How much time will we want to spend at Universal?

[Keyser]

We're seriously considering a trip to Universal next summer. Like most everyone, Harry Potter is the big draw, but we'd want to spend some time there and probably really see the parks, not just the "hop over one day from Disney" trip. We would probably stay in an onsite hotel (that front of line pass is too tempting!). I'm trying to figure out what's "right", though - how much time will we need/want there? Is it even worth it for us to spend more than a day?

My wife and I visited IoA more 15 years ago (pre-kids), and enjoyed it, but we haven't been to Universal Studios (other than a brief visit to the one in California). It doesn't see like IoA is very different from 15 years ago (other than the Harry Potter ride and re-theming), but maybe I'm wrong.

Our kids (who would be 8 and 14) like amusement parks, but usually won't go on "upside-down" rides (i.e. roller coasters with inversions), and the younger one (and sometimes older one) can tend to get scared of certain types of rides (e.g. the Jurassic Park river ride might scare her). My wife gets motion sick and stays away from teacup/scrambler rides, but can ride roller coasters with Dramamine. However, she often needs a "recovery" period after riding anything big, and as I've gotten older, I find I need some time following a tea-cups type ride before hopping on the next one.

All that's to say - we may be limited in which rides we go on, and how frequently we can ride. However, I might want to ride a few myself, even if they don't...

Looking at the rides, it seems many of the main rides (even in the Harry Potter area) are going to be those that have motion sickness issues, inversions, or are "frightening". I think we'd enjoy the Harry Potter section anyway, but I'm wondering how much time we really want to allow overall. If we would want to do everything, I'd guess maybe 3 days? But, given that we might end up having to skip things, would 2 days (or even 1.5 or something?) be enough?

I really appreciate any advice from those familiar with the park, as far as what portion of it we'll likely really want to do, how much time we'll want to spend just in the area beyond rides, etc.


PS. As a side note - it seems like lots of the rides are pretty cool, but I'm amazed at how the theming, besides Harry Potter, is so far off from stuff our kids care about. They've never seen Men in Black, or the Mummy, or Transformers, or the Simpsons, or Terminator, or most Marvel movies, or Popeye/Dudley-do-right cartoons. Only one of them has seen Jurassic Park. And Dr. Seuss is kind of an "outgrown" feeling for them. It's just odd to me that the theming picked for the Universal rides is so far away from what they're familiar with - it's closer to stuff my wife and I care about than stuff they care about!

 

[Darcy03231]

I'm a certified ride chicken and can't do anything that goes upside down or spins. I also can't do the big coasters. Having said that, I can do everything at Studios except the Simpsons and Rip Ride Rocket. I can do everything at IOA except Hulk, Storm Force (like teacups), Dragon's Challenge & Flight of the Hippograff. I do have to close my eyes in the "down" part of Spiderman, but the rest of it is fine.

I like minimum of 3 days. 1 for each park and an extra for our favorites.

 

[epcotty]

2 days would be enough, no less though

 

[SkyChaser]

You could probably do everything in 2 days if you like spending a lot of time in the parks. For us, USO is ideal because we can stay 4 days or more, hit the parks in the morning and get a lot done before the crowds build, and then spend the rest of the day at City Walk and the resort (we like RPR).

Sometimes we might even cheat a little by going over to a WDW park in the evening using the three FP's we can reserve, or just for fireworks and/or parades.

 

[bumbershoot]

They've never seen Men in Black, or the Mummy, or Transformers, or the Simpsons, or Terminator, or most Marvel movies, or Popeye/Dudley-do-right cartoons. Only one of them has seen Jurassic Park. And Dr. Seuss is kind of an "outgrown" feeling for them. It's just odd to me that the theming picked for the Universal rides is so far away from what they're familiar with - it's closer to stuff my wife and I care about than stuff they care about!

Well, you could do something about that missing part of their movie education.

MIB is terrific. The Mummy is scary but good. DS adores Transformers. DS appreciated the Marvel characters well before seeing any movies, and has never seen a Popeye/Dudley cartoon. (the Robin Williams Popeye movie from the 80s, yes, because I own it and feel that it's an ESSENTIAL for a well-lived-life) And yet...he's appreciated the parks since he was 6.5 on our very first visit!

The Seuss area is great no matter how old you are, IMO.


I don't like rides where death feels imminent. DS was too little for the big stuff, and too scared for things like Mummy, and DH is sadly too big for the big rides he yearns to go on. And yet...our first visit encompassed two partial days (first and last) and two full days in between. We had to go back to WDW on the 4th day and none of us wanted to!

 

[schumigirl]

3 days minimum.

 

[VacaPlanner2012]

Every family tours a park/resort differently, so keep researching and deciding. Luckily, my kids ride everything under the sun, but we spend our time at Universal differently than Cedar Point here in Ohio. They love the animal show, can spend hours casting spells in Diagon Alley, and just love walking around City Walk and swimming at the Hard Rock pool...along with riding Transformers a thousand times in the row! I have not let my kids watch Men in Black...yet, but they love the ride, because there is healthy family competition, healthy as long as Mom wins, and she always does! They have also not watched the Mummy, but love the ride, because the ride is cool - if you can get past the hot room and mummies asking for your eternal soul. My son "acts" like he is not into Seussland, until he gets Mom wet on One Fish. And the Seuss train gives some views of the park that are awesome! I have no interest in Dr. Doom, but I love drop rides!

