Universal Studios

[mom2agirlandboy]

planning a trip to Orlando

arriving to Orlando on the 23rd of November and spending a day in Universal Studio and a day in the Island of Adventure. You think this is doable or we are crazy?

is a day on each park enough, kids are 8 and 5

 

[DOOM1001]

One day in each park is probably enough,3-4 days would obviously be better but if you get to the parks early you should be able to do most of the attractions.I'm assuming you're going the 23rd of this month which will have Halloween Horror Nights,the 23rd will have HHN at Universal which means the park will close at 5pm to set up for the event.I'm assuming with the age of your kids you might not want to do the event so on the 23rd do IOA which will be open until 8pm,the next day being a Monday will not have HHN and USF will close at 6pm,being a Monday the crowds will be smaller so you should be able to do the park with shorter waits,on Sunday IOA will have long waits but you will have until 8pm.

 

[mom2agirlandboy]

One day in each park is probably enough,3-4 days would obviously be better but if you get to the parks early you should be able to do most of the attractions.I'm assuming you're going the 23rd of this month which will have Halloween Horror Nights,the 23rd will have HHN at Universal which means the park will close at 5pm to set up for the event.I'm assuming with the age of your kids you might not want to do the event so on the 23rd do IOA which will be open until 8pm,the next day being a Monday will not have HHN and USF will close at 6pm,being a Monday the crowds will be smaller so you should be able to do the park with shorter waits,on Sunday IOA will have long waits but you will have until 8pm.

sorry I should have been precised. We are arriving late Nov. 23rd and thinking of spending 24th and 25th on the two parks and flying back on the 26th

 

[sdwrdt]

sorry I should have been precised. We are arriving late Nov. 23rd and thinking of spending 24th and 25th on the two parks and flying back on the 26th

We were at Islands of Adventure on Thanksgiving Day last year. Could not believe how crowded it was - Harry Potter had limited entry when we first got there, so had to take a slip and go back later. Was fine when we first entered, but there was one point that you could not move between areas there were so many people. Assume that they must have just given up on limiting entry. Hoping for your sake that after an entire year of being open that it's not as busy.

We did buy fotl passes and were glad we had them, even though those didn't work for Harry Potter.

 

[jillybeene71]

It is certainly doable, but not recommended...Are you staying onsite? I dont remember reading if you were or not. That would definately help to have the express pass that you get staying onsite...You also get to enter IOA an hour earlier, that way you can get Harry Potter out the way. Then you would have express pass to get through the rest of IOA and US. We have gone to Universal Orlando a few times during thanksgiving and my experience is the Wednesday and Thursday it wasnt so bad its the Friday Sat and Sun that were unbelievably crowded (but it didnt matter as we stayed at Royal Pacific and had 5 days of express pass, more money but def worth it).
You can also buy the express passes. Depending on the size of your family, it might be cheaper just to rent a room onsite.