Universal Florida rookie

[weeksid]

I am planning on going to Orlando in late September. Is it possible to see both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in one day given that it's a slow time of year?

 

[macraven]

I am planning on going to Orlando in late September. Is it possible to see both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in one day given that it's a slow time of year?

if you go the last week of september, stay with tuesday or wednesday for minimum crowds.

stay away from the weekend.
hhn should be happening on the friday and saturday.
the studios will close at 5:00 those days with ioa closing at 7:00 pm.

should be a good time in the parks.
start with ioa, skip over to the studios until they close and then return to ioa for the last few hours.
parry hotter section usually thins out at the end of the day.

you could easily see the highlights of both parks.
you might miss out on some shows and rides but can always hit those on another visit.

 

[ky07]

if you go the last week of september, stay with tuesday or wednesday for minimum crowds.

stay away from the weekend.
hhn should be happening on the friday and saturday.
the studios will close at 5:00 those days with ioa closing at 7:00 pm.

should be a good time in the parks.
start with ioa, skip over to the studios until they close and then return to ioa for the last few hours.
parry hotter section usually thins out at the end of the day.

you could easily see the highlights of both parks.
you might miss out on some shows and rides but can always hit those on another visit.

 

[RMulieri]

You can see the HILIGHTS of each, but not all of them.Universal Studios is a little harder to do then IOA since the studios is alot of shows.Some of the shows only run a few times a day in the off season and they often run at the same time.The other thing is that Halloween Horror Nights starts and that closes the Studios EARLY

 

[AJA]

As the pp's have said, hit the highlights first. You can always go back and pick up a few of the shows or lesser rides if you have time. Also keep in mind since it's a slow time of year park hours are reduced (and HHN will reduce them even further at the Studios). We went in Sept last year and general public park opening was at 9 am. You'll have 8-10 hours to see everything.

 

[trishwal]

I'm also a Universal rookie but have already gotten so many tips from this board, like getting a room at one of the resort for two days of FOTL passes.


The questions I have are, what are the parks like compared to Disney parks? Are they more thrown-together or well thought-out? Are the rides really awesome? Will our 11 and 15 year old be disappointed with the "magic" or are they pretty cool by Six Flags standards? Kids have seen EVERYTHING at the Disney parks, but that was 5 years ago.

And another question for those that have done it both ways - should we do Universal first or Disney first? Or should we sandwich the Universal visit inside of the Disney one? I realize that it's personal preference but I'd like to know what opinions are out there so that we can make the most informed decision.

Thanks!

 

[PDJPrinceCharming]

If it helps here are a year by year comparison of going to Universal the last two years. I only had one day both years, was able to park hop & was there on a Tuesday in the middle of September. Hope this helps.

2010

1. At IOA before rope drop, in before 9. Went left through Toon Lagoon & Jurassic Park & was at WWOHP in 12-15 minutes.
2. Forbidden Journey in main queue with barely even a wait.
3. Flight of the Hippogriff
4. Dragon Challenge- Hungarian Horntail
5. Three Broomsticks for lunch & my first taste of Frozen Butterbeer.
6. Shopped at Zonko's & Honeydukes
7. Left WWOHP
8. Cat in the Hat
9. The Hulk(TM's were wrestling fans & gave me free Express Passes after seeing my Miz shirt)
10. Spiderman- Express Line
11. Left IOA
12. Walked into US around noon
13. The Simpsons
14. Men in Black
15. Jaws
16. Disaster
17. The Mummy
18. Delancey Street to get paid to watch "Perfect Couples" pilot
19. Twister
20. Jimmy Neutron
21. E.T.
22. Terminator 2
23. Leave US
24. Back to IOA
25. Forbidden Journey twice
26. Bought a few more things in the shops & was out of the park around 7.

All in all, nearly everything was a walk-on(save Spiderman which wasn't running SRL & I used Express Passes on it) & I got to hit most of the highlights in one day. HRRR was down for the day or I would've gotten it as well. In comparison, here is one year later.

