So torn! Is it worth taking a day away from WDW to go over to Universal?

[100acreHiker]

We go to WDW a lot because (like most folks here) we love it. I am taking my mom and boys down this fall, either in Nov or Dec. We are not thrill ride people, so we won't do any roller coasters. The only appeal for us to go over to Universal for a day is to see the Harry Potter stuff. My boys (10 and 7) LOVE HP, but I'm not even sure they are game to do some of the intense HP rides like Forbidden Journey. We'd do the train and Ollivanders and a few of the tamer rides, but mostly we'd just take in the Wizarding World. It would cost us about $750 for that single day, not to mention we'd miss a day of MK or EP (this is only a 4-5 day trip). Not a big deal, as it will be a 4th Disney trip for us, but still. Additionally, if we make time to go to Uni, we have to travel in November, the final week of the Food and Wine fest, which will be more crowded than if we go for a short WDW-only trip, in which case we'd go the first days of December.

Any folks here have advice and thoughts if going to take in the Wizarding World will rock my kids' world enough to justify the cost and change in dates to make it happen? How awesome is it?

 

[CarolynFH]

It is awesome, but not $750 awesome, especially if no one's going to ride Forbidden Journey or Escape from Gringotts. I'd say wait until the boys are older and do want to ride those two, as well as the other thrill rides at US.

 

[JennyDrake]

While it IS neat (and I'm a HP fan), I don't think it will be worth the $$$$ for ONE day. If you take out the Forbidden Journey and the roller coasters, there isn't *that* much there. I went w/ a friend during low crowd time and we were done by mid afternoon.

 

[NJ Goofy]

We just did a one day trip in the middle of our Disney trip in January. I'm glad we did it, and even though we're not really HP fans the HP section of the park was really cool. With that said,we'll probably not do it again any time soon, we spent at least $800 for the one day, pretty steep. I'd also wait until your boys were old enough to go on everything.

 

[melana]

We did one day last October at the end of our 5 day WDW trip. It was a "see if we like it" one day HP centered visit. We were done with what we wanted to do by like 1pm at Universal. We actually stayed at Cabana Bay two nights and got early morning access to HP section and some of the rides outside HP part were open like the Minion ride. We hit it first thing. We had the park to park ticket so we could do both sections and ride the Hogwarts Express.

I am glad we just did the one day. Universal is not for us. The only part we enjoyed was HP.

 

[ITALIANNYC]

Great place

 

[lovethattink]

We go to WDW a lot because (like most folks here) we love it. I am taking my mom and boys down this fall, either in Nov or Dec. We are not thrill ride people, so we won't do any roller coasters. The only appeal for us to go over to Universal for a day is to see the Harry Potter stuff. My boys (10 and 7) LOVE HP, but I'm not even sure they are game to do some of the intense HP rides like Forbidden Journey. We'd do the train and Ollivanders and a few of the tamer rides, but mostly we'd just take in the Wizarding World. It would cost us about $750 for that single day, not to mention we'd miss a day of MK or EP (this is only a 4-5 day trip). Not a big deal, as it will be a 4th Disney trip for us, but still. Additionally, if we make time to go to Uni, we have to travel in November, the final week of the Food and Wine fest, which will be more crowded than if we go for a short WDW-only trip, in which case we'd go the first days of December.

Any folks here have advice and thoughts if going to take in the Wizarding World will rock my kids' world enough to justify the cost and change in dates to make it happen? How awesome is it?

If you go to WDW a lot, I'd suggest going to Universal another trip. If you can, stay a night or two at Universal (especially if you can stay at one that includes front of the line access.)

 

[niffer5150]

it is possible to fill a day with just potterland because it IS that awesome but honestly, if you're not going to ride the rides, i'd wait.

 

[AshleeH]

We've done it on two or three vacations - while I don't think it was a waste, it's not something I'm looking to repeat this year. But I'm a big HP fan and my kids are big Marvel fans, so it was worth it for us.

 

[aggiedog]

No, not for $750. We did 2 days at US last year as part of a school trip. I was thrilled to see the HP area, but was underwhelmed by the rest of the parks. FYI, you can only do the train if you have a ticket that lets you into both US and Islands of Adventure. There are HP areas in both parks that the train connects. Very disappointing they make you pay to be able to do both on the same day.

