# Need advice on better theme park for my family



## NJCOBRA10tha (Jan 25, 2009)

We are going to Orlando in April.  Everything is booked we have airfare and are staying at Bonnet Creak as owners.

We haven't been there is probably 6 years.

I have 9 and 12 year old girls.

Price is a huge consideration.  Disney seems to be almost $1,100 for 6 day park hoppers for a family of 4.  It seems like cutting it to 4 days barely saves anything.

Universal seems much cheaper <$400 for 2 park/7 days.

I browsed their websites but want to hear from people that have been there recently.

So here are a couple of questions:
*  Giv

Thaen the economy are there better deals to be had at the gates of Disney or Universal?
*  Does Universal have enough rides?  Anything like a roller coaster?
*  What is Universal Islands of adventure?
*  What happened to Disney MGM?  Is that still a park?  Is that part of the Park Hopper?

Thanks

Dan
dan@nostalgiainkpro.com


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## Judy (Jan 25, 2009)

NJCOBRA10tha said:


> Price is a huge consideration.  Disney seems to be almost $1,100 for 6 day park hoppers for a family of 4.  It seems like cutting it to 4 days barely saves anything.


 Disney doesn't usually have specials. But they have put a few things out there this year.  I saw something like, "Buy 3 get 4" on their website recently.  Not sure what that's about, but it might be worth checking out.  
Have you compared the cost of one park tickets with the park hoppers?  You can easily spend a full day in each park and save time (and maybe money) by eliminating transportation between the parks. 



> are there better deals to be had at the gates of Disney or Universal?


 usually the best deals for both parks are advance purchase online. Or try AAA.


> *  Does Universal have enough rides?  Anything like a roller coaster?
> *  What is Universal Islands of adventure?


 Universal has a lot of movie related rides. Islands of Adventure has a lot of rides, especially roller-coasters. 





> I have 9 and 12 year old girls.


 Islands of Adventure appeals to teenagers.  Your 12 year old might like it.  I don't know about the 9 year old. 


> *  What happened to Disney MGM?  Is that still a park?  Is that part of the Park Hopper?


It's still there.  It's called "Disney's Hollywood Studios" now.  It's still part of the Park Hopper.


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## pgnewarkboy (Jan 25, 2009)

Subscribe to Mousesavers newsletter(free on the internet) and you will get special deals on Disney and Universal Tickets from undercover tourist.  I just bought tickets from undercover tourist that way.  Basically, I got 7 days for the price of 4.  AAA was a few more bucks per ticket but included parking.

We decided to skip the park hopper.  From past experience, one day at a Park is not even enough to cover one park.  

Universal is great but not a Disney Substitute.  I even preferred the Disney Hollywood Park to the Universal Studio.


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## timeos2 (Jan 25, 2009)

*Universal hold more appeal for the older kids. 9 could go either way*



NJCOBRA10tha said:


> We are going to Orlando in April.  Everything is booked we have airfare and are staying at Bonnet Creak as owners.
> 
> We haven't been there is probably 6 years.
> 
> ...



Invest a few dollars more (maybe $50 or less) and get annual passes for Universal. They include free parking & discounts on almost everything including City Walk.  They pay for themselves in savings and you can come & go freely while you are there. Buy at least one for the group. 



NJCOBRA10tha said:


> Thaen the economy are there better deals to be had at the gates of Disney or Universal?
> *  Does Universal have enough rides?  Anything like a roller coaster?
> *  What is Universal Islands of adventure?
> *  What happened to Disney MGM?  Is that still a park?  Is that part of the Park Hopper?



The deals are online. Go to the Universal site & get the best price for what you want to do. Buy online & you can avoid the lines when you get there by picking up your passes at the automated machines at the gates. 

Plenty of rides - and a lot of roller coasters (and some really different ones). 

Islands is the newer of the two Universal parks. They sit right next to each other - easy to get form one to the other (no tram/bus/ferry reqiuired) Parking is also nice and close. Much better layout than Disney has for access. 

