One Day at US/IOA - Dec 19-30

[fozziepitysthefool]

We (me and DS 16) are staying on Disney property for two full weeks and wanted to spend ONE day at US/IOA, with park hopper. We don't do the big coasters and can only handle so much simulated motion. I know crowds are crazy at Disney during Christmas (especially between Christmas and NY's) and presume the same over at Universal.

This will be our first time at US/IOA and would like to get a good look at it. I am wondering though if we shouldn't wait for our next trip to the Orlando area when it is less busy. We have plenty of time at Disney to work around the crowds and get everything in a few times over... But can't say the same for US/IOA and for $300 or so, I can't afford to have a wasted day.

Any advice you could provide would be most helpful. TY!

 

[Metro West]

This will be our first time at US/IOA and would like to get a good look at it. I am wondering though if we shouldn't wait for our next trip to the Orlando area when it is less busy. We have plenty of time at Disney to work around the crowds and get everything in a few times over... But can't say the same for US/IOA and for $300 or so, I can't afford to have a wasted day.

Wait until you can spend at least two days to fully enjoy the parks instead of rushing through the experience. You can get discounts on multi day tickets but not on single day admissions...Disney is the same way...which is why it's so expensive. Stick to Disney this time.

 

[johde]

It would end up being slightly more expensive, and you'd lose the ability to ride the HE (unless you made it quite a bit more expensive). But, instead of trying to do Universal and Islands of Adventures in 1 day, do it over 4 half days. Spreading it over 4 days would allow you to enjoy more of the simulator rides that you mentioned needing to do in small doses. You could go to Universal in the Morning then return to Disney in the Evening with your FP+ in hand ready to bypass the long lines. Or, when AK closes early you could hop to IOA for the Evening.

A 4 day 1 park per day is only about $20 more than a 1 day park to park ticket. Or for a little over $200 you could get a 14 day 3 park ticket unlimited ticket that would include park hopping and you could pop over to Universal for a Few Hours any time you wanted during your Vacation. https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/universal-studios-florida/#229

But that week is going to be extremely busy at both parks. Without Express Pass and once your FP+'s are used, you're going to be looking at long lines until evening.

 

[fozziepitysthefool]

Thank you both! I suppose it is best to wait until we have more time or until we can have a Universal only vacation.

 

[kathy884]

The 19th and the 20th are projected to be crowd levels of 5 and 6 at those parks, so if you do decide to do Universal on your trip, I would go one of those days. It's downhill from there with mostly crowd level 10 days for the rest of your trip. // By the way, touringplans.com (unofficial guide) has an online Universal subscription for $5, that was super helpful for us in deciding whether for our upcoming trip it would be worth it to do Universal. Could we get in everything we wanted to do? What are lines projected to be? What is a good touring strategy? I love their attraction descriptions and ratings by age group too. We're going at a lower crowd time (OMG -- crowd level 2 projection), have been to the Universal parks before, and aren't super big fans of most of their attractions, so have a shorter list than most people of what we want to do. For us we found that that expensive one day park hopper will be perfect and give us plenty of time to do everything we want. And we really want to see the new HP stuff (looks really incredible).

Have a wonderful time! We absolutely love Disney and are much more into their parks than Universal. All the Orlando theme parks, though, are really excellent, world class.

 

[HM]

What I picked up on in your post was that you don't do rollercoasters and simulators are a problem. Be aware that many of the rides in both parks are based on simulators that move. Do some research before you do go to, to be sure of what you can ride there.