Universal for a week?

[My2CrazyGirls]

I notice a lot of people trying to cram both parks in within 1 day or 2 max. Does anyone ever go to Universal for a whole week? Is there enough to do or would it get old? I haven't been since around 2001 and I know it has changed a lot. We plan to go for 4 days during spring break.....maybe more.

 

[pandv_2000]

We are spending a week at HRH this summer. The most we have done before is 3 nights but we figure with EE and EP we will be able to chill out and enjoy the resorts more if we spend longer there

 

[PurpleMouse]

We just did 4 days there last month. I think we could have easily done a 5th day without being bored but we're huge Harry Potter fans.

 

[schumigirl]

Lol.......we stay for 17/18 nights at RP every year and we never get bored!!

We don't go to Disney, ever, and we love spending most days in the parks......not whole days though. We spend time at the hotel and around Orlando for dinner and Malls and such. We tend to go to either park in the am, have lunch, leave around 2ish, maybe some pool time or a mall then back to parks usually for HHN or spend some time in Citywalk which has a good selection of restaurants as do the hotels.

We love to repeat rides as much as we can. The parks are beautiful and have added so much over the last years you will be blown away if you haven't been since 2001...........even if you're not a huge Harry Potter fan the new additions in both parks are phenomenal and well worth spending a lot of time in. We never once used EE as having EP and staying for so long rendered that unnecessary.......we love being able to relax, not plan anything and just enjoy every second.

I don't think you would be bored at all with a week, especially staying onsite

 

[damo]

Yup, we've done it for a week. It's wonderful. It's actually a vacation!!!!

 

[coastgirl]

We've had 14 day passes twice, and will again this year (tho we are only in Orlando 11 days--it's still a fabulous deal). We like to dip in for a few hours, find the least-crowded part of the day, and not beat ourselves out running from dusk til dawn. (We can't anyway, we don't function for more than a couple of hours at a time in that heat--Canadian, eh? ;-) ) You'll find plenty to do, and you won't have that panicky feeling about checking things off!

 

[macraven]

i stay onsite for 13 days.
it doesn't get old for me.
never boring taking it all in at a slow pace.

i make it a slow paced relaxing vacation.
do the parks for parts of the day, relax at the pools, take in city walk, spend one day just for the water rides, a day of shopping, a day for only walking around to take pictures, hit hhn for evening entertainment, etc

if a ride breaks down, no problem.
i'll be back later that day or the next to ride it.

even though i have the express pass, i do the walk thru for the regular lines for Mummy, MIB, Dr Doom, Hulk, ET, Spiderman for their story lines at least once.

you miss all of the story lines and details when using the express lines.
also try to catch the interegation room at the mib.

just the opposite when i am at the motherland resort and parks.
up at dawn and rush until i go to bed.

i stay at the motherland about 5 nights before i transfer to the darkside resort.

when at UO, it is a totally relaxing vacation each year.
no schedule to keep, no adr's to make, no planning in advance on what park to hit or where to eat until that day.

it's low key and laid back type of vacation for me.
no stress involved and i come home ready to go back to a normal daily routine.

 

[HM]

I've done five days, but I spend a lot time at the pool when I have that long a trip. Other trips have been 1-3 days. Last month we did three days and still spent our afternoons at the pool since the weather was so warm. Still did everything we wanted.

 

[TXTransplant]

We went for three full days the Sat-Mon before Thanksgiving. I thought that was more than enough and that I was ready to come home. But then I got home and read about all of the things we "missed" in the WWoHP areas! LOL! The weather was pretty bad during our visit, though, so we couldn't enjoy the pools at all, and CityWalk wasn't so much fun in the rain. We took an extra day to go over to Kennedy Space Center to see the Atlantis exhibit, and that was fantastic! All of the Universal hotels have a rental car desk in the lobby, so it was super easy to pick up and return the car. Overall, it was much more relaxing/less stressful trip compared to our previous WDW visits.

 

[RMulieri]

We are getting ready to leave on our 3rd week long trip..We do 4 Universal days, a seaworld day and relaxing poolside..We feel like we actually have been on vacation at the end of it

 

[wookiebeck]

When USO first opened, yes it was one day.

Then IOA made it a two day excursion from WDW.

Our first stay at PBH was 4 days and soooo much more relaxing.

This year was RPR for 7 days. Pool hopping and trying different restaurants is the best part of taking it slow. We had 4-day park tix and did every ride and show and just chilled in WWoHP. Can I move in next trip?

 

[nighttowll]

We did a week of Universal, Sea World, and Busch Gardens, with three days at Universal and one each at the other parks. I honestly could have used another day at SW and BG, but three days at Universal seemed just right. This gave us one day for each park and then one day to go back and hit the shows, the parade, repeat favorites, and the few things we missed. It seemed like just the right amount of time to me. We could have gone commando style and done everything in two days, but three allowed us to not have to rush around so much. I think everyone would have enjoyed a fourth day; however, we would have just been doing the same attractions over again. They definitely preferred visiting a different park and trying something new over visiting Universal a fourth time in the same week. You have to factor in, though, that we are go-all-day type people, so usually if we do a park, it is a full day open to close with no afternoon hotel breaks. Four half park days at Universal would be a different story altogether.

