I was pitched the idea of Universal Studios in Orlando as a trip for us next year with kids aged 14, 11 and 10. One other family with similar aged kids may tag along. Neither of us have ever been and know little to nothing about it. We have talked about doing 5 nights with 3 full days to do whatever is there. Mid-to-late May time frame.

Any insight on what to expect, things to do, ballpark budget that a family of 5 might expect, things to shy away from, etc? Thanks!

We went in 2018.

The Harry Potter section of the park was so amazing it inspired me to read the books.

lck90 said:

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I was pitched the idea of Universal Studios in Orlando as a trip for us next year with kids aged 14, 11 and 10. One other family with similar aged kids may tag along. Neither of us have ever been and know little to nothing about it. We have talked about doing 5 nights with 3 full days to do whatever is there. Mid-to-late May time frame.

Any insight on what to expect, things to do, ballpark budget that a family of 5 might expect, things to shy away from, etc? Thanks!

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Live in Tampa, had passes for a year or two, been plenty of times.

All of your kids will have fun, from the 10 yr old to the 14 yr old. Its safe enough that if your 14 yr old, assuming they're responsible enough for that age, wanted to venture on their own or with a friend for a while I think it'd be ok. There's plenty of good restaurants in the Citywalk area to eat at for lunch/dinner. You can spend two days there and have plenty of time to enjoy both parks and all the rides without rushing or staying there from opening to close in order to fit everything in. Three days maybe be too much, unless you just really want to go back and ride some rides in particular.

It'll be hot and humid...not summertime hot yet, but hot. Schools here ends at the end of May. Going there right before that time may save you a little bit of the full-on summertime crowd effect.

I'm jealous, our passes ran out before they finished the big Jurassic Park coaster. It looked awesome during construction.

We are looking at a Disney Cruise out of Port Canaveral and were thinking of coming in a little early to try out Universal since we have done Disney but not Universal. Say we get to the park around noon and wanting to do both would we be able to do it by the time they close? Kids are 9 and 13

No. You could do a fair amount if you stayed until park closing, but you'd miss out on a lot, too. Especially if there's a large crowd at the park. You'll have to pay the extra fees for the fastpass thing, or stand in line for 90 mins or more for the popular rides.

There's two parks worth of stuff really. Obviously you could skip the little kiddie stuff but you'd have to make some hard decisions on what rides you really wanted to ride and commit to missing out on the other stuff.

And trust me, both you and your kids are going to love the two Harry Potter portions and want to spend some time in them.

Note using speech to text for the below.

I recommend at least two if not three days. We did this two summers ago and my daughter still thinks it's one of the best vacations ever.

We spent one night at one of the higher tier hotels so that we got skipped the line access. The first two days we went to both Universal/IoA. The third day we spent a good chunk of the day at the waterpark, and then ended up going back to the regular parks. The last day we didn't have skip the line so we split up and did a lot of the single car rider lines.

We had a great time. I'm actually going to Universal Hollywood and Disneyland over the Christmas break and I may die but we are going lol.

Thanks so much for all the info. Really appreciate it. Got some discussing and planning to do

Just coming off of a Universal Orlando vacation myself over Thanksgiving break with a group of kids ages 8 to 14.
There is definitely a lot to considered depending on what the kids are into. There is a lot to do and you are definitely able to navigate between the two parks. With that being said, going in the summer you're going to want to take advantage of volcano Bay.
If you were looking for a travel advisor to help plan that has has firsthand destination knowledge, also Im a bit of a foodie and try all the great foods to tell clients
my contact info is in my bio.

Shoot me an email @ csmith@travelwithontheroad.com

My wife and I have been to UV in Orlando 7 or 8 times over the past decade. No kids of our own but we're big kids.

Your children I'd think are the perfect age. WDW has caught up significantly in ride quality over the past 5 years, but until then UV was much better for anyone over 12 (IMO).

You can do most of the 2 major parks in 2 days (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure). We've never been to the water parks and we don't ride the water/get you wet based rides. That said, I still think you could do both in 2 days particularly if you have the Express Pass. Some of the queues are worth standing in for the full experience (Forbidden Journey in the HW Castle for example), others it isn't a big deal to 'miss' what you see in most of the queue.

Do a cost comparison for the Express Pass. It is free if you stay in one of the 'premier' resorts - Portofino, HardRock, or Lowes Royal Pacific. You can by the EP for day as well if you aren't staying in one of those 3 hotels.

It can be cost effective to stay in the pricier premier hotels with a free EP compared to their value hotels plus paying per day for the EP. In the value hotels you still get early entry to the Hogwarts in the Islands of Adventure side if you have a ticket for that park or park-hopper. If doing 3 days you could try non-EP the first 2 so you can see the queues, check off most of the stuff, etc. Then get the EP on the final day to quickly re-ride your favorites and possibly get onto rides that you didn't want to spend too long waiting.

It is an added cost, but park hopper option is required to be able to take the Hogwarts Express train back and forth b/w the two Harry Potter worlds since it is a park hop to do so.

Most of the food in the parks is meh - not horrible but not very good. The restaurants in Cityscape are better for dinner - higher quality. I wouldn't waste time walking out to them for lunch though. Whatever you do, get reservations if you want to eat at any place that takes reservations.

I went a couple years ago and we stayed at the Portofino Bay hotel. I hate crowds and the early entry and skip the line pass was worth a huge premium to me. There's no way I'd go back without those things.

It is definitely looking like a lot of money would be spent, as said above. Man, theme parks are expensive!

lck90 said:

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It is definitely looking like a lot of money would be spent, as said above. Man, theme parks are expensive!

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Very much so and gets worse every year. But my kiddo (and myself) had an amazing time. But def hurts the pocketbook.

We did it a couple months ago. Your kids are perfect age for Universal (and Disney would still be a lot of fun).

Whatever you do, get the Express passes. It's a sanity saver.
I agree with the above posters about staying in a hotel that gets you the express pass if you can. When we've done the Express Pass you can do both parks in the same day (depending on what all you do). If you don't have it, you'll just be standing in line all day.

Also note - single rider line is nails if you don't care about riding with strangers not seeing the queue.

Garrelli 5000 said:

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Also note - single rider line is nails if you don't care about riding with strangers not seeing the queue.

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We did this. We stayed one night in the higher level hotel so we had two days of skip the line access. On the third day after we had ridden, everything we just did single rider. One of us would go before my daughter, and one after so it always worked out.

You should consider one of the Orlando Informer meet ups. Less crowded and shorter wait times. 2 days with that would cover everything. It starts at 5 PM and goes on until like 1:30 AM, everyone but the OI people get kicked out by 9 pm.

we plan to go for a day after christmas but before new years. how are the crowds at that time of the year? still worth to get the express pass? i am leaning towards gettng the EP since we only have a day there....

Bachelor99 said:

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we plan to go for a day after christmas but before new years. how are the crowds at that time of the year? still worth to get the express pass? i am leaning towards gettng the EP since we only have a day there....

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The busiest week of the entire year. I wouldn't go without express pass. I'm getting it for Hollywood.