Universal or not?! (Kids 7 & 9)

[Alfiebeau]

Originally Posted by berniegroves

If so you could just go to Universal throughout your trip and purchase the front of line passes when needed.

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For our party of 4 it works out more money for one day of FOL Passes than the hotel room costs!

[lardypops]

My two were similar ages when we first went and loved universal. If we had to choose Disney or universal for a trip they would definitely choose universal. HS isn't great at the moment, they didn't like AK, MK was good for DD but DS wasn't fussed, they only really enjoyed Epcot but loved everything in US and IOA

[JudeB]

I am another one who would recommend staying in the Universal hotel for one night to get the benefit of the Express passes. We did it in July 2015 with our 3 kids (16, 14, 11 at the time) and it was AMAZING. We had previously been in July 2013 and struggled to get on any of the big rides without crazy wait times.

Just to note though, not every Universal hotel gives you the Express passes - as far as I know, its Portofino, Hard Rock Hotel and Royal Pacific Resort (that's the one we stayed in). Checked in at 7.30am, room was actually ready so we dumped our bags and hit the park. We actually were finished the next afternoon by 3 ish, having been on absolutely everything we wanted. Check out BA for hotel deals.

[amandajane10]

My kids 7 & 8 prefer the rides at Universal and we are not doing Disney next time

[bighal]

We can quite easily not do Universal and couldnt justify the extra expense just to do HP, its not worth it. You can do just the HP parts in less than a day imho.

[Allyfe]

We are going to go for it. Virgin quoted £908 for tickets. We will do three days of fast pass action. It will be at the end so if the kids like it more then that is fine Disney is only £172 a night, and with the dining plan, it feels (almost) like a bargain. But I will feel like we have missed out with no Harry Potter!

I'm SO excited. Thank you all! I now have a million other questions too!

[Pep]

Originally Posted by berniegroves

We have been to Universal/IoA more times than I could possibly count, and we have never had front of line passes and have always been okay.
Although I would like to stay for the early access to HP.

Will you have a hire car during your stay?
If so you could just go to Universal throughout your trip and purchase the front of line passes when needed.

Our kids were 4 and 2 last time and they loved Islands of Adventure and they are both very excited about going back to HP now that they have seen the first couple of films.

Whatever you decide to do I am sure you'll have a great time.

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How did the 2 year old get on in iOa how much was there to do was it half a days worth or more. I'm thinking of going when my youngest is 2 and wondering if there's enough to justify a ticket

[berniegroves]

Originally Posted by Pep

How did the 2 year old get on in iOa how much was there to do was it half a days worth or more. I'm thinking of going when my youngest is 2 and wondering if there's enough to justify a ticket

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Both my kids loved IoA, more so than Universal. Magic Kingdom and IoA are their favourite parks.

We went to IoA three times on our trip last year. But that was purely because the kids kept asking to go back. Both of them really REALLY loved the characters and the interactions there were really really good.
My 2 year old went on all the seuss landing rides and also on the HP small rollercoaster.
My 4 year old went on the water rides as well.
But they loved the kids splash zones and using the water guns on the bridge and the magic fountain etc etc.

I did a trip report so you could look at the IoA days if you want to.
But for us it was a big hit.
x

[Pep]

Originally Posted by berniegroves

Both my kids loved IoA, more so than Universal. Magic Kingdom and IoA are their favourite parks.

We went to IoA three times on our trip last year. But that was purely because the kids kept asking to go back. Both of them really REALLY loved the characters and the interactions there were really really good.
My 2 year old went on all the seuss landing rides and also on the HP small rollercoaster.
My 4 year old went on the water rides as well.
But they loved the kids splash zones and using the water guns on the bridge and the magic fountain etc etc.

I did a trip report so you could look at the IoA days if you want to.
But for us it was a big hit.
x

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Thanks for that I'll have a look at your report. I have a couple of older teenagers and we've been a few times I know they love it but it's been a long time since I was last there when they were little. Think they were 6 and 4 so I have
no experience with a 2 year old

[snowdrop100]

have you considered buying the US tickets? you can buy 2/3 day tickets for a lot less than the 2 week passes in the UK. I worked it out to be about $1000 for 2 kids and 2 adults so a decent little saving