Disney got tired of paying for the MGM name so they dropped it. It (and Animal Kingdom) are really only 1/2 parks - not too much in them and neither really feels "finished".  Don't need a whole day for either of those (unless there are long lines for the very limited number of attractions).


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## amanven (Jan 25, 2009)

I wouldn't consider Animal Kingdom a half park.  You can easily spend the whole day there and considering that Animal Kingdom usually closes by 6pm in the winter and 8pm in the summer you won't have as much time to get around the park as you would in Magic Kingdom which stays open later.  Animal Kingdom has a lot of attractions that appeal to small children so your 12 year old might find the park a bit lacking at times but if it's roller coasters you like then Expedition Everest won't disappoint.  Kali River rapids is pretty good too!  If you are going in early April it is likely all the Disney parks will be crowded so bear in mind time spent waiting in line will be a factor therefore you will likely need a whole day for Animal Kingdom.


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## lvhmbh (Jan 26, 2009)

Wherever you go - especially Magic Kingdom and Epcot - get there at opening.  Our 12 year old g-son loved Epcot the best with Magic Kingdom second.  He had a map in hand, got there at opening and put in for the fast pass at one ride and went to the other.  Worked for me - I sat and read a book (now Kindle) while he and his friend went on rides.


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## rickandcindy23 (Jan 26, 2009)

We are huge Disney fans, but we also love Universal's two parks.  We just went last week and really enjoyed our time at Universal.  

Arriving early at Universal is very important, and I wouldn't waste money on the Express Yourself passes, as we walked right onto every single ride, including the new Simpson's virtual roller coaster ride.  We arrive at 8:15 and walk the .6 mile to the gate and sometimes Universal lets early guests in about ten minutes ahead of official opening time.  We go directly back to Simpsons and ride it once, then it's Men in Black, which we ride several times (my favorite), and we go to E.T., then we head over to the Mummy coaster and I sit on the bench and wait (I don't ride roller coasters) a few minutes because there is rarely a line, and he can go into the single rider line.  The shows are all really fun, Jaws has been closed the last few trips, so we don't go there.  Disaster is worth seeing once in a great while.  

Anyway, by 1:00 we are done with that park and ready to move to Islands of Adventure.  I only ride Spiderman on that side, which is an amazing ride.  Almost all of Islands of Adventure is about roller coasters and rides that drop.  Islands is pretty boring for me, since I dislike wild rides, so your kids will probably love it.  Rick and our grown kids just love the Hulk and Dueling Dragons coasters.  There are a couple of shows, too.  

There is currently some construction at the back of Islands of Adventures, as they continue to add the new Harry Potter "theme park within the park."  

I think I would rather get the basic Disney tickets for our family and not add any hopper options, if I wanted to do Disney.  We have annual passes and rarely hop to two parks in one day, simply because one park and you have walked about 4 to 7 miles (this is especially true of Epcot), so going to a second park is a waste of time and energy, but that could be my 53-year-old feet talking .


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## mjs (Jan 26, 2009)

Check out the Orlando Flex ticket and ticket Plus options.
Universal studios, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, Seaworld aquapark,  Wet and Wild waterpark, and Busch Gardens for 14 days.
My family did this for many years, my kids loved it.
We would go to Universal when it opened,   go to WaterPark in the afternoon, and to Seawordl for shows etc in the evening.   I know it sounds crazy, but we had a blast.   Yes, we are type A


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## lprstn (Jan 26, 2009)

Well I have kids your kids age and my kids are more thrill seekers.  They do disney mainly for me and the shows.

They loved

Universal - for the movie themed rides (They liked Univeral over Island of Adventure) however, next year they are opening up the Harry Potter World which will be a lot of fun also.
Busch Gardens - for the roller coasters


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## FlyKaesan (Jan 26, 2009)

I think Disney is better way to go if you have young girls.  Universal is great but I would pay more for Disney.
If you think you will ever come back to Disney again, buy the max days (10) with no expiration and with options.  Options are great for water parks if things get too hot and tired of walking.  If you have hopper, you can save money by hopping to see all the good things you want to see again.  And if you ever come back next time, you can skip the ones you saw before or just goto the popular ones.
Nowadays, I could hop 1 day and see all the major rides/shows/attractions and sometimes catch all 3 major attraction at night.  If you time it right and chose the right night, you can hop one after another and see all the MK, Epcot fireworks and Fantasmic.