 

[msk]

First - I LOVE Harry Potter. We made the 10 hour drive one day, spent the night at Universal, went to the park, and drove 10 hours home the following day. My GS's got his invitation to attend Hogwarts on his 11th birthday. We don't do the trill rides either so we were finished by noon. It was good, once we took our Disney rose colored/ high expection glasses off. I loved the butter beer but it was not worth $750.
The really hard part of the trip was not going over to Disney that afternoon. We had promised the rest of the family that we wouldn't go . So we spent the afternoon in Disney Springs as that is not really one of the parks

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

We went for one day this past Jan which also happened to be our first trip to WDW. We thought it would be a once in a lifetime trip (silly us), so we splurged because we have been wanting to go to HP World as well as WDW. It was a terrific day, but we did do the major rides. It was also an expensive day, and now that we've decided we have to visit Orlando again and again, we will save a return trip to Universal just for Universal. WDW turned out to be our fave even though HP world was super cool, so we are doing only WDW our next trip and saving a Universal only trip for sometime in the future.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We used to go all the time but I find staying onsite at WDW makes it really hard to get away so last trip we split on/off site. We love Universal and imo there's so much more to do than HP. In fact, I was going to get APs for Disney but I procrastinated too long and the price went up so I bought APs for Universal. We will be going back in September and
Plan to go at least 2 days then as well and probably to the Halloween Horror Night.
ETA: looking forward to King Kong.

 

[rwdavis2]

Save it until the kids are older and you can spend a couple nights at a Universal hotel to get free Express Passes. It is worth it and there are only 3 thrill rides there. Forbidden Journey is not a coaster but Gringott's could be consider a thrill ride. IMHO, the best Universal attractions are better than anything WDW has and I like going to Disney World.

 

[Anthony1971]

I would wait a few years until your 7 yo is older and make it a US trip only or mostly...
We went last year in NOV for 5 nights as second trip for a week with my 9 YO.. he enjoyed it BUT he will go on big roller coasters at six flags...
I can not say there are any extreme rides at US (both parks) but the coasters only are for the more brave kids... but a lot of fun once they go on and no where near what six flags has.
US is different than Disney i can say good and bad about both... but i will warn that US is not Disney size nor food choices.... on the other hand the food at the US Lowes resorts as well as the resorts themselves are better than what you get at Disney for the money BUT by no means as geared towards children as Disney resorts nor do they have the grounds of the deluxe Disney resorts.... My tip is to stay at Cabana Bay the pools are amazing.. as in one with a great slide and ANOTHER very large quite pool with a very large lazy river off to the side... they have counter service only but the food is VERY good... US park food not so much... the City walk better places only open around 5 otherwise the rest are chain/bar like food quality and style you would expect from house of blues or T-REX.
My son does want to go back and we will likely skip Disney next year -- Maybe do another Nov trip this year..
we own DVC have been going to Disney every year sometimes twice since my son was 5 months old and every other year since the 90's.. getting a little frustrated about the changes/money grab -- happy to pay in reason for something decent -- both of which are becoming harder to come by these days at Disney... do not consider the 13+ dollars for a not so good burger reason add 3.29-3.69 drink...-- not many years ago a much better burger was under 7 and drinks were under 2(less going back)

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Also think $750 is much too much to spend for a one-day trip to basically just see the theming of the HP areas. And if you are traveling from WDW to Universal and back to your WDW hotel, that makes for a pretty long day. I also suggest you wait until you can do a split stay or just a few night Universal trip when your kids are old enough (or brave enough) to do the rides.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

I agree with Anthony1971! We absolutely loved Cabana Bay for the lazy river alone. I've never been the type to head back to the hotel midday because I never wanted to spend any time away from the parks. But Universal is such that 3 days at the parks (with park-to-park hoppers) will give you plenty of time to see both parks at a leisurely pace and still relax some at the hotel. We didn't have the express pass and still didn't feel like the lines were too long even in the middle of summer.

 

[rwdavis2]

For future reference you don't get free Express Pass staying at Cabana Bay.

 

[Parker Clan]

Yes!!! 1,000 times yes. We are also WDW lovers but every summer for the last five years we've done Universal first, then Disney. It is so worth it.
If for nothing else but the magical Harry Potter lands, they're incredible.

 

[Indio]

My family are HUGE Disney fans - been going to the parks for over 20 years, multiple times a year. I went to Universal for the 1st time this past March - it was a short trip - 1 day (with hopper) at Universal and 2 days at Disney. While it was interesting, we wouldn't take 1 day away from an already expensive Disney trip, and spend another $1000 for 1 day at Universal. I would save it and do a long weekend at Universal when your boys are older. Most of the rides there are motion simulators or roller coasters. Really not worth it if you're not doing any of the thrill rides and only want to pretty much walk around and look.