Universal-only trip?

[DreamFigment]

I’m thinking about taking a short trip down to Orlando and going just to Universal, not Disney. Since Universal is smaller, it seems possible to get a thorough experience of it in less time, and for less cost. But I’m having trouble imagining going to Orlando and not going to Disney at all! Does anybody do this? Is it fun, or do you feel like you’re missing out by skipping Disney?

Background: I’ve never been to Universal before, have been to WDW a number of times as a kid (prior to 2000) and Disneyland a couple times as an adult (about 10 years ago, with another trip out there tentatively planned within a year or so). I don’t necessarily know a lot of the Universal properties, like the Simpsons or Fast and the Furious or any superheroes, and Space Mountain is about my maximum for roller coasters, but the Harry Potter areas look amazing and it might be fun just to go somewhere new. I have a limited budget, so I’m trying to be careful not to overstretch it, but also to spend it on something that I’ll really enjoy.

[T music]

We did just this back in December. We have not been to WDW yet at all first trip is in April but I grew up going to Disneyland. In December we made our first-ever trip to Orlando and went to Universal for 5 days. Kids had a blast they want to go back already. You can spend a whole day just in the Harry Potter world which we did. We ended up there every day but spent Monday over there pretty much the entire day. They got the wands so that took a good portion of the day. the Hagrids roller coaster we all loved we rode it every single day one day more than once we are coaster junkies and it was the best one we have been on. You would enjoy Harry Potter world it has a very Disney feel to it. If you are not big on wild rides then a lot of the rides you will not like most of them can give you motion sickness we took our Dramamine.

[ADantuono]

I did it once. My family and I won a free trip to Universal for 4 through the NY Daily News and I actually had a great time. We went for four days and three nights in June and it really wasn't that crowded (except on our last day, which was a Saturday) True, a lot of the rides were very similar (3D motion simulation), but I really enjoyed all of them. My favorite ride was Revenge of the Mummy. It's a roller coaster, but it's not too fast and crazy.

Before we went, we did consider spending a day in WDW, but we got so wrapped in Universal that we didn't have the time to go. As much as I wanted to see Disney, I had no problem spending the whole trip at Universal

I highly recommend visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade and riding the Hogwarts Express from one park to the other. I hadn't seen any pictures or videos before I had gone and the moment I stepped through the brick wall into Diagon Alley, I was absolutely stunned by the attention to detail that was put into it.