FAQs - Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure About This Page:

[Shell_of_the_South]

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Now neither of us are great thrill rides / coaster fans, so we are not planning on Islands of Adventure, as I don't think it's worth the money - there is no way you'd get either of us on most of the attractions. We're just planning one day at Universal - will that be enough?

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I think you can do Universal Studios in one day. Do you do motion simulator rides? Back to the Future is like a souped up Star Tours, and it is probably the most extreme ride there.

Seems like I remember them offering a 2 day ticket for about the same price as a one-day, you might check into that. I know you wouldn't enjoy the coasters at IOA, but it is such a beautiful park!

[JoanW]

I don't see that anyone has posted here recently, be we are planning our first trip to US next year and wanted to know what you think about their resorts and how the rooms are (7 going, and we need 3 rooms because one of the seven is the boyfriend of one DSD, so no room sharing going on with my money). I am thinking of staying one night, after our week in Kissimmee so we can get two days in at US (Sunday and Monday) and fly home Monday night, possibly. What do you all think?

[NancyW2]

Joan, speaking from experience, (we stayed at the Hard Rock), I can honestly say you will absolutely LOVE IT!!!!

The hotels are on par with anything deluxe WDW has. The best feature, in my opinion, is that your onsite room key gives you front of the line access!! No waiting, no fast passes. You can also walk into the parks within 5 minutes, or take the boat. It's very pretty. If you have any questions, ask away.

[JoanW]

I've read that I can get an Entertainment Book discount, but I will have to wait for a 2005 book to come out I think. I do believe that it is important to stay onsite to go to the front of the line. What is your experience on rates per night for a standard room?

[dizPlanner]

We have stayed at both the Hard Rock Hotel and the Royal Pacific. Both are very nice. I've never gotten the Entertainment rate - none available for my dates. I've used Magical Journey to reserve my room both trips. The first time they got a very good AAA rate for me at the Hard Rock. However, this was the Jan 2002 - right after 9/11 and the hotels were hurting. The trip to the Royal Pacific was in March 2004. I was able to get a Universal Fan Club rate - $164 a night. This was booked in January.
For our March trip, we checked in late ~10pm and they didn't have any 2 queen rooms left, which is what we reserved. They had some convention groups stay longer than planned and they had some room changes. A bit of a problem as we had four people - me, DH, DS(14 yrs), DD(12 yrs). They put us in a king room with a sleeper sofa, but gave us a free roll-away bed on my request. They were willing to move us to a two queen room the next morning, but I asked if we could keep the roll-away in order to separate the kids. The clerk did not recommend the rollaway in the 2 queen room due to space constraints. Since the sofa bed was fairly comfortable for my daughter, we decided to just stay in the king room. They never did charge us for the roll-away. I was willing to pay for the second and third day as it was my choice to stay in the room.
They normally charge $6 a day for self-parking, but we were not charged. We didn't move the car until we left, so that might be why.

The front of the line access definately makes it worth staying at these resorts. On Friday and Saturday, the waits were long (60 min or longer on many rides) and express passes were gone before 11am, but we could just walk on or have a short wait. Sunday it was slower, so the express access was nice, but not as critical. However, since the last day we were just re-riding the roller coasters, it still helped, particularly on Hulk. It is also nice to not have to worry about which park to see on which day to avoid crowds, since crowds don't affect you.

Karen

[BostonTeaParty]

To be honest, I don't remember what we paid. It was a couple of years ago. I remember it wasn't cheap, but I didn't care. I remember that we got upgraded to a pool view room for no extra charge; that was fantastic!! It's not only important to stay onsite for front of the line access; it's imperative! That alone makes the price worth it, in my opinion. We must've gone on Men In Black and Spiderman - 5 times in a row. Just walked right on - over and over!! You can't beat that! Also, parking wasn't an issue for us - because we had used Tiffany Town Car to bring us to Disney and then used Disney transportation. Then, when we were finished at Disney and headed over to Universal - we used Tiffany again. We didn't need a car there, because it's a two minute walk to both parks.

[SMG]

Looking for some Universal experts out there.... I THINK I have DH talked into Universal in '05, kids will be 14 and 13...although Jerry has said under NO certain terms will he go to Disney while on vacation...just for the sake of knowing...just how far is Disney from Universal? We'll probably drive this trip (approx 19 hours )...I'm thinking 3 nights as we'll be spending one night on the road both ways...is it REALLY worth it to drive all that way for 3 nights?? We have a timeshare, but after hearing all the good things about staying on site, I'm wondering what to do...

[HiddenMickey]

SMG-

If you have three nights to spend, I'd look into staying on site and save your timeshare for a longer trip. The front-of-the-line pass you get being onsite at Universal is really, really great. There are good AAA discounts for the rooms at all three hotels or you can also check into whether Entertainment discounts will be available while you are there.

I am desperately trying to plan a trip to Universal sooner more than later for my family as well. After my visit (with my sister) in November, I know my DH and kids will love it too. And no Disney for us on that trip either.

-HiddenMickey

[Shell_of_the_South]

Shonnie, it is about a 20 - 25 minute drive from the Universal resorts to Disney, depending on where in Disney you're going! When we stay at Universal, we often drive to Disney to eat out.

I highly urge you to stay onsite at Universal if at all possible. But if you use your timeshare, go during off-season. Don't go to the Universal parks in the summer months or during Spring break/Christmas without staying onsite.

Sometimes Universal has specials like a 5 day pass for the price of a 2-day ticket. If you only want to do a Universal trip, you could look for something like that. It is so convenient to walk to the parks from the Universal resorts that you will find yourself wanting all that time in the theme parks. And if you stay at one Universal resort, you can use the pools and facilities at the other 2, so you could factor in a pool day. Wet & Wild is close to Universal, so you could add a water park day. Or you could visit Sea World one day. There is plenty to do to fill up a week if you want. I can understand not wanting to drive 19 hours for a 3 day trip!

[SMG]

Thanks for the input! I'd really love to go since the boys will be at the perfect age, but my teenager is already wanting to go to Cancun! What happened to my babies?!?!?!

[ripkensnana]

The last time we went to US was on July 6, 2002. I don't know what was going on, but we'd been at WDW for five days previously, and it was quite crowded. But on this particular Saturday, crowds at US were practically nonexistent! We never waited more than 15 minutes for anything (and those were shows), rode Men in Black and Jaws twice each, and did everything else once. It was really pleasant to almost have the whole park to ourselves!