2 days or 1 day with express Pass Universal Studios

[roctavia]

We have a DLR trip over Memorial day weekend for a conference (Otherwise I would not travel during a holiday weekend!) But we don't want to spend all of our time at DLR.
My initial plan was that on Monday (Memorial Day) we would check out of the hotel at DLR and then need a ride like Uber to get us to a new hotel by Universal studios.

We could then leave our luggage and go to Universal for the rest of that day, and then have a full day on Tuesday for Universal before we fly home on Wednesday.

Looking for park tickets, most of the discount places don't have 2 day tickets with a discount... but the 2 day ticket is still quite a bit less than a 1 day express pass. I know it's not a full day park, but it will be busy when we go, so I was thinking two days would give us time to see what we want, revisit the cool stuff, hopefully get us to Nintendo land (they offer an early entry for Nintendo land that I was looking at)

But I don't know if it would be less rushed/crazy if we didn't do a park on Monday and just did like Downtown disney/city walk and got to the hotel later, and then toured with express pass at Universal just on tuesday, or do we rush to the hotel to get to Universal by late morning and stay until close monday and have a 2nd non-express day on tuesday?

I'm looking at staying at The Garland but haven't booked anything yet... booking separate hotel and tickets is a little cheaper than universal's package options and that was cheaper than discount sites with packages if I could find a 2 day ticket package.

 

[DetroitAvant]

We were trying to figure out almost the same thing. By the time we added up the early Nintendo entry, a hotel so we're there early enough, parking, 1 day passes with express, it was only a little bit more to just to do the VIP tour (and that would include a meal which pretty much made it a wash for us). Maybe take a look at that for your dates and see if it makes sense.

 

[sjmac42]

I’d have a park free day on Monday, maybe transfer to your Universal hotel and spend the day in Griffith Park and Hollywood. Then do Tuesday at Universal with an Express Pass. Tuesday with Express is cheaper than Monday, currently showing as $229 ea

 

[chezcurrie]

Agree with others on the laid back Monday, with express pass Tuesday. After being at DL you likely will appreciate the park break.

I absolutely adore The Garland, and they have great resort activities. Movies by the pool/in the hot tub with a to-go pizza is one of my son’s fave memories. He wanted to leave Universal to go back for the next movie night instead of watch the castle projections on Hogwarts!