Disneyland vs USH where should I visit in 2016?

[Guy-Disney]

The DLR will be a pardon our dust walls up 2016 ! while USH will open Harry Potter this coming April , what will justify my vacation experience in 2016 ! Please share your thoughts on this ! Thanks

PS my budget only allows me to do one resort per year thanks !

 

[dragonflycurls]

In my experience, USH can easily be done in 1 day. So, personally, I would do both!

 

[kickpuncher305]

Even with Harry Potter being new (as long as its not opening day or a weekend soon after) you can still do pretty much everything in USH in a day. There are lots of companies like Grayline or Luxbus who do day trips to USH or you can rent a car from Anaheim for a day.

 

[jammyjam25]

Our next trip is in October and we are sacrificing a Disney day to go to Universal and check out the Harry Potter stuff. But there's no way we see ourselves spending more than one day there due to the small overall number of rides and attractions.

I'd definitely say do Disney still and squeeze in one day at Universal if you can work it into your schedule/budget. My fear would be if you scheduled a Universal-only trip is that there isn't enough to do there to justify 3-4 days whereas even w/ construction there's still tons to do at DL and DCA.

 

[sheetz]

Yeah, USH really can't be called a "resort" yet at this point. It's basically just a small theme park with an attached shopping district. Can be easily done in a day.

 

[sherilaine]

It sounds like you already made up your mind. I can't imagine anyone comparing Universal to DLR though - but if people want to go there instead of DLR then I am sure that is what people going to DLR want to hear!!

 

[meggles]

Maybe once the Harry Potter section is open Universal will be a two day adventure. I'm waiting too see what the reports are like before we plan a trip. I'm wondering how much there will actually be to do in Hp world other than staring at the castle, eating, and shopping.

It would be hard for us to justify heading down to LA and NOT visiting DL for at least a couple days. We are in northern CA so if we're going that far to Universal we might as well do DL too.

 

[ashnjam]

Generally in minutes how far of a drive is it to USH from DLR?

 

[meggles]

Generally in minutes how far of a drive is it to USH from DLR?

Totally depends on the timing. If there's low traffic maybe an hour? If there's heavy traffic, 2+ hours?

 

[GooniesAndy]

I can't imagine a whole vacation centered around Universal Studios in LA, but I guess for me it would depend on my timing. Even though we are dying to see it, we are going to wait to check out Harry Potter Land until a weekday after school starts back up in the fall. If Universal Studios reached capacity the day they added the Fast and the Furious moment to the tram, I can only imagine how terrible it will be for an extended period of time after Harry Potter opens up. On the other hand, once the shorter term closures finish up, DLR won't really have THAT much shut down. We were there yesterday and even with the extra closures we didn't come close to doing everything even just in Disneyland. Granted, it was offpeak weekday park hours, but we were going nonstop and didn't venture across the esplanade.

 

[sheetz]

Maybe once the Harry Potter section is open Universal will be a two day adventure. .

After Potter opens I'd say calling it a full 1 day park would be still be generous. You'd be hard pressed to find a theme park anywhere else with as little to do as USH. DHS and Walt Disney Studios Paris might come close, but those are part of much larger resorts.

 

[Canuck16]

We have done USH twice on a Disney trip and both times have left without spending a full day.

There is no way we could do an entire trip centered around USH even with HP.

 

[calilou]

I agree about trying to do just one day at USH and the rest at DLR.

I'll add that we were just at DLR this weekend, and I was expecting to be overwhelmed by the "pardon our dust" factor. I was pleased to find that it wasn't that intrusive at all. Not sure if it will get worse as the year goes by, but I doubt it. We missed Mickey's Railroad the most, but weren't bothered by anything else.

 

[StormyCA]

This is my dilemma, too. My son wants to see WWoHP (and so do I), but I'm just not 'sold' on it being a destination. I get motion sickness (SM, ST, and CS are no-gos for me) and from what I've read, a great number of rides at USH will be 'off limits' for me, and who knows what the ticket prices will be once Potter opens! At least at DL there are enough rides to make the price worthwhile, even with the few I can't ride.