Do You Need Five Days at Universal Orlando Resort?

On our last trip to the Universal Orlando Resort, we knew that we wanted to stay at the Royal Pacific Resort as it was the least expensive place you can stay and get the Universal Express Pass included.

Wanting to make the most of those unlimited Express Passes, we looked for the best deal for the most amount of time in the parks. Undercover Tourist had a deal at the time giving you two free days when you buy three. This offer was only about $20 more per person than buying a regular three-day pass, which made it an easy decision.

We spent 3 days in Universal Studios Florida and 2 days in Islands of Adventure, alternating parks each day.

There are less than 40 rides and attractions across the two theme parks — about 18 at Universal Studios Florida and 18 at Islands of Adventure. Even during the first week in August, still peak tourist time, we were easily able to hit all of the rides on the first day in each park. The second day in each was spent hitting our favorite rides a second (and third) time, then exploring some of the stores and experiences that we passed by on previous trips, like Poseidon’s Fury, which was cooler than I thought it’d be, albeit a little outdated. 

On that fifth day, there wasn’t anything left to do that we hadn’t already done at least once. If we had four-day passes, we could have had a non-park day to relax at the pool, explore our resort (and others), or hang out in CityWalk, but we because we paid for five days we didn’t want to let any go to waste.

When the new Epic Universe park opens in 2023, you can definitely justify a higher day level package. With just the two parks (these tickets from Undercover Tourist did not include admission to Volcano Bay), two days in each are more than enough to see and do everything. 

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Brandon

Brandon created Arch & Castle to share all of the random stuff he's discovered while researching his family vacations.

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