This summer when you’re making your plans to visit Orlando, Florida, don’t plan to go to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. Universal Studios’ steep ticket prices make it impossible to do this. I recently looked into spending two days at Disney and one day at Universal to see the new Harry Potter theme park (yes, I’m a Harry Potter nerd) but before I could say “Accio tickets!” Universal’s pricing structure hit me with the Cruciatus Curse. $155 for one day? Whaaaaat??? This is a whopping $55 dollars more expensive than Disney tickets on peak days. What on earth could be worth $55 more per person? Like all theme parks, buying multiple days saves on ticket prices, but if you just want to go to one park for one day, you’re out of luck unless you want to pay a premium price. I haven’t been to Universal Studios since the only main attraction was a little tram ride that pretended to dump you into the Jaws-infested studio pond. It wasn’t all that memorable. But I figured that with Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, it might be a little more exciting. Unfortunately, if we want to eat on this trip, Universal isn’t in the cards.
I went to Trip Advisor to see if anyone thinks Universal prices are worth it and found many who think like me.
Too crowded & too expensive, lines too long, unique ride but nausea inducing…The locker area and gift shop were jammed solid like NY subway cars on a crowded day.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
The amount and variety of the rides at the two parks, COMBINED, could not even equal that of one Disney park in which a standard ticket costs around $82. Bear this in mind.
Which is exactly why I made the decision to scrap Universal in favor of Disney World.
The thing about Universal is that it’s really not a patch on Disney. Why is it extra for Fast passes when they are free over at Walt’s place? In particular, at Harry Potter, it looks amazing, but when you drill down it’s just a very well made set with not much going on.
And this one:
Brought my parents that are in their 70’s to see Harry Potter. Arrived at Ten A.M. did not get in castle until Five P.M. All this time was spent in lines, ticket lines, lines to get ticket to get in line, then stand on line to get in line then be in line to get in castle.
Yet, others love it:
A wonderful, wonderful experience I will never forget.
I highly recommend Universal Parks. I know you just have to take the kids to Disney b/c it’s Disney (I don’t regret going), but don’t sleep on Universal. It’s the best theme park we’ve ever been too. A one of a kind, quality experience that my whole family enjoyed!
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