2011

1. Early Entry at IOA
2. Colossal amount of pics around WWOHP
3. Ollivanders(Were both picked)
4. Forbidden Journey
5. Flight of the Hippogriff
6. Dragon Challenge- Chinese Fireball
7. Three Broomsticks for lunch
8. Left WWOHP
9. Dudley Do Right
9. Spiderman
10. The Hulk
11. Marvel shopping
12. Leave IOA
13. Walked into US a little after noon
14. Men in Black
15. The Mummy
16. Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
17. Leave US
18. Back to IOA, she went back to shopping & I left to go to TNA tapings
19. Spent the remainder of the night at Impact tapings until after close & met her back at HRC for dinner.

Once again, the plan let me hit the highlights save the ones she wasn't interested in but we would've easily had time for them as well. So all in all, September is worth going during & you won't really need Express passes as the lines were always manageable. Once again good luck & hope my touring plan helps. Have a great time!

 

[macraven]

I'm also a Universal rookie but have already gotten so many tips from this board, like getting a room at one of the resort for two days of FOTL passes.


The questions I have are, what are the parks like compared to Disney parks? Are they more thrown-together or well thought-out? Are the rides really awesome? Will our 11 and 15 year old be disappointed with the "magic" or are they pretty cool by Six Flags standards? Kids have seen EVERYTHING at the Disney parks, but that was 5 years ago.

And another question for those that have done it both ways - should we do Universal first or Disney first? Or should we sandwich the Universal visit inside of the Disney one? I realize that it's personal preference but I'd like to know what opinions are out there so that we can make the most informed decision.

Thanks!

if you compare the darkside parks to other places, you won't appreciate the style, ambiance and theme through out the park.

comparing parks against each other takes the fun out of the new adventure.

i did the motherland and six flags for years before i hit the darkside parks. (1993)
the kids and i went in with no thought of comparison and enjoyed the different vibe we felt there.

i have done the darkside in the middle of the motherland trips and at the end of the motherland stays.
we prefer doing UO at the end of disney.

with your kids' ages, UO could be fun for them.
check out the map of the parks so you can see what movies are represented in the parks. you'll have an idea of the ride theme then.

do the entire que of some of the rides to catch everything about the ride theme.
mummy, dr doom, hulk, spiderman, MIB are some of them that have the ride theme carried out in the regular lines.

what worked best of our group was to make it two separate vacations.
did disney first on site there, then moved to the universal hotels onsite.

we did disney commando style and universal at a very relaxing pace taking in everything.

the one comparison i will share is the time involved.
at disney we had to do busses everywhere from the hotel.
nothing is walkable to the parks on where we stayed at the value resort.

at universal, it is walkable, about a 5 minute walk from one park to the other.
short walk to citywalk from the parks.
if you stay onsite, you can use the water taxis from the hotel to the parks.
if you drive in, the walk from the garage will be the longest walk of anything once you hit the parks.

if you stay onsite, you'll have plenty of time to get it all in on a 2 day visit.
if you stay offsite, be there early before the park opens and stay until it closes.
for offsite, depending on the dates you go can determine if you will be hitting the highlights of the parks or be able to go at a slow pace and catch everything.

if you avoid going offsite on weekends/saturdays, it will be better for you crowdwise.

it is spectulated that hhn will begin the end of september.
the studios will close at 5 with ioa closing probably at 7 on hhn dates.

 

[trishwal]

O ancient one.. with your plethora of posts.... Motherland...darkside parks....and thank you for only using a smattering of abbreviations....it feels as though I must have mentioned He Who Must Not Be Named... (!)

We'll be visiting Universal with park hopper passes two days, staying at Royal Pacific (RPR, right?) that Monday night. Coming in to Orlando on Sunday, keeping our stuff at Bonnet Creek from Sunday - Saturday AM and will probably do the Disney parks a little more commando (may hit both water parks one day also!). It will be nice to do Universal at a slower pace.

I agree that the best thing to do is to enjoy the vibe, but I did want to know what that was like since I've never been there.......

 

[AJA]

O ancient one.. with your plethora of posts.... Motherland...darkside parks....and thank you for only using a smattering of abbreviations....it feels as though I must have mentioned He Who Must Not Be Named... (!)

