Universal

[amydj79]

My 9 yr old daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. She loves super heros and Transformers as well. We were planning on visiting Universal for two days and spend a week at Disney. My question is, if we decided to flip that and spend the week at Universal, is there enough to do to fill up a week? We will be traveling with friends who will have 10 year old and 7 year old boys. I'm honestly pretty ignorant when it comes to anything Universal so I would appreciate an input you could give. Thanks in advance!

 

[macraven]

My 9 yr old daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. She loves super heros and Transformers as well. We were planning on visiting Universal for two days and spend a week at Disney. My question is, if we decided to flip that and spend the week at Universal, is there enough to do to fill up a week? We will be traveling with friends who will have 10 year old and 7 year old boys. I'm honestly pretty ignorant when it comes to anything Universal so I would appreciate an input you could give. Thanks in advance!

start off with learning about the rides and shows at www.universalorlando.com

if the kids are into rides, they probably are old enough to meet the height requirements.

will you be staying onsite?
you could do the parks during the day with pool breaks back at the hotel.
spend evenings at citywalk dining and shopping.
city walk also has a mini golf and theatre complex.

check out the trip forums as many give details on their park days and include pictures of the parks.

also check out some of the stickies for more info about the darkside.

are you planning a trip for this summer or next year?
HP will bring in crowds probably for the rest of this summer.

 

[macraven]

.

 

[amydj79]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. We had planned on staying on site and we are planning to go during fall break which is the week before and the week of Thanksgiving

 

[macraven]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. We had planned on staying on site and we are planning to go during fall break which is the week before and the week of Thanksgiving

the week before Tday will be great.
the week of Tday will have some crowds build but not an issue.

staying onsite will give you the hotel perks of early entry, which is one hour prior to the official park opening.
in that EE, the HP section of IOA has been open.
we don't know yet how EE will be for the studios side for the new HP section that is opened now. (soft openings for ride)

all hotel guests are allowed unlimited usage of the express lines for the park rides and shows.
you will find some things in the parks that you will want to do repeats on.


there are some newbies to the Darkside that feel a short visit is enough while others make it a week vacation.

if you concentrate a lot of the rides and shows in the parks, that could fill the daytime easily.
you can pool hop between the deluxe and Cbay hotels, do restaurants at the hotels, and city walk.

Blue Man Group can be an evening you all could enjoy.
it's a family show that is worth seeing at least once.

i do long stays in october and take my time.
i do a few mornings in the park then hit city walk to explore.
i also enjoy visiting the other hotels and their pools.
i make it a relaxing vacation and take it leisurely in the parks.
it's my one time in the year i can take it easy and not have a fast pace in my days.

the character breakfast and dinners are enjoyable for the entire family.

some just want to take in the rides and cover the parks in two days.
i couldn't do that as there is more to an Universal vacation than just rushing through everything for me.

 

[SAHMKC]

What about a more even split? If I read your first post correctly You will be staying 9 days? I would do a 4 or 5 day stay at Disney first and then go to Universal for 4 or 5 days. You will find Universal to be way more relaxing and it would be a great way to end your vacation. My family went to Universal over the last Thanksgiving break and we found the crowd level very manageable with express pass and early entry. We did the parks three days and felt we were able to see everything at a relaxed pace. This year we will be doing four days of parks. Last year we had very unseasonably cold weather and were not able to use the pools. One day it was warm enough to brave the wet ride, but we had to go immediately home and change, Hoping for some warmer weather to enjoy the pools this year. Please feel free to ask me any questions about visiting at Thanksgiving time. I also wrote a trip report so if your interested you can look it up.

 

[amydj79]

the week before Tday will be great. the week of Tday will have some crowds build but not an issue. staying onsite will give you the hotel perks of early entry, which is one hour prior to the official park opening. in that EE, the HP section of IOA has been open. we don't know yet how EE will be for the studios side for the new HP section that is opened now. (soft openings for ride) all hotel guests are allowed unlimited usage of the express lines for the park rides and shows. you will find some things in the parks that you will want to do repeats on. there are some newbies to the Darkside that feel a short visit is enough while others make it a week vacation. if you concentrate a lot of the rides and shows in the parks, that could fill the daytime easily. you can pool hop between the deluxe and Cbay hotels, do restaurants at the hotels, and city walk. Blue Man Group can be an evening you all could enjoy. it's a family show that is worth seeing at least once. i do long stays in october and take my time. i do a few mornings in the park then hit city walk to explore. i also enjoy visiting the other hotels and their pools. i make it a relaxing vacation and take it leisurely in the parks. it's my one time in the year i can take it easy and not have a fast pace in my days. the character breakfast and dinners are enjoyable for the entire family. some just want to take in the rides and cover the parks in two days. i couldn't do that as there is more to an Universal vacation than just rushing through everything for me.

Lots of great advice and info! Thank you! I don't want to rush through either. You've given me a lot to think about.

 

[amydj79]

What about a more even split? If I read your first post correctly You will be staying 9 days? I would do a 4 or 5 day stay at Disney first and then go to Universal for 4 or 5 days. You will find Universal to be way more relaxing and it would be a great way to end your vacation. My family went to Universal over the last Thanksgiving break and we found the crowd level very manageable with express pass and early entry. We did the parks three days and felt we were able to see everything at a relaxed pace. This year we will be doing four days of parks. Last year we had very unseasonably cold weather and were not able to use the pools. One day it was warm enough to brave the wet ride, but we had to go immediately home and change, Hoping for some warmer weather to enjoy the pools this year. Please feel free to ask me any questions about visiting at Thanksgiving time. I also wrote a trip report so if your interested you can look it up.

Thanks so much for the advice. I'm going to check out your trip review. We were at Disney last Thanksgiving during break and it was cold! I like the idea of splitting up more evenly. I will admit, I think Disney is really more for me at this point.