Help Please- Looking for non Disney Trip over New Years

[TDJ]

OK,

Looking to follow my Spartans to a Bowl game in Florida (Selections come out tonight) Looking like they may end up in Tampa on Jan 2nd. Wife says she has had enough Disney . Went to Disneyland last January and have been to Disneyworld in 09 and 06. So I am thinking this might be a good time to see Florida beyond Disney property.

Where should we go? - Universal, Sea World, Bush Gardens, other ideas???

We are looking at driving down sometime between xmas and New Years. The game is on Jan 2nd. Willing to stay most of that week if it makes since for better crowds?

My son is 11 and my daughter is 8.

Thanks for the help

TJ

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

If you guys are Harry Potter fans, Universal is definitely worth a trip!

 

[TDJ]

one more thing...........should we stay in Tampa?

 

[TDJ]

If you guys are Harry Potter fans, Universal is definitely worth a trip!

I would say they do..........the kids have seen the moves, but there not "into it"

 

[gabzee]

I would go to Universal and/or SeaWorld. My kids have never been "into" the Harry Potter movies (in fact my daughter hasn't read any of the books or sat through any of the movies completely). However, they LOVE Harry Potter World and Universal Studios in general. I would suggest looking at their respective forums and websites and see if it is something that your kids would be interested in. You can do SeaWorld in 1-2 days and Universal in 2-3 days. This all depends on how much you want to see, how fast you go, and how big the crowds are. If you are going to go to Universal I would HIGHLY recommend that you stay at one of their 3 resorts. I wouldn't stay in Tampa if all you are going to do there is go to the game. Especially since it is their busy season, you should expect a lot of crowds. As a guest at one of their three hotels (the Royal Pacific, HardRock, and Portofino Bay), you get various perks including an Express Pass. An express pass is only available to onsite guests and those that pay extra for it. It is similar to a fastpass in the sense that you enter a separate and shorter line. However, instead of it only being available for a few attractions like fastpasses are, you can use your express pass at the majority of the attractions. Last time I went there in Feb. 2011(Presidents Weekend), the "normal" line had a wait of 100 minutes and with the express pass we only waited 20 minutes at most. If you have any other questions let me know! Enjoy your trip!

 

[TDJ]

thanks for the help

Thinking we are going to stay in Tampa so we can do Bush Gardens too.

How long should you expect it to take to get from Tampa to Universal?

 

[Sehsun]

thanks for the help

Thinking we are going to stay in Tampa so we can do Bush Gardens too.

How long should you expect it to take to get from Tampa to Universal?

From Busch Gardens to the Universal Orlando parking garage, it is almost 1.5 hours (according to Google Maps).