Should I do Universal?

[dancingelkhound]

Million dollar question, (Or more like £660 question), and I realise different people have different opinions.

We’re staying on site at Disney for 11 nights next Nov/Dec. We currently only have Disney tickets.

I have no interest in Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove etc, but am a huge Harry Potter fan (I’ve been to the studios in Watford five times).

Myself and my husband have visited Disney once before, for a week, and just did Disney. This time we’ll be taking our three year old.

My current internal debate is focussing on these three issues:
1) Harry Potter!
2) £660 is a lot of money
3) There’s not much for my three year old to do at Universal.

Can anyone give their opinions? I suspect if we did do Universal, we’d spend a day at each park, and probably not bother with Volcano Bay.

[Lell]

If you are a Harry Potter fan, you have to visit. It is amazing. Can't wait to go back again next year

[Guest]

I’d think you’ll struggle for things to do with your three year old. Last time we went our daughter was 7 and apart from Harry Potter she wasn’t interested. I feel it would be harder with a three year old.

[DisneyDaffodil]

We usually go for 11 nights but just visit Disney. We went to Universal this year as part of a split stay with New York. We loved it, but I think it would be too much to do both Disney and Universal in 10-11 days especially with a little one. Plus, very expensive to pay for all the tickets. Suess Landings is the only part suitable for a 3 year old really so if it were my choice, I would stick with just Disney this time. Unless you feel you will never manage to visit again of course. But if you can afford another trip on a few years time, I would wait until then to visit Universal. Harry Potter attractions and Universal itself is amazing, my DH preferred it to Disney, and we spent 4 days there without Volcano Bay. So, maybe another trip in the future could be for Universal, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove instead of Disney

[BevS97]

Its very hard. I totally get you about the £660. And we haven’t gone for that reason a number of times but as huge Harry Potter fans I was desperate to go this summer and at the last minute we bit the bullet and bought the tickets. I loved the Harry Potter stuff. It’s stunning and really not to be missed. The rest of the park doesn’t do much for me but we had a nice time after we’d seen Harry. There are some things for toddlers but in all honesty not a lot.

I can’t tell you what to do. You won’t be disappointed with the Harry Potter stuff but it’s not enough to fill 2 days on its own.

[dancingelkhound]

Oops should have added, we’re unlikely to go back any time soon. Once my daughter turns four she’ll be going to school (she’s an August birthday) and we’ll never be able to afford to go in the school holidays.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by dancingelkhound

Oops should have added, we’re unlikely to go back any time soon. Once my daughter turns four she’ll be going to school (she’s an August birthday) and we’ll never be able to afford to go in the school holidays.

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Ah, now this could be the deciding factor. If you are a big Harry Potter fan you have to visit once at least. If this is your only chance, then I would say get the tickets.

To make full value of the tickets, could you add 2 days onto your trip for Universal? We stayed at the very cheap but clean Holiday Inn near Universal when we visited. We walked to Universal parks from there, its a flat 15 minute walk with good pavements and crossings. The hotel also runs a shuttle bus to Universal and we used Uber and Lyft which was very cheap.

[loldis]

We debated exactly this as we wanted to see the HP theming but neither of us are big fans and not interested in the Universal rides so decided against it in the end - money better spent elsewhere. But given you are a HP fan, and not likely to go back soon, I would stretch the budget.

But IMO, you could do just the Harry Potter bits in one day. You'd need a park-to-park ticket which is a bit more expensive, but you'd then get to ride the Hogwarts Express as well.

[dancingelkhound]

Sadly we can’t add any days onto the trip because of getting time off work, but we’re more than happy to get Uber if we don’t hire a car.

I think we would need two ‘days’ mainly because they wouldn’t actually be full days, as we’d need to take DD back for some chill out time in the afternoon. And although doing rider switch theoretically means you only queue once, we found at DLP that there were often so many disabled people with large groups in the same queue it actually took quite a long time for the second person to ride.

But I think I’m convinced it’s worth going. Well just have to make it up to DD with a day of Dumbo and It’s a small world!

Now to convince DH!

[electo]

if you are a harry potter fan then yes do it
its GREATTTT

i am not a harry potter fan but i love what they have done to it
great theming and great rides too
you have got to have a butter beer to the frozen ones are nice the normal ones are a bit to sweet

your best off gettin a taxi to the park
if you up for a challenge you could do both parks in one day but it would be very tiring unless you pay for the express pass but it will still be a long day

best off having two days there
and see how bizzy the park is on that day if it is bizzy get the express pass