I think that is what it comes down to, how you tour. I could easily rush around from rope drop to park close and see all the attractions in two days or less. But, I couldn't sleep in, take afternoon breaks, take my time walking around, stop for snacks, window shop, explore the HP sections in detail, do repeat rides, have table service meals, take lots of pictures, interact with characters, explore Citywalk, explore the hotel, etc. I can see how you could easily go to Universal for a week and not get bored if you take a relaxed vacation. If you go to Universal in DIS-board commando mode, you probably won't need a week, and I’d look into adding some days at a few other non-Disney parks as well.

Right now, I'm planning one day for both parks in a couple of weeks with my mother, but this is because she only wants to do the HP sections. I honestly don't see how people do all of both parks in one day alone. Then in October, I have a whole week at Universal planned. However, I only plan on spending 3 days at the actual parks. The other days will be divided between rest/pool days, Citywalk, and a couple of dinner shows. We are going to try taking a relaxing vacation for a change.

 

[dsdeleon]

We have done 5 nights as a max, but it wasn't enough. When we stay at Disney now, we head over to Universal more than should be necessary. Our next trip is 7 nights all onsite at Uni and we will swing by Disney for a couple days only. This is the last trip for Disney for a good long while, as we are letting our APs there go and just renewing Universal. It's the least we can do to thank them for upping the attractions and customer service in a major way. Plus, no foreign tour groups. Whoo hoo!

 

[Seeker615]

We did 5 nights last year and I would have loved another night.

We took our time each day and also spent a lot of time at Citywalk and just relaxing by the pool. we also did the Blue Man Group show one night.

You can easily immerse yourself at Universal. No crazy rushing around to meet your fast pass reservation and we never had any issues with dining in the evening!

 

[Siriusblack]

We always do a week, and leave wanting more! I could live in Diagon Alley.

 

[JohnnyB2]

Hi, We also have been staying for 5 nights, which was great. See it all but slow paced, poolside, and back and forth to the Parks. Last year we stayed 7 nights and all was the same but, the two extra nights really made it feel like such a relaxing but wonderful vacation. So we are hooked, this year 7 nights at the Hard Rock, with HHN as a bonus

 

[lilkarebear]

While planning our last trip and deciding how long to go for, we decided to get annual passes, so we took a nice relaxing 2 week vacation.

We could go whenever we wanted and not really plan anything. We did one day where we just did water rides, that was a really fun day- hardly any lines and went on them a few times each. Of course this was Oct/Nov so the lines weren't bad most of the time.

We also did Discovery Cove, Aquatica, & SeaWorld - 1 day each. We were able to try a bunch of the restaurants and went to Blue Man Group.

We're going back in Feb for another week too.

There's a ton to do and we love to go on rides over and over, especially the Mummy- our fave.

 

[Belle0101]

Read all the responses and I've come to the realization that we did something wrong on our recent trip, that or I need new traveling companions.

We checked in to the RPR on Saturday, November 29 and our first park day was Sunday, November 30 with our last day being Tuesday, December 2. We went for Early Entry each day. DH and DS had 3-day Park-to-Park Passes and I had an AP. I thought at some point during the trip I would upgrade their tickets to AP and we could go back in 2015.

Sometime after lunch on Sunday, our first park day, DS15 started complaining that he was bored and wondered if we had to stay through Tuesday. DH said he felt that he had done everything in each park that he was interested in and didn't care to repeat anything. DS agreed. I think I wanted to cry.

We have a pool at home so pool time isn't of any interest to us but I think I could still easily enjoy a 4 day trip. Just not with my family.

 

[damo]

Read all the responses and I've come to the realization that we did something wrong on our recent trip, that or I need new traveling companions.

We checked in to the RPR on Saturday, November 29 and our first park day was Sunday, November 30 with our last day being Tuesday, December 2. We went for Early Entry each day. DH and DS had 3-day Park-to-Park Passes and I had an AP. I thought at some point during the trip I would upgrade their tickets to AP and we could go back in 2015.

Sometime after lunch on Sunday, our first park day, DS15 started complaining that he was bored and wondered if we had to stay through Tuesday. DH said he felt that he had done everything in each park that he was interested in and didn't care to repeat anything. DS agreed. I think I wanted to cry.

We have a pool at home so pool time isn't of any interest to us but I think I could still easily enjoy a 4 day trip. Just not with my family.

My family could spend a whole day alternating between a bunch of rides on Men in Black, then throw in the Mummy for a few and and then back Men in Black. My son can max out on two guns in one ride now in MIB. It's like playing video games all day. I think once we did it 11 times in a row before riding something else. Competition is big in our family, lol.

 

[Bluer101]

We take a week to 10 days in the summer plus go every month for a night or two.

We live in S FL , have a pool and spa in our back yard too. But we love sleeping in, eating breakfast in the room. Then hit some parks, relax by the pool for games, food, and activities. Our son will play with other kids too. We pool hop and eat all over the place. It's just a relaxing time. At home you always have something to do or fix and when we're away it's all left behind.