How many days? park tickets..

[mom2kaj]

I'm planning a July trip and currently have 4 day park hoppers to Disney, but also plan to check out Universal for the 1st time. I was originally thinking of getting 3 day park to park tickets, but see universal has a deal on 5 day park to park. I'm staying off site 8 days/7 nights. I wasn't planning to get express passes. With a good touring plan could we really accomplish everything in 3 days, or is the extra $70 to get 5 day tickets worth having a little more leisure to not feel I need to be in park all day? I pretty much know the ins and outs of Disney, but have no idea what to expect at Universal. Thanks in advance!

 

[Owl X]

If you get Express passes, you can do all the attractions in the Universal parks in 2 days.

Without Express passes, you might be able to in 3 days if you visit during Lighter crowds.
Crowds may be heavy during weekends in July though.

 

[bobbie68]

Hi we are July visitors and are usually there for a week and it includes a weekend. I have to be honest it will be very busy at that time. An example last July Minion Mayhem (popular ride) was a 90 minute wait all day. Most of the other popular ones were at least 60-90. The express pass would cut that down to about 30 minutes. We will only go with the express pass especially that time of year. You could do a lot in 3 days but maybe not everything. You would be able to do what you want of course more with the 5 day however, you will still have to wait in long lines. Even if you do spread it out you will have to wait in lines.

If you have any ideas of possibly buying the express pass when you are there because of crowds there is another option.We mention a lot on here to think about a throw away room for a night. We did this last summer with Royal Pacific Resort. We booked one night and got express passes for our check in day and check out day for 4 of us. It was so worth it. We were staying at Cabana bay for the whole week. We ended up going over to the resort to chill in the room for a bit and check out the resort. We didn't bring anything over but we could have.

 

[mom2kaj]

Thanks for the input! I'm considering coming a day sooner and booking a night at RPR to get express passes and extend our time to use 9 days of park passes. We'll be making a 13 hour drive day of check in if so. I'm not sure how we'll feel to go to a park that evening so I feel like first day of express pass may be a wash so to speak. I suppose it's still a savings with one day of express passes that next day.

 

[macraven]

Thanks for the input! I'm considering coming a day sooner and booking a night at RPR to get express passes and extend our time to use 9 days of park passes. We'll be making a 13 hour drive day of check in if so. I'm not sure how we'll feel to go to a park that evening so I feel like first day of express pass may be a wash so to speak. I suppose it's still a savings with one day of express passes that next day.

Think about going to the offsite hotel you have booked already.

Stay there the first night you arrive.
Follow what bobbie68 posted to you.

Book a throw away room for the 2nd day and check in early to the UO hotel.
This way you will have two full days of unlimited ep if you book one of the deluxe hotels onsite.

You'll be so refreshed to have a full nights sleep after a 13 hour drive to orlando.
Stay that next day at the parks.