Realistically how many days to do Universal?

[vacation_junkie]

We are going to venture of our normal "Disney" Path and do Universal this time. I am not sure on how many days we should purchase as far as park tickets... is 1 day enough at each park? 2 days? 4 day pass? We will be going in January so it shouldn't be too busy!!!

Thoughts

 

[artesian]

We always get through it in 2 but the kids want the 3rd to reride their favorites. Last trip in Aug was 3 in Universal and 5 in WDW

 

[Detailor]

We are going to venture of our normal "Disney" Path and do Universal this time. I am not sure on how many days we should purchase as far as park tickets... is 1 day enough at each park? 2 days? 4 day pass? We will be going in January so it shouldn't be too busy!!!

Thoughts

Going during a potentially cold weather period would probably reduce the possible time that you'd spend in the two parks. Rides like the Ripsaw Falls log flume ride, Jurassic Park and the Popeye raft water rides at Islands of Adventure would probably be out and you might think twice about the Hulk and Dragons coasters at IOA and the new Rip Ride Rockit coaster at the Studios, if the air temperature is really cool. So if you don't go on some of those popular rides AND get to the parks at or around opening you might be able to do both parks in two days. Generally, though, I think that three days might make more sense if you plan to try to do everything - shows, rides, attractions - even in January. There may be things that you want to do more than once. Of course, if you want to go back for a third day and have some things to see or do in both parks you'd need the two park ticket feature.

I'd suggest that you go to the Universal/Islands forum here on the Disboards for some expert advice.

Dick Taylor

 

[W8n4night]

Depends greatly on ages and interests but my family 51, 46, 21 and 12 did literally everything in two relatively full days from opening until say 5-6 p.m.

That being said, this was our first trip and following our second trip there this past February were able to glean things a bit and having done that are quite sure (again depending on season, we usually are there a week before or after the Presidents Day weekend) that we could hit the vast majority of what we want to hit most in the two parks in a very full single day next year.

Hope this helps, if you want more specific details as to what we do for rides and shows let me know and it might frame things out better for you against your circumstances.

 

[happily single]

We went last April vacation and were "done" with everything in 2 1/2 days. Well, not "Done" as in we did it. "Done" in the sense we did everything we wanted to do but decided Universal was NOT for us. We Love Disney!

 

[Mommytwotwins]

We went in October and did 1 day in each park. Crowds were not bad at all so not much waits. We did everything and were done between 5-6pm both days. We had a party of 7 with 4 adults and 3 eight year olds. We could have done a 3rd day but just to go back to do our favs and I did not want to spend the extra $$

 

[pigletto]

I would say 2 days is enough to feel like you've seen most of what you want to see.
3 days is ideal for going back and doing your favourites again on the last day. We are staying onsite for a few nights this time so we can take our time and just enjoy it all rather than feeling like we need to be on a tight schedule.
If we were offsite I would limit it to 2 days for us because we also go to Disney for 6 or 7 days.

 

[JessLCH]

2 days is plenty. We were there 4 days which was too long. Go to WWoHP about an hour or so before closing for short lines.

 

[disneysteve]

We went in August 2010 after WWOHP opened and covered both parks very well in 2 days. Got to ride everything we wanted and did several rides more than once.

 

[Darcy03231]

Well, I can easily spend a week there, but for most people you can do each park in one day. If you can manage it, three days is best so you have enough time to do anything you may have missed or re-ride your favorites.

 

[gabzee]

It does depend on the ages of the people in your party. If you are traveling with a 5 yr old there is not going to be as much to do as if you were traveling with an 8 yr old. With that said, I would spend at least two days there but if you can I would do three days. You can do 1 day per park but it is nice to have a 3rd day to go back and do whatever you missed as well as your favorites! Enjoy!

 

[dtum]

We went last April vacation and were "done" with everything in 2 1/2 days. Well, not "Done" as in we did it. "Done" in the sense we did everything we wanted to do but decided Universal was NOT for us. We Love Disney!

Have to agree. Two days was plenty. We can say "been there, done that," but doubt we will ever return. The best rides were the water rides and being January, that might be a little chilly because you get totally soaked on them.

 

[puffkin]

We went in October and did everything in 2 days (1 day per park...the park hopping IMHO is a waste). I think the only thing we missed was Rip Ride Rocket and the Graveyard Revue. Oh, and Cat in the Hat was closed and we chose not to do Dr. Doom. Saw and rode everything else.

My DS was 5 at the time and 49" so he could do most of the bigger rides. If he wasn't 48" it would have definitely limited the amount of stuff we could do. I do enjoy Universal a lot, the rides are top notch. But you just don't get that repeatability factor like at Disney. It is an every 3-4 year park for us (although I do love the Frozen Butterbeer....that is almost worth the price of admission alone!).