Universal Studios whistlestop tour

[grinder]

I will be going to Universal studios/IOA in June 2003. Does anyone have any tips, or a formula for whizzing round the parks quickly & effectively. I will be be going with my wife and 14 year old daughter, both of which are adrenaline junkies, so we are not bothered about barney-type rides or attractions.

[Kissyme]

The advice I`ve always been give is to start at the back og the park and go in the opposite direction to everyone else but to be honest we have never mangaged that always been to tempted at the first ride also lots of the parks do a fastpass scheme this is where you place your entry ticket in a machine (usually) outside the ride it then give you a time to return to the ride there is a fastpass line and you progress to the front of the queue

[esprit]

Prioritise and Fastpass. In IOA, get fast passes for Spiderman on arrival and ride that. Then fast pass the Hulk. After that go round the park in reverse order. Straight to Duelling Dragons, then the Jurassic River Ride, and then the two water rides. Most people do it the other way round. If you have time Poseidons Adventure and Sinbad when you have finished the big rides. In Universal, Men in Black is the one to fast pass so ride that first, then Back to the Future. I would then ride the two new rides that are open ( think Shrek is opening in june and jimmy Neutron just did. They are bound to attract people but will probably fastpass. None of the rest get huge queues ( Terminator does but loads of people go in at once, and ET does but that is not a ride for adrenaline freaks anyway.) If you have not been before, I would recommend Twister and Earthquake as not to be missed even for adrenaline freaks.

[athurstance]

Are you doing both on the same day? If you are I would advise doing IOA first.
To ride all the major rides without queuing too much you need to go left at the start. Ride Hulk first then Spiderman. Track back slightly to ride Dr Doom. If you don't mind getting soaked ride Popeye followed by Dudley DoRight then Jurassic Park. Head straight to Duelling Dragons.
Works for us - you shouldn't have queued for more than about 5-10 minutes on anything. You can go on round again but you'll find the queues are rising a bit. We usually grab an express pass for Spiderman so we can go back and go straight on.
You can get away with then going to Universal Studios if you really must do it all in one day but I would advise doing another morning to avoid queues. In Universal head to Men in Black first (grab and express for Back to the future as you pass) - it is by far the most popular ride and will have long queues later. We usually ride at least twice. Ride BTOTF. We usually ride ET next but you might want to skip it. See Terminator then head on round to Twister. If you want to ride Jimmy Neutron either ride it first or grab an express pass. It gets really really busy and isn't much good IMO.
Hope thats of some help.

[grinder]

Thanks for the good advice from everyone who replied. We are looking forward to both parks, and will be doing both 0ver the two weeks that we are there. For anyone interested in pre-paying for tickets, I have just secured a "14 days for the price of 3" deal for US/IOA/CW at £79 per adult From looking through loads of web pages, it seems that this is a deal that can't be beat. For future reference, I wonder if it would be helpful to set up an ongoing topic to update on cheapest tickets, or does this detract from the overall philosophy of the forum. If not, I'm sure that this could be a site which would be known for cheap tickets, AND resultant spin-off villa rental business.
Sorry if it has been/ is being tried already. Any feedback[?]ps I can give details of the site I used if anyone is interested, I just was'nt sure if I could name them.

[chris]

The owners of the forums already sell cheap tickets on here. You just click Orlando park tickets in the top panel and it takes you to their other website www.park-tickets.co.uk The only drawback I've found is the 'minimum spend' amount which when you're a villa owner you dont usually need to replace that many tickets in one go as you've got unexpired ones!

[fiona]

My girls are aged 17 and 14 and IOA is their favourite! One tip is to get there early - particularly when you first arrive and wake up at 5 or 6 every morning with the jet lag!

Marvel Comic Land is the place to be and of course you start with Hulk and work through as Angela has suggested. Spiderman is done as often as possible, along with the Hulk and Duelling Dragons.

They visit Universal as a sop to Mum and Dad and make a beeline for MIB. One likes Back to the Future and goes on with Dad, the other comes on ET with me because I can't bear any of those rides! Terminator is good fun, as are Earthquake and Twister - special effects at their best. Jaws if there are no queues - but you want a picture of you beside the shark anyway!

You might find June is not too bad, atlhough the Scots and the Irish are on hols then, plus the Americans. Nowhere near as busy as Easter weekend though. And more pleasant than the heat of the full summer.

If I am remembering correctly you are looking to buy on this trip - scuse me if I have muddled you up with someone else, if so time how long it takes you to get to the parks. It is important to some people, and in view of the age of our children it played a major part in where we bought.

[SunLover]

At Universal, you can split up and go as single riders on MIB, and 9 times out of 10 you end up sitting together anyway. If you are split up you very often get the chance to "shoot" at each other on a certain part of the ride

[steph_goodrum]

"At Universal, you can split up and go as single riders on MIB,"
You can also do the same on Spiderman and is often a good way of avoiding a long queue if the fast passes have all been allocated, which they often seem to do by about 10 am.