Which Park Which Day?

[Jupiter&Wolfe]

We will be staying at Universal from Nov. 24 - 26th. Black Friday through that weekend. I'm thinking to save some money we will stick with one park per day passes rather than park-to-park. We don't plan on doing a park on arrival day, just hanging out at the hotel and having dinner at Citywalk. That leaves us one full day on Saturday, and on Sunday we plan on staying til mid afternoon before heading over to WDW. So if we're not park hopping, which park would you recommend for the full day and which for the not-quite-full day? Is there one that has evening entertainment we shouldn't miss? I heard there's something at Universal Studios, is it worth making that park the full day park? All 3 of us are adults, no kids if that makes a difference.

Unless someone has a REALLY good argument to justify the additional $50 per ticket, beyond riding Hogwarts Express. Is there something super special about it or is it just transportation between parks? Is there a good reason beyond HE ?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[perditax]

I think the usual answer is USF for a full day, IOA for half.

 

[imprint]

I think the usual answer is USF for a full day, IOA for half.

I agree. Unless you plan to go on the water rides in late November, IoA can be toured in a half-day. You'll probably still want a plan though, since time can sometimes get away from us.

 

[Jupiter&Wolfe]

Thanks guys! whether or not we go on water rides will totally depend on the weather! We are hoping for some nice days in the 70's for our trip, but we'll just have to wait and see. I won't be devastated if I don't get to ride everything. If I fall in love with Universal it just gives me another excuse to come back to Orlando!

 

[TommyJK]

My one argument for Park to Park is that if the crowds are big on one side while you're on the other, then you're stuck.

We always used hopping liberally and would go with the opposite flow of the crowd because it can ebb and flow quite a bit between the two parks.

 

[gotomu212]

My one argument for Park to Park is that if the crowds are big on one side while you're on the other, then you're stuck.

We always used hopping liberally and would go with the opposite flow of the crowd because it can ebb and flow quite a bit between the two parks.

Hopping is very different at Universal. Depending on where you are in the park it's about 5-10 minutes to switch. A lot of people compare it to going from frontier land to tommorrowland in Disney terms. Our family switches about 4-5 times a day depending on crowds and whether we want to ride another ride one more time.

To answer your other question about HE- it's not just transportation. It is a ride with special effects and theming too (you can spoil yourself my looking at YouTube vid).

I personally think $50 is worth the flexibility you get and it helps if a cool ride is down the day you were planning on being at one park

 

[macraven]

I would go with the flexibility of changing parks

You could start at ioa and switch at noontime to the studios

Studios usually stays open one hour longer than ioa

Check the website and look at what rides/shows/ street entertainment that you do want to ride

Spend the majority of your time at that park

P2p ticket gives you that flexibility

Rides can go down and come back up later
Park hopping allows you to eventually do the rides on your list

 

[tortilla24]

I went in June last year and we were in the same situation! On arrival day we hung out at the pool and went for dinner in Citywalk. We did a full day at IOA (with a break back at the hotel) and our 2nd half day at USF. I liked it better that way because IOA had all the water rides so we were able to shower off while we still were checked into the hotel. I also personally find the rides at IOA to be a bit better (Hulk, Spiderman, Forbidden Journey) but I think you should check them out for yourself and decide from there.

 

[scrapbooksellman]

Following along.
We are going those days too after being at Disney.