Help Universal Newbie ???'s

[Cynt]

I had our 7 day vacation planned at CSR in WDW, May 14 - 20, 2006. My friend tells me today at church she also wants to go to Universal Studios while in Orlando. I've never been to Universal so of course this evening I jump on line to figure out what this Universal Studios is all about. The first thing I realize is that it's actually two parks and now we might need to add a day to our vacation so we can visit both Universal and IOA. It seems like adding another day might be our best bet. I'm trying to figure all of this out and need your assistance and thoughts.

QUESTIONS
I'm trying to decide which park should we visit 1st, WDW or US?

Should we stay two days at Universal Studios Resorts and the remaining days at WDW? Or stay all 7 days at WDW and rent a car to go to Universal? We like to have our own transportation so we will rent a car.

Which park is better, US and IOA?
Is visiting one over the other OK or do we need to plan on visiting both parks? If so, which one should we visit?

I feel like I'm starting over...I need to book ADR, hotel (maybe), purchase tickets. UGH!?!?! The FUN continues. This is turning out to be a vacation of a life time.

I'm now considering staying off site. NOT!!!

 

[lindalinda]

If you can stay on-site at Universal, by all means do it, because you get front of the line perks. I would definetly do WDW first, then go to Universal. If you wanted to you could just stay 1 night on-site, check in early and use your front-of-the-line perks on 2 days. Do you have kids and how old are they? This is a big factor in which parks you should go to.

 

[Cynt]

No children. My best friend and I. Tell me more about front of the line perks.

 

[lindalinda]

If you stay at one of the on-site hotels, you use your room key to go to the "express pass" lane at all the rides. This is a HUGE perk. No hour long waits on anything. You can also use your room key to make all your purchases in the park, and have it charged to your room. (food drinks, even souveniers). Universal is more adult-oriented than disney, but if you havent been to either, you'd probly like them both. I do, but I like universal much better personally.

 

[Cynt]

Thanks Linda. I'm pretty sure we'll stay at Universal the last couple of days. The FOTL perk alone is worth it.