Enough to do for a whole week?

[mh1973]

We have been going to Disney the last few years and wanted to do something different this year, so we are thinking of spending a week at the Royal Pacific. Will there be enough to do for a whole week there? We would probably spend at least 4 days at parks, probably not complete full days.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

We have been going to Disney the last few years and wanted to do something different this year, so we are thinking of spending a week at the Royal Pacific. Will there be enough to do for a whole week there? We would probably spend at least 4 days at parks, probably not complete full days.

We just got back last night and 2 days at Universal was enough for us. We were really bored with both parks. There are a lot of motion simulator rides and we don't care for that type of thing. I think Universal is a lot like Hollywood Studios. I get bored at that park too. For some reason, I can never get enough of the Magic Kingdom, Epcot or even Animal Kingdom.

 

[goofy2008]

Us too .. bored very quick.. I can go do other things ;
Sea world,
the is a bus to tampa for bush gardens.

 

[tarrbear]

I do LOVE Universal, but its not a place I'd want to spend a full week, have you considered adding Sea World and/or Busch Gardens like a previous poster said.

 

[ldmilton]

I think the answer really depends on what you like to do. DH and I love coasters and simulator rides. We also prefer the convenience of being able to walk to both parks and to City Walk...no waiting for buses!!

Four days in the parks will give you the opportunity to take your time and and do your favorites over and over again. If you plan pool time into your vacation, you are in for a treat. The pool areas at all three hotels are fun and relaxing...but all very very different. Unlike Disney, pool hopping is ok. We stayed at Royal Pacific but spent our pool time at Hard Rock.

We stayed 6 days and it was wonderful..never a boring moment. Lots of time to relax. We spent one afternoon just strolling through both parks soaking up the atmosphere. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time.

 

[Nickarooney]

Different strokes for different folks - we made it half a day at Sea World, make it about that long at Epcot, and my son asked not to make him go back to Magic Kingdom ever again. We love US/IOA, but we also love big rides, roller coasters and motion simulators. My son at 11 now feels about Universal the way he used to for Disney. May change again one of these days, but right now we can do 4 or 5 days at US/IOA and be really happy.

 

[mh1973]

I think the answer really depends on what you like to do. DH and I love coasters and simulator rides. We also prefer the convenience of being able to walk to both parks and to City Walk...no waiting for buses!!

Four days in the parks will give you the opportunity to take your time and and do your favorites over and over again. If you plan pool time into your vacation, you are in for a treat. The pool areas at all three hotels are fun and relaxing...but all very very different. Unlike Disney, pool hopping is ok. We stayed at Royal Pacific but spent our pool time at Hard Rock.

We stayed 6 days and it was wonderful..never a boring moment. Lots of time to relax. We spent one afternoon just strolling through both parks soaking up the atmosphere. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time.

This what I was thinking, lots of pool and relaxing time. And knowing that I can pool hop that will give us a different pool each day. What I meant by enough to do I meant at the resorts themselves. Still in the planning stages, who knows, we may do half Disney and half Universal. I love Sea World but my husband doesn't so that's kind of out.

 

[cvjw]

We stayed 5 nights at the HRH a few years ago, and got bored of the Universal parks after a couple of days. My boys are coaster fanatics, but with the FOTL pass, they had ridden everything lots of times. We were missing Disney so bad that we went to EPCOT for the day, and bought everyone one day tickets at $70 each just to be at Disney! For us, a couple of days at Universal is perfect. With the FOTL pass, you don't need that much time to experience all the attractions.

 

[jackal]

This what I was thinking, lots of pool and relaxing time. And knowing that I can pool hop that will give us a different pool each day. What I meant by enough to do I meant at the resorts themselves. Still in the planning stages, who knows, we may do half Disney and half Universal. I love Sea World but my husband doesn't so that's kind of out.

mh1973, we are in the same boat as you exactly. We currently have 9 nights scheduled at RPH. We have one day at DC and one at SW, maybe 2. I am concerned whether we will have enough to do too. My dd8 is not a coaster fan at all, but she loves to hang by the pools. My other DD and DH love coasters. I was considering doing Universal for 5 nights and Disney for 4 nights, but it's so expensive when you have to add on tickets to disney too. Staying at one location for longer is definitely cheaper than splitting it up and having to purchase 2 different ticket packages.

