A week at Universal? and a few more questions...

Jimmy Mouse

My other car is the Monorail
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
We're going to Disney in September for the 3rd year in a row with our youngest daughters, Already planning 2019 vacation and I think it's time for something different and I love Star Wars but think we're going to skip opening year. And though I have been to Universal, it's been a very long time. Last time I was there, King Kong and Back to the Future were my favorite attractions. I know they are gone now. So I have a few questions I hope someone can answer please.

1. We want to stay on site. Best resort?
2. We want to stay 8-10 days. Thinking of doing one Sea World day also. Is 7-9 days too long at Universal?
3. Looking at the website, its very confusing compared to Disney's site. Should I consult a travel agent? Or just call Universal?
4. Our girls are 6 and 4 right now, will be 8 and almost 6 when we do Universal. Seems like all the rides are for older kids. Is this a good age? FYI, right now, they both Love Tower of Terror and Space Mountain among other thrill rides. We are a tall family. My 4 year old was able to ride TOT at 3 and loved it.

Thanks in advance for any input!
 
Stay at one of the deluxes that include unlimited express pass along with the early entrance to Wizarding World. That means Royal Pacofic, Hard Rock Hotel, or Portofino. I love Portofino.

I book hotel as a room-only directly through loewshotels.com. I buy tickets from Universal or undercovertourist or maple leaf tickets. Or i buy an annual pass from Universal.

But I’ve heard that booking a package through Universal allows you to buy a special 7 day ticket right now. If that might be useful for you, you might consider a package. But know that there are charges for changes or cancellations. And the payment situation is different.

Our longest stay was 8 nights (club level at Portofino). It would have been brilliant. Alas my son and I got ridiculously sick 2 weeks before, and my son was still in recovery mode when we were there. Thank goodness for club level for food for unhungry son and for wine for me.

Our first trip was when my son was 6.5 years old. He’s tall. Check out the height requirements on the site for ideas of what they might be able tonride. If this isn’t a one time trip, make sure to take their pictures against the main height sticks outside each park as a fun way to track their height. :)

Best thing was when DS wanted to ride things over and over and I finally realized that as long as a child is at least 48” and meets the requirements of the ride they can ride alone at Universal. I might have started that day riding Hippogriff 14 times in a row, but I ended it *watching* him ride the Nuthouse coaster alone as I sat on a bench. :):)
 
You’ll see so many changes since it’s been so long since you’ve been.......:thumbsup2

As for hotels, as Bumbershoot above says, the top 3 give you Unlimited EP and Early Entry........they are, RPR, HRH and PBH.....With Sapphire Falls (beautiful) and Cabana Bay only give EE. Have a look at pictures on the stickies and see which hotel suits you and your family. It may give you an idea of what they’re like. We wouldn’t go to Universal without EP........even in so called quiet days you can still queue for some rides.......Despicable Me for example regularly has lines of 60-90 minutes.......with EP we have usually still walked straight in or a minimal wait of a few minutes........worth it’s weight in gold for us!

I would book direct......if the price comes down later, call and have the price lowered on your reservation.

No, not too many days.........our longest stay in a year is 19 nights. We never get bored with Universal and we do a lot offsite though, not Disney though, ever. We haven’t been there for many years and don’t feel the need to. But with the time frame you’re talking abut it’ll be lovely.......you and your family won’t be rushed to cram everything in as many do. You have the time to enjoy the resort you choose and really have the time to appreciate the parks and all they have to offer.

I would disagree all the rides are for older children. We see fairly young children ride most, exceptions would be the ones that have height requirements. Check the website. It has the height requirements for all rides. 8 and 6 seems a pretty good pair of ages to me for a first visit........they’ll enjoy rides from both ends of the spectrum if they like rides........Despicable Me for example is a “young” ride......but it’s fabulous for any age.

Can’t help you with SeaWorld as we never go there either.

You will pay for parking at the hotels separately as they are not Universal.

The stickies have some good info in them.
 
1. We want to stay on site. Best resort?
2. We want to stay 8-10 days. Thinking of doing one Sea World day also. Is 7-9 days too long at Universal?
3. Looking at the website, its very confusing compared to Disney's site. Should I consult a travel agent? Or just call Universal?
4. Our girls are 6 and 4 right now, will be 8 and almost 6 when we do Universal. Seems like all the rides are for older kids. Is this a good age? FYI, right now, they both Love Tower of Terror and Space Mountain among other thrill rides. We are a tall family. My 4 year old was able to ride TOT at 3 and loved it.

