Universal at Christmas time and Birthday

[khowell]

We are planning a Disney/Universal trip in December. We have been to Disney several times but we have never done Universal before. I have 3 kids who are big HP fans and my youngest will be having her 11th birthday on the 26th. The plan is to do Disney first either 3 of 4 days, we can't decide. And then to do Universal for two days, the 26th and 27th. Does anyone know what we should expect for crowd levels? Any advice for a birthday at Universal? Any other tips or advice for tackling our days there? Part of me is wondering if we should do universal first and then disney, but my daughter really wants to do universal on her birthday.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Universal will be very crowded, so I recommend buying the front of the line pass or whatever early entry offer they have. Universal is often a big letdown compared to Disney, but Disney will be less crowded before Christmas than after. Since they all like Harry Potter, I'd start there and spend as much time there as they want. During the winter they have hot butterbeer and that is delicious.

The only place I can stand the food in Universal Studios is 3 broomsticks. The meals are huge. You can plan to share those. We didn't know that and ordered full meals, throwing out over half of our very expensive food. If you like to carry bottled water, don't buy any in the Harry Potter area. You get a very small bottle for way too much money because they call it Gilly water. Everything in this area costs a lot more than you'd ever expect.

I don't know if there's anything special for a birthday there.

 

[StageTek]

Sometimes they will do a little something special at the Animal show. Run over to Guest Relations while the kids are exploring Hogsmeade and ask.

I agree with curisehopeful that you really should get the Universal Express - it's going to be crazy busy.

 

[oakleycat]

We celebrated my son's 11th bday there a couple years ago and he had an amazing day. We got him a birthday button and he wore his HP robe, and all day TMs were telling him happy birthday. In HP one wonderful TM gave him a "secret password" which he could use to go straight to the front of the lines on the two HP rides and that totally made his day (though riding FJ four times in a row made me really sick). No idea if they still do this, and we went at a much less crowded time, but definitely get a birthday button and start conversations with TMs.

For food, we only eat at Three Broomsticks too. Hot butterbeer for sure. Then sometimes in City Walk for dinner after we've left the park for the day.

Crowds will be crazy, all the kids here are out of school that week and none of the passholders are blacked out. I'd get Express if you can swing it, at least for one day.