Universal Studios Too Ambitious??

[rstevens008@comcast.]

For the first time, we are considering going to the 2 Universal parks, maybe a 2 day pass. We'll be staying at Port Orleans FQ, and am considering taking a Uber to both parks. Because of so many refurbs in Epcot, we're considering skipping at least Epcot. We will be in the first week of June and we'll be staying a Sat to Sat. My family consists of 2 adults and 1 child age 11. My thoughts that Magic Kingdom will still require 2 days, a day at Hollywood and day at AK. Is this too ambitious? I've never been to Universal so I'm wondering crowds, heat, lines etc, if again we are pushing it?

 

[slbgnb]

We've done this in the past (4 days at Disney, 2 days at Universal). We have 3 kids and they were much younger when we did it before and we had no problems. We finished the Universal days pretty early - like maybe 6 or 7 so the evenings were pretty relaxing. AK also closes pretty early. We are doing this again this year (in Sept though) and are skipping AK, not Epcot. 2 days at MK, 1 at HS, 1 at Epcot, 1 at IofA and 1 at US. We are buying 5 day park hoppers though and will do a 1/2 day at whichever park we want on the 1 extra day. We are go...go...go people when at Disney, but I still felt like we had a good bit of relaxing time....

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Personally, I wouldn't do it. It's not a quick drive from WDW. We did a split WDW/US trip last February and that's the only way I would do both resorts in one trip. Plus you get early entry and express pass when staying at certain US hotels. US hotels are great! Maybe consider a split so you only do that drive once.

 

[Crystal824]

Yes, I think you will be fine. We have done Universal (both parks) doing all the attractions we wanted to do in one day. We did purchase Express Pass. You should have more than enough time to do 2 parks in 2 days. You will probably have some extra evening time to get in the pool, go to Disney Springs, or hang out at CityWalk.

I really don't think the drive is all that long....about a half an hour each way or even less as long as you don't hit rush hour. My commute to work is longer...really that is subjective.

 

[strat68]

When are you going? We've only ever gone in January. I would highly recommend going to Universal, but, either at the beginning or end of the trip, stay on site at Universal. One of the 3 hotels that offer free unlimited Express Pass for the parks. Check out their web site for details. Crowds are not normally as bad as WDW and some attractions do get long lines. But the Express Pass takes care of that most of the time.

IMHO, the Universal hotels are almost all much better than Disney's in terms of service and amenities. I recommend Hard Rock but it's priced in the middle between Royal Pacific (lowest priced) and Portifino Bay.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's not a quick drive from WDW.

Huh. 7-10 minutes up the highway with no traffic. Longest part of the drive is getting out of Disney property, IMO.

When are you going? We've only ever gone in January. I would highly recommend going to Universal, but, either at the beginning or end of the trip, stay on site at Universal. One of the 3 hotels that offer free unlimited Express Pass for the parks. Check out their web site for details. Crowds are not normally as bad as WDW and some attractions do get long lines. But the Express Pass takes care of that most of the time.

IMHO, the Universal hotels are almost all much better than Disney's in terms of service and amenities. I recommend Hard Rock but it's priced in the middle between Royal Pacific (lowest priced) and Portifino Bay.

YES.

Except HRH is my least fave. But I try hard to hit Universal when staying at Universal. The perks are just sooooo good.

And if the OP is doing 2 days at Uni, if they stay ONE night at a deluxe onsite resort there they get Early Entry both days and Express Pass both days (which covers all but Ollivander's, Pteranodon Flyers (which they likely can't ride anyway unless the 11 year old is very small for an 11 year old), Forbidden Journey, Gringott's, and maybe that Simpsons twirl and hurl ride).

 

[LuvDaisy&Minnie]

I would do it but I would also recommend trying to stay onsite at Universal for the Express pass included with hotel stay. We have even started at Disney, moved to Universal, and then back to Disney. Of course I would recommend doing Universal at the beginning or the end if possible, but I would not hesitate to move again in the middle of a trip if I had to do so.

 

[katt789]

I would definitely say it's doable!! 2 days is more than enough to cover universal! (imo). To really get as much as you can get the express pass,and get there early! Head straight back to Gringotts to ride that first, the line'll be pretty long as the day goes on. Unless the new King Kong stuff is opening (i dont really follow universal stuff) then that would be the main headliner.

Epcot would also be my park of choice to skip.
You could also get hoppers though, and that would greatly help, especially with DHS, it's not much right now, I'd say rope drop there, do everything, hop to Epcot for some WS wanderings and relaxing and then hop back for Fantasmic.
With this plan you can also hop from DAK to Epcot for Illuminations (presuming Rivers of Light isn't running yet)

 

[cemeb4dk]

we did this last Oct. We had a 5 night stay at Old Key West, so we are DVC. We wanted to do 2 days at universal since at the time our daughter was 9 and loves Harry Potter. In Oct the parks closed earlier for HHN. So I crunched numbers and it was more practical for us to get a night at the hard rock so we got the free express passes for 2 days. When you stay onsite you get the express passes for checkin and check out dates. We did buy park to park tickets but only because we wanted to do Hogwarts express. But with express pass we did everything we wanted and rode rides multiple times in that time. Plus we spent the night roaming city walk and playing mini golf. Uber was great and was about $14 each way from old key west to universal.