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## jlee2070 (Jan 26, 2009)

I agree, if roller coaster is what your kids like...   They will get more out of Island of Adventure (Universal) and Busch Gardens...  Disney is Disney and pretty unique for what they offer to the Disney Fanatic...  There is no substitution..


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## Mjpierce (Jan 27, 2009)

*Disney tixs advice*

Disney tickets are designed to reward you for going for a longer stretch of time.  For example, a 3 day adult park hopper pass is $271 (AAA, the cheapest discount you will probably find).  A 10 day park hopper pass is $287.  Obviously, the per day cost drops dramatically as you extend your stay, in this case from 90 dollars per day down to 29 dollars a day!

We personally like the park hopper passes, because we will often go for the opening at one park and stay to about 1pm, and then go back to the TS for a relaxing afternoon.  In the evening we may go back to another park to see a show or fireworks.  The park hopper option adds a flat fee of 50 dollars onto the ticket price, which once again has considerably less of an impact per day as you buy longer length tickets.  

We are always traveling on the February school vacation week, so we aren't interested in the water parks option.

The no-expire option requires some thinking.  The no-expire option is expensive- a 10 day park hopper is $287, but with no expire added on it jumps to $487.  It might make sense if you are going to use only a few days this time and then come back at a later date and use a few more.  If you are like us and always go for a week at a time, it is definitely not worth it.  Say we bought a 10 day park hopper no-expire ticket  for $487, and then used 7 days off of it.  The next time we went for a week, we would still need to buy a four day ticket.  At current prices, if I bought a 10 day expiring park hopper ticket at two different times over the next year, it would cost $556.  To do the no expire option for a 10 day and then supplement with a 4 day park hopper expire ticket on the next trip would cost $769.  
On the other hand, if you did short trips, say three 3 day trips, the no expire option would definitely save you major dollars- one 10 day ticket at $487, vs. 3 3 day expiring tickets, which would add up to $871.


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## Mjpierce (Jan 27, 2009)

I realized that I didn't answer the original question.  We have always gone to Disney.  Every time we go we think about hitting some of the other parks, but we never actually do it.  My kids are not into extreme thrill rides, so Disney fits the bill much better than Universal.  The water parks are not really a factor as we are always traveling in February. Finally,  I'm not some kind of environmental extremist, but SeaWorld just plain creeps me out- the killer whale is a highly intelligent and self-aware mammal, and one that naturally lives in an enormous and varied environment.  To see it going around in circles in a bland swimming pool is just ugly to me.  I can't imagine how stultifyingly boring that has to be.  Better land zoos went away from the "animals in cages" type exhibits a long time ago, replacing them with habitat or biosphere type exhibits- for animals that don't even come close to the intelligence of dolphins or killer whales. 

Anyway, there are my two bits


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## NJCOBRA10tha (Jan 27, 2009)

Thanks for all the good advice.

I think we settled on getting the week long 2 park Universal tickets or annual pass either should be about $100/person.  Then we will do just Epcot for 1 day.

-Dan


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## Scott_Ru (Jan 27, 2009)

Don't overlook Seaworld.  Our kids loved it -- and they offer a "2nd Day Free" at a booth just after you enter.  (It's been that way for years, but check to make sure it's still offered.)

Have fun.


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## elaine (Jan 27, 2009)

*where can you get AP at Universal for $100?*

when I looked it was $199 or so--the power pass is blacked out for Easter and Christmas--the weeks we would use it.  Please post if you have deal info--we are going in April and I would consider getting AP--as we are going back at Christmas and next Easter. thanks, Elaine


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## Big Matt (Jan 27, 2009)

I know that when you go to Orlando, you have to go to the parks, but our family usually only goes 2 or 3 days each time and fills in the rest of the time with other things.

