AK/HS day or Universal?

klk77

klk77

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 31, 2013
For our upcoming summer trip, I'm wondering what to do for a 3rd park day. We're planning to do 2 days at MK. We've been to AK 2x and Epcot once. My kids (now 6 year old girl twins) love MK, like rides at AK, and were sort okay with Epcot 2 years ago. They also like Legoland (adults all hate it). We've never been to either HS or either Universal park.

I'm debating the following:

AK morning, then HS
AK morning, then Epcot
Universal - 1 day - not sure which park

If anyone has any experience with this situation, I'd love some input. I've heard many conflicting opinions on HS, and am worried that there isn't much to do there. I'm afraid that Universal may have too many scary rides, or things my kids aren't tall enough for.

Any thoughts would be appreciated! TIA
 
Have you considered a park-to-park ticket for Universal/Islands of Adventure? The parks do have a lot of thrill rides, but there are many family attractions that can easily fill your day, particularly if you visit both parks. We always include these parks when on a "Disney" vacation. Otherwise, I vote for the AK/HS option. Good luck & happy planning!!

Another thought...maybe view some of the attractions on You Tube to get a better feel of what might work best for you.
 
I like Universal, but you may not see everything you want in just a day. Plus, you are going to have to travel from WDW to Universal. Also, a one day ticket is the most expensive you can get, so doing another WDW day is a better deal. I would wait until you can devote 2 days to Universal. If you stay onsite, you get early entry and their express pass, which is almost front of the line access. 6 may be a little young for a lot of the stuff at Universal. I would definitely look at the rides to see if there would be enough of interest to your girls.
 


We love Universal as much as Disney, but in your situation, I would definitely rule out the Universal option. Your girls will enjoy it much more when they are older, and as others have said, one day at Universal is very costly plus travel time will eat up quite a bit of the day.

For Hollywood Studios, I think the question is how much your girls would enjoy the Beauty and the Beast show, the Little Mermaid show, the Muppets 3D show, and/or the two stunt shows (Indiana Jones and the Lights Motors Action car show). If those sound attractive to them, then throw in the very fun Toy Story Mania ride, and you have well more than 1/2 day's worth of fun activity. Also, Fantasmic has always been our grandkids' favorite nighttime Disney attraction.

For Epcot, our grandkids at age 6 always enjoyed Spaceship Earth, Soarin, and Test Track, sampling the free soft drinks at Club Cool, playing with the "jumping water" at the fountains outside the Imagination pavilion, and viewing the aquariums in The Seas building (as well as the cute and funny Turtle Talk interactive experience there).

If your girls want to meet characters, there are plenty available in either HS or Epcot, with several princesses greeting in the various countries of Epcot's World Showcase.
 
I would prefer US/IoA over AK/HS, but considering the ages of your children, I would choose to go to AK and another park in the evening.
 
Thanks. I was wondering if a 2-day universal may be better. Maybe will save universal for a future trip. So now to decide between Epcot or HS for 1/2 day with AK.
 


klk77 said:
For our upcoming summer trip, I'm wondering what to do for a 3rd park day. We're planning to do 2 days at MK. We've been to AK 2x and Epcot once. My kids (now 6 year old girl twins) love MK, like rides at AK, and were sort okay with Epcot 2 years ago. They also like Legoland (adults all hate it). We've never been to either HS or either Universal park.

I'm debating the following:

AK morning, then HS
AK morning, then Epcot
Universal - 1 day - not sure which park

If anyone has any experience with this situation, I'd love some input. I've heard many conflicting opinions on HS, and am worried that there isn't much to do there. I'm afraid that Universal may have too many scary rides, or things my kids aren't tall enough for.

Any thoughts would be appreciated! TIA
Click to expand...

Check their heights to make sure, but I would choose IOA. I really like that park. My kids love Harry Potter so did one day there before our cruise (we were even family of the day for day guests--they open the park twice). We did one MK day after. Obviously this is not the cheapest way to do things, but I would check heights. My son ended up not being tall enough for one of the rides, unfortunate I even though he was 6 (almost 7).

I have not been to the universal side in years so don't know how it is lately.

The park to park is extremely expensive and only worth it if you are really in to Harry Potter or maybe if between the 2 parks you can get more rides for their height.

If heights are a problem, maybe stick with AK.
 
They're only about 44 inches, so that may shut them out of a lot of rides. I've got to double check the height restrictions.
 
Just to provide some feedback on AK/HS options, we've have done that several times over the last few year and it works nicely. We'll hit AK at rope drop and ride w/o FP and then save the FP's for HS. It's become a much easier to do with FP+ since you can lock in the times at HS.
 
depending on the age/height of your kids (and your budget) you may want to think about Universal. I personally went to US for the first time this year (went to IOA a couple years ago) and was VERY disappointed in US. I strongly preferred IOA!! however, if your kids are small you may want to consider just sticking to disney!
 
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