Anybody been to Universal Studios in Orlando?

[desflood]

We're thinking of taking the kids there for a short vacation, so I was wondering if anyone had been there and had any recommendations.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

No

[Canibspur]

We're thinking of taking the kids there for a short vacation, so I was wondering if anyone had been there and had any recommendations.

I've been a couple of times and I'd reccomend it. I always enjoyed Universal Studios over all the Disney attractions and you also get into Universal's Islands of Adventure which has more rollercoaster type rides. The younger your children are the better the Disney experience is IMO. Either way, have a great vacation.

[mrsmaalox]

It's fun, but it's pretty hard to gauge the crowd situation. When it's really packed it's awful. Also the age of your kids makes a big difference, my personal experience is that younger than 7 can be too much for them. Generally I have found the whole Orlando experience, Disney, Epcot, Universal, requires me to work my ass off to have a little bit of fun---again, kid age related. I mean we've had plenty of fun on those vacations, but a lot more of it happened at the hotel pool than at the amusement parks.

[mrsmaalox]

Haha, so older kids, younger kids, I guess it doesn't really matter :lol

I was just going by the fact that my kids had a bit more stamina when they got older; carrying a kid is a drag and you'll quickly learn to hate the stroller-pushing crowd ;) And it was always fun when we could all be together, but there's a lot of things that younger ones can't participate in and it was tough having to separate or just wait around while the older ones got to do things.

And we found that avoiding the "get there when they open" masses worked out real well for us. We'd have a leisurely day sightseeing or at the pool, feed everyone a good early dinner and head out to the park around 4 pm. A lot of people are done (the stroller crowd will be nicely frazzled by then) and ready to leave; so there's more breathing space and it's quite a bit cooler. And if it rains----head to the parks immediately! Tons of people will leave, but nothing in the parks closes, and you won't wait for anything.

[Creepn]

The older attractions sucks because they still have those 1980 robots and technolgies. But the new stuff there is pretty awesome. I felt like I was in the actual movie in the new ones. Go to the SpiderMan one first. The mummy ride was cool too.

ET and Twister were the worse ones tbh.

[v2freak]

It's freaking awesome. I would definitely recommend it. I went on a Terminator ride which was awesome and had some uncut footage or something showing a T-1,000,000 in the future. The Twister ride was pretty good I thought. The Jaws ride was scary as hell! Definitely check it out.

[DMC]

Yes. It's too expensive and not very interesting imo. Same with Disney World.

[symple19]

Wow, haven't been to that place since the nine-quad. Probably completely different by now

[phyzik]

Havnt been there in like 15 years, but it was pretty cool then.....

[fraga]

The older attractions sucks because they still have those 1980 robots and technolgies. But the new stuff there is pretty awesome. I felt like I was in the actual movie in the new ones. Go to the SpiderMan one first. The mummy ride was cool too.

ET and Twister were the worse ones tbh.

Some of those you speak of are in Island of Adventures....the one next to it...if you're taking little kids...I would skip Universal and Island of Adventures...as those are primarily adult theme parks...bigger better scarier rides...

Little kids...just take them to the Disney parks...they'll love it...

[desflood]

None of the kids are Disney fans, but they're all Harry Potter fans. That was one of the big deciding factors in choosing Universal over Disneyworld. We're also considering going next October - Universal has a big Halloween bash every year and we're all huge horror fans, plus we'd entirely miss the summer break/school kid crowd. They can just take their work for the week with us - it's already cleared with the teacher.

Thanks for the input from everybody. Except Viva, of course :lol

[SpursWoman]

We went on a band trip when I was in high school and I loved it. :)


We got to make a music video ... we picked a Cheap Trick song.


That's how old I am. :depressed

[bus driver]

:tu

stayed at the Gaylord Palms (http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-palms/)

it should be fun for you all

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Except Viva, of course :lol
Hey. I answered the question. :D

[Taco]

We went a couple of years ago, it was great, lot of neat attractions !
We will go again when we go down there !

[Bito Corleone]

Haven't been in about 10 years, but if it's the same as it was, and for that matter anything similar to LA...always pick Universal over Disney if you can only do one.

[Jimcs50]

I've been 5 times.
In fact taking the office there again on Memorial day weekend.

Islands of Adventure is awesome for kids older than 7 years old.

We stay at Hard Rock Hotel on site and the good thing about that is you use your room key to get in all the fast lines. I've never had to wait longer than 10-15 mins for any ride at Universal or Islands of Adventure. The water rides are all great, which are my favorite.

There are really good clubs there and restaurants too. We always go to Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville there while we are there.