Universal Studios During Christmas--Avoid If Possible
 

My sons were visiting for Christmas, and wanted to see Universal. What a mistake. It was so crowded yesterday that you couldn't move. There were lines to wait on more lines. The average waiting time for any attraction was two hours. The Harry Potter area also had a two hour line just to enter that section with another two hour wait for each attraction. As a rule of thumb, whenever any of these amusement parks have blackout dates for FL residents, everyone should avoid them as well. After waiting on two 120 minute lines, we cut our losses and left.

George

Thanks for the info. The same can be said for Disney. We happened to venture there with the kids on spring break.....being there all day, we only got on one ride.

It's tough to not go when your kids are visiting and they want to see these parks. Glad you decided to call it a day. You lasted longer than I would have!

I saw an article on CNN today that said thet Disneyland closed it's ticket sales window shortly after opening in the morning as the park was full to capacity.

What a bummer!

Having never been to either of Universal's parks, we really didn't know what to expect. Universal's Islands of Adventure is quite different than Disney which seems to handle large crowds better. Islands has only a handful of rides\attractions which IMHO causes the long lines to form. Universal also has an "express" ticket option, which doubles the cost of admission from $80 to $160. With the express ticket, you bypass the regular admission lines, but it also looked like they had their own line, albeit a shorter one, but at twice the price. I may sound like Grinch but yesterday's visit soured me on Universal. We did enjoy the two rides. They also hit you with $20 parking.

Crowd dodging
 

ouch! with all due respect, any place with a potential for crowds has been a no visit zone for us forever.

We avoid shopping centers on weekends, and when there were offspring, we'd hit the museums here kin DC on weekdays. Until midway through High School when math class was a daily must, we pulled them from class early and went on 'educational' outings where they usually learned more form us than in class.

Today with telecommuting, flex time, and other alternative forms of work and learning, it would be a no brainer for us to do things on weekends.

The way it's set up, Americans are shopping and recreating on weekends, and that's when we find safe harbor working in our stores.

Because it slows down in the winter, that's when we snowdrift in and out of TV, even though it's the 'high' season. Since we don't golf, the only small challenge is the traffic, and that;s where the bicycles come in handy.
There's always room on the trails, roads, and in the bike racks by the doors of the stores.

Good luck a the parks.

L and L

It's generally a no visit zone for us, too, but when we lived in CA, we were about an hour and a half from Disneyland. When our son and his family would visit, my daughter-in-law ALWAYS wanted to head up to the park. She used to work at Disney World and really, really enjoyed the place. Now that we're in Florida, I thought we could avoid Disney for a while, (my son and his family lived in Sarasota, now St. Augustine, but they wanted to visit the park during break and we met them there. When we left the park and headed to our hotel, I was in Disney land...two flat screen tv's, room service, soft bed with down comforter....ahhhh. We brought the grandkids home with us and Mom and Dad got to have a day and night alone. Disney closed the park that day, too. Too many people. When we lived in CA, my sister and her family came to visit and wanted to head to the Mouse's house, so we headed up there. Again, the park was filled to capacity and closed.
People mention Disney and I start to quiver. I'll have to go see Harry Potter between school breaks. I'm worse than the kids at parks....they're grouchy and whinny....so am I....lol.