Minimum Trip Length To Get In Another Park

If I'm at WDW for a week, I'll go to Sea World or Universal, but I can go with very little thought about it because I qualify for free tickets to each.

It's not big deal for us to go to one of those parks and spend a few hours checking things out then leaving.

To be honest, if I was dropping the normal admission price for Universal or Sea World, I wouldn't be doing this.

Wow--that's great!

We don't tend to head outside of those bit purple gates all that often, but if I had a minimum, I think it would be about 9 days or so.

Do you have to pay for parking?

Yes, because I have to get to guest services in order to pick up my passes. To be honest, I've never even thought about trying to get free parking!

<- thinking about it NOW though!

I think Universal is just not as well done as WDW. I am fond of Bugs Bunny and remember rediscovering the cartoons as a teen when I finally understood some of the humor.....but those parks (and City Walk) are LOUD and not well themed, characters "broke" character and spoke as themselves!.....DH and I went to Universal once and never again. Of course, we are not thrill ride people, so we feel that we are not missing anything.
To answer the original question, I think 10 days is a minimum. We are going for 9 days in Aug and with WDW parks, special experiences (lunch with an imagineer and seas aqua tour ), and a relaxing pool/shopping day, there isn't time to go off property!

Wha?!??!?! That does seem right! Were they face characters or characters with "heads"?

Yeah, I cannot even imagine characters speaking as "themselves" at WDW. They were face characters, maybe the Flintstones? Would they have been at Universal? This was 2003......

Ugh. I have a hard enough time "believing." I can't imagine what a bummer it would be if they weren't even helping me out a little bit

I suspect they were just disinterested teens. That seems to make up a pretty large portion of the employee force at Universal. That said they do have some fun rides at IofA.

I have a good friend who used to work for us who started her career at WDW. Over the years she played Barbie, Cinderella and some other characters.

I don't remember specifics, but I know she said when you were in character at WDW, you STAYED in character. It was no laughing matter!

It's also largely the goal of most people who work at WDW, so they're probably disinclined to screw it up once they get there.

This is my friend Kelley in her heyday as Barbie. She's the one on the right.

You know, to be honest I wasn't sure of the tie-in, although I knew there was some Barbie connections at WDW in the past. I looked it up and found this -

http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id134.htm

Wow, that's really transparent -- "Barbie, who happens to be owned by our sponsor, is now um...let's say...the ambassador of friendship? Sure, why not"

Very cool picture, MT. I love those behind the scenes shots.

Now, I have heard something about Barbie and Ken in Toy Story 3...

If any of you are college football fans, you might know Kelley/Barbie's husband. His name is Buck Belue, and he was the quarterback for Georgia during their national championship season in 1980.
He's a sports radio guy in Atlanta now.

MouseTraveler knows everybody. I'm putting you in my rolodex as "the guy who knows the guy"

I owe them all money.

That's one way to make a lasting relationship. People won't lose touch if you owe them money.

Interesting takes on minimum trip length. I've been to WDW several times and Disneyland dozens of times, and still love it as much or more than when I was a kid. My wife and I are going to WDW in September for our anniversary and I CAN NOT WAIT. It's only been a couple years for me, but she hasn't been since early in college for a band trip (when there wasn't time to do or see much).

All that said, we are only taking seven days instead of the nine we would normally take because she has a very full schedule and it would be very hard on us to not have a day to recover before going back to work. I've planned/booked all sorts of great things at WDW (cruise, fancy dinner, MNSSH, etc) which fit nicely into a four day span - including the four Disney parks.

This time, I'm planning on allotting two days for Universal's two parks (never been, spare Universal Hollywood as a kid). I figure since they are relatively small, we would still have some time on those two evenings for more Disney fun. We normally spend those two days at Disney water parks or other attractions. Given that we intend to be at the Disney parks from open to close; you think we'll have ample time?

p.s. Hi...I'm new here.

Howdy LifeIsForLiving! Glad to have you aboard!

I think 2 days is plenty for Universal, even with IofA in there. I enjoy the parks but I think I could get everything I enjoy in both parks done in one day.

Having never been though, I don't want to feel rushed. I was thinking if we want to do everything at least once, and maybe take in some shows I'd like to have a day for each. What do you guys think? Less time at Universal means more time at Disney afterall...

I don't think there's anything wrong with 2 days for Universal. I'd probably go on the first day and take it easy, then see how I felt about the next day. I love Dueling Dragons at IofA and the Men In Black ride in UO is really fun. I think you can have two days of fun there easily, but I'd try to play it by ear in case you don't find it as fun as I do. I think you can basically get multi-day tickets there for the same price as 1-day, so I don't think it would cost much to make the decision after the first day.

Glad someone sees it the same way I do. Though it's not WDW, I think we'll have plenty of fun. Way I see it, even if we do get everything done at one of the Universal parks by say early/mid-evening, we can go play at Downtown Disney or some such.

It's particularly enjoyable if you haven't been before. People love the Hulk too, so be sure to check that out. Spiderman is well-done too, although it's not terribly re-ridable.

I'll make sure to do everything at least once

You probably do need more than 1 day then, I'd think. We usually try to just do the highlights. Also the Splash Mountain knock off and the "Bilge Rat Barge" don't just get you a little wet. They get you a LOT wet, so you'll probably want to take that into account.

Thank you for the tip. I learned the hard way to assume the water ride is going to get you soaked unless you KNOW otherwise. Those do look fun though.