Disney is never a good deal unless you buy the 10 day with no expiration and the pluses.  That gives you 10 days at the parks and 10 days at the waterparks and/or Disneyquest.  Use it on four or even five trips.  Total cost for you would be about $2100.  Using it for five Orlando trips would be $420 per trip.  

Universal is a very good deal and your kids will definitely like it.  No mouse though.

I second the suggestion for Sea World.

I would also suggest that you look into the two water parks at Disney and Aquatica (new Sea World water park).  They are all a lot less.


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## NJCOBRA10tha (Mar 16, 2009)

I bought 1 Preferred annual pass for $229 today and will get 3 7 day passes for $99 each shortly.

for the extra $129 I am getting 6 days of free parking (you must pay the first day) and some discounts.  

I am not sure that we are going to make it back again within 365 days so I am not sure if it was truly worth it but figured I would try 1.  If I knew we would go back in the summer or February I would get the other 3 $149 annual power passes but I don't think we are going back.  Although the $149 pass says 1 year and the $229 says 365 days.  I wonder if the $149 pass is just for 2009?

Thanks again for all of the advice.  We have done Sea World in San Antonio a number of times so will skip it in Orlando.


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## spiceycat (Mar 16, 2009)

the problem with US/IOA is that it is only 2 parks.

in off season you can see just about everything in one day.

during on season you will need 2 to  3 days.

that leaves 4 days.

go to WDW and the 7 days is that - 2 at EPcot, and MK, 1 studio, and 1 or 2 at AK.

so would definitely consider other places too.
gatorland if it is still open.


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## mecllap (Mar 16, 2009)

There are lots of other things to see and do in Orlando area.  I expect you have a car, since you're going from Bonnet Creek to US/IOA.  We can easily spend 4 days at US/IOA; repeating favorites, not needing to rush around and just "high-grade" the main rides (but I will never bother to go through Poseidon again).  In April, with an extra day -- I would want to check out the new Aquatica water park.  Maybe drive over to Kennedy Space Center.

A 7-day trip is not enough for me even if I'm only going to WDW, tho (maybe because I'm older and slower).  I think you'll have a great time concentrating mainly on US/IOA, plus your one day at Epcot.  US/IOA don't have the same Fastpass that WDW has -- their Express Plus Pass costs extra, but since you have plenty of time, you probably won't need to get it (it's pretty limited).


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## capjak (Mar 16, 2009)

Just to give you a different experience, some suggestions:

1.  Discovery Cove (includes lunch and tickets to seaworld as well as DC)
2.  Drive 1 hour to Cocoa beach for a day at the beach and if interested hit port cavanearl space area
3.  IF anyone has a birthday you get in FREE into Disney


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## tombo (Mar 16, 2009)

Bush Gardens/ Sea world combo unlimited for 14 days from 1st use is only $89.95 per adult and $59.95 per child. That is $300 total admission (plus tax) for a family of four unlimited admissions for 14 days to two different parks. Busch gardens is my kids favorite because they love the numerous wild roller coasters (especially Sheikra the dive coaster),many of the milder rides, and the variety of animals to see. (check out the rides on their web site  http://www.buschgardens.com/Bgt/ar_sheikra.aspx ). Sea world has a roller coaster we haven't ridden yet, but the kids have always loved the animal shows and exhibits making this our second favorite park in the Orlando area behind Busch Gardens, and Universal Islands of Adventure is our third favorite (our family loves thrill rides, so Disney is somewhere we never go anymore because there are few exciting rides). 

