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Universal Studios Orlando (1 Viewer)

Mr. Chumley

Mr. Chumley

Footballguy
The "Disney, if I only knew" thread has some really good info and advice. I'm considering a split trip to Universal Studios and Disney next spring and I'm looking for any tips or advice from fellow FBG's. I'm hoping this turns into a running thread like the Disney thread where those in the know can help out those of us who aren't. With that said, Let the knowledge flow.

:popcorn:

ETA: Let me get this started with the first questions. What are the advantages of staying on property? I thought I had read once that guest staying on property had head of the line priveledges at the parks. Does anyone know if this is true?

 
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I don't know if we have a whole thread dedicated to it like with Disney, but I know we've talked about it in some thread. My only recommendation would be to not go during Christmas break if at all possible. Holy crap was it crowded.

 
'Mr. Chumley said:
'JShare87 said:
Yes is it true
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Yep, found it.
• Universal Express SM ride access* to skip the regular lines in both theme parks - a FREE benefit worth up to $87 per person, per day^ (valid theme park admission required)
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You can also get into the park an hour before the riff-raff. A big perk for the one with the Harry Potter rides. We hit the big Harry Potter ride twice and had seen most of the rest of area before the place was opened for general admission when we went, which allowed us to hit the other rides while the masses were waiting over there.Definitely recommend staying on-site.
 
You can buy those passes also if you stay elsewhere

 
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'nysfl2 said:
'Mr. Chumley said:
'JShare87 said:
Yes is it true
Click to expand...
Yep, found it.
• Universal Express SM ride access* to skip the regular lines in both theme parks - a FREE benefit worth up to $87 per person, per day^ (valid theme park admission required)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
You can also get into the park an hour before the riff-raff. A big perk for the one with the Harry Potter rides. We hit the big Harry Potter ride twice and had seen most of the rest of area before the place was opened for general admission when we went, which allowed us to hit the other rides while the masses were waiting over there.Definitely recommend staying on-site.
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So you get in early and get to skip the lines. Nice.
 
I have very little insight into hotel/on-site restaurant recommendations, but have been to both parks at least 20-25 times. I can give area restaurant recommendations, but nothing about hotels - I lived 5 minutes away for 3+ years so I know the area and the attractions, but never stayed in a hotel or ate on property very much.

 
Leave the Harry Potter section for the mid afternoon. Everyone makes a beeline for it in the morning and you can't even get into the shops let alone the rides without waiting in huge lines. Go in the afternoon and it's MUCH less crowded.

 
'Usual21 said:
Leave the Harry Potter section for the mid afternoon. Everyone makes a beeline for it in the morning and you can't even get into the shops let alone the rides without waiting in huge lines. Go in the afternoon and it's MUCH less crowded.
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This was a discussion we had in another thread. I went during Christmas break and this would have been horrible advice at that time. The whole park was so incredibly crowded that, if you didn't get into the Harry Potter part first thing in the morning, you had to get a special ticket just to get in several hours later. I think all the tickets for the entire day were gone by like 10:30. If you missed your chance to get a ticket, you had to wait in a "standby" line that was like three hours long, just to get into the Harry Potter section. Then you had to wait on giant lines to go on any of the rides or to get into the shops or whatever. It was brutal but I have a Harry Potter-obsessed kid so we just had to bend over and take it.I can't stress enough not to go during Christmas break. I don't know if there are other times of the year that are like that. Sounds like the park is usually much more manageable.
 
'Usual21 said:
Leave the Harry Potter section for the mid afternoon. Everyone makes a beeline for it in the morning and you can't even get into the shops let alone the rides without waiting in huge lines. Go in the afternoon and it's MUCH less crowded.
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:goodposting:I had a hell of a time convincing people of this. They thought it would just get progressively more crowded throughout the day. A few more HP tips :If you or anyone in your party wants Butterbeer, don't get on line at the cart outside. Go into the pub that has the talking boar's head on the wall. There will be virtually no line and the upside is that you can get actual beer at the same place, for those of us who don't crave cream soda with butterscotch flavored whipped cream on top.If the lines for the Harry Potter simulator ride are long (they usually are), you can shave at least 50% off your wait time by going as single riders. The ride never stops moving, so they need to fill cars quick. If there are two of you, many times a group of 2 from the regular line will get on and there won't be another two behind them. They don't have time to call out for a group of 2 from further back in the line, so they'll often just grab the next two single riders. Even if they don't, you're separated from the person next to you by the seat itself and the entire ride is in darkness and designed to be immersive, so even if you're riding with your kid/significant other, you wont see him/her from the time you sit down until the time you step off.Expect to wait a while if you want to get into Ollivander's Wand Shop, or whatever it's called. There's ALWAYS a line. I've been there 10 times and have never seen the inside of it. Conversely, the Dragon Challenge (nee Dueling Dragons) rarely has a line longer than 10 minutes. The food in the Pub there is among the best in the park. If you're not going to Mythos to eat, strongly consider eating there. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a dog#### hamburger in Jurassic Park.
 
