3 Days Enough to Do Everything?

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Hi again!

After reviewing the various ticket options, I think the two day with one day free might be the best option for our family, but I am not sure. We will be staying at RP for four nights, so a three day ticket does not get us in on our arrival day (arriving around 4 pm) or on our departure day (departing around noon).

Will three days be enough to do everything? And I mean everything. Having never been to Universal, I want to experience it all. We have young children so we will want to do all the shows, and I, of course, want to do all the rides (The only thing I have absolutely no interest in is Fear Factor).

So can we fit it in to three days, or should I get a 4 day ticket (not much more than a 3 day ticket) or should I get the 3 park unlimited (actually a couple of dollars less than the 4 day -why?) from the UT website?

Thanks!

 

[CyndiLooWho]

You might get more answers on the Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure board just over top of this one. You posted on the Resort & Hotel board.

You will have FOTL privileges for all 5 days of your stay, so I would definitely plan to have tickets available for at least the 4 full days you are there, unless you have tickets/plans for other places. We have 6 nights at WBC (offsite) and I bought the 14 day, 3 park passes so that we could be there every day *if we want*. I bet we won't be, but for the price, it works out best for us. And if we decide that we don't want to hit Universal, we can have a day at Wet-n-Wild with this ticket. I think single day tix are $50 per person, so this is a big help for our budget.

As for the difference in prices, you can upgrade the single park and park-to-park tickets to a Universal annual pass. You cannot upgrade the 3 park pass. It also includes admission to Wet-n-Wild, which the X-day passes do not. We come to Orlando about every 3 years, so we know we are NOT going to want to upgrade. So the flexibility of the 3 park, 14 day pass works very well for us.

 

[TSM]

I'm trying to figure out the exact same thing! I was thinking of getting the 2+1 free pass for 4 nights but now I'm thinking we need 4 park day tickets too??

 

[bas71873]

What time of year are you going? I would say yes, 3 days is perfect. In fact, it's what we are doing for our June trip (this is our second time to US/IOA). If you are arriving at 4 PM on arrival day, I would not waste a park ticket for that day. US/IOA tend to close fairly early. And, we LOVE our resort time at US/IOA. It's so relaxing to just lounge by the pools. Also, don't forget about CityWalk - shopping, eating, mini golf. We are getting the 3 day park to park ticket and will do US one day, IOA one day and the 3rd day will be a combo of both to do things over again if we want. Staying on property and taking advantage of the FOTL pass makes life really simple. We LOVE our US/IOA vacations. A whole lot less stressful than Disney.

 

[macraven]

since you arrive late afternoon, check out all the hotels for a few hours, their pools and lobby.

have a dinner at your hotel.
read thru the packet you get during check in to see what pool activites and movies by the pool will be during your stay.

do the next 3 days at the parks.

on the last day of your tickets, decide if you want to add a 4th park day.
do this upgrade before the park closes.
it is the only time you can do that and get a cheaper rate in upgrading before the tickets expire.

on your check out day, do the parks, or pool or time in city walk.



i would upgrade the 3 day tickets to a 4th park day and make it a day of shopping in the parks, a few rides and end with lunch/early dinner at city walk.


depending on the dates of your trip, you might be able to cover the parks totally.

many newbies are happy with 3 full park days and spend extra time for pool hopping, exploring all of UO or just relaxing around the pool.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

You might get more answers on the Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure board just over top of this one. You posted on the Resort & Hotel board.

You will have FOTL privileges for all 5 days of your stay, so I would definitely plan to have tickets available for at least the 4 full days you are there, unless you have tickets/plans for other places. We have 6 nights at WBC (offsite) and I bought the 14 day, 3 park passes so that we could be there every day *if we want*. I bet we won't be, but for the price, it works out best for us. And if we decide that we don't want to hit Universal, we can have a day at Wet-n-Wild with this ticket. I think single day tix are $50 per person, so this is a big help for our budget.

As for the difference in prices, you can upgrade the single park and park-to-park tickets to a Universal annual pass. You cannot upgrade the 3 park pass. It also includes admission to Wet-n-Wild, which the X-day passes do not. We come to Orlando about every 3 years, so we know we are NOT going to want to upgrade. So the flexibility of the 3 park, 14 day pass works very well for us.

Oops! I did post in the wrong place. Sorry!

