New to Universal -- where and how long to stay with teens?

Minnie_me

Minnie_me

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2007
My teen DDs, ages 17 and 14, and I are going to Universal Studios for the first time this summer! They are HUGE HARRY POTTER FANS, and we need lots of advice and tips!


First of all, which resort would you recommend?

Secondly, how many days would you recommend that we stay at Universal before heading to WDW? I have friends who say that one or two days is plenty, but I want to make sure that we have time to do everything we want to do!!!

ANY advice or tips would be appreciated. TIA!
 
If you are staying onsite, I'd hit Universal after WDW, not before. If not, every day you spend at WDW will be viewed as an extra day you wish you had at Universal. I'd plan on just as many days as necessary to see what you want to at WDW then spend the balance of your vacation at Universal.
 
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Interesting, but not really an answer to my question. We are going to Universal first, because we're the most excited about it (Harry Potter!!) and we haven't been there before. We haven't been to WDW since the girls were little (6 and 9), but we've been dying to go back ever since. So that's the plan.

Do you have any recommendations about where to stay? And since you are obviously a huge fan of Universal Studios, how many days would you recommend? 1 per park? Or 3 days --- 1 per park, and then 1 day to hit all of the favorite attractions again?
 
what is the date of your summer trip?
that makes a big difference in what type of answers you will receive for recommendations.


also, most of the peeps that do the darkside will say the same thing as cpanther stated.
doesn't matter if you are a huge fan or not of the darkside, it's a non stressed vacation that way.

do the darkside after the motherland visit as you will be spoiled in the usage of the unlimited usage of the express pass.
no dealing with busses or long ride/show waits if you stay at one of the deluxe hotels.

stay onsite at one of the deluxe hotels to get the hotel perks of early entry and express free.
Cbay only allows early entry to the parks.

again, depending on your summer dates would help in telling you how many days you need to do both parks.
go on a weekend, 2 days would not be enough.
stay at the value resort, and plan to do both parks or specific rides/shows, depends on the predicted crowds for the day you'll be there to say if 2 days is sufficient.
 
Minnie_me said:
Do you have any recommendations about where to stay?
Click to expand...

Our preference is the Portofino, but there are fans of the other two as well. It's more about which theming appeals to your family. The "lowest" of the 3 hotels is comparable to a Disney "Deluxe" and the top hotel surpasses any of the Disney hotels, so you can't go too wrong.

Minnie_me said:
And since you are obviously a huge fan of Universal Studios, how many days would you recommend? 1 per park? Or 3 days --- 1 per park, and then 1 day to hit all of the favorite attractions again?
Click to expand...

My earlier point was to consider it like you would Disney. How many days depends on what you want to do. If you only are going to the resort for the rides, you can hit virtually all of them in 2 days if you are staying on site. But when most would objectively consider that you'll have a better room at a better hotel, better pools (+ pool hopping allowed), better rides (that one is more subjective), no wait in line for rides and unquestionably much better food quality & selection ... the answer to the question of how long is, "As long as possible".


>>> Clearly I'm biased, but Universal earned that bias. We always did 7 days at Disney when my kids were young, then in 2000 (kids were 8, 11 & 12) we did 5 and 2 days at the Portofino. We all wished our entire week was at Universal. I had a hard time "letting go" of Disney (been going since 1974) so I convinced them to give it another shot a couple years later - but to avoid any "I told you so's" I didn't take away from our 7 days at Universal - just added 3 days to hit Disney first. The result was a new tradition of 10-Day vacations, but all 10 days are spent at Universal. We all would say that a day at Disney is better than a day at home, but none of the 5 of us felt that a single day at Disney was ever worth losing an extra day at Universal.

We felt our Disney time was spent trying to get on as many rides as possible to try and justify the ridiculous cost of a week at a "deluxe" hotel ... and the prevailing attitude was "there will be time to rest when we get home". At Universal we felt that our money bought us a true vacation at a real "deluxe" resort and the parks & rides were just one of the many perks of the resort that can be enjoyed whenever - and as often - as we desired.
 
