Just back from a spilt stay Universal/Disney..... here's what I learned.

[mickeyluv'r]

We are planning to do a one day at Universal this October. We are not staying on site. It will be our first time and we are hopping between parks. I didn't purchase the express pass. We are truly expecting to just check things out and do some highlights. We have chosen a week day in October. I'm sure we'll miss a few great rides because of long wait times, but I just can't justify spending the money on the express pass for this trip. It's mostly about Disney for us, but we wanted to get a feel for Universal. We'll plan a longer trip there next time. I hope we will still enjoy the park without paying for a room and the express pass.

1. Most likely you'll have fun no matter what. US is different from WDW, but both have high caliber attractions.
2. As has been said a number of times, maybe next time around consider staying onsite at US. Though I fully hear you about keeping costs down. For a great many years, we didn't stay onsite at US, and still had fun. We typically stayed at WDW part of our trip, then went to an inexpensive offsite place NEAR US. Though most of those were before US had lower cost places to stay. The new options at US look great.

3. You don't have to skip attractions. (though I suppose that depends on how much time you have and your endurance level) If, you get to US and change your mind- you have the option of buying passes in the park.

3B. If you decide you really like US, you ALSO have the option of converting your regular hoppers into AP's (for far less than buying a second set of tickets). If you regularly go to Orlando in October, then the Power Pass would be a great option. Stop by guest services on the day you are there and ask about converting your tickets to AP's.

 

[geenerbell]

We are planning to do a one day at Universal this October. We are not staying on site. It will be our first time and we are hopping between parks. I didn't purchase the express pass. We are truly expecting to just check things out and do some highlights. We have chosen a week day in October. I'm sure we'll miss a few great rides because of long wait times, but I just can't justify spending the money on the express pass for this trip. It's mostly about Disney for us, but we wanted to get a feel for Universal. We'll plan a longer trip there next time. I hope we will still enjoy the park without paying for a room and the express pass.

I hope you enjoy your day at Universal. I would definitely be there well before opening to take advantage of lower crowds in the morning. If you are HP fans I would highly recommend the Park to Park ticket. The Hogwarts Express is an amazingly themed ride and it's different to/from each park. Riding it both ways is a treat.

 

[Planogirl]

We are planning to do a one day at Universal this October. We are not staying on site. It will be our first time and we are hopping between parks. I didn't purchase the express pass. We are truly expecting to just check things out and do some highlights. We have chosen a week day in October. I'm sure we'll miss a few great rides because of long wait times, but I just can't justify spending the money on the express pass for this trip. It's mostly about Disney for us, but we wanted to get a feel for Universal. We'll plan a longer trip there next time. I hope we will still enjoy the park without paying for a room and the express pass.

We don't buy express passes because we know we can get them in the park if we need them. We haven't needed them yet. Just get to the parks at rope drop and head to one of the Harry Potter rides first thing (or Despicable Me if that's a priority) and be prepared to save some of the popular stuff until late afternoon. We do pretty well without express and we have been during spring break and holidays and so on. I wouldn't worry too much about those who claim otherwise.

 

[Luckybee]

That all sounds so bizarre. Was it a problem with your fingerscans? I've never, in the zillions of years I've been on the Universal boards heard of anyone having problems with their actual card unless it was soaked on a ride. Occasionally people will have difficulty with one person's finger scan but that is it.

I've also never heard of anyone having 30 minute waits for every express line in the park. One maybe, but that is generally it.

You can't use EP on Forbidden Journey and on Gringotts. You can use it on everything else.

We have become huge fans of Universal in the last 2 trips and mainly because of express pass. Perhaps it was the times we went but on both occasions all of our rides were virtual walkons ie never waited more than 5 minutes with EP (longer for the HP stuff that didn't take EP obviously). As well, dh who normally dislikes rides enjoys the style of rides at U/IOA for the most part as well which is a real switch. For us it is just such a change from the Disney parks of today and realistically more like the old parks where walking on a ride wasn't impossible. When we go to MK now as an example we plan on our 3 FP's, a parade , fireworks and dinner...with Universal we plan on a lot of rides.

With the scans though...I had problems with my tickets on our 2nd day the last trip but the reason was that both mine and dh's tickets had my name on both so once that was sorted out we were good

 

[Davey Jones II]

I hope you enjoy your day at Universal. I would definitely be there well before opening to take advantage of lower crowds in the morning. If you are HP fans I would highly recommend the Park to Park ticket. The Hogwarts Express is an amazingly themed ride and it's different to/from each park. Riding it both ways is a treat.

The problem is that you're paying about $40 for just one ride. That was the price difference when I went last time, in 2014. Although I would have loved to ride the HE, we just couldn't justify spending that much for one ride. Park to park tickets are really unnecessary for Universal, because of the lack of nighttime events.

Of course, if an annual pass is worth it for you, that's another story.

 

[macraven]

Not everyone is into potter where they don't do other things in the parks

Many rides in both parks that people love

 

[wookiebeck]

The problem is that you're paying about $40 for just one ride. That was the price difference when I went last time, in 2014. Although I would have loved to ride the HE, we just couldn't justify spending that much for one ride. Park to park tickets are really unnecessary for Universal, because of the lack of nighttime events.

I always thought that about the WDW parks. Never had a park hopper. Can choose one park each day and find lots to do do until closing. Must be perspective. Next time we go, I will want the freedom to hop.

For Universal, 'hopping' is super-easy to do. Takes much less time than WDW, even if you use the front gates and not Hogwarts Express. Some might say you need to hop because 'Uni is so much smaller' that you would finish up and want to be on the move. Again perspective, I guess.

 

[Davey Jones II]

At WDW, we used park hoppers almost every day. A few times, we left a theme park to go to a water park for the afternoon, and back to the theme parks later. We wanted to catch the Electrical Parade every time it was on during our stay, but didn't want to be at the MK all day to do so. Other times, we had to leave the MK when the Halloween Party started, and go to another park.

For us, park hoppers are essential at WDW. At Universal, hopping is easy but entirely unnecessary. It's too bad that they made a ride inaccessible without it.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The problem is that you're paying about $40 for just one ride.
Of course, if an annual pass is worth it for you, that's another story.

This is a fair opinion. For us, the value is additional touring efficiency, as wookieback explained.

At WDW , hopping between the parks takes, quite a bit of time, so it greatly diminishes the value. Waiting is waiting.

At Universal, hopping is quick, so it helped us to make slightly better use of our time.

I think it is neat they made the back exit into a real attraction. Personally, I think it was pretty brilliant. I kinda wish WDW would add a similar attraction between AK and HS. Then hopping wouldn't be so boring.

 

[DougEMG]

On our last two trips we've done split stays at WDW (BWV/VGF and BWV/POLY) and Universal (Portofino) and while I really liked the hotel at Universal, the Express Pass and price of an annual pass; other than the Harry Potter sections; I find that I'm not that interested in Universal. I'm not really into the thrill rides so the big coasters don't appeal to me. If it wasn't for that fact that my daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan and my wife prefers Universal I wouldn't bother going to Universal.

Now Express Pass is great, when we were there in Oct/Nov and then Apr/May the regular lines were up to 100 minutes lots of times, so the EP saved us a huge amount of time. And it was so nice not having to plan FP 60 days in advance and only getting 3 FP. Definitely EP beats FP no contest.

 

[macraven]

I think that is so nice of you to do UO for making your wife and daughter happy
You go as a family and don't whine about what they want to do

Not all families would do that