Christmas 2015 - yikes!

[Mom2DDs]

My DH said to me "I can be convinced to go to Florida for the Christmas break" and of course I said that's when the parks are the most crowded! One of the main reasons we'd like to go is that next year my DD17 will be graduating, the other is to see Diagon Alley since we've actually seen the "original" Diagon Alley when we went to London in 2013! The last time we were there was in 2011 and stayed at our favorite on-site hotel - Royal Pacific!

We'd like to rent a condo in Clearwater from Dec. 25 till Dec. 31 then go stay on-site at Universal till Jan 2nd.

So that brings a few questions - 1. Is Diagon Alley decorated for Christmas? 2. Do the on-site hotels have any New Year's Eve celebrations? 3. Should we get a 3-day pass or is a 2-day park-to-park good enough? 4. How crowded is Universal during New Year's?

TIA for any and all comments!

 

[HM]

I can tell you that the only area actually decorated for Christmas is Seussland in IOA (and that Christmas store in the entrance area).

We went this year from Dec 18-22. We didn't find it terribly crowded those days.

I always suggest three days. One for each park and one day for redoing favorites or missed attractions.

Can't help with the rest.

 

[tarheel618]

Can you go before Christmas? I think the crowds would be less and you might get a better rate for the hotel. If you are going this time of year- I would definitely stay onsite at one of the hotels that offer express pass and also early entry. Even if you only stay one night you get express pass for two days.

I was really surprised at how little the parks are decorated for Christmas compared to Disney parks.

 

[johde]

Universal Studios Florida is nicely decorated, especially with floats from the Macy's parade (Mainly retired floats from New York that are too large to the used in USF Macy's Holiday Parade) in the front 1/2 of the park around the New York, Hollywood, and San Francisco Areas . But, the London waterfront and Diagon Alley are not decorated. J.K.R. didn't approve any of the decorations for planned Hogsmead so Universal may not have even tried with Diagon Alley.

 

[Mom2DDs]

tarheel618 - unfortunately that's the only time that we can go because of the DDs school and activity schedule (cheer, theatre, debate, mock trial).

Shame that the parks aren't that decorated for Christmas but we'll have to deal with that!

 

[HM]

I did forget about the floats placed all over US. They have plaques that tell their history too.

 

[johde]

Yea, I would say outside of maybe Seaworld, Universal Studios Florida has more of their park decorated than any other park. But, most of the decorations don't have the "over the top" wow factor of say an Osborne Lights or Castle Lights.

 

[tarheel618]

tarheel618 - unfortunately that's the only time that we can go because of the DDs school and activity schedule (cheer, theatre, debate, mock trial).

Shame that the parks aren't that decorated for Christmas but we'll have to deal with that!

Suess Land is decorated and the parade is nice but not a decorated as Disney.

I think you will be fine even better if staying onsite as the fast pass can't be beat. To give you an idea we went today which was considered a very busy day. We got at the park at opening 8 am and left at 6:30 pm. Here is everything we did. I must tell you that I am the only Harry Potter fan in our group so other than walking through Diagon Alley to watch the dragon and Hogesmeade to ride the train we didn't spend a lot of time on Harry Potter (because we live close and have annual pass). I usually tour it alone while the rest of my family go do other things.

All the bolded rides were done before noon before the crowds really started to roll in but both Harry Potter Areas were crowded from early morning on. For example at 8:30 Flight of the hippograff and Forbidden journey had posted times of 60 minutes. My girls wanted to ride Flight of Hippograff but skipped it once they saw the wait time.

We Rode
spider man 2 times
Pterandon Flyers 2 times (just my kids)
Hogwarts Express 3 times
The Mummy 3 times
Disaster
ET

We also got to Watch Rocky Horror Picture show,Terminator, and the Animal Show (had never seen it- LOVED it and will do it again). In the afternoon we did the shows and toured around Hogsmeade and Diagon alley and just took some time to take breaks.

We got in line for MIB and the wait time was 45 minutes but about 10 minutes into the ride it broke down and all guest were ask to leave so we didn't do it today.

I didn't check out the wait times for the big coasters today because no one wanted to ride them and my one daughter is too short for all of them except rip ride rocket. She usually rides with my husband but he wasn't able to go with us.

So if you go at Christmas time and have express pass, I recommend rope drop. In my opinion for a busy day we got a lot done.