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We have visited WDW every year with our kids since 1999. My kids are now 19 and 21. We started short visits to US a few years ago. We finally stayed onsite right before Christmas. We were so spoiled. Walking to parks, hardly waiting in lines. And enjoying pool time without a million kids. Even getting I places to eat was easier than at WDW.

I agree with the others telling you to reverse your park order.

I would suggest three days at US with teens, two as the shortest. Do three nights at HRH in a pool view room.

Enjoy planning your trip. You won't need to do much more than study a map for US and IOA, while you'll need to make reservations for table service meals and fastpasses at WDW well before you go.
 
Planning is one thing - buying park tickets is another.

As macraven said, it depends on when you're going, but Universal is currently offering a "Buy 2 days, get the 3rd day free" promotion, but it's only good through early June. After that, it's still pretty cheap to add a third or fourth day - a 4 day ticket currently costs only $20 more than a 2 day pass.

So, consider buying tickets for an extra day or two - that way, you can come back to Universal, even if you have to drive from your WDW hotel, or at least stay at Universal longer on your checkout day (which is a good reason to see Universal first - since you don't know how long you want to spend there, you have more flexibility if you hit Universal first, since you already know what to expect from WDW).

Also, the rumor is that Disney is going to raise ticket prices on Sunday, and Universal won't be far behind that, so consider getting your tickets soon.

As for the length of stay... we're also currently planning our first trip ever to UO (this summer too), and after researching everything we wanted to do and how to do it, we settled on five days, so YMMV. I think that's excessive, but in a good way! We plan on taking MANY breaks for swimming and such to get out of the heat. Lots of sites like Undercover Tourist and Orlando Informer have good touring plans, and both sites basically recommend 3 days to see everything, assuming you're either going at a slow time or have Unlimited Express Passes (as you will if you stay at Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, or Portofino, but not Cabana Bay).

As for which hotel.. I've also asked that question several times, and for every 4 people who responded I got 7 different answers. Personally, I just looked at photos of all the resorts to pick the theme I liked (Island vs Music vs Italy vs 50s), judged the walking distance to the parks (Hard Rock is closest, then Royal Pacific, then the other two basically tie), and looked at my budget (Cabana Bay is cheapest, then usually RPR, then the other two)... so Royal Pacific was an easy answer for me!
 
My DD12 liked the HRH pool but wasn't really impressed by the rock n roll theme. I loved the music everywhere and all the cool music memorabilia touches. Walkability was nice. I've stayed at RPR before but DD has not. It's nice but not "wow" However I know she'll like it and it's a bit cheaper so that is where we are booked for our next trip in April. I've never stayed at Portifino so take this with a grain of salt but based on the pics and my SIL's review, it seems more for adults than teens...

If you're on site and will have express pass for everything but HP rides then 3 full days with park to park tickets is enough to see/do everything in the parks but doesn't really have any resort relaxation time built in. 4 days would be ideal for 1st timers.

I agree do WDW first. You won't be happy standing on line at WDW after having EP at Uni.
 
We've stayed at HRH and Portofino Bay. DD and I prefer Portofino. DH and the two teen boys prefer Hard Rock. That said, we all liked both of them. The Hard Rock is closer, so an easy walk. We did use the boat at Portofino. The pool at Portofino had a more relaxing atmosphere and we liked the jacuzzi. The pool area at Hard Rock had a lot more action/ louder vibe. (which the boys liked)

We did Universal after Disney this trip and I was wishing we had done it the other way for two reasons.
1) Disney is so much walking that I felt so tired walking around Universal.
2) We had the dining plan at Disney and it annoyed me to have to pay for food, LOL.

Two full days should be enough to see everything you want to see, though a third would allow you to be more relaxed about it.
 
We always do at least 2-3 with 3 being a little nicer for us. But we like Universal as much as Disney. My husband prefers Universal to be honest, especially if you get the Fast Pass, forget what they call it there.
 
I tend to agree with most of the others here, Universal after Disney, if you are up for suggestion in that area. I know personally, our first Florida trip, we did Universal first, then Disney. I was pretty annoyed at standing in lines at Disney and how crazy crowded it seemed after Universal. That was 4 years ago, we've been to Universal twice since then, and I have no desire to go to Disney ever again. But again, that's just my preference.

