Hello! We are Disney veterans but are looking into our first visit to Universal Studios. Is there a better time to visit (we were thinking October) I am guessing we need 3 days to make sure we hit all parks. If we do 5 days of tickets that will give us more time, or shorter park days. Is that too much? I was looking into one of the 2 bedroom suites at the cheaper resorts (Universal-owned) and I kept coming up with no rooms available. Does that mean they are booked or is a 6 night stay unheard of?
Five days is (IMHO) way too many.
It depends, I guess, how you tour. Two (fairly busy!) days should be enough. If you’re doing Volcano Bay as well then three is good.
If you get Express Passes (depending on your family size, it can be cheaper to get these for free by staying at the higher end Universal resorts) you’ll easily see everything. Plus you get early access if you stay on property.
The Harry Potter stuff is best seen on a nice day, so maybe having an emergency back-up day is a good idea. Personally I would say three nights is plenty.
We are doing 5 days in May. We’ll have enough time to do everything multiple times while having a very relaxed schedule. Express pass is essential for our trip, and let’s us make our own schedule on a whim each day.
You shouldn’t have trouble booking a longer vacation. Maybe they just don’t have rates yet for October? Might be worth calling.
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We like at least 4 days. Even with Express Pass.
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Do you care about Halloween Horror Nights? If so… great! If not, be aware that USF closes pretty early each day to host HHN. You can stay & play at IOA once USF closes, but to do HHN you’ll have to buy an additional event ticket, like you do at WDW for MNSSHP / MVMCP
Otherwise…
I’ve done 3 days & 5 days. Three is enough to see all the “must-dos” and a few side quests. Five days will give you extra time to either go at a leisurely pace / take naps / explore CityWalk dinning and let you ride all the stuff you love again.
My family was “done” by the end of day three. I went to the parks solo on day 4. Day 5 was just bouncing around making sure nothing was skipped and riding Dr. Doom like 10 times with no waits.
We just did 1.5 days with express and it was definitely not enough. So much left undone; we want to go back for a 5 day so we can do everything leisurely. But, we spent many hours at HP areas looking at every little detail.
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I agree with this.
We did Universal in February 2018, which should be similar crowds as October…and without any express passes, we were in the parks at RD and out by 3:00 in the afternoon each day. We did 4 days, and did everything plus many things multiple times. If we stayed all day, 3 days would have been more than enough.
We divided it into a HP day, a Universal day, and an IOA day. Fourth day was just revisiting the things we most enjoyed.
Touring Plans predicted CLs of 2, which is about what they were except our last day (Thursday), which ended up being more like a 4.
I should clarify that we went during Thanksgiving week. I think our CL were 6 and I think 8. The next day they were predicted to be 10 and stay that way the rest of the week (when we went to Disney instead). In the CL we had you would want more time.
I think five days is great! I just got back from having 4 park days on days when the parks were open 9 to 7. I was able to do everything I wanted to do, taking a leisurely pace, and seeing all the shows and several of the mild, sightseeing things that I usually rush past. Our actual crowd levels ranged from 1 to 4 on any given day. I will say, however, I am someone who likes to do my favorite rides multiple times. If you only want to do everything once, two or three days should be plenty. I am also a huge Harry Potter geek and take literally one entire day and devote it to only Harry Potter. If you want time to really enjoy your trip and get multiple re-rides, 5 days is great.
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I too think 5 days is great! I did three days last weekend with express pass and I could have easily spent a couple of more days, especially if you consider any time at Volcano Bay.
As @darkmite2 said, Universal Studios will close early most nights. I love HHNs and I can’t wait until HHN XXX!
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I pretty much know WDW inside and out as we have been there many times and am going again in April 2020. Now we figured the wait to get out of the cold was much too long so we just booked a 7 day vacation package at Universal Studios Orlando FL. Know nothing about the place so it should be interesting. Staying a the Po____________ Resort as it kind of looks Italian. Am I Italian? Nope. I am a senior citizen however and it looked kind of laid back. Good package. Don’t know what half the stuff is and am not really into rollercoasters. No a little about Harry Potter and will have to watch the movies. Interesting thing is figuring out getting there and back via the Supershuttle. Hope that goes OK. Question. Our return flight leaves at 1845 and I would assume you must vacate your room at 1100. What does one do with their luggage during the interim? Where are the great places to eat? Guess I am rambling on here so I will bring this to an end. Last point. Feel like I am deserting Mickey. Anyone else have these feelings? 
We just stayed at the same hotel. There is a nice luggage storing place right next to the front desk. BTW we really enjoyed a fast casual food place there Sal’s Deli.
Thanks for the info.
You can say Portofino Bay, it’s not a swear word!
You’ll leave your luggage at Bell Services, the same as at WDW. There are lots of good places to eat. A lot of the places on CityWalk are chains but the food is good. CowFish is my favourite. Inside the park, Mythos is a good TS, I love the Harry Potter restaurants for breakfast, Thunder Falls Terrace is fantastic. There are good restaurants in the hotels too.
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The first time I went I did. After going I felt silly for being so “loyal” to one place. By not going to Universal sooner I missed out on some great attractions & shows that have since closed. Plus, a few of their rides are now my all time favorites
I’ve learned that there can be room in your theme park fandom for more than one place.
A lot of the rides at Universal are far more “thrilling”, IMHO, overall than WDW so… be prepared.
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This is true, but I am not at all a “roller coaster person” and I found plenty to do at Universal.
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Same, I don’t like roller coasters either. But i’ll have no problem filling out 5 days.
Thanks for the info.
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Thanks all for your help and comments.