So, the IPs may not be your kids cup of tea, but the rides are still cool, and the story lines are not too in depth to still get some enjoyment. However, all that said, if you are visiting just for the parks, two days is enough. If you want to vacation (a few hours in the park each day, some swimming/shopping/dining, maybe some mini golf, oh yes and BLUE MAN GROUP!!!!), then 4-5 days or longer is better!!!

 

[RMulieri]

Every family is different.We do 7 days and aren't bored.BUT...We like to tour casually and revisit our favorites, We like Pool time and downtime and we ride almost everything .I would do 2-3 days .3 days allows 1 for each park and 1 to re-ride or revisit favorites or have some downtime.
You can remedy them not knowing the movies/characters by watching some of the movies before you go .

 

[johde]

I'd say 3 days at least. And for me, the key point is wanting downtime between rides. I still like most of the rides, with Dramamine, but as I've gotten older I need some recovery time between rides. Although last January, by the 4th day at the park, I could almost power ride again after several day of taking it slow.

For the kids, there are only 2/3 rides that go completely upside down, Hulk and the 2 sides of Dragon Challenge.

IOA hasn't changed a whole lot in 15 years. In addition to HP, the Seuss Trolley is done. Tracks could be seen 15 years ago but the manufacturer went Bankrupt and the needed to go with a different one. Also, King Kong is currently under construction. Most of the changes have happened at USF.

 

[Keyser]

Great - thanks for all the replies. It sounds like 3 days is probably going to be best for us. We are usually "get there when it opens, leave mid-afternoon, return for dinner/nighttime" people, but we are also OK to miss some things. Sounds like there will be plenty to keep us interested for 3 full days. And, I can always hope my kids will get over their aversion to inversion by then...

 

[dixonsontour]

We stayed for 7 nights last year at Cabana bay with DD 8. We prefer some park and some pool time, think we did parks (Universal or I of Adventure) 5 out of 7 days.
My DD hadn't seen MIB but loved the ride and we went on it multiple times. Simpsons area is colourful and fun. Even if they haven't seen the films they may enjoy the rides.
Again DD hadn't seen beetlejuice but liked the show and they include popular songs and some jokes for kids.
Aswell as the parks there is minigolf x2 at citywalk, bowling alley at cabana bay and the pools plus cinema at citywalk.
I'd say 3 or 4 days minimum. There was lots we didn't see - like the horror make up show and the magic show.
My trip report with DD age 8 is on the trip reports section on here called show me the minions.

 

[elaine amj]

Sounds very similar to my family. We went for our first visit in May and stayed 1 full day and 2 half days (flew in Sat morning, stayed onsite at HRH one night and one night offsite at the Doubletree across the street then flew out Monday evening). It still felt like not quite enough time (mostly because we kept re-riding our favorites). I have my TR in my signature if you'd like to check it out. I'd say 2-3 days should work out well. I highly recommend onsite. We had 2 days with Express Pass and 1 day without and we much preferred the luxury of EPs. Well worth it to splurge (and I am super budget-minded).

I will say that while we had a great time (enough to upgrade to Annual Passes and plan return trips), we didn't love it the way we love WDW. Still, so glad we did it and super excited for our return trips.

My DS doesn't like anything with inversions or drops. I pretty much had to drag him onto Jurassic Park (I did give him the option to sit out and wait for us). He only had to skip Dr Doom, the Hulk, and Rip Ride Rockit. The simulators were actually GREAT for him - he could be on a "coaster" with no big drops.

My DH gets a little motion sick. He could mostly handle the simulator rides at Uni but I had to space them out carefully. He had NO issues on Gringotts though - which turned out to be my favorite ride . like my son, he doesn't do any of the big coasters. He could handle one round on MIB but it was a 1x and done because of the spinning.

My DD is freaked out by ANYTHING creepy. Which unfortunately, Uni has a lot of creepy scenes *sigh*. We ended up doing forbidden journey twice and that's it for us now. Too creepy. Still, she rode everything and she survived by shutting her eyes tight. She is a big coaster person though - and adored RRR. With our Express Passes, we rode that at least a half dozen times. Awesome coaster.

I ride anything and everything but am not a fan of darker themes or creepy stuff. I don't get freaked out, but i don't prefer it and don't seek it out. (OK OK, if I didn't have to be brave for my DD, I might get freaked out too LOL).

Like your kids, mine had never seen ET, Terminator, Simpsons, the Mummy. We had never even watched any of the Potter movies! We did take the step to watch the Potter movies and ET before we left though. I keep saying the kids need to watch some more of the movies, but my kids are completely not interested. Oh well - they still enjoyed the rides. e.g. we did Simpsons 2-3 times and they have never watched a single episode. We exited so many of Uni rides exclaiming about how technologically advanced they were and how impressive the ride technology was. My takeaway was that in Uni you pay attention to the tech that goes into everything and it is super impressive. In Disney, it's all done by magic.