Please help with touring plan - staying offsite

[Lisa P.]

Friends are visiting tonight, to get suggestions on touring USO & IoA. I hope to help them out, but I've only visited USO once, years ago, and never IoA! Please help.


Their blended family (2 adults and 4 kids ages 9-16) will be staying at an area timeshare resort for a week in late June, for their first (only?) family vacation to Orlando - ever!

They really want to spend ~3 days at Universal, maybe a day at Sea World --or-- a day at Magic Kingdom (for nostalgia's sake). Relaxation time & the resort pool are high priority as well.

1. Suggestions for the cheapest admission costs?

2. How are the crowds likely to be?

3. Are there park maps online which may be downloaded and printed out?

4. Suggestions for a tourplan, to hit the most popular attractions first, for the shortest waits and to make the best use of occasional Express tix?

Thank you very much for any recommendations!!!

 

[ksdave]

It will be pretty crowded.
First day, go to Hulk and Spiderman in IOA as early as possible (right at opening). Also try and hit Dueling Dragons and Jurassic River as soon as possible. Plan to get very wet on Dudley and on Bluto. Use Universal Express as much as possible for the big attractions (Hulk, Spidey, DD, JPRA) and fill waiting times with smaller attractions. Lunch at Mythos is a must and the Sinbad show is a must see.
Next day, hit US at opening and head strainght for MIB and BTTF. Shrek is probably going to be open by then, so that may be very crowded too. Again, use Express as much as possible for MIB, BTTF, Twister and T2-3D to avoid the 45-60 minute waits.
There are some really good websites out there for additional info, such as http://www.usoinfo.com, http://www.usf.i8.com, http://www.orlandorocks.com, and http://www.ioacentral.com These sites will give you lots of great info on the attractions available, the opening and closing times, tips, etc. You can also look at my site for a few pics, although I haven't put up pics from this year yet.

 

[The Sweetness]

I got ( from the official uni site) 5 day passes to USO/IOA for $89 each. The passes are for 5 consecutive days, starting with the first time you use the tix. Also, FYI, from the official Sea World site, I got 2 day passes for about $50 each. Not too shabby