Universal questions

Zooey1972

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 8, 2012
Messages
11
First, I have to say that their website is complete garbage. In the last 8 years I have spent 15k on Disney vacations and may go there again because I do not think I should have to try and figure out how to give a company my money.

That being said, here are my questions if someone can help me out.

*How many parks are at universal? It looks like 2, but you can add other things on to it like wet'n wild, Bush Gardens, etc. How much does it cost to do that?

*Are there any hotels that will have a bus or shuttle that will take you to the park?

*How much is parking if we decide to drive?

*Do they have any kind of meal plan that you can get, and what does it cost? It blew my mind that on the site it said they had something like that, than didn't say where you eat or what it costs.

*How many days do you think would be good to see most of the worth while attractions at the parks?

We are looking at going after labor day in Sept. Our typical vacation is 5 or 6 days.

Any help would be appreciated
 
1

2. 2 parks at Universal - you can purchase a ticket that allows you other parks such as wet in wild, sea world, etc but I normally stick with the 2 park passes and stay onsite and enjoy city walk etc.

3. No need to have a bus, all the onsite hotels are within walking distance or you can take a boat or there is a small bus too. If you want to stay offsite many hotels around Universal offer free shuttles to the parks. Note: if you stay onsite there is a parking fee

4. Sorry can't remember, we stay onsite usually

5. Yes they offer one, no don't get it. It is not very good and does not include much. I wish they had a better meal plan if you stay onsite. It is very limited to just a couple restaurants in each park, nothing at city walk or the hotels

6. I would say 3 days, 1 at each park and then a 3rd to hit those things you really like. We normally stay 4-5 nights and go to Sea World or Discovery Cove and take a day to relax at the pool(s).

Note on staying onsite- the hotels are not owned or ran by Universal. They do offer some good perks such as the unlimited express pass. Unlike Disney the express pass is not included with your ticket,it is a separate cost but if you go during off season you usually won't need it.
 
2 themeparks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.

1 waterpark, Wet&Wild.

I think you can also get deals on tickets to Busch and SeaWorld, but they aren't owned by Universal.


For tickets I personally look first to undercovertourist.com (I also once used maple leaf tickets). But you can also find tickets by clicking on any Buy button here, or you could probably just go here.

There are single park tickets, there are "park to park" tickets. There are also Flex tickets, which are in a tab towards the right side of the page assuming my link takes you to the exact same page I'm looking at.

If you click there, you see that the Orlando Flex Ticket Plus gives you 6 parks over 14 consecutive days: "Universal Studios Florida®, Universal's Islands of Adventure®, Wet'n Wild® Orlando Waterpark, Sea World® Orlando, Aquatica® Water Park, and Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay".

The plain Orlando Flex Ticket is 5 parks over 14 consecutive days: "Universal Studios Florida®, Universal's Islands of Adventure®, Wet'n Wild® Orlando Waterpark, Sea World® Orlando, Aquatica® Water Park".


Info about the Universal Meal Deal is found here. There are some people who like it because they can use it, but there are others for whom it won't work, like me. We eat at different places than are listed on that page, so it won't work for us.



We have only stayed on site, and the onsite hotels allow you to walk to the parks or take a boat or even a shuttle van. Or you can start off walking and flag down a passenger bike (they have a real name that isn't coming to me right now) for just the cost of a tip to the one operating the bike.

To check out the offsite hotels that they have deals with, click to the package deal section and review those hotels. This might be a good page to start from.


On Universalorlando.com, if you hover over Hours&Info you can click on Parking Information to get here. $15/day unless it changes before I post or you read. :) If you stay onsite, you would park at the hotel, where it costs around the same per day. You would not drive to the parks, though, if you stayed onsite, the distance wouldn't make sense (you would walk, be biked, boat, or shuttlevan to the parks/citywalk), so you wouldn't be paying to park at the hotel AND the themepark/citywalk parking garage.


I'm a bad one to ask "how long" because our first stay was 4 days (two full and two long partial days) and we want to make it longer with each trip. We are BIG re-riders, we aren't happy with just one ride on things per trip (sometimes per day!), so that's why it really works for us. Other people are more of the "one and done" type, and they can do the parks a lot quicker and with more joy than we would with a shorter trip.




Whatever you do, don't try to navigate the disneyworld sites right now...they've been in flux since something like November, when they started trying to make them better, and they still don't have all the features they are supposed to have, and are driving grown people bananas.
 
self parking for the onsite hotels is $18 + tax.
valet for the hotels will be $25 + tax.

parking rate begins at midnight.

if you stay 2 nights onsite, you will be paying 1 night for parking.
 

parks or take a boat or even a shuttle van. Or you can start off walking and flag down a passenger bike (they have a real name that isn't coming to me right now) for just the cost of a tip to the one operating the bike.

some call them rickshaw taxis or bike taxis.

they work on tips.


some tip, some don't.
 
I don't find anything wrong with the Universal website.

1. How many theme parks. https://www.universalorlando.com/Theme-Parks/World-Class-Theme-Parks.aspx

2. Adding on other parks ... https://www.universalorlando.com/Theme-Park-Tickets/Wet-N-Wild-Waterpark-Tickets.aspx

3. Hotels ... https://www.universalorlando.com/Theme-Park-Tickets/Universal-Express.aspx

4. Parking ... https://www.universalorlando.com/Resort-Information/Parking-Information.aspx

5. Meal deal (restaurants and prices listed)... https://www.universalorlando.com/Restaurants/Meal-Deal-Information.aspx


All this info was obtained just using the drop down menus on the main page. If you hold your mouse on Theme Parks, Rides, Shows, Hotels, Vacation Packages, Events, Nightlife, Dining, Shop, Hours and Info, Tickets, (written in the banner second at the top of the page), all of the above info was right there.
 





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