Hotels:
Cheapest - Cabana Bay, 50s theme BUT no Express pass, and the longest walk to parks (no boat, but they offer a shuttle bus)
Next cheapest - Royal Pacific, island theme (laid back & relaxing), walk is 8-10 mins to IoA, boat available BUT my kids preferred all other hotel pools over RPs (no slide) (pool hopping is not only allowed, but encouraged) Royal Pacific is our favorite.
Next Cheapest after RP - Usually Hard Rock, loudish rock theme, shortest walk 5-8 mins to Universal Studios, upbeat & fun & my kids favorite pool & waterslide, they have a boat as well.
Usually most expensive - Portafino Bay, Italian villa theme (looks almost like it's own village...its HUGE!) Beautiful decor, pool is a lot of fun & has a slide! Me personally, I always feel like it's a bit of a ghost town, til you hit the pool area. I never see anyone outside of the lobby & pool. Some people love that, just not me personally. Longer walk to the parks than HR and RP. Never walked it personally, we took the boat.

All 4 hotels have Early Entry (EE), all hotels except Cabana Bay have Express Pass (aka front of the line.)

In summer, if you have express pass, and want to see and ride nearly everything, I would say 3-4 days. We stay 6-7 days, so we can do our favorite things multiple times & relax & pool hop a lot.

Best of luck sweetie!
 
The one caveat I would make with most of the previous posts is they assume you're staying at one of the deluxe Universal resorts. If you are staying offsite and don't want to buy express passes, during busy times, Universal can be nearly as stressful as Disney with long lines for large portions of the day and needed to have a "plan of attack".

Right now, Early March, so not a busy time, HRRR has a 20 min. wait, Despicable me, 20 minutes, Gringotts 30 minutes, Transformers 40 minutes, Flight of the Hippogriff 30 minutes. While those don't compare to Disney's 60 min. for 7dmt, 50 min. for TT or 50 min for TSMM, staying offsite without express your waiting in the regular line for everything.
 
You are definitely right there, Jeremy! I just assumed they were staying on-site because she asked which "resort" would we recommend.
But Jeremy is right, if you stay off-site or at Cabana Bay & don't buy express passes, it might be just as stressful (we've always gone end of May and early June & we always have express passes, so I have no idea how stressful, personally :)
 
Kivara said:
You are definitely right there, Jeremy! I just assumed they were staying on-site because she asked which "resort" would we recommend.
But Jeremy is right, if you stay off-site or at Cabana Bay & don't buy express passes, it might be just as stressful (we've always gone end of May and early June & we always have express passes, so I have no idea how stressful, personally :)
Click to expand...

I would agree, I think the OP is looking at staying onsite. But, going with a group and going in the summer, Cabana Bay Vs. the Deluxe's make a difference. I've stayed offsite every trip except the last one where I stayed at Cabana Bay. I normally travel solo so being able to take advantage of Single Rider Lines helps, but since HP has opened, a quick, care free trip hasn't happened during the times I could travel. My first trip post HP was 2 days and frantic and I was ill prepared for the holiday crowds even into early January post HP. The second trip was 5 days, so not quick, but with just a little bit of planning (hitting Despicable Me during EE, doing shows or resort time mid afternoon) it was mostly carefree I only missed a couple of things I wanted to do. For some strange reason Poseidon's Fury always showed 45 minutes till the next show whenever I went by. I did everything, I was able to relax on days that were crowd levels 6-8.
 
Minnie_me said:
My teen DDs, ages 17 and 14, and I are going to Universal Studios for the first time this summer! They are HUGE HARRY POTTER FANS, and we need lots of advice and tips!


First of all, which resort would you recommend?

Secondly, how many days would you recommend that we stay at Universal before heading to WDW? I have friends who say that one or two days is plenty, but I want to make sure that we have time to do everything we want to do!!!

ANY advice or tips would be appreciated. TIA!
Click to expand...

We stayed January 2014. We have a teen son who LOVED Hard Rock!!!

We had 1 day per park with Express pass. We went before our Cruise departed.
It was kinda busy because the Harry Potter event was going on.

I felt like we really rushed through the parks way to quick & really I don't remember a thing.
This trip we are planning to take at least 2 calm and leisurely days for each park .
 