 

[WDWisTheBest]

mh1973, we are in the same boat as you exactly. We currently have 9 nights scheduled at RPH. We have one day at DC and one at SW, maybe 2. I am concerned whether we will have enough to do too. My dd8 is not a coaster fan at all, but she loves to hang by the pools. My other DD and DH love coasters. I was considering doing Universal for 5 nights and Disney for 4 nights, but it's so expensive when you have to add on tickets to disney too. Staying at one location for longer is definitely cheaper than splitting it up and having to purchase 2 different ticket packages.

I just can't imagine going to Universal parks for more than three days, even considering the worst crowd conditions. The hotels onsite are great, especially if you love to hang out at the pools.

 

[nytimez]

Two days is enough, although I like having a third. I usually do a day in each park and then hit my favorites in each on the final day.

 

[Metro West]

Two days is enough, although I like having a third. I usually do a day in each park and then hit my favorites in each on the final day.

That's usually the best plan.

 

[Juliegirl1]

Yikes - y'all have me concerned now. I was going to take my son in June for 11 days. This is what I was thinking:

Day 1: Universal
Day 2: IOA
Day 3: Discovery Cove
Day 4: Seaworld
Day 5: Busch Gardens
Day 6: US/IOA
Day 7: Aquatica
Day 8: Gatorland/Airboat ride
Day 9: either US/IOA or Seaworld/Aquatica
Day 10: Beach
Day 11: US/IOA or Seaworld/Aquatica

Should I ditch the extra US/IOA and Busch Gardens and Seaworld/Aquatica days and just go ahead and get a three or four day pass to Disney? We've done Disney 5 or 6 times before but not the others but do love it. I was going to do the Flex ticket. BTW my son will be 11 on this trip. He was disappointed at first when I told him we weren't doing Disney at all except for Downtown Disney.

 

[Metro West]

Yikes - y'all have me concerned now. I was going to take my son in June for 11 days. This is what I was thinking:

Day 1: Universal
Day 2: IOA
Day 3: Discovery Cove
Day 4: Seaworld
Day 5: Busch Gardens
Day 6: US/IOA
Day 7: Aquatica
Day 8: Gatorland/Airboat ride
Day 9: either US/IOA or Seaworld/Aquatica
Day 10: Beach
Day 11: US/IOA or Seaworld/Aquatica

Should I ditch the extra US/IOA and Busch Gardens and Seaworld/Aquatica days and just go ahead and get a three or four day pass to Disney? We've done Disney 5 or 6 times before but not the others but do love it. I was going to do the Flex ticket. BTW my son will be 11 on this trip. He was disappointed at first when I told him we weren't doing Disney at all except for Downtown Disney.

You might consider switching one of the extra Universal days and go to Kennedy Space Center. It's really fascinating and not too far from Orlando. I really think three days is all you'd need at Universal but I think you should keep the other choices you have. If your son really wants to do Disney for a day, I would skip Busch Gardens unless he's a coaster lover and do which ever park he wants to do at Disney.

 

[NPD]

Hey Juliegirl,

I would be done with Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure after two days. I actually ended up going there 4 times in 6 weeks, and I was over it since I've done anything, mostly in a quick amount of time too with no long waits in the parks.

First trip was planned, just a day at IOA, went there in the morning of to meet up with family coming from Philadelphia.

Second trip was planned, do both USF and IOA in one day, spent the day with my wife.

Third trip was planned, did Halloween Horror Nights, which was great.

Fourth trip was unexpected, I won a Holiday Christmas contest on Twitter, so I went with 3 others and did both parks again. We were treated to VIP Grinchmas and Macys Day Parade though, which was a nice shakeup.

