Universal Planning - Advice needed on number of Park days and whether to do Volcano Bay

[Beckyb3]

We are headed to Disney/Universal at the end of August. The plan is to stay at Disney for five nights and Universal for three nights. We are staying at Disney longer because I have a lot of DVC points to use but one of the most important aspects of the trip is taking my daughter to see all the HP stuff at Universal because she is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. We have been to Disney a bunch of times but my kids have never been to Universal though I have been without them to see the HP stuff a few times. My initial plan was to get a five day pass for Disney and a three day pass to Universal but the biggest variable is whether I should do a water part at Disney, Universal, or both. From what I have read, Volcano Bay is more popular than Blizzard Beach so I was leaning towards doing Volcano Bay. That being said, given we have less time at Universal, do you think we will need all three days at Universal and shouldn't spare a day for Volcano Bay? If we do go to Volcano Bay, is it still worth it to hit Blizzard Beach. While we have been to Disney many times, we have never gone in August so I am a bit worried about the heat and and thinking the water parks may be a nice break from the heat and also we may need to take mid day breaks at the pool or hotel. Any other advice would be appreciated. We will be staying at one of the Premium resorts that gives free express pass (most likely Portofino) and our group is two adults and four kids (3 ten year olds and one 7 year old). Thanks!

 

[DisneyMom93]

We usually do five days at Universal but you definitely don't need that many. Ideally I would do one day at each park separately and split the final day for both parks, especially if you want to ride the HP train from park to park. (We usually do two days at each park and split the final day.) On the final day we just hit our favorite rides at each of the two parks.

Although, since the transportation from park to park is a ride you can just opt to do park to park whichever days and time work best for you.

Personally, we never do water parks at Disney or Universal. There are rides in the parks that you can get wet (some very wet) to cool off. We just figure we can do a water park back home during the summer. We just would rather spend our vacation days in a park that we can only have access to while away on vacation.

 

[Lynne G]

And with your kids ages, they may be just as happy with the hotel pools.

 

[taterheads]

Yes on Volcano Bay. It is awesome and has the use of tapu tapu so no waiting in lines for slides. No on Disney Water Parks, by comparsion to Volcano Bay, well there/s just very little comparison. Hurts me to say, because over all I love the Disney experience and prefer it to Universal but Volcano Bay is far superior to Disney Water Parks in every way. We did a half day with a rope drop there and then left because storms rolled in last time we were there but easily could have spent and entire day and loved every minute!