Newbie needing help with Universal

[Bondi]

Hi All - Newbie to The Dibb here looking for a bit of advice - apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.

I have booked to go to Florida this October for two weeks staying on site at Disney. It is my second trip - the first was 8 years ago staying offsite and to be honest I feel like a complete novice and slightly overwhelmed with all the planning!

I am just wondering how many days people allow for Universal and IofA? We only did Universal last time and a lot of the time rides were closed so we weren't even there a full day. I am a mad Harry Potter fan and so am wondering if a day in each is enough or whether I should allow say a day and a half in each?

Would appreciate any advice.

[ely3857]

It’s such a difficult question to answer!

However, if you book a night at one of the three Universal hotels (Hard Rock Hotel, Royal Pacific Resort or Portifino Bay) that offer guests ‘front of the line’ access passes with the booking you could do the two parks in two days.

The overnight stay would give you unlimited front of the line access on both check-in and check-out days and includes early entry to Harry Potter (usually the IOA side).

[redspottyowl]

If it was me, I would book a night in one of the premium universal hotels so you get front of the line passes included for the day you check in and the day you check out, with this you could do it on 2 days and get on lots of rides, including accessing early park entry for onsite guests

[sky13]

When I've done one week trips in the past I've typically done one full day (rope drop to close) for both universal and ioa with express pass. But this is incredibly rushed and means less time to stop and smell the roses (and I guess to explore the Harry potter area).

But I think I'd be happy with two days in universal and ioa so that would give more time to explore.

Couple of things to consider
- if more than one of you, look into possibly staying at one of the universal hotels (RPR HRH portofino) that provide the unlimited express pass included with the stay - that means you could do one night's stay, which gives you two days of unlimited express.
- you could look at getting a several day pass for universal (I think the UK ticket is 7 days? Sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong)
- if you only get a one day pass to begin with, I think you can upgrade it at any time before it expires to a multi day ticket or annual pass (please double check this though!), so if you felt that you haven't had enough you can upgrade number of days
- be willing to be flexible maybe - if you're there for two weeks, you could also do universal towards the start, then go back later on (provided ticket valid) for more!

[Shooby doo]

Really depends on how busy they are, of the 2 US is the hardest to get done when busy. We love Universal but are finding it harder to justify the outlay for what is effectively 1 or 2 days. You need a park to park pass if you want to do the Hogwart's express. If I had to choose just one it would Diagon Alley, it's not that Hogwart's isn't good, it's just very cramped & you really feel it when it's busy- Diagon is visually stunning!
A lot of people, & we have done it, book one night at either RPR,HRH or PB to gain 2 days worth of FOTL(generally cheaper than buying 2 days worth of EPs)- with FOTL you will get both parks done no trouble.
SD

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Bondi

I am just wondering how many days people allow for Universal and IofA?

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We usually allow 3 days in total to do the two parks. One day at Universal Studios, one day at IoA and then one day hopping between the two doing anything we missed or re-riding our favourite rides.

Last time we visited we stayed at a Universal hotel and did everything in 2 days. However, because we stayed onsite, we had the unlimited Express Passes so could skip the normal queues.

[Bondi]

Thank you so much for all the advice. We actually have an unlimited ticket (as these came as a bundle with the Disney ones) so luckily I'm not limited to just a couple of days.

I am just trying to put together a basic itinerary and trying to fit in enough time for both Disney and Universal and was wondering whether to just pencil in two for now with a possible return in the second week or to add more now. I had considered getting the express passes for us for one day and then plan to go on all the rides I really want to do then but am not sure this is feasible.

[Gill H]

Definitely book one night in one of the hotels. You can check in early, get to the gate for early entry, and have front of line passes for both days included. It can work out cheaper than buying express passes.

[Miss AliJS]

As others have said, buying the express passes even for jus one day is very expensive. You would probably find a hotel room was cheaper- and much more fun!

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Bondi

Thank you so much for all the advice. We actually have an unlimited ticket (as these came as a bundle with the Disney ones) so luckily I'm not limited to just a couple of days.

I am just trying to put together a basic itinerary and trying to fit in enough time for both Disney and Universal and was wondering whether to just pencil in two for now with a possible return in the second week or to add more now. I had considered getting the express passes for us for one day and then plan to go on all the rides I really want to do then but am not sure this is feasible.

See more...

If you have 3 days (or more) spare to visit the Universal parks then Express Passes are not really necessary. However Express Passes are extremely handy if you are trying to fit everything into just 1 or 2 days. As mentioned above, if you do decide to go the Express Pass route then consider a night in one of the deluxe Universal hotels instead - you'll get unlimited Express passes for 2 days (check-in and check-out days) and it can sometimes be cheaper than buying the Express passes on their own.

Personally, if you have the time, I'd pencil in 3 days. If you manage to do everything in 2 days then you can always swap the third day for something else.