two of those days will be spent at US/IOA and a half day at Sea World. We are bringing my DS3 to Disney for the first time and can't wait to experience the park though his eyes.

If I had to choose between MGM and US/OOA I would choose US/IOA. I do love Tower of Terror and Rock N Roll Coaster, but to miss, Shriek 4D, Terminator, MIB, Mummy, ET, Hulk, Spiderman, Jurassic, and Barney and Cat in the Hat for the young one...

There are just too many good attractions that should not be missed.

Peteyi