<p>We’ve been to Walt Disney World many times over the years and have decided to try Universal Studios. We are planning on splitting our time between WDW and Universal, staying on-site at both locations. My DD really wants to see the Harry Potter section. Do any of you have any tips for touring Universal. We are going during her high school spring break (the week after Easter) so I know it’s going to be crowded. I’m thinking 3 days at Universal, 4 days at WDW. Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>If you stay on property at Universal they will let you in the park one hour before everyone else. Might be the only way to get on the Harry Potter ride. Otherwise, you can have a 2 hour wait.
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Good Luck!</p>
<p>Just me but I don’t think universal would need 3 days. I would think two would be plenty. Have fun!</p>
<p>If you stay at an onsite Universal hotel, you get to bypass the regular lines and move towards the front of the line. It’s an awesome perk. We stayed at the Hard Rock and I bet your HS aged daughter would love it there. This was years ago, but we loved being able to walk right over to the park whenever we wanted. When we got tired or hot, we simply walked back to the hotel and hung out at the pool.</p>
<p>We always stayed off site to save money. The Crowne and another down the street, with a mini-golf course, were far less money. If you can afford to stay on one of the in-park places, they are really nice.</p>
<p>We’ve been to Universal 3 times and stayed onsite each time to try each hotel (Portofino Bay, Hard Rock Hotel, and Royal Pacific). It is so worth it to get into Islands of Adventure an hour early so you can ride Harry Potter at least twice before the general public can get in…Have fun!</p>
<p>I agree that three days is too much for touring Universal. It’s a much smaller place than Disney World. But if your plans include a lot of hangout time at the hotel pool, three days will provide a pleasantly relaxed experience. You might consider using the third day for Sea World, if you’ve never been there.</p>
<p>My high schooler far prefers Universal to Disney. We’ve stayed at Portofino and loved the perks of bypassing the lines.</p>
<p>They have a city walk area and several good restaurants in there.</p>
<p>My kids like the section with the roller coasters, I like the section with the movie rides. I loved that Simpsons ride.</p>
<p>Try some butter beer in the Harry Potter sections - as long as you aren’t diabetic! In fact go there first, when we were there you had to walk back to Harry Potter to get a timed ticket to go in.</p>
<p>Haven’t been in a few years, but Universal used to offer AAA discounts at their restaurants and gift shops. My family loves Islands of Adventure, we don’t spend too much time at the older park, just go to hit up a few favorite rides.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all the responses. You all are very helpful!</p>
<p>I too was going to suggest a day at sea world. I’ve still yet to go there and it’s been on my list every time!</p>
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<p>Highly recommend the royal pacific on site at universal (have stayed there twice) - as others say get up early and hit harry potter an hour early before the off site people are let in - you also skip the lines on all the rides with your hotel id. I like the restaurants also - Mamma delia’s at portofino, the kitchen by the pool at hard rock. and emerils at royal pacific. The best pool is at the hard rock (awesome slide) and you can swim there even if you stay at one of the other hotels. Three days is a lot - but you can spend one at the pool.</p>
<p>Second the AAA thing - all the shops in the city walk area also give 10% off with AAA card (including margaritaville) and I think most of the restaurants - I asked every time I paid a bill - even when just getting an ice cream. When in Harry Potter have the frozen butter beer (best drink around - not alcoholic)</p>
<p>I would love to go to Universal, but I will never convince anyone here to go. :(</p>
<p>We are a long-time Universal and WDW combined trip family.</p>
<p>My recommendations:
- Stay at Royal Pacific on site. It’s the least expensive of the Universal-owned hotels and it is very nice. Up to 5 people/room. We usually stay on the concierge level which offers breakfast and snacks/drinks throughout the day. It depends what works best for your family. Your room key serves as your front-of-the-line pass for all but the most popular rides. You can use it to ride as many times as your want and bypass the 90 minute waits.</p>
<p>We’ve stayed at Portofino, too. Also nice, but not worth the incremental price increase for me. Hard Rock also nice, but the non-stop music drives me crazy. </p>
<p>I think that guests from one resort can use the pool facilities, etc at the other 2 resorts.</p>
<p>2) 2 full days at Universal is fine. If you arrive relatively early day #1, then leave your things at the bell desk day #2, spend the day there and move over to your Disney hotel the second night.</p>
<p>3) the City Walk area of Universal is really fun to walk around at night, grab a quick dinner etc. There is usually music, entertainment, etc</p>
<p>4) All 3 Universal hotels are walking distance to the parks or a short boat ride. The boats leave at 5 - 10 min intervals all day. Rarely a long wait.</p>
<p>Once my kids were teenagers, they preferred Universal and their more daring rides. Check height restrictions if your child(ren) are young.</p>
<p>Have fun</p>
<p>Thanks, All.</p>
<p>I think 2 days does sound fine since we’ll be skipping the kids rides/shows. I am confused about the Harry Potter area. If you stay on site you can go in an hour early. But, the Harry Potter Journey ride (is this their version of Soarin’?) isn’t open early nor can you use the express pass in Harry Potter. Is this correct? </p>
<p>I’m so used to Disney that I don’t even have to think about anything. But, we’ve met enough people sitting on a bench a 2pm and talking about wandering over to see Soarin or some other ride that they don’t have a chance getting near. These trips are just too expensive to “wing it”.</p>
<p>We stay at Royal Pacific to bypass the line. The Harry Potter area is small, but nice. You can get in early, HP and rip ride rocket don’t take the fast pass, but you can go to them in the first hour. You can walk back and forth from the hotel to the park easily. Buy the meal wristband, about $20 all you can eat lunch and dinner. I was there last week and dueling dragons was closed. Have fun!</p>
<p>We were there the year Harry Potter opened - and you could get in an hour early - we went straight to the journey ride and walked right on (actually since there was no line we did not really get to appreciate all the scenery through the waiting area) they do not do skip the line for this ride.</p>
<p>We’ve been to Universal Islands of Adventure a few times, mostly before Harry Potter. We were very glad when HP opened because all the crowds moved over there, leaving much smaller lines for the Hulk rollercoaster, the Spiderman ride, etc., etc. The Harry Potter “ride” is a virtual reality ride much like Spiderman (we like Spidey a bit better) and we went through it very quickly because we took the single rider option.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how old your kids are but if they’re old enough, the single rider option is great. Mostly we ended up in groups of two joining other groups in their little cars. It’s a HUGE shortcut and afterwards, we opted to “tour the castle” - a way to walk through the castle without getting on any line just so you could see it all (and see all the people in line…).</p>
<p>Other parts of HP world have been recycled but they’re still cute. The hippogriff ride used to be a pegasus ride, the dueling dragons used to be different non-HP dueling dragons and as roller coasters go, they’re OK but Hulk is far, far, better. The HP village is adorable and they even had red headed boys working in the joke shop. There was a long line for the wand testing which we didn’t do.</p>
<p>2 days at Universal is plenty. We also stayed on site to get into HP an hour early and your room key works as a “fast pass”. Those perks were well worth the extra money for the hotel. Older D did a lot of the single rider rides, where S and younger D were not that interested in the thrill rides.</p>
<p>We did not know that the food places were outside Universal until our first day, so the night before we had an expensive Italian dinner delivered. Kids did not like the hotel food. Prices were steep.</p>
<p>Water rides are REALLY wet. We did those the 2nd day first, then went back to hotel to change and check out. Too soaked to dry out.</p>