But like I said, I would have been completely content with only 2 days for these 2 parks. Halloween Horror Nights was it's own beast, so I loved that, but without that and the Twitter contest winnings, I would not have scheduled another day for a little while. Next time I'm planning to go to Universal is for the next Halloween Horror Nights.

I'd add the Disney tickets if I were you and the costs weren't much different.

 

[SmallWorld71]

We went for 9 days in August:
1 day at Discovery Cove
2 days at SeaWorld
6 days at Universal

We were never bored! I will add that everyone (except me) loves the thrill rides and the motion simulator rides. We are also HUGE Harry Potter fans. We visited WWOHP no less than 5 times and still didn't get our fill of it. My kids also love to swim and had a great time w/ the pool side games at HRH and we also pool hopped to PBH one day.

 

[mareed]

For another data point, 3 years ago we spent 4 days at Universal parks (had FOTL 2 days with 1 night at RPR), and we didn't quite get to do everything we'd like. On our upcoming trip, we'll have 5 days total with 2 FOTL days again (1 hotel night at RPR), and I think it will be just perfect for us.

But, I think we typically spend longer and experience theme parks at a more leisurely rate than most. A short WDW trip for us is 7 days with our typical trips being at least 10 and as long as 16. We'd also spend 2 days at Sea World instead of trying to squeeze everything into 1 day. So, I think your "park personality" comes into play! We're in the linger and repeat group. Linger and repeat things that we really enjoy!

 

[SmallWorld71]

So, I think your "park personality" comes into play! We're in the linger and repeat group. Linger and repeat things that we really enjoy!

Definitely! We really like to check out/ explore all facets of a park including rides and characters. And we like to linger and can have lots of fun in situations that might not seem like there is fun to be had. For example, browsing gift shops and taking fun pictures of DD wearing a Cleopatra Jeweled headpiece or the kids posing in Harry Potter robes for "their house." I think we spent 15 min. in Fievel's Playland just posing for funny pictures and DD was the only one who actually played there. At SW we went to all the shows, tried all the rides and lingered at the exhibits. We are part of the linger and repeat group, too!

 

[Tiggr88]

We used to only spend one day in each park and spent the rest of the time at Disney. Then Disney and US each changed their pricing strategies to try and get people to stay longer at their place ($4 for an additional day's admission at Disney, stay/more play more hotel pricing at US). We skipped US/IOA for a couple of vacations and then last August spent 8 days there. We were definitely not bored.

We spent 2 days at SW. One day we stayed at the resort and pool without going to any park. Couple of travel days where we either did not go to a park or spent just a few hours. The rest were at US/IOA.

When are you going? We went in August when we knew it would be hot. We hate the heat. So we specifically planned a longer vacation so we could tour inthe morning and avoid heat in the afternoon if we wanted. We also wanted to make sure we relaxed while we were touring and it turned out great. Most relaxing and one of the more enjoyable trips we've ever taken.

It didn't hurt that everyone was big HP fans, so we could spend a lot of time in the WWOHP just relaxing with a Butterbeer on the paio behind the Hog's Head and aking in the whole atmosphere.

One day we went in bathing suits so they would treat it like a water park day at IOA. Took the morning and just rode the water rides at Marvel over and over. It was easier that way than to try and ride them once or twice each day. Didn't have to worry about changing, because you don't just get wet, you get soaked on those rides.

If you plan it out and want to have a relaxing type trip while still doing everything as often as you'd like, go for it. If you get bored, you can always take a couple of day trips to Disney, but you'll definitely pay for it. We may have spent a day or two ourselves, but the pricing for one or two day tickets pretty much ruled that out. FYI, most SW tickets get a second day free, so by paying for one day, you get two. I think that is still the case.

If you or your kids are averse to roller coasters and thrill rides, then maybe not. You also may want to at least add a couple of days for SW, other water park or kennedy space center to stretch it out, but you can definitely spend more than 2 - 3 days at US/IOA and not get bored.