Universal Studios Christmas

[redshirt]

We are going to Orlando a few days short of when Universal Studio's say they start their christmas festivities (Dec 1). I was wondering if it was worth juggling dates so we can be there on the first, or are they nothing too special? I'm mainly curious about their Macy's Parade, as there's no way I'll stay till Dec 4th for the Grinch stuff. Is there anything else besides those two and decorations, that goes on?

 

[myramsy]

We went to Orlando a few years ago during Christmas week and spent a day at Universal because we have never been there before. I really wanted to see the Macy's parade which we did watch. I thought it was okay but not as great as I anticiapted. My dh and ds were completley underwhelmed. We did enjoy our day there...mostly Harry Potter and of course for my ds the highlight was the hulk roller coaster.

 

[2BigKIdz]

We went last year and we actually loved the Macy's parade, we were very impressed and liked it so much we were disappointed in the parade at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We loved the live action Grinch play as well. I really can't recall all that they had going on for the Holidays at the Studios, they did have some sort of Christmas Village I think they called it, was a series of booths with different things but it must not have been too impressive as I can't remember what they were, I know my husband won our son a Rudolph stuffed toy at a basketball shoot walking through the village.

 

[redshirt]

Thanks for the replies!

We would actually pretty much be paying extra to see the parade. As planned we'd check out on saturday but if I shuffled to stay longer we'd pay for the hotel on saturday which is higher rate than during the week. I'm still on the fence, but it seems that it's no much more than the parade. (unfortunately no way we'd extend long enough for the grinch) Since DH isn't big on parades and DD is only 5 I'm thinking I might skip it.

Was it really busy when you guys saw it? Like Disney parades....people lining up for hours?

 

[formill]

We saw the parade a few years ago and loved it-there was no waiting and it was not busy where we watched the parade-we sat right on a curb. We were there right at Christmas time as well so I am guessing it was much busier then than when you are there. We also saw the grinch show- there it was a long wait and it was better if you have young children for they let us in very close to the front to sit-our older kids (teens) were way back and could not see well. Great show though.

 

[2BigKIdz]

Thanks for the replies!

We would actually pretty much be paying extra to see the parade. As planned we'd check out on saturday but if I shuffled to stay longer we'd pay for the hotel on saturday which is higher rate than during the week. I'm still on the fence, but it seems that it's no much more than the parade. (unfortunately no way we'd extend long enough for the grinch) Since DH isn't big on parades and DD is only 5 I'm thinking I might skip it.

Was it really busy when you guys saw it? Like Disney parades....people lining up for hours?

We were there last year on December 10 or 11, whichever was a Saturday. The park was not crowded at all and we had an excellent curb side view of the parade and we did not line up very long before the start of it like we had to for the parade at Mickey's Christmas Party.

Would you be going to that park on another day as well? If so I don't think it would be worth it just to see the parade. They did have some Christmas performances as well by the Blues Brothers and some other things, I am sorry I just can't recall as we didn't participate in a lot of the things as it was our first park of the trip on our son's first trip and he was only 18 months at the time so we limited ourselves to things he was enjoying.

I didn't realize the Holiday stuff didn't begin until December 1 there, we are going a little earlier this year and will actually be leaving on December 2 so we will do one of the parks on the 1st and the other during the week before the holidays begin so we will have to decide if we want to see the Grinch stuff or the parade ourselves.