1. Agree with PPs that one of the three deluxe resorts is the best bet for express pass and also early entry. They vary a bit in terms of price and vary a lot in terms of theme, so which one is a personal preference. We like Royal Pacific because it tends to be the most affordable of the three deluxe resorts, but we also like Hard Rock because of the lively, fun vibe of the hotel as well as very close proximity to the parks which makes for an easy/quick walk.

2. Depends who you ask. DH and I love Universal and are leaving in a week for our 5th trip there in 3 years. That said, after about 3-4 days, we feel we've had enough. There's not nearly as much to see and do as there is at Disney. And with Express Pass, you get things done faster. Its very easy to take things slow and do things at your own pace at Universal which is nice, so I would definitely plan for some pool/relax days with 7-9 days at Universal. If you have a car, you could plan another off-site day or two as well. I would also recommend purchasing APs - after 4 ticket days, APs make more sense financially and they'll allow you the flexibility to access either park any day you're there.

3. Do it yourself. Find your resort, book it like you would any normal hotel, and buy your APs or tickets directly from Universal. Nothing else to book (aside from a rental car, flights, etc. which can be done on your own) and not much to plan like Disney has- no ADRs, no FPs, etc.

4. I don't have kids but I always caution friends to google the height requirements. Universal has more strict requirements so if one or both of the kids won't meet some of the minimum height requirements, then you may want to re-consider.
 


1. We want to stay on site. Best resort?

Depends on budget. We have stayed for 10 days at Cabana Bay (great pools for the kids). Room was much cheaper, does not include the EP's. With annual passes, you can explore the parks for 10 days and we didn't miss the EP's.

2. We want to stay 8-10 days. Thinking of doing one Sea World day also. Is 7-9 days too long at Universal?

I wish we had more than 10 days.

3. Looking at the website, its very confusing compared to Disney's site. Should I consult a travel agent? Or just call Universal?

Use the previous posts here to help guide your own planning. No TA needed. Download the Uni app to get an idea of the layout of the resort and the parks (with wait times).

4. Our girls are 6 and 4 right now, will be 8 and almost 6 when we do Universal. Seems like all the rides are for older kids. Is this a good age? FYI, right now, they both Love Tower of Terror and Space Mountain among other thrill rides. We are a tall family. My 4 year old was able to ride TOT at 3 and loved it.

Plenty for them to do. If they love ToT and SM, they will really get a kick out of Spiderman and Mummy and Harry Potter (check the heights). Sounds like they will be able to do everything but the big-boy coasters.
 
Depends on budget.
Between $10,000 and $12,000



Plenty for them to do. If they love ToT and SM, they will really get a kick out of Spiderman and Mummy and Harry Potter (check the heights). Sounds like they will be able to do everything but the big-boy coasters.
My 6 year old was able to ride RnR coaster as well. She's 4ft. 3 right now
 


Thanks everyone! So far good info! We will start looking at it closer in the next few months. I think it's time for a "Disney" break and I really don't want to deal with Star Wars crowds in 2019 :)
 
Really? So are their long lines to get a table at the restaurants?
You can book some of them. I always book Mythos ahead of time (30 days out).

Honestly if you're taking an 8 day trip I would probably throw Disney on there for 3 or 4 days at least. Maybe you JUST visit HS and MK. The crowds might be bad with Star Wars but I'd have a really hard time filling an 8 day trip with nothing but Universal. There's just not nearly that much to do.

Others here will probably disagree with me but we had the Express Passes last trip and by the time we got to Day 3 it was becoming redundant.
 
Honestly if you're taking an 8 day trip I would probably throw Disney on there for 3 or 4 days at least.
We plan on doing Sea World and MK for 1 day each. 3 days Universal, 1 day Sea World, 1 relax day at the pool, 1 day Magic Kingdom, 2 days back to Universal. But, we plan on doing shorter park days and taking our time. We may even throw one day of parks and drive to the beach or add the beach day for a total of 9 days.
 
We plan on doing Sea World and MK for 1 day each. 3 days Universal, 1 day Sea World, 1 relax day at the pool, 1 day Magic Kingdom, 2 days back to Universal. But, we plan on doing shorter park days and taking our time. We may even throw one day of parks and drive to the beach or add the beach day for a total of 9 days.
If it were me I'd consider switching to Disney after the 3 days at Universal and skipping the return trip to Universal (but you could also go to Sea World from the Disney hotel). But I'm a Star Wars nut, so that's just me.

