How many days at Universal? 3 or 4?

[cdnusagurl]

We're going to Universal next year and I'm trying to figure out how many days we should visit both Universal parks and Volcano Bay. Before I was thinking 4 days with 1 day at Volcano Bay, 1 day at US, 1 day at IOA and 1 day just to explore Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley since my husband is a huge Harry Potter fan.

However, the more I started doing research, the more I'm leaning towards only spending 3 days at Universal since I don't really think we'll want to do alot there. We aren't nightlife people so Citywalk doesn't appeal to us. The parades don't look that good, and the fireworks look kind of boring to me too. Not to mention that spending one less night there would save us around $300 since my husband wants to stay at one of the premier hotels so that we get the express pass.

Based on your personal experiences do you think the main two parks can be done in two days with express passes or do you think I should try to go for a full 3 days at them?

 

[bchbetha]

I think 4 is great since you're trying to do 3 parks.
I'm sure you can enjoy some lovely dinners and relaxing cocktail (or play some mini golf, take a swim...)... plenty to do besides bar hop. 2 days in the park will probably feel rushed, especially for a Harry Potter fan.
There are great shows in the park. No great fireworks bc it's in a residential area with noise rules. But, lots of fun shows to take in.

 

[janicept]

With early entry and unlimited express plus all the things it seem you don't need to see you may be good with 2 days between Studios and IoA plus one day for Volcano Bay. Personally I don't think a full day at IoA will be needed and you can spend the rest of that day at Studios. The Harry Potter sections are neat but are still fairly small. I believe you can always add a day to your ticket if you need to. They do have special buy 2 days and get 2 free sometimes so it just depends on the deal you get.

 

[angryduck71]

We're doing 5 days and feel like it's not enough. (two of those days are arrival/depart, so not five FULL days -- wish we had five.)

 

[EveDallas]

We're doing six days in the park, and it still won't feel like long enough.

 

[agavegirl1]

I like the four day plan. I did six on my last visiting staying at Portofino and loved it. Something to consider, even though you are not "night life" people is that the premier resorts are lovely and interesting attractions in their own right. You may want to spend your non-park time exploring and enjoying the resort. Remember, pool hopping is allowed. There are great restaurants as well.

 

[quandrea]

We were happy with three. Very leisurely pace. You could get by with two.

 

[luvsJack]

Did 3 last trip, would have loved 4. And that was without Volcano Bay. May go ahead and make next trip 5 days.

I was worried about not wanting to do much other than HP, could not have been more wrong. Each area had so much to experience. My personal favorites were all the performances. Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are small areas but if you dh is a big fan like us, he will want to explore every inch. So much to see. We spent more than half of one day just looking through all the shops in Diagon Alley.

Just for comparison, we didn't do anything in City Walk or watch the parade. We did see the nighttime show.

 

[OMGBecky]

We're doing 4 days, with 1 devoted to Volcano Bay. We'd probably do more, but we'll have a 4 year old with us, and we're doing Disney for 4 days before coming to Universal. I did 3 days last trip and wished we had done at least another day, and that was before Volcano Bay.

 

[gotomu212]

The cost between 3 and 4 can be less than you think. The 4th ticket day is not much more, and you can take advantage of stay more, save more at the hotels.

 

[houseofthrees]

We just booked 3 nights and I am hating that. We have found that we need at least four to feel like we had enough time, but this time it came down to 3 night or none at all. So 3 it is

 

[cleopenn]

I like the four day plan. I did six on my last visiting staying at Portofino and loved it. Something to consider, even though you are not "night life" people is that the premier resorts are lovely and interesting attractions in their own right. You may want to spend your non-park time exploring and enjoying the resort. Remember, pool hopping is allowed. There are great restaurants as well.

I could not agree more! We were so impressed with the resorts and the quality of the restaurants.

We did our first trip to Universal in November. As someone mentioned, the four day tickets weren't much more than the three day tickets and we got a really nice price break for a longer resort stay.

We did three days at the Universal Parks. I was worried we would get bored but we didn't, it was perfect. With the exception of one early entry day, we kept the days relaxed. We did IOA in one day, US in one day and spent the 3rd revisiting and really taking in all the Harry Potter attractions. Our son loved it. We rode the train several times just because we could and strolled around Diagon Alley for hours. Two days would have been enough but three days made it a fantastic trip. There is just so much to take in if you are a Potter fan. Even my husband, who secretly rolls his eyes at my and our son's Potter love thought it was amazing.

