Universal or not?! (Kids 7 & 9)

[Allyfe]

We made a VERY rash booking for our first two weeks in Florida to do Disney in July next year. We were attracted (suckered) into the Virgin offer, which we didn't realise covered our holiday dates until the evening it offered.

I have since learnt we could have booked the Disney offer without Virgin, and could have gotten flights cheaper elsewhere. But never mind!

I'm now trying to do post-rash-decision planning, and trying to do it in an economically friendly way. Our main decision is do we do Universal?

We had wanted to do the Harry Potter bit (kids will be 7 & 9). We all LOVE Harry Potter. But I have worked out that doing 4 more nights at Disney (with dining plan in Disney Caribbean hotel) will be £800, and doing 4 nights at a Universal hotel (to get fast passes because they were invaluable in Disneyland last year), with park tickets, will be £2300! That is a HUGE amount of money, and won't include food.

Please tell me it is reasonable NOT to do Universal!

I should add, that my children love fast rides (in Disneyland they did everything, and my then 5 year old was persuaded onto Tower of Terror 3 times, but hated Indian Jones). My will be 9 year old is very tall, and will be over the height restrictions for everything.

We LOVED Disney. But we are really just planning to do theme parks and pools because we will have two more weeks at the end of the holiday with family elsewhere (for shopping etc).

Thanks!

Alison

[ejmna1]

Hi

Im not sure about the logistic of the number of Nights - do you have to stay for 4
we did 2 nights at HRH last year arrived at 7am, got our passes and were on Harry Potter for the first ride and did the same the next 2 days - we had plenty of time to do everything we wanted at least once and some time in the pool - but it does involve getting up and going in first thing

Sorry i can't support the not going thing

n

[Tinkerbell 766]

I do support the 'I'm not going thing'. I love the HP stuff, but the rest of Universal, I find pretty 😟.
With a 7 and 9 year old, I would not bother, personally xx

[Tinkerbell 766]

There are different rides in WDW to Disneyland too. I am sure your kids will love it xx

[Alfiebeau]

We are Disney people - we stay, eat and spend most of our time in Disney when in Orlando.

But my 5yr old actually prefers the Universal parks. We usually book a hotel on site for the Express passes and then make the most of it and do 2 full days. If I liked the hotels a bit more we would probably have 2 weeks there!

[mrs_dlw]

I can only support the 'do Universal option' we went when our kids were same age, absolutely loved Universal and they thought the Disney rides were a bit 'meh' in comparison. HP is amazing and if you are fans you will be blown away by it all. Maybe reduce the nights at universal, two/three days would be plenty especially if you have front of line passes x

[LunaNyteskye]

We couldn't go and not do Universal. My DD was 7 the first time we went, there was plenty for her to do there. She wasn't tall enough for the big thrill rides, but she wouldn't have gone on them anyway at the time - she will now. She was big enough for Jurassic Park though, which is still her favourite ride to this day out of all the parks, including Disney.

We've never stayed at Universal and never had fastpasses, but we have always managed to do everything we wanted, in some cases several times, in the 2/3/4 days (not necessarily consecutive) that we've gone.

[robertgreen99]

Are your children boys as i would have though a 7 and 9 year old boy would actually enjoy universal more than Disney. I am not saying they wont enjoy Disney but i think universal is a great park for boys aged 5/6 + etc

[Allyfe]

Thank you so much for your replies! So, what I'm gathering from most of you is that Universal is compulsory (for HP fans), but to do it perhaps more like we did Disneyland last year, so to basically do two killer full-on days at the end of the two weeks, in the Universal hotels, to pay for the front of line.

If we did that, could we arrive at the hotel early on Universal day 1, check in early, leave our bags, spend the day with Front of Line passes, sleep, do day 2 at Universal, with front of line, go back sleep and then fly to texas? Would we be able to get the front of line early on the day we are due to check in?

We still have £1000 on universal passes (oh my), which for two days feels a bit terrifying. But I am worried about feeling like we have missed out, and I think that we will get the extra two nights at Disney for £400 (with dining plan) if we add it in soon, then it would be £600 for the two nights at Universal.

Do you guys think that if I wait for the universal passes we might get it cheaper? I really do think that we don't need all three universal theme parks (because we are going to focus on DisneyWorld).

[Disneybugs107]

My DS 5 and DD 10 love universal/IOA. To be fair so do I. We have always done 1 night/2 days in RPR for FOLP and that has always been enough time, however this year we are doing 2 nights/3 days as the kids are right in to Harry Potter and plan to spend more time in diagon alley and hogsmede.

But whatever you decide to do you will love every minute of it. There's enough in Disney to keep you ad the kids entertained for your time there, if you decide to go to universal bonus.

Good luck with your decision making lol