Also, look into Annual Pass rates for the Universal hotels. Only one person needs an annual pass to qualify, but you can save a ton on the hotels that include express passes like the Royal Pacific (we just stayed there and are staying again in 3 weeks!)
 
I wouldn't be able to spend more than 3 days at the Universal Parks. They have their two standard parks and now a water park. If you had a casual hotel day with shopping/swimming that might fill one more day. Universal is aimed at older kids, but I think a 6 and 8 year old would like it. I don't think it has much for the 4 and under crowd.

If you want a break from Disney you could also try SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, LEGOLAND, Busch Gardens or Kennedy Space Center.
 
Am I on the right board? Pretty sure this is the Universal side, but I sure see a lot of people saying three days at UO is plenty. FWIW, I 100% disagree. We usually spend 7-8 days there and always leave wanting more. Three days would just be a tease for me.
 
Am I on the right board? Pretty sure this is the Universal side, but I sure see a lot of people saying three days at UO is plenty. FWIW, I 100% disagree. We usually spend 7-8 days there and always leave wanting more. Three days would just be a tease for me.
I love Universal but 7-8 days is just way too long in my opinion. Nothing to do with Disney, it’s just redundant past 3 days for me.
 
I love Universal but 7-8 days is just way too long in my opinion. Nothing to do with Disney, it’s just redundant past 3 days for me.

I completely agree. It really has nothing to do with Disney. I like the Universal parks as much as the Disney parks. But Disney has 4 main parks and 2 water parks, and Universal has 2 main parks and 1 water park. I can spend about 6 days at the Disney parks or 3 days at the Universal parks before I feel like I have run out of things I am interested in doing.

I think it depends if you are someone who wants to do everything, or do some things multiple times. Some people also only go for a few hours a day. I usually go from opening to closing, and I am not interested in every ride or attraction at Universal. Besides maybe the Harry Potter rides, I don't feel a need to go on rides more than once.
 
I’d be happy with 4-6 park days, no Disney but Sea World, Kennedy Space Center or some nature.
We're still in the long away planning stages but I completely forgot about Kennedy Space Center! I should have thought of that first and I have no excuse to why I didn't because I grew up in Titusville, visited Cape Canaveral and watched many rocked launches. My school was called Apollo Elementary. But I still forgot about it lol.
 
We're still in the long away planning stages but I completely forgot about Kennedy Space Center! I should have thought of that first and I have no excuse to why I didn't because I grew up in Titusville, visited Cape Canaveral and watched many rocked launches. My school was called Apollo Elementary. But I still forgot about it lol.

My DH and I are currently here at Universal on a 5 day trip and as of day 3 we are loving having the time to take a leisurely pace, really relax, ride things multiple times, try different restaurants.

We love the EP. Staying at hard rock and it is a fun vibe. I think your kids would love it and I don't think that's too long to spend here. With a few off-site days for the space center, etc, your length of time sounds great!
 
Really? So are their long lines to get a table at the restaurants?

Not really. You can reserve Mythos.

Am I on the right board? Pretty sure this is the Universal side, but I sure see a lot of people saying three days at UO is plenty. FWIW, I 100% disagree. We usually spend 7-8 days there and always leave wanting more. Three days would just be a tease for me.

Right?

We’ve also done 8 nights at Disneyland. :):) Only left for one day because my brother was bothered we weren’t visiting him.

We love taking things slow, we love re-rides. We’re west coast and 2/3 of us have a ridiculously hard time getting onto east coast time no matter what we do (and the other third just likes to be lazy), so sleeping in is nice.

Pool time. Wander time. Go over to the parks for three rides and a butterbeer time. My son loves the coasters, I don’t want him riding alone (worst case scenarios hit me hard and I’d rather be with him in case...), but I’m afraid (and DH can’t fit the big rides yet). I can do two big coasters a day or you’ll find me crying by the bathrooms approaching Marvel island.

So spacing those out is good for us.

It’s an actual vacation for us, rather than a frantic Amazing Race through the parks.

And when we get to Universal we stay put apart from groceries, Yard House, and Sweet Tomatoes (those two are restaurants). When we’re at Disney we are constantly leaving campus, it seems.
 

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