First family trip - please help!

[francisca2022]

Hi everyone!

I am planning a family vacation for Feb 2026, 2 adults + 3 kids ages 4, 6, 8. We've never been to universal before so I am hoping I can get your advice on a few things. We will be traveling from abroad for 2 weeks (1 week Disney, 1 week universal). While it's not a "once in a life time" trip, it is going to be a few years before we get back to Orlando.

My initial idea was to book an on-site, value hotel and a 5 day ticket no express. I thought we could do half days, rest days, and we wouldn't be rushing all day. However, now that I've been reading about very long lines at the parks I'm wondering if maybe we should go for plan B.

Plan B would be staying at the premium hotels (the ones that include fast pass) but fewer nights as it's way more expensive. We could do 3 nights there, 3 park days with express, and maybe move to another hotel for the rest of the week. I hate the idea of split stays though as traveling with 3 kids involves a lot of luggage.

A little bit of context:

- My kids love Harry Potter
- I don't think they will do well on longer than 90m waits
- the goal is to do everything the *kids* want to do. I don't care if we don't cover the whole park. They don't know too much about the parks and I'm not planning on watching dozens of YouTube videos with them to get them up to speed
- the cost of the 14 day ticket is only $100 more per person than the 3-day ticket! That seems crazy and it's one of the main reasons I think maybe we just go everyday for a few hours and go back to the hotel when it gets too crowded
- I know the premium hotels do not include express for epic which is a big downside for plan B.

So I guess the question is, would you recommend more days no express, or 3 full days with express pass for two of those days?

Thanks so much in advance!!!

 

[The Gatekeeper]

Unless your trip coincides with the Presidents' Day holiday (Feb. 16), I think you'll be fine with no express. Hagrid's would be the only ride at the legacy parks that may be more than 90 minutes. You could try to be in the front for early entry to get to Hagrid's before the wait pops up but I've tried it with little kids and it did not work. Better to wait for a lunch lull, if that still happens since they implemented express for that ride. You can monitor wait times on the app a few weeks before your trip to try to get a little game plan for your park days.