Need some help with Universal?

[TivoQueen]

I am planning a trip for next summer and have reservations at the Nick Hotel (My kids dream) for 2 nights in July. We would like to hang at the hotel one day and go to Universal for the other day. We cannot decide between Island of Adventure and Universal. There are rides and attraction in each park that we have on our must do lists, but things in each park that we have no interest in seeing. Is it possible to do both parks in one day? They have a ticket option for that. We are a family that does not have a problem with staying out late at night, we like to be on the go constantly. Also, I was reading about the "express pass" option that you can buy? I cannot find a price for that except for the fall. Does anyone know how much this option costs for each ticket in July? I would think this option is definetly worth it expecially if we want to do 2 parks in one day. Any advice would be helpful. We are regular disney goers but want to do something different this summer while we are in Florida.

 

[cheerky]

We have been to Universal many times. I don't think the express pass is worth the extra money. If you have a small child that cannot ride the "big" rides then use the baby/ child swap. It is wonderful at Universal. If you narrow down what rides you want to do then you can probably enjoy both parks in one day. Have fun and don't miss the ET ride- its a goodie!

 

[southernbelle5672]

I have never been to Universal Studios in July but I would say that you could do both parks in one day. You'll probably be tired though.

Which of the rides do you want to go to at Universal/Islands?
In my experience the ones with the longest lines were:
The Mummy
Shrek 4D
Adventures of Spiderman
Dueling Dragon rollercoasters
The Hulk rollercoaster

Try to do those when you first get there or late in the afternoon, like past 5.

Also, a good thing about Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure is that the parks are not that far away from eachother. You can walk to them easily.

 

[danny25]

Hi, in other visits we haven´t buy the express pass and have waited in the lines with no problem but this year we have visited for 3 days universal in May and it was imposible to do the atractions without this pass, I don´t like the idea of spend 110 dollars only for the passes but we haven´t other option because i can´t spend 45 minutes or more of my vacation time to do the lines (and in some atractions the wait was around 90 minutes) hope this help.

 

[ChristusG]

I think it would be very difficult to do both parks in one day. You definitely wont get to see/do much at each park by doing it that way. It all depends on what time both parks stay open to as well. That's just my opinion though. I like to spend my days at one park.

I pick Universal over Islands of Adventure any day. But that depends on what time of rides you enjoy, and whether or not you have young children or not. I do not like fast rides. I think I got on like two rides at Islands of Adventure....and that was in Seuss Landing LOL! So I did not enjoy Islands of Adventure as much as my husband, who likes fast rides.

Also, I think Universal is much more kid friendly. They have the Barney show and interactive area, Fievel's Playland, Curious George's water play area, the ET ride, Shrek, Scooby Doo, etc. We took our then-3 year old to Universal last year and she loved it.

 

[Kay1]

We do both parks all the time but we do skip a lot of attractions. Usually, we start at Universal as early as possible then leave and have lunch on the way to IOA - usually Bubba Gump or Margaritaville.

If you buy the pass and weed out certain attractions, it should not be a problem.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

You could always stay onsite at a Universal hotel. Then your room key works like an unlimited express pass. (the EP's you buy are only once per ride and they scan the card when you enter.)

Just flash your room key and walk in. All 3 are deluxe/Loew's Hotels. We've stayed at all 3 and just love the Hard Rock Hotel. Once you try it you will be so spoiled. My ds8 wants to do Nick hotel but honestly I love the perk of onsite at USO so much I don't really want to stay anywhere else. They are only a 5-10 min walk to the parks or you can take a water taxi if you don't want to walk.

You get your room key right away at check in, even if your room isn't ready so you can get front of line access in the parks. You can also use it again the day you check out so it's 2 days of FOTL for 1 nts. stay.

They offer AAA discount too. We have AP's there and love staying onsite there soooo much more than onsite at WDW. We just went for 4 nts. over Labor Day weekend w/ no WDW at all. Ds11 wanted to "try something different" so we switched to Royal Pacific. We'd have a hard time doing both parks in one day and love certain rides at both parks. We've never waited more than 5 mins with a room key.

It may be too much resort hopping but just an idea. You don't say how old your kids are. This might help.

Also there are Universal boards here on the Dis too. They are all very nice and helpful and can answer any questions.

 

[scrappy5]

We went to both in August. We started at IOA at RD and went through everything and moved onto Universal. We did not have the Express pass and by that time there were 45-60 minute waits for alot of rides at Universal. We ended up doing a few rides and leaving. We then went back during Hurricane Fay and walked on every ride we had missed (no one else was that crazy!). We had the 7 day 2park pass from AAA.

 

[SweetMimi]

I would say that the two parks could be done in 1 day if you have already mapped out what you want to ride and are ok with missing some things. In my opinion, if your kids are small then Universal Studios would probably have a larger number of rides for everyone. If they are older/teens and enjoy roller coasters,etc they'll probably enjoy Islands of Adventure better.

 

[mncherokee]

If you are planning on only hitting certain things in each park, then you could go to both parks in one day. You enter both parks from the same parking ramp so it is an easy walk to both of them.

We had passes that were 2 parks for 7 days. We bought through AAA for $85 last winter and used them in June, so I know you can purchase tickets well in advance of when you would be going.