For the ages of your kids (very close to mine - that's on old pic), I would recommend 3 days. Our first trip (boys 11 and 13), we were at the parks 2 full days and a partial day, with 2 trips to Legoland, but we didn't ride any of the thrill rides except FJ. This was also prior to DM and TF, and of course DA, all of which will be added to our days this year. The boys are older and will ride a lot more stuff now, so we are planning 3-5 park days this time around, depending on how much my dh can stand (he doesn't like theme parks).

We stay offsite, mostly b/c we are Wyndham owners and can stay at WBC. We've been there twice before and the boys love the lazy river, having their own bedroom, and having 3 tvs in the unit. I love having a washer and dryer, the dvd player for rainy days, and a room with no boys in it. My dh loves it b/c it's not at a theme park, LOL.
 
We have stayed at all 4 onsite properties, as well as number of offsite. We love the express pass that comes included with the 3 deluxe hotels, and of those our favorite is also Royal Pacific. However, I also have 2 teens, who REFUSE to sleep together in one bed, in which case you can 1) get a rollaway, or 2)stay at Cabana Bay in a family suite, which has a pullout couch (to be fair, there are some deluxe rooms that also have a pullout couch, they are just too expensive for me to book) and does still give the early entry though not the included express. IF your focus is Harry Potter areas, though, the express does not work on Forbidden Journey, Hogwarts Express, Gringotts, or Ollivanders Wand show, so that may make a difference too. And you can purchase the express (either a 1 time per ride or unlimited) if you so chose. I recommend 3 days with park to park, this allows you to focus on 1 park per day with a 3rd day to catch the things you might have missed and/or repeat the favorites, and park to park is required to ride Hogwarts Express (and you want to ride both directions, as the "story" is different each way).
 
With teens would definitely do without a doubt HRH, second choice RPR, also nice. We always stay onsite just to get fast pass, but the resorts are as nice or even nicer than Disney. Cabana Bay seems nice to us especially price wise, BUT without the front of the line passes not worth it to us. There is a total different feel going to Universal and getting FOTL passes, it makes the whole experience soooooooooooooo much nicer. My husband actually prefers Universal to Disney. I know with Disney you can get fast passes, but it's not the same. We like to go for 3 days. And you can walk everywhere it's really a great experience.
 
Go for as long as possible. A stay onsite at Universal deluxe is truly a vacation. We are there monthly and sometimes bi monthly and even if it's a one night stay it is very relaxing knowing I don't have to deal with most lines.
 
I agree with the others that in a perfect world, do Disney first, but we are doing both this year and doing Universal first. We just can't wait to get to HP. And we know what to expect at both, so I really don't think Disney will be a let down. Last time we did a combo trip, we did 2 days at Disney and then 2/3 at Universal, with the buy 2 days get the third free ticket. By the time that third Universal day came around, no one wanted to go back. We were tired and felt like we had done all that we wanted to do at Universal. We had done several headliner rides multiple times. We did stay on site and had the Express Pass, which makes a difference, for sure, in getting things done in less days. Our first trip to Universal we didn't have it, and after Harry Potter we wandered around dazed at all the crowds and lines, and kind of wished we were at Disney! We ended up leaving and going to our hotel, but when we came back in the evening it was GREAT and so worth it. So again I agree with an above poster about how your experience can change based on if you have EP or not! Once nice option might be to use that third "free" day as your transfer day...go to US and ride a few if you want, then go to Disney without feeling like you spent money to buy admissions to both US and WDW on the same day (I don't know if that makes sense but it appeals to my frugality and awareness of high ticket prices!)

As for how many Universal days, it depends on what you like. We don't really love shows, so we find 2 days is fine and we are actually squeezing it all into one day this year; we know our favorites and want to see both HP areas. We love big rides, and the HP areas. They are amazing (and crowded) (caveat: we haven't seen the new HP area yet). Get there as early as you can, or go back in after dinner..when it seems like all the throngs of people that head there first (you need to beat them there :) have seen it all and moved on to other areas. Take time in the HP to really soak in the detail...again we love rides but these areas are just so visually stunning its the one/two places where we really browse, look in windows, shops, architecture, etc.
 
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