Universal City Walk and the parks make for a great combination as its so easy to pop and out of the parks to stroll and dine. We really enjoyed the combination. For example, we felt like taking a break one afternoon so we went to that Margarittaville bar on the water for snack and drinks and enjoyed looking at the parks. Finished up and went over to IOA for a few hours. We didn't have that "OMG, need to see everything" feeling we had at Disney because its more compact and the EPs, if you have them, are a theme parking-changing experience.

I say all the above being NOT a theme park person, at all. The only reason we went was for our son's enjoyment. We were pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed the entire Universal experience.

 

[Seeker615]

We are doing three nights this time around and I wish it was more. (We are taking a cruise so this Universal trip was more to check out the new stuff and to get my HP fix!)
We did 5 nights a few years ago and I wished it was longer.
I love roaming between the two parks at my leisure.
I love being able to walk to my hotel and freshen up.
I love the deluxe hotels. So pretty!
I love the vibe of Citywalk!

 

[Keenolive]

We just spent 5 days (separated with a cruise in the middle). We are not power-parkers. We like to spend time in the morning, then swim in the afternoon, and go back in the evening. We found 5 days to be a good amount of time just for the 2 parks, though we could have spent more time! We stayed at both RPR and Portofino. We liked taking our time, especially because a lot of the rides cause major motion sickness! I had to take time between rides to recover We traded in our tickets for APs so we didn't feel like we had to absolutely do everything. We plan to go back in the Fall for more!

 

[kohlby]

Are you going with kids? If so, I wouldn't do less than 3 for US/IOA, making it 4 days once you add in Volcano Bay. It's a lot easier to skip things you aren't interested in if you don't have kids. With kids, there's a lot that takes up a lot more time - whether it's the play areas or making sure everyone gets to do their favorite attractions. If you aren't going back for a while, I'd also choose 4 over 3.

As for cost, you cold do one of the three that include express for two nights and then two nights at Cabana Bay. That way, you'll have three days of express and your increased cost won't be nearly as much. Actually, it could even work out about the same.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

We did 3 days for the two parks with small kids on our first trip (more like 2.5, as we arrived late and left early the last day). We did everything we wanted to do, but could have spent more time taking in WWoHP. This last trip we only did 1.5 days and hit our highlights. I get motion sick easily on all the motion simulators so there isn't much there that I ride, but I still thoroughly enjoy the parks and resorts. HRH is probably our favorite hotel and we just enjoy the grounds there as well. We aren't big nightlife people but we enjoyed Cowfish at City Walk for dinner.
I love the relaxed pace of touring Universal.
Adding in Volcano Bay, I would think 4 days would be nice and relaxing, but you could probably do everything in 3 days if you are more focused. Depends on how relaxed versus cost you want to be.

 

[macraven]

There is more to the UO vacation besides the parks.

I spend 14 days there and leave wanting to do more

I do not rush to get up for EE as I take my time for the parks

My UO vacations are total relaxing
I never end the trip feeling rushed

 

[DisBuckMan]

My son and I just got back from a short trip down there. We drove down, getting there about 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Stayed at RPR for two nights, and ended up doing leaving early on Monday. We had planned to leave around 6pm to drive home Monday evening, but left just before noon, because we had done everything we wanted to do several times over. We find early entrance for resort guests to be not much benefit, as lines are longer for rides during that time than they are normally. One day is enough for each park for us, and we jumped PTP several times each day. We feel the same way at WDW...one day per park is perfect. We'll be back in May for 4 days at Disney and 2 at US.

We had a good time, though.

 

[schumigirl]

We just spent 5 days (separated with a cruise in the middle). We are not power-parkers. We like to spend time in the morning, then swim in the afternoon, and go back in the evening. We found 5 days to be a good amount of time just for the 2 parks, though we could have spent more time! We stayed at both RPR and Portofino. We liked taking our time, especially because a lot of the rides cause major motion sickness! I had to take time between rides to recover We traded in our tickets for APs so we didn't feel like we had to absolutely do everything. We plan to go back in the Fall for more!

Sounds like our kind of trip!

We never spend the whole day in the parks........although we do go back for HHN on those days......but, glad to hear you had such a fabulous time......and relaxing too! That's the way to vacation!

There is more to the UO vacation besides the parks.

I spend 14 days there and leave wanting to do more

I do not rush to get up for EE as I take my time for the parks

My UO vacations are total relaxing
I never end the trip feeling rushed

Us too mac...........we could stay double the time and never be ready to leave!

We've never done EE and have no plans to ever do that.........although we do get up early, just never need to be there for EE as we do the parks in a chilled out way........

 

[toonaspie]

I like the idea of spending a whole day devoted to strictly HP stuff. My plan is to do all the non-HP stuff at the parks first so my Harry Potter day came be a completely immersive experience.