We'll be visiting Universal with park hopper passes two days, staying at Royal Pacific (RPR, right?) that Monday night. Coming in to Orlando on Sunday, keeping our stuff at Bonnet Creek from Sunday - Saturday AM and will probably do the Disney parks a little more commando (may hit both water parks one day also!). It will be nice to do Universal at a slower pace.

I agree that the best thing to do is to enjoy the vibe, but I did want to know what that was like since I've never been there.......

The vibe is not like Disney. It's much more relaxed, not really "MAGICAL" and what I mean by that is it's more a go at your own pace, no "magical" CM's helping with themeing, not as character driven, etc. We actually like UN better for a relaxing vacation vibe.

ETA: if you have older kids the rides at UN are MUCH better than Disney for them, they will have a blast! Tons of cool rides, water rides, huge drops, roller coasters, simulators (that are really good) rides they can compete with each other for best score, etc, etc.

If you are a Harry Potter fan it is AWESOME the themeing there is incredible!

You will LOVE staying on site and the express pass. IMO it's hard to go from front of the line express pass to waiting in line at other theme parks....

 

[trishwal]

Thank you all for the great advice - I do think that this trip will be much more Universal-driven; not even planning on buying Disney tickets until we get there - just in case we get theme-parked out. We were fortunate enough to use Chase Visa rewards to get 8 Universal single day park to park passes for the equivalent of $400 (Chase has since realized they were GIVING them away and have adjusted the price, wahh).

So, any rides that you would recommend riding 2-3 times just 'cuz we can?

 

[christa112]

We are also Universal Newbies. We looking to go in 2013 probably late August. My hope is Universal (both parks), Sea World and Discovery Cove. I was thinking 2 days for Sea World, 3 days for Universal parks devote one day to each park and then hit our fav park a 2nd time and the Discovery Cove. Is one day doable for each park? We will get there when they open and spend the entire day there.

 

[macraven]

We are also Universal Newbies. We looking to go in 2013 probably late August. My hope is Universal (both parks), Sea World and Discovery Cove. I was thinking 2 days for Sea World, 3 days for Universal parks devote one day to each park and then hit our fav park a 2nd time and the Discovery Cove. Is one day doable for each park? We will get there when they open and spend the entire day there.

we don't know when something new will open up at the darkside.
when that would happen, it could change the touring possibilities that most of us usually recommend.

if the parks are the same without any new additions as they are now, 3 days at the darkside would be fine.

 

[christa112]

Thanks

we don't know when something new will open up at the darkside.
when that would happen, it could change the touring possibilities that most of us usually recommend.

if the parks are the same without any new additions as they are now, 3 days at the darkside would be fine.

 

[canadiankim]

Thank you all for the great advice - I do think that this trip will be much more Universal-driven; not even planning on buying Disney tickets until we get there - just in case we get theme-parked out. We were fortunate enough to use Chase Visa rewards to get 8 Universal single day park to park passes for the equivalent of $400 (Chase has since realized they were GIVING them away and have adjusted the price, wahh).

So, any rides that you would recommend riding 2-3 times just 'cuz we can?

My families favourites to ride are Forbidden Journey(FJ), The Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Dudley Doright, Popeye & Blutos, and Jurasic Park all in Islands of Adventure (IOA)

It's been a while since we were last at UO but we liked Men In Black (MIB) and Revenge. RRR wasn't open last time but we are looking forward to doing it this time.

We will be there the same time as you so lets hope for low crowds and lots of sunshine!

 

[2girlsmom]

For IOA we love Hulk, Spidey, dh likes Doom tower (I HATE it), Popeye (be warned, you get VERY wet), Jurassic Park, FJ, Hippogriffs, Dragons, Cat in the Hat. We also do LIKE the overhead train in Seuss and Poseiden's Fury.

For USF, we love MIB, Simpsons, ET, Mummy. dh is the only one who has been able to ride RRR so far, everytime I have been the lines were either shut down for repairs or ridiculously long, the time dh rode, I took the kids to ET and 60 minutes wait for RRR ended up taking the adults 120 minutes at least as the ride went down twice while they were in line.