Discussions

Looking for some opinions on passes and experiences in each park. How does a person decide on what park pass to get and what to all see.  
 
Open to suggestions and personal experience stories.

I have not been to Universal Studio in Orlando but have been in LA. Thoroughly enjoyed Universal Studio in LA.  
 
In Disney World in Orlando - Disney World itself are long lineups for the rides, but if you are wanting to visit the characters and the different little shows, fantastic. It's a small world ride was great, not much of a wait. A few years ago, now since visiting.  
 
Sea World was great. Skip Animal Kingdom - very disappointing. Waited in line for over an hour for the train that takes you by the animals. Zipped through in about 10 minutes, hardly had time to see the animals properly or be able to take pictures.  
 
Have fun.

We went when the kids were 14 and 11 - so past the Disney stage. We saw MK, and Epcot. Loved Epcot, really were not as impressed with MK. It is definitely more for smaller kids. My daughter went to Hollywood as well with her team and said it was a ton of fun.  
 
We all ADORED Universal. It was just more fun for us. Not as many small kids and mobility scooters, line ups were never as bad. Rides were so cool - especially if you love movies.  
 
Harry Potter land was amazing and we are not even into HP. We found the food choices far better and cheaper than Disney - lots of nice sit down restaurants and stuff. We found it not as "touristy" if that means anything. Yes, the trappings of a theme park were there, but it was just a more fun atmosphere as far as we were concerned. We did find it also a bit more budget friendly.

Universal studios does seem to he the way to go. Park Passes are not to bad at the moment. Harry potter is looking like it would be great to visit.

They really 2 totally different experiences.  
We are headed there at Christmas time and are doing Disney, SeaWorld and Discovery Cove.  
Universal Studios to us seems old and dated, rides short and kinda blah. Islands of Adventure is much better. Newer rides, bigger, better all around. Harry Potter is fantastic and if you like roller coasters they have some of the best ones around there.  
Pricing will be fairly similar, we actually chose not to do Universal because passes are fairly pricey. The longer you go to Disney the cheaper it gets per day. Magic Kingdom is for a slightly younger crowd but does have stuff for all ages. I do disagree with previous post about Animal Kingdom, we love it there, but, of course all opinions can differ. Our kids are 18 and 14 and are looking forward to our trip just like when they were toddlers and we've been 4 times. Do your homework for wherever you decide to go, have fun, it'll be a fantastic trip!

The last time we went we did all 4 Disney parks as well as Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We enjoyed them all. It really just depends on the kind of experience you are looking for. Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are connected through the Harry Potter train. One side is Diagon Alley and the other side is Hogsmeade. That was probably the highlight of those parks. There were some great rides though as well. Definitely geared to older children though for sure.  
 
As for the Disney Parks, Epcot is again more geared to older children, and Hollywood Studios is the same. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are definitely for the younger crowd, but can be enjoyed just as much by older kids as well!

Lol. Talk about First World problems

Does anyone know if you have to pay extra at sea world to attend any of the water/animal shows?

The price you pay at the gate covers all the shows and rides. All you have to pay for will be souvenirs, food & beverages unless you purchase a food package with entrance fee. We purchased one food package for 3 of us and it worked great, saved us money but may not work for everyone.  
We've done both Disney & Universal with a 17yr old and while they really liked Universal, the comment about Disney was "it's Disney, who doesn't have fun at Disney? You have to experience the magic at least once"  
And for the folks going at Christmas, I have never seen crowds like we saw at Disney on Christmas Day, they actually closed the park it was so full! It wasn't until very late in the evening the crowds thinned out and we could take things in & enjoy ourselves.

SeaWorld is like Disney etc, its pay one price. You used to be able to get your ticket stamped when you left and return a 2nd day for free which we did. I love SeaWorld!  
 
Personally we loved Disney, Magic Kingdom,Hollywood studios, and Animal Kingdom were our favs. I liked but did not love Epcot.  
 
We personally liked but did not love Universal but Harry Potter was just being built when we went. We are not roller coaster people so we did not do Islands of Adventure.  
 
There are tons of other fun things to do as well such as airboat rides, orange farm tours, Kennedy Space station is about on hour away etc.