I've never taken my family to Universal - but with Mario there we'd like to plan 1 day. How would you schedule your trip?

[Tennor]

We are doing 3 days at the Disneyland Resort, and thinking of adding 1 day at Universal.

We can be in SoCal an entire week, Saturday through Friday.

How would you handle that?

I'm thinking of Going to DL on Sun, Mon, and Tuesday. Then on Wed drive, change hotels to something close to Universal. Then go to Universal on Thursday or Friday.

I'm open to suggestions!

 

[wabbott]

We were in Universal for one day about 3 weeks ago, and got to see/do most everything. We made a serious mistake by not buying our tickets ahead of time, and just barely got tickets for a Sunday. Also, the Universal app for your phone is useful. Obviously, there's a different vibe there than that of DLR/DCA, but really fun. Food/drink prices at Uni appeared to be cheaper than DLR/DCA.

We had never been to any Universal park anywhere and felt we got our money's worth. So much so that we will be going to Universal Orlando in conjunction with our WDW April trip.

 

[StageTek]

We are doing 3 days at the Disneyland Resort, and thinking of adding 1 day at Universal.

We can be in SoCal an entire week, Saturday through Friday.

How would you handle that?

I'm thinking of Going to DL on Sun, Mon, and Tuesday. Then on Wed drive, change hotels to something close to Universal. Then go to Universal on Thursday or Friday.

I'm open to suggestions!

That looks like a good plan.

 

[MMays]

We are doing 3 days at the Disneyland Resort, and thinking of adding 1 day at Universal.

We can be in SoCal an entire week, Saturday through Friday.

How would you handle that?

I'm thinking of Going to DL on Sun, Mon, and Tuesday. Then on Wed drive, change hotels to something close to Universal. Then go to Universal on Thursday or Friday.

I'm open to suggestions!

I would not risk driving from Anaheim to USH the morning of. Traffic in LA is horrendous! It took me 4.5 hours in January of this year to drive from USH to Anaheim since we had booked another day at the DLR, not pleasant. Lessons learned that day! In December we are doing 4 days at DL/DCA then checking out of our Anaheim hotel and driving to USH and checking into a hotel there. Then do USH the next day.

 

[wabbott]

I would not risk driving from Anaheim to USH the morning of. Traffic in LA is horrendous! It took me 4.5 hours in January of this year to drive from USH to Anaheim since we had booked another day at the DLR, not pleasant. Lessons learned that day! In December we are doing 4 days at DL/DCA then checking out of our Anaheim hotel and driving to USH and checking into a hotel there. Then do USH the next day.

I agree that traffic is a very significant issue in the LA Southland. We drove from USH to Anaheim in about 45 minutes, (and made rope drop @ DLR) but had to leave our USH hotel @ 5:45 AM.

 

[mdmost]

Definitely agree that you don't want to drive in to USH the day of. Staying overnight at a hotel is a great idea. The Sheraton and Hilton are across the street and under a 10 minute walk to security. If doing Mario Land, get the early morning extra so you can get in before the crowds and not have to bother with the virtual queue. Universal is so easy to do in one day.

 

[AndrewC]

I would do the VIP pass if the Mario attraction is important to you guys. It's currently the only way you can jump the 70+ minute line and get on the ride in about 5 to 10 minutes (you still go through the pre-show rooms). You can do it as many times as you want as well, and while I was initially skeptical about the attraction (I hate screen based stuff), I was BLOWN away by it and ended up doing it three times and LOVED it.

I would absolutely stay at the Universal Hilton the night before, get up and go to Universal, and then transfer over to the DLH after Universal that night. I probably would put it at the start of the trip so then you can check into the DLH and relax there two nights without having to "look forward" to transferring hotels.

 

[wabbott]

We stayed at the Hilton. Very nice, with a killer view of the San Fernando Valley. Spendy, though. Very good food.

 

[DetroitAvant]

I'd suggest VIP. Run the numbers, it wasn't that much more for us when we added up hotel + parking + lunch + early entry + express pass + tickets. The difference was worth the convenience.