Many Universal Questions

[Jsme]

Let me start by saying I have been only once and that was the first year it was opened.

I am now in the process of gathering information to see if this is a vacation my family would like to do next summer.

I have many questions.

1. Prices of admission
2. Are there any deals for admission
3. Please tell me about Universal and Island of Adventures.
4. I heard that they now are doing early admission. Can anyone tell me about this?
5. Are there any packages out there for hotel and parks.

 

[Melisa1]

try going to their website at www.usf.com
that will answer most of your questions.

 

[aztecgoods]

Most of your questions can get answered by going to their website, with maps too of the parks and pictures. You may also want to cruise this site for lots of other photos too will give you a good idea of what they are about. U and IOA 2 seperate parks, but on the same property, together with CityWalk and 3 very nice hotels. I would recommend you staying at one of the onsite hotels for your stay in order to get the room-key fast passes for the rides so you won't have to wait in line. Plus there are just a lot of advantages to staying on site. I would recommend about 4 days and nights at U and then do another 3 or 4 at Disney.

The Universal old park and the Islands of Adventure are arguably the best 2 theme parks in the world. I like them better than Disney although I typically do both, and they are on a similar par level. But both in my opinion are superior to the 6-flags and Busch Gardens parks. The old Uni park is mainly about their movies, the theme "ride the movies," they have a great new Mummy ride, Men In Black, Twister, Jaws, ET and others. IOA is different. It has different themed areas, one that looks like Jurassic Park out of the movie, a Super Hero Island full of comic book stuff, a Dr. Suess themed area, a area called Lost Continent that looks kinda like the ruins from Atlantis or something mythical, a Toon Lagoon section and a Port of Entry section. I personally think IOA is the best out of all of them, so I typicall spend more time there.

 

[Jsme]

I have already been to their website. I just thought someone might be able to address my questions on a more personal level.

 

[JzeroT1437]

Let me start by saying I have been only once and that was the first year it was opened.

I am now in the process of gathering information to see if this is a vacation my family would like to do next summer.

I have many questions.

1. Prices of admission
2. Are there any deals for admission
3. Please tell me about Universal and Island of Adventures.
4. I heard that they now are doing early admission. Can anyone tell me about this?
5. Are there any packages out there for hotel and parks.

1) Admission prices vary and seem to be changing all the time. I think I've finally got my trip all planned out (it's in about 3 weeks) and in the time between thinking about it and buying tickets, the ticket availability and prices changed all crazy-like. Originally, you could only buy a 1-Day 1-Park pass, a 2-Day 2-Park Pass, or an Annual Pass online. The 2D2P pass was extremely expensive (about 100-110 I think,) but they recently changed all this. Now you can buy a 2-Park Unlimited Pass for $85. Since Universal doesn't offer a 1 Day 2 Park Pass online, and since the Unlimited Pass gives you unlimited park-hopping access to both parks for 7 days, I'd say the $85 pass is the best deal. I'm pretty sure this is only available through online purchase.

2) If you look through the message board here, I'm pretty sure there is a link to the site for government workers to purchase their tickets. The poster was kind enough to supply a code to use, and these individuals get access to special prices and ticket-types not typically sold online (such as 1-Day 2-Park passes for about $60. Wish I'd had it when I was shopping around.)

3) Haven't been since about 11 years ago, so I can't help out. I did purchase the Express Plus pass in the hopes that I could get through all the rides I wanted as quickly as possible. The Miss insists we get back to Disney ASAP. Also, when I went last time, the King Kong ride was open, which is one of my best memories of that park. It's closed now. The park's also supposed to be closing Back To The Future sometime very soon (within the next two months.) If it's open when you get there, ride it. It's also one of my favs from that park.

4) I don't really understand this. I think you're talking about the early-bird admission thing that they just started on their web site. If that's so, it's mostly that which I alluded to in question #1. Universal has finally caught up in online ticket availability, and decided to drop prices some.

5) Yes, there are. The Portofino Bay Hotel seems to offer packages starting at $259, and these packages include passes to the parks with Express Ride access priveleges built in. This means that you don't have to wait in line for Universal's Fastpass thing if you stay on-site. I'm kind of starting to wish I'd stayed there and not at Disney this time, if simply for the quietness and Express pass thing. This'd be a cool thing for Disney to look into--but they do have a lot more hotels, so I guess it'd make fastpass not as fast if they did.

Hope this helped some.