Yes, that is interesting about the 3 park pass. I considered that, but I don't like that you can't upgrade it to an annual pass, and I really am not excited about taking a 2 year old to a water park. It is very difficult to watch two children at a water park when one of them is 8 and one is two. I am not sure the 3 park pass would be that useful to us, given that I don't want to do the water park this year.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I'm trying to figure out the exact same thing! I was thinking of getting the 2+1 free pass for 4 nights but now I'm thinking we need 4 park day tickets too??

Have you thought about the Power Pass? I was just reading about that, and it is not much more than the 4 day pass. We live in Atlanta, and getting back to Orlando within the next year is not that difficult (in fact, we are going to Disney in September and we could even drop by Universal if we have Power Passes). From what I understand, we can always buy the 2 +1 then upgrade if we like the parks and think we might want more.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

What time of year are you going? I would say yes, 3 days is perfect. In fact, it's what we are doing for our June trip (this is our second time to US/IOA). If you are arriving at 4 PM on arrival day, I would not waste a park ticket for that day. US/IOA tend to close fairly early. And, we LOVE our resort time at US/IOA. It's so relaxing to just lounge by the pools. Also, don't forget about CityWalk - shopping, eating, mini golf. We are getting the 3 day park to park ticket and will do US one day, IOA one day and the 3rd day will be a combo of both to do things over again if we want. Staying on property and taking advantage of the FOTL pass makes life really simple. We LOVE our US/IOA vacations. A whole lot less stressful than Disney.

We are going at the end of May (would love to go in off-season, but I teach and the girls are in school, so we are often stuck with traveling with everyone else who has school-aged children). I just called the hotel and asked about adding a 5th night, but they said they don't have any availability. Looks like the deluxe on-site hotels will be at capacity while we are there. Crowd levels, according to UT, will be an 8/10. Ick. But I think with the Express passes we will still be okay.

I bet you are right about the resort time. My girls love pools, and I would at least like to see City Walk. Glad to hear it is less stressful! We are really looking forward to it.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

since you arrive late afternoon, check out all the hotels for a few hours, their pools and lobby.

have a dinner at your hotel.
read thru the packet you get during check in to see what pool activites and movies by the pool will be during your stay.

do the next 3 days at the parks.

on the last day of your tickets, decide if you want to add a 4th park day.
do this upgrade before the park closes.
it is the only time you can do that and get a cheaper rate in upgrading before the tickets expire.

on your check out day, do the parks, or pool or time in city walk.



i would upgrade the 3 day tickets to a 4th park day and make it a day of shopping in the parks, a few rides and end with lunch/early dinner at city walk.


depending on the dates of your trip, you might be able to cover the parks totally.

many newbies are happy with 3 full park days and spend extra time for pool hopping, exploring all of UO or just relaxing around the pool.

That is probably a good plan. We will be tired after 7 hours of driving and hanging out at the pool would probably be nice.

I am actually now considering buying a Power Pass. It is really only about $20-30 more than a 3-day ticket, and our dates don't conflict with the blockout dates. We also have a February break next year and we might enjoy the parks so much that we want to go back again soon. I think a good plan might be to buy a 2 day +1 and then decide whether to upgrade once we are there.

 

[bas71873]

We are going at the end of May (would love to go in off-season, but I teach and the girls are in school, so we are often stuck with traveling with everyone else who has school-aged children). I just called the hotel and asked about adding a 5th night, but they said they don't have any availability. Looks like the deluxe on-site hotels will be at capacity while we are there. Crowd levels, according to UT, will be an 8/10. Ick. But I think with the Express passes we will still be okay.

I bet you are right about the resort time. My girls love pools, and I would at least like to see City Walk. Glad to hear it is less stressful! We are really looking forward to it.

We stay at HRH and my DD11 loves the pool area. They do games throughout the day, have a slide, show poolside movies later at night. We have a great time just hanging out there. I think even with onsite hotels being at capacity, with the FOTL, 3 days is still plenty. If you get to the parks when they open, you'll get LOTS done. Enjoy your trip!

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

We stay at HRH and my DD11 loves the pool area. They do games throughout the day, have a slide, show poolside movies later at night. We have a great time just hanging out there. I think even with onsite hotels being at capacity, with the FOTL, 3 days is still plenty. If you get to the parks when they open, you'll get LOTS done. Enjoy your trip!

Thank you! And it is wonderful that we can pool hop at Universal. I am sure we would enjoy four days there even without doing the parks at all. Pool-a-Day.

We'll have to check out the Hard Rock pool. Sounds fun.