Planning our First Universal Trip

Hi everyone! Coming over from the WDW side

We are thinking of booking a Uni trip for the last week of Jan 2016, which will be DD5’s first trip. We have been to WDW every year for the past several years and because of Touring Plans I feel like I’m an experienced planner of all things Disney. Planning Universal is scaring me since it is all new from parks, hotels, meals…

We will be staying 5 nights - Monday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. How would you break up your park days? Would 4 days be too much?

Hotel packages I’m looking at (should we even do a package) CBBR family suite adding unlimited express pass to our tickets or HRH Club level. Opposite ends of the spectrum, I know. The cost difference is $763 for the 5 nights, is that worth it for the hotel upgrade, club level amenities and closer park access?

For those of you that have younger children is their enough at Universal to keep them interested?

Will be reading all things possible on TP Universal site any other recommended resources?

Thanks!

http://orlandoinformer.com/ has a lot of good UOR info.

Have you considered staying at RPR and getting EP included? We went in June with DSs 10, 6 and 3. With the kids, we took a slower pace. There was a lot of stuff to keep the kids occupied, but our children are Harry Potter obsessed and easily could have spent a day doing nothing but Harry Potter. We were only there for about 2.5 days. If we had the amount of time you have, I think we would have gone in the pool, played in all the kids areas, and revisited favorite rides for a third and fourth time. In short, depending on your child’s interest, I believe there will be enough to keep them happy.

I would go with CB family suite. You won’t need exp pass at that time of year. So much for kids at CB and more space and kitchenette. If you find there are a few rides that wait times are too long you can buy then for 1day. Rider swap is awesome also.