[Dr.Butler]

Anyone have experience or thoughts to share?

[TJLAMPHERE]

Originally Posted by Dr.Butler

Anyone have experience or thoughts to share?

We have them. Good discounts on rooms if you want to stay onsite. Free parking. Merchandise discounts. And WAY cheaper than our Disney APs.

[JohnN]

I like Universal. I'd say try it. Be sure to get "front of the line" access via your room if you stay on site at some of their hotels. If not you can buy it, but it helps. City Walk is a nice way to browse around when not in the park. Have fun.

[JerryLBell]

If you go more than once to each of their two main parks, it's a no-brainer money-wise. We've had annual passes to Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Kennedy Space Center and even Gatorland. It's nearly always cheaper for the pass than it is to go to the parks multiple times. The thing you really need to ask yourself is, "Do I think I'll go to this park multiple times?" If the answer is "Yes", then go for it. You may find, like us, that you won't likely renew the membership as none of them really change enough year to year to have all that much new going on at the next year's membership.

An annual pass usually comes with free parking and a modest (like 10%) discount on food and souvenirs. I don't recall any particularly good dining in Universal. We usually went for cheap and for us the cheapest half-way decent food there was the Moe's Southwest Grill in the City Walk portion between the parks (upstairs near the front).

We probably preferred Disney and the combination of Sea World and Busch Gardens (as you can get a further discount by getting annual passes for the last two together) over Universal Studios. Disney just has SO much going on and is so large over all that it's hard for other parks to compete. If you like animals, Sea World/Busch Gardens is better than Disney Animal Kingdom. Universal has rides and really not much else. If you really like their rides, great. If you don't find them that great, they can get a bit old rather quickly. Unfortunately, if you haven't already done them before, the only way to find which way you feel about them is to pay to get into the parks and go on them.

Of course, as with any popular theme parks, the lines range from tolerable to awful. I really, really like the Hagrid roller coaster at Universal. Unfortunately, so do a LOT of other people and the lines get ridiculously long early on. Your opinion of investment (length of standing in line) vs. reward (the fun of the actual ride) can totally affect how much you enjoy a day spent at a theme park.