Questions About Universal

[mocame]

My dd and I are planning a vacation to Disneyland and had time in our schedule to add another day. We were considering doing a one day tour of Universal and then Hollywood/LA. We know NOTHING about Universal Studios Hollywood except it has Harry Potter attractions and we love Harry Potter.

Is there a good online resource for Universal Studios Hollywood that you would recommend? I hear amazing things about the Harry Potter attractions in Florida. Is the Hollywood park a lot like it?

Has anyone ever gone to Universal in the middle of their Disneyland days and how did you like that?

 

[cruisehopeful]

I've only seen the Harry Potter land in Hollywood and haven't been to the one in Florida. I've been told that the one in Hollywood is much smaller. That said, it is well themed and we enjoyed it.

The rest of the park leaves a lot to be desired. The backlot tram tour is nice, but also long and can be boring for young people or those who aren't familiar with the movies/shows that they are talking about.

We didn't like anything else in the park other than the Water World show. We only like the food at 3 Broomsticks. I don't plan to go back until they expand the Harry Potter area and then I'll probably just go the one time to see it.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

USH is a working studio first, theme park second. People tend to forget that when comparing it to USO, which is all theme park, so their expectations can be disappointed. The business part takes priority at USH, so, for example, if there is filming going on during your visit, you won't have access to that part of the tram tour. Most people say they can easily cover USH in one day. Many people here do USH in the middle of their DLR days. Will you have a car or have you planned your transportation? For Hollywood, the Hollywood & Highland shopping center is not far from USH -- there are lots of bus tours that leave from H&H. You coud easily catch one to take a tour of the major sites.

 

[mocame]

USH is a working studio first, theme park second. People tend to forget that when comparing it to USO, which is all theme park, so their expectations can be disappointed. The business part takes priority at USH, so, for example, if there is filming going on during your visit, you won't have access to that part of the tram tour. Most people say they can easily cover USH in one day. Many people here do USH in the middle of their DLR days. Will you have a car or have you planned your transportation? For Hollywood, the Hollywood & Highland shopping center is not far from USH -- there are lots of bus tours that leave from H&H. You coud easily catch one to take a tour of the major sites.

Thank you for the information! I didn't know that USH is a working studio. We are thinking of taking a tour where they will take us from Anaheim to Universal. We would be at Universal for 6 or 7 hours then the rest of the tour is the touristy stuff. Hollywood Sign, Chinese theater, Santa Monica Pier, etc.

Are the big rides at USH a lot of simulators or big rollercoasters? I don't do big rollercoasters but I do go on Disney's SM, BTM, Soarin, etc. Since I don't know anything about these attractions, I don't know how many I will be doing. We are usually okay with simulators.

Also, since I was reading that Monday's are really busy at Disneyland, we were thinking of taking the Universal trip that day. Does Universal get really packed on Mondays too?

 

[twodogs]

We just did one USH day in the middle of our DLR in January to let my DD see HP world since she is a big fan. Take note that HP “world” is not a “world” in my book. I looked at it online and prepared my daughter for the reality, which is that there are only TWO rides, a restaurant, and some shops in HPW. I figured she heard “world” and was thinking it was the size of DCA or something!! There is nice theming in the area, and if you are willing to shell out $80 or so for the interactive wand, you can spend more time going around that area and using the wand to move things in shop windows etc. We ate at 3 Broomsticks, and I was not impressed.

Regarding your ride questions, basically every ride there with a few exceptions, is a motion simulator due to lack of geographic space to build big rides like coasters. My DDs and husband ride every ride at DLR, DCA and all the parks in WDW without a problem, motion simulators, coasters, eveything. They were all motion sick when we left USH. It was just way too many motion simulators in a row for them. I can’t do motion simulators at all, so I could only ride the short coaster (think Barnstormer at WDW) in HPW and that was it.

Another thing to note: we don’t let our children watch Simpson, Walking Dead, Mummy etc, so those areas were completely lost on them. The theming in the rides didn’t do anything for them, and again the rides were all motion simulators. We did like the animal show. We didn’t see the other shows because the shows all seem to run at the exact same time, and we didn’t want to wait 2 hours until the next showtime to see other shows since everyone was feeling queasy. We didn’t do the studio tour because my children have not seen many of the movies and because it was about 40 degrees outside and the trams are open-air.

For us, USH was one and done, but I am glad my DD got to see HPW. We took a Lyft from GCH, and we went on a Saturday to avoid some of the traffic and some of the crowds at DLR. It took about 40 minutes to get out there and 70 minutes to get back. It ate into a lot of DLR time to me! But again, worth it for my DD to see HPW one time.

We did get the Unlimited Express Pass, which is worth it to me if you only have one day and want to do a lot of rides. They also offer a cheaper Express Pass, but you can only skip the line once per ride.

 

[oakleycat]

Regarding your questions about HP at USH compared to USO, the HP area at USH is pretty much the same as the Hogsmeade half of USO, which is less than half of what they have there. USO has Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Express and Diagon Alley, with Diagon Alley being the most amazing and having the best ride (Gringotts) in my opinion. That said, the Hogsmeade area at USH still has amazing theming and my HP-obsessed kid loves it as his "fix" until he can get back to USO. I would recommend going but there's not much preparation to do.