Here is what you get with the purchase of these tickets:

2 Parks
Busch Gardens Africa + SeaWorld 
Our combination tickets offer fantastic benefits and savings. Additionally, adults can take advantage of select tickets at kids' prices when you pre-purchase on our Web site at least 7 days in advance. 
Enjoy both Busch Gardens and SeaWorld at your leisure during regularly scheduled operating hours. 
Our unique Length of Stay Benefit* allows unlimited admission during your vacation so you can come and go as you please, at no extra charge. 
Also included is free roundtrip transportation on our Shuttle Express for the short ride from Orlando to Busch Gardens in Tampa. 
E-Ticket allows you to print your ticket at home and go straight to the turnstiles. 
Tickets are Non-Transferable. 
This offer is not to be combined with any other special offers or discounts. 
*Tickets expire 14 days after first use


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## EAM (Mar 16, 2009)

*Disney has deals for active and retired military*

I don't recall the details, but active and retired military can get a multi day Disney pass free and purchase a few companion tickets for $99 each.


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## ecwinch (Mar 17, 2009)

NJCOBRA10tha said:


> ... but I don't think we are going back.



We just got back from Orlando and went through a similar decision making process due to economics. After considering all our options, we decided to go with the US/IOA 7 day pass. 

After sending 4 days in their parks, I would agree with your assessment. We probably would not consider going back until after the Harry Potter area is fully built, and then just for that.

Each of their parks is little smaller than Disney, more like a Disney studios rather than a Magic Kingdom.  

IOA is more roller coasters, and US is more movie theme rides. We liked US better.

To save money - buy the refillable drink cups. They say only good for day of purchase, but they do not enforce that. 

As others have said, arrive early and hit the big queue lines. 

Bonnet Creek is a great location. Take advantage of your free parking and 7 day passes, and hit the parks early and then retire back to the pool in mid-day.


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## dmorea (Feb 1, 2010)

*Cheap Disney ticket*

Check out Disneys give a day get a day promotion. Do a day of community service in your area , get a free day at Disney! 

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/di...ebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day


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## Carl D (Feb 1, 2010)

As others have hinted at, the Universal deal is good but there is not enough to fill seven days. 
You may find yourself not using three or for days of that ticket. 

I believe they count on people not using all those days. They can make the price per day look artificially low.


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## Bajanswife (Feb 2, 2010)

The $99 deal ($108 once you added the tax) was only $54/day if you only went for 2 days. Where else of that magnitude can you go for $54/day? If you went for 3 days it was a steal at $36/day! So there are no parades or fireworks (except in summer, I think), but if that's not a deal-breaker then Universal is plenty worth it.

However, those $99 tickets are now gone, because with the additional of Wizarding World, Islands of Adventure will now be bigger and much more popular! I'm very glad that I got my $99 tickets really early for my upcoming October trip!


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## elaine (Feb 2, 2010)

*I would get the WDW tickets or SW/BG/AQ combo*

Get a full week of WDW tickets without PArk hopper or water parks. There are 4 parks (MGM is not Disney Hollywood STudios). With a week--you can go to all the parks and then return to your favorites.  Not having park hopper saves $50 per ticket.
ALl the other parks (Seaworld, UNV, etc. do not have enough for a full week, so you would have to get another set of tickets, as well).  THe only thing I would consider would be the Seaworld/BG/Aquatica ticket.  You can take the free BG shuttle bus to Tama if you have the ticket, I believe.  2 days at SW, 1 day at BG and 2 days at AQ would be a great trip.


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## JPD (Feb 2, 2010)

*Disney Military Tickets*

As stated above, disney is having a special for active and retired military. You can get six 4 day tickets for $99. each. There are black out dates, I know the two weeks surrounding easter, and the 4th of July. I also will be at Bonnett Creek in Apr.


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## DebBrown (Feb 2, 2010)

We love Universal and we love Disney too.  I'd probably do 2 days at each and spend the other days lounging at the resort or playing mini golf, etc.

One warning about Universal Islands of Adventure.  There is a height requirement for the roller coasters.  When my granddaughter was 9 she was too short for the big rides and was pretty disappointed.  You may want to check on this in advance.

deb


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## SMcdo (Feb 9, 2010)

My brother took his family to Discovery Cove a few years ago and raves about it.  I've always been a little leary about snorkeling in the ocean, but this seems similar and much less intimidating.

www.discoverycove.com/


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