 

[Moonwolf]

It's definitely doable. My last trip during the first week of August we managed to get everything done in Universal in 2 days. Actually less than 2 days because we ended up leaving the park early on the first day to change and rest up since it was the middle of our trip. We did get a room onsite for the express pass but I think even without it we still would have managed to hit all the rides at least once. The express pass just helped move things along and gave us a little extra time for some re-rides.

 

[Alice777]

I guess it depends on how often you go to WDW.

For us it's a must! We are from CA and been wanting to visit WDW and Universal forever. I always thought I would bring them when my boys were little but now they are 21 and 27. Lucky for me since my my 27 year old is doing marathon in April, he is treating me and his brother for our birthdays (4/7 and 4/13) by taking us with him.

We are doing Sun - AK, Mon - HS, Tues - I/O, Wed, US (taking uber from Pop for US/IO), Thurs - MK, Fri - Epcot. And we are leaving Saturday open for whichever park we feel needs 2nd visit. Since we've been to Disneyland and Universal so many times in CA, we are going try to ride rides we don't have in Disneyland/Universal first.

 

[Slapshot1188]

As other said, you REALLLLY need to look at staying onsite at the Portofino Bay, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific. One night gives you front of the line access to nearly every ride. You can also "check in" really early (we have done 6:30 AM) so you can get to the park at opening.

There is simply no comparison to that benefit. It's amazing.

 

[thegajone]

I respectfully disagree with those recommending a split stay between US and WDW, but everyone has their own preferences. I prefer to stay on WDW property the whole trip. This way you get to use ME both to and from the airport, and you don't have to worry about checking out of one resort and checking into another in the middle of your vacation, plus packing and unpacking. Of course that's far from a major inconvenience, but I personally would rather just not deal with it.

If you purchase Express Passes, you may be able to get through both parks in 1 day if you got there early and stayed late. It'd be one long, exhausting day, but it is an option to consider. Without looking it up, I'd guess the price of paying for a 1-day ticket that gets you into both parks + Express Passes for that day doesn't cost you much more than a 2-day ticket, if at all. This way you only have to deal with leaving the resort once. With Uber, it's roughly $15-$20 each way depending on whether or not you're traveling during peak hours, and it's a 20-30 minute drive (also depending on traffic).

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Huh. 7-10 minutes up the highway with no traffic. Longest part of the drive is getting out of Disney property, IMO.

Right, it's 9 miles from WDW exit to US entrance. That isn't including getting out of WDW. It took us 40 minutes to get there WITH traffic. No way am I doing that more than once during a vacation. That's why I would recommend a split stay if it's a family that doesn't want to spend a lot of time driving back and forth.

 

[Csaks]

Personally, I wouldn't do it. It's not a quick drive from WDW.

Do you take side roads? It's not that much of a drive. Really.

 

[GaryDis]

We're planning on a split stay, for many of the reasons given. But we're going in slow season, and will probably stay at the Cabana Bay, and see if we can see everything we want at US in two days with no express pass. The express pass doesn't help at the Harry Potter rides, anyway.

But there's no such thing as MK requiring two days. What there is are MK goals that may require one day, or two days, or three days, or three weeks. No one ever sees everything. It might work out for you that two days at the MK is best, depending on what you consider important to see. An 11 yo child is on the borderline, but is likely to have a lot of fun no matter where you go.

 

[DOOM1001]

Do you take side roads? It's not that much of a drive. Really.

Exactly,if you want to avoid taking I-4 take Apopka Vineland rd to Sand Lake rd and turn left on Turkey lk rd or from Apopka Vineland rd just turn right at Palm pkwy all the way which becomes Turkey lk rd and takes you straight to the resort,real easy drive!!

 

[Skywise]

Yeah - you can do that easily. You won't be able to do EVERYTHING at Universal but with a little planning you can easilly get in both Harry Potter lands/rides plus a decent chunk of the rest of the park.

 

[SoCalTrojanSkip]

For the first time, we are considering going to the 2 Universal parks, maybe a 2 day pass. We'll be staying at Port Orleans FQ, and am considering taking a Uber to both parks. Because of so many refurbs in Epcot, we're considering skipping at least Epcot. Is this too ambitious? I've never been to Universal so I'm wondering crowds, heat, lines etc, if again we are pushing it?

We did something similar in October, but I'll go one better...we did both parks in one day...!! We had a great time and got to see most everything, but I would definitely break it up into two days next time. We had a friend who lives in Orlando pick us up at the POR and the whole trip took about 40 minutes, including a stop at 7-11.

A word of caution if it hadn't been already mentioned here..
Our friends took Uber separately and they mentioned having having the driver drop them off outside of the main parking area, and having to meet the driver there as well. The driver mentioned something about Uber not being allowed to drop guests off in the parking structure.

I think you'll be fine, and it's interesting to see what's outside the Disney bubble...(*hint* it looks like literally every other tourist town in America)

 

[agavegirl1]

I always do a split stay between Disney and US/IOA staying onsite at each. Royal Pacific is the least expensive of the US Deluxe resorts for the onsite perks. You can purchase an Express Pass for each party but pricing is based on the busyness of the parks and June might be pricey. Do your math for two day Park to Park Universal passes plus Express passes for your dates and a one night stay at Royal Pacific with two days of Express. You can use the free Express Pass for your arrival date and departure date and you can experience a very nice hotel for a night.