A day at USH during our DLR vacation.

[Billy Hill]

Neither myself or anyone else in the family has ever been to USH before so I really don't know what to except from this park. I'm kicking around the idea of spending a day there during our DLR vacation at the end of this month. Could we do most of the attractions in a single day, or would we leave feeling like we missed a lot? In addition, would you have any tips on discounts, promotions, etc? Is there anything else we should know about USH?

 

The plan would be.... Drive down from the Sacramento area early (like 4AM early) the morning of the 25th. Get to SFMM about the time they open and spend most of the day there. Arrive at DLR Saturday afternoon/evening. (I'm not really expecting much of SFMM, and we'll likely leave fairly early. The kids are the ones that want to go, not me so much.) We have 7 nights at DLR and 5 day park hopper passes, so I'm thinking DL and DCA off and on, and back and forth, and a trip up to USH on one of the weekdays in between. That'd have us back at DL on Friday the 1st of July so that we MAYBE can sneak in on the rumored soft opening for Space Mountain. We'll drive back up 101 on Saturday, stay at a motel somewhere along the way Saturday night, and go to BFG and PGA on Sunday. Then drive home from there and have Monday the 4th as a day to rest up before going back to the daily grind. Does that sound like it'd work?

 

Thanks, Billy "I'm going to need a vacation after this vacation" Hill

[SharkTums]

Yeah that sounds fine...and yes USH can easily be done in a day. Remember that like 25% of USH's attractions are all on the Tram Tour!

 

Elissa "have fun!" Alvey

[Sir Clinksalot]

Doing USH on a weekday shouldn't be too bad. You should be able to fit in everything since there really isn't that much to do.

 

This is how I would plan your day:

 

Park usually opens at 9am (lower lot stuff usually opens an hour later)

 

Arrive at park open and head straight for the studio tour. The tour takes about 45 minutes and is pretty cool for those who haven't done it 5 million times.

 

After the tour head down the escalators and do the Lower Lot attractions. Mummy first, followed by JP, Backdraft and the Behind the Scenes stuff. Those 4 things should not take you longer than 2 hours, if that.

 

Head back up the escalators and check the lines for Back to the Future and Shrek 4D, they shouldn't be too bad at this point. I would also try to see the first WaterWorld show (usually about 1pm).

 

After WaterWorld head over and do Terminator 3D and check the times for Animal Planet Live and the new Fear Factor show. This should take you to no later than 4pm, and you are done.

 

Have fun!!!

[Billy Hill]

That's sounds great. Thanks for the info, particularly the detail on the order of attractions.

[Billy Hill]

Well, here it is time to go and now things have changed. I couldn't make a convincing enough pitch for USH, so it looks like it'll be another year before I'll get to check the place out. The kids are dead set on riding every coaster they possibly can at SFMM. I can't imagine that'd be any sort of fun task on a June Saturday like we originally planned, so...

 

We'll leave not quite so early (about 6-ish should do) tomorrow morning and go to BFG first instead (Consolation to me for having to miss USH, and... our PGA passes get us in for free). We'll get there when they open and maybe spend 4 or 5 hours there at the most. From there we'll drive to SoCal and spend the night somewhere fairly near the DLR so we can get there bright and early Sunday morning. We'll make a quick pit stop at the PP hotel to drop off our bags and then hit the parks. The place is probably going to be a zoo on Sunday, so we'll leave the parks at about 3 or so and go back to the hotel to get our room. After a dip in the pool, or a nap, or both, we'll go back into DL in the evening to see the fireworks, etc... Instead of hitting USH on a weekday, we'll drive up to SFMM so the kids can ride all these coasters that they're so convinced they just HAVE TO ride. Then it's back to DLR to carry on with things as we had originally planned.

 

My fingers are going to be crossed that Space Mountain really does have a soft opening on Friday the 1st.

 

Trip report with pics on our return.