How many days for Universal / outside Disney??

M

MrsIncredible1974

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 17, 2016
Obviously I know that this is disboards but...

When we booked our trip for Aug '17 the children surprised me by saying that they weren't bothered about doing anything except Disney. I was surprised but, accepted it happily.

Fast forward to now and I'm thinking that as we're spending a small fortune on this year's holiday and, as we're unlikely to be able to return until the children are outside of school ages (at least 6 years :-( ), maybe we should be looking to do more on our next trip.

So I'm looking at ways to spend a few days offsite, I'm not happy really with SeaWorld, reports don't really fit with my idea of animal welfare and although I loved Cape Canaveral when I visited, I don't know if the girls would enjoy it.

Oh, we did Florida Mall last time but the girls compared it unfavourably to the Trafford Centre.

Where else would you go and, how long would you allocate to it?
 
Busch Gardens in Tampa.

Maybe an Airboat Ride ........ Midway airboats At Christmas ( Fort ) on Hwy 50
 
How about a day at one of the natural springs - swimming in the natural spring, great walks, boat tours, manatees - De Leon Springs is great. Airboat rides are also great. I assume they are a bit old for Legoland. Universal could take 2 or 3 days, don't forget the water parks and adventure golf.
 


You should be able to experience most attractions in Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in 2 days.
Make sure to get Universal Park-to-Park tickets to ride Hogwarts Express between the parks.
The experience is different depending on the direction so you want to ride it both ways.
https://www.universalorlando.com/Theme-Parks/World-Class-Theme-Parks.aspx

You also may want to visit Busch Gardens in Tampa if you like thrill rides:
https://seaworldparks.com/en/buschgardens-tampa/attractions
 
Or...... use the time to just chill out at your hotel and enjoy the pool and family time. Disney is exhausting on its own and done a bit more slowly it can be much more rewarding. I'm not sure how old your children are but from 4 - 18 mine have always loved the hotel pool time. Upside of this plan is major money saved! A great on site alternative for a couple of hours is a tandem parasailing ride for the kids at the Contemporary. Or/and hire a boat and potter around the lake. Mine took Sea Racers out when they were old enough and loved this. Or take a Disney tour.
 
My last trip we did 6 days out of disney. We did Universal/IOA/Discovery Cove/Seaworld and both shopping outlets on those days
 


Thanks for the replies. 2-3 days for Universal sounds about right from everything I've seen.

We have quite a lot of down time / R&R time factored in presently as I feel better able this trip to focus on where we want to spend more time. I also want to avoid complete exhaustion in the August heat! We're factored in a trip Fort Wilderness to see D Circle ranch, a "Star Wars" day, a waterpark day, a couple of pool mornings after Wishes / Illuminations, mini golf and an evening at Boardwalk and Disney Springs - last time we caught a movie at Disney Springs too which was great (Brave was out while we were there - we met Merida just after seeing the film!)

We're not planning on getting a car as, even if we get return cabs to Universal a couple of days and a trip to the Mall, it's working out cheaper than a car plus insurance etc. We're relying on the Magic Express for transport to and from the airport. So Busch gardens is out as it's otherwise a bit of a hike - shame because I loved it at their age. I should have said that the girls will be 13 and 11.

I'm loving the parasailing comment - off to look at that now!
 
We got a deal for parasailing for our Son's 18th Birthday, same with the balloon at DTD and a hotair balloon trip. They were all on one of the discount sites, Travelzoo, Groupon etc, so watch out for offers.
 
There are two rules of thumb in this. Go for it and do it all or take the Disney parks at a more leisurely fashion ie more days there. When I went with the kids the last time I went for the do everything approach as I didnt know when we would be back. Took a lot of planning and a schedule it was tiring at the time but afterwards they were glad we did it all. We missed out in a fair of Disney stuff but managed the "main big" rides. My plan only gave 1 day at the each of the parks bar magic kingdom but we also did Busch and SeaWorld. If you are thinking of Universal Only look at staying onsite for those days so you can get the pass to skip queues if you can. I am just back but Volcano Bay looks like it will awesome so if you like water parks put that on the list.
 
Universal makes for a great trip. Expensive though since you have to shell out for another set of park tickets. We like to do it as a separate vacation.

My brother is coming from the UK for our August trip. His wife asked for NYC so they will do a few days there before coming to Orlando (setting up the flights as 2 one way bookings). They have thought about Universal but its unlikely due to the extra costs.
 
Two days for sure for us, maybe a half day or two too. All depending on crowd levels and weather tbh. UK visitors can purchase Universal Parks tickets for 14 days for a reasonable price and it works out for us cheaper than a two day ticket. I'm not a fan of having to put everything into lockers all day however we'll just have to put up with it. We have already purchased out WDW tickets in advance tied to our resort reservation.
 
Last edited:
I apologise if you already have your tickets, but I have an idea.
From a quick look im pretty sure that
14 days for price of 7 disney is £299 for adults
2 day Universal is £180
3 day universal is £210

You could get a 14 day ticket across disney 6 parks and the universal parks for £517 (floridatix)

If you go for 3 day, unless theres better pricing out there then for a tiny bit more you could get this combined ticket which allows you to be totally flexible in how long you spend there !
 
great researching. we already have our disney tickets as we booked the dining package and accommodation all together, but good info :-)
 
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