Full week at universal?

[nitnat2004]

Looking for some advice please.
We’ve been as a family a few times over the years.
The first time we went we stayed onsite at Disney, 2 days abs 1 night at universal and did discovery cove (our son was 5 abs I was pregnant with our daughter)

2nd time we went we stayed onsite Disney. Visited universal for 2 days and 1 night. (Son was 7 and daughter was just under 2)

3rd visit we stayed on site at Disney for full 2 weeks. (Son 14, daughter was 8)

We are looking at going again next year and was wondering if universal for a full week or more would be too much? Is there enough to do. Our children will be 18 and 12 next year.

Any help/advice would be appreciated x

[dan223]

I guess depends also the time of the year you are going, in halloween and xmas there are other things that you can do which you can then add some more time to universal. I think a full 7 days is quite a lot of time to spend at universal, I'd say 3 days for both parks is probably ideal, maybe an extra day if your going at a busy time of year. You could potentially spend a couple of days at volcano bay as well if you like waterparks.

[nitnat2004]

Thank you. We would potentially be looking at a day in discovery cove plus bush garden too x

[Guest]

We've done a 9 night onsite stay at universal and have our next uni onsite for a week hopefully in feb next year (covid has scuppered the other onsite plans so i don't think Sept will happen ). We love it. Take our time going round the parks (splitting up days with pool time at the resort), volcano bay, time out shopping, sea world, busch usually a 1 dayer at Disney (back when the parties were happening). I see it the same as staying offsite but with the added benefit of upscale hotels and being able to take a meander over to the parks and city walk when you feel like it.

[Silvie]

I loved the week we had at universal. I'd go again.

[cornishfrogboy]

I am a big fan of Universal, over and above Disney and equal with SW, BG, AQ , DC.

I could do a week in Disney.
I could do 3 or maybe at a push, 4 days with Universal (but with only one night onsite).
Likewise the DC ultimate with obviously no nights on site.

I like to dip in and out of the theme park experience, combining it with non theme park ‘other’ things. It is rare for us to even devote a full day to a park(s), other than when staying a night in HRH, RPR or Portofino.

Your plan of breaking it up with Busch and DC? I could do that (but also add in Seaworld and thus Aquatica as I would have a DC ultimate with its free parking etc).

[Hels80]

We have booked a week at hard rock. We’ve done a week in royal pacific previously and enjoyed being able to wander to the parks/city walk and make use of the hotel pool too.
One thing I would say is to consider whether you really need a car whilst you’re staying there. The cost of parking is crazy. We’ve booked a car for the 1st week where we’re on I drive and return it the day we check in to hard rock.
If we need to go anywhere that week, we will use Uber.

[loldis]

I would say 1 week purely for the Universal parks every day is probably too much as they don't have a huge amount of attractions. But if it's a base for the general I-Drive (or even greater Orlando) area, then it's fine as there's loads to do outside of Disney.

[LLamb]

We did 5 night in site Universal in 2019 and loved it, I’ve booked 9 nights for next year. 7 in Cabana Bay and then 2 nights at the hard rock. My kids will be 9 and 6, tbh they would just spend a week in Volcano bay if I let them.
We are going (hopefully) in May half term and the us kids are also off school so it will be busy.
We tend to just go in for early entry, back out around lunch for pool time and then back in for the evening. Being on site makes this much easier, I think there is plenty to do.

[Smithy78]

We did 5 nights at Royal Pacific in Oct 2019 before 11 nights in a villa and we loved it. Kids were 9&7. We loved dipping in and out of the parks at our leisure, we had more pool time than rushed previous trips (don't forget you can pool hop) Volcano Bay was great fun. We popped to the outlets at the North end of I drive one evening.
We can't wait to do a longer universal on site trip.