Universal studios excursion

[dsaurus]

I was wondering if anyone has taken the universal studios excursion. The park closes at 6pm on the day we'll be there. It says the ship docks there at noon. Does anyone have any idea what time I would get there? I'm assuming that you have to wait for everyone to get off the ship onto the bus and then add that to the drive time. Has anyone gotten off, rented a car and then drove? Is that any faster?

[dexddd]

My DW and DD did that in 2007 but I think we were in early in the morning as the rest of us went to KSC and it was just opening (which is like 9 or 10). Getting in at noon and having to leave the park at six doesn't give a ton of time.

 

It takes about a solid hour from the port to Universal. We have rented cars many times between Orlando and the port (and back). The rental places are about a 5 minute shuttle ride (but you have to wait sometimes for them) plus the paperwork so I'd say you'd be tied up about 1/2 hour on each end with the rental car (plus they may be closed when you get back at the end of the day).

 

Those cruises that get into Port Canaveral at noon make it difficult to get the most out of the day if you wanted to go to Orlando and even KSC closes fairly early with the last bus going to the outer areas like at 3pm.

[Fishbait17]

We did it December 2010 with 12 noon arrival and 9 or 10pm departure. I think we arrived at Universal before 1:30. Park closed at 6pm, we grabbed a drink and snack on the way out and caught the 7pm bus back to port. We had two-park passes, and since the parks were fairly empty that day, we went on the main Harry Potter ride, at lunch and hung out and explored that area for a while. Then we went on another ride or two there, circling the park, and went over to the other park, went on a few more rides and circled that park too. Was plenty of time on a non-crowded day - we had done it all several times before and just hit out favorites. For the two of us, we felt the bus was the easiest and not much more expensive, and most definitely the fastest (buses both ways left as soon as they were full, just minutes after opening the door).

 

Robin

[SuiteCruiser]

We did it last week. The park closed at 8:00 for our day, though, and if we hadn't spent 2.5 hours waiting in line at Harry Potter's ride, we would have been happily done by 6:00. As it was, we wrapped up at 7:10. The bus got us to the park at 1:10 after noon arrival at Port Canaveral.

 

I think the PITA factor of renting and having to return a rental car isn't worth the difference in price. If you have a large group, then it makes more sense.

[willysgrandma]

I also did it. Luckily the day we were there, it was pretty dead at the park and we only were on line a half hour for the Harry Potter ride.

 

While you can't use it for the Potter ride, buy the Express Pass when you get to the park- it will zip you to the front of the line for most of the other rides so you can get in the most in the time you'll be there.

[dsaurus]

Thanks, do you remember how much extra the express pass is?

[Laszlo]

$20 - $55 depending on the time of year

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Universal+fast+pass+price