Universal/Islands of Adventure Cost!

[Eloise73]

So we are off to Orlando next summer for 2.5 weeks and have hotel and villa and disney tickets booked through Disney at a slightly eye watering price but never mind!

However...Universal and IoA is making my eyes water even more! I've never been and they do seem to have so many amazing attractions and i'm a big Harry Potter fan although my 10 year old daughter really isn't nor is my husband.

So i'm finding it hard to justify the cost of spending £500 for 2 days there - 2/3 days is the most we would spend there and that's a lot of money for a short period of time.

Is it really worth the money? Have any of you just gone for one day and focused on the attractions you really want to see? Or is it worth spending £750 on the 2 weeks pass and spending more time there?

For background it will be myself (love scary rides), husband (doesn't like fast or scary rides but will try everything once), 10 year old daughter (loves scary rides) and our 9 month old baby who will eventually enjoy scary rides but will be kinda restricted to the pushchair for now

[klr15]

Me and my other half visited Florida in May and the universal parks were our absolute favourites! 100% worth the money and definitely worth the visit! We had four visits because we split our time between there and Disney, but next time we would do more. The Harry Potter areas in US and IOA are a must for any Harry Potter fan, they are absolutely incredible! The other areas are brilliant too, you definitely need at least one day at each though I would say if you're planning to do all the big attractions.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Eloise73

So we are off to Orlando next summer for 2.5 weeks and have hotel and villa and disney tickets booked through Disney at a slightly eye watering price but never mind!

However...Universal and IoA is making my eyes water even more! I've never been and they do seem to have so many amazing attractions and i'm a big Harry Potter fan although my 10 year old daughter really isn't nor is my husband.

So i'm finding it hard to justify the cost of spending £500 for 2 days there - 2/3 days is the most we would spend there and that's a lot of money for a short period of time.

Is it really worth the money? Have any of you just gone for one day and focused on the attractions you really want to see? Or is it worth spending £750 on the 2 weeks pass and spending more time there?

For background it will be myself (love scary rides), husband (doesn't like fast or scary rides but will try everything once), 10 year old daughter (loves scary rides) and our 9 month old baby who will eventually enjoy scary rides but will be kinda restricted to the pushchair for now

See more...

Universal no longer see themselves as either WDW's poor cousin or the 'other' parks in which to spend a couple of days when people want a break from WDW, but as a legitimate if slightly alternative option to the land of the mouse... hence their prices are not dissimilar to the costs for Disney.

To be fair if you just want to 'do' Disney for a couple of days that's also an expensive option.

We're going in October and opted to go for the 14 day ticket for both Disney and Universal. To me, 5 or so visits to Disney will be enough, so we'll hit Universal on at least 4 to 5 days.

I agree though... the tickets are eye watering prices whichever option you go for.

[Floridaagogo]

I couldn't go and not do universal.easily our favourite 2 parks x

[Guest]

Love Universal, and I think three days would be the ideal amount of time. I'd choose it hand down over the Disney parks myself. I think your 10 year old will love it too...
Jurassic park, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, MIB, simpsons - what's not to like? Love the water rides too.
One thing I must agree with you on though is the price. Like everything else on this holiday, it's eye watering...

[Gerddon]

Two days is plenty to see and do all in the parks, if you can save a couple of hundred then it's all good. They are great parks and if you go all the way there without visiting them in think you might regret it.

If you are going for the two day tickets you can reduce the cost by just getting non hoppers and just doing one park per day. It means no hogwarts express but I personally don't think it's worth the extra money if you are happy not to park hop.

[Atomic01]

We spend far more time in Universal than Disney... in fact we didn't even go to Disney last year, and we're not planning to this year!

If you are a massive Harry Potter fan it really is a must do, as it's an incredible experience - and for me more magical and fully immersive than Disney. The Hogwarts Express is also a must do for me - but as said above it does make it a little more expensive as you need a park hopper - but I personally think it's well worth it x

[LaughingPlace]

My only big bear with US / IOA is that a FOLP is an absolute necessity if you want to get it done in anything like 2 days.

[Guest]

We are here now and have made a complaint to Universal. Not worth the ticket price by a long way. Tacky and boring is an understatement.

We have been massively disappointed by the place.

[Mexy02]

We love universal and have been twice before but after looking at the ticket prices for 5 of us we decided to stick to Disney only. If we go again I would try to slot in universal . Tricky one if you haven't done it though as it's really good .