THANK YOU. When I've asked elsewhere how to do US in 1 day, most responses have been along the lines of, "It can't be done. You really need like five weeks or you'll be sorry."
You do need more than one day to see everything, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time with only one day. You just need to be ok with the fact that you won’t be seeing and doing everything.
One day can be a great way to test the waters to see if Universal is for you or not. People seem to either really like it or really hate it, so one day is a great way to find out which camp you fall in. Then, if you decide it’s the place for you, you can always plan for a longer trip in the future to hit all the stuff you missed the first time.
I’ve done a few one day trips. Both my mother, my sister, and a close friend only wanted to go for one day (each different trips). They each mainly wanted to focus on HP. My mother enjoyed HP and the old Lucy exhibit as well as a few other attractions, but overall was done after the one day and has no desire to return. She had a list of what she wanted to accomplish. She did those things, and now she’s good. Pretty much the same story with my friend. We actually went for two days, but we ended up doing two half days because there just wasn’t that much she was interested in. I really felt we should have only done one day. There just wasn’t enough she wanted to do to justify the two days. She has no desire to return either. My sister on the other hand was a completely different story. She went one day her first trip to check it out and fell in love. She couldn’t get enough. She now has a season pass.
The reason people tell you you need more days is firstly because people usually come on here asking how to save money or how to buy discounted tickets or how to do Universal for less than Disney, and the answer is you really can’t if you only plan on one day. You don’t start saving money until you start looking at multi day or season tickets. It usually comes down to the longer you stay, the greater the savings. Even the hotels have a special discount designated Stay More Save More. The more nights you stay, the cheaper the hotel room.
Secondly, it does take more than a day to see everything. Each park takes about 1.5 days to see and do everything. Of course, not everyone wants to do everything which I think a lot of people forget. You also have to factor in crowds, EP access, and personal touring styles. But I think it’s pretty safe to say that the average family would want at least a day per each park. This is because many people do want to try everything or close to everything on their first trips to determine what they do and don’t like for the future. This is why 2 to 3 days is usually suggested. However, you can definitely go for less time and still have a good time. You’ll just need to do a little planning and determine what your priorities are.
Third, people who are only doing one day usually don’t have EP because they just come over for the day and don’t stay in the hotel. This makes it even harder to accomplish very much in one day as they need to wait in standby lines. A day at Universal without EP can be a very different day to one with it. There have been many unhappy visitors who have come on here in the past to complain that they went only one day to Universal (without EP) and accomplished very little except for waiting in lines all day. People suggesting longer stays are trying to give others realistic expectations. You aren’t going to go one day only, peak season, no EP, and see all of both parks. On top of that, if you do decide you want or need EP, it is usually cheaper to buy a throwaway hotel room, then it is to buy the EP outright. This again makes it more economical and practical to stay more than one day as 1 night gives you 2 days EP, so if you don’t go at least 2 days, you don’t see the savings.
(or fall into bed at the end of the night, which probably makes more sense to do your 1 night at Universal on the end).