'Wrighteous Ray said:
'Usual21 said:
Leave the Harry Potter section for the mid afternoon. Everyone makes a beeline for it in the morning and you can't even get into the shops let alone the rides without waiting in huge lines. Go in the afternoon and it's MUCH less crowded.
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This was a discussion we had in another thread. I went during Christmas break and this would have been horrible advice at that time. The whole park was so incredibly crowded that, if you didn't get into the Harry Potter part first thing in the morning, you had to get a special ticket just to get in several hours later. I think all the tickets for the entire day were gone by like 10:30. If you missed your chance to get a ticket, you had to wait in a "standby" line that was like three hours long, just to get into the Harry Potter section. Then you had to wait on giant lines to go on any of the rides or to get into the shops or whatever. It was brutal but I have a Harry Potter-obsessed kid so we just had to bend over and take it.I can't stress enough not to go during Christmas break. I don't know if there are other times of the year that are like that. Sounds like the park is usually much more manageable.
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That may be true, but you'd have to be a galloping ###hole to go during Christmas break. I avoid the parks like the plague during those peak times. I know people with kids are limited in when they can get out there, but to spend the astronomical amount of money it costs for a whole-hog Orlando vacation and then spend it waiting in 2+ hour lines the whole time is incredibly daft to me.
 
'Binky The Doormat said:
'belljr said:
You can buy those passes also if you stay elsewhere
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How much and where are the options to buy?
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You can buy lineskippers online when you buy your tickets or at the window. They're very pricey and they don't work for every ride (e.g last time I went the two newest rides, Harry Potter at I of A and Rip Ride Rockit at US were exempt) but if you're overflowing with cash, they're a godsend. I used to have a Platinum pass which gave you lineskipper privileges every day after a certain time and I never set foot in the place until after that designated times.
 
'Evilgrin 72 said:
That may be true, but you'd have to be a galloping ###hole to go during Christmas break. I avoid the parks like the plague during those peak times. I know people with kids are limited in when they can get out there, but to spend the astronomical amount of money it costs for a whole-hog Orlando vacation and then spend it waiting in 2+ hour lines the whole time is incredibly daft to me.
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Yeah, I figured it would be bad, but not that bad. I hate to have my kids miss school for a vacation, but in hindsight I guess that's what we should have done.
 
'Wrighteous Ray said:
'Evilgrin 72 said:
That may be true, but you'd have to be a galloping ###hole to go during Christmas break. I avoid the parks like the plague during those peak times. I know people with kids are limited in when they can get out there, but to spend the astronomical amount of money it costs for a whole-hog Orlando vacation and then spend it waiting in 2+ hour lines the whole time is incredibly daft to me.
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Yeah, I figured it would be bad, but not that bad. I hate to have my kids miss school for a vacation, but in hindsight I guess that's what we should have done.
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And therein lies the rub. Everyone feels that way, that's why you get those crowds. Had you gone 2 weeks earlier, you probably wouldn't have waited more than 15 minutes for anything (if you know when to hit which rides.) It's kind of a Catch-22.
 
Don't go Presidents day week either. Apparently Florida has off most of that week.

Sunday, Mon, Tues were awful Wednesday not bad. Thrusday and Friday GREAT.

We'll go back to our late January.

 
Haven't been there for about 5 years but we stayed at the Hard Rock. We liked it. Also loved the front-of-the-line privileges. We did everything we wanted to do in 1 1/2 days.

 
We are planning on being in Orlando over Thanksgiving week. Is the park crazy busy then or is it dead?

 
We stayed at the Royal Pacific on site during spring break. Kids and wife LOVED it. Loved it more than Disney. (Kids are 6 and 8).

Why did we love it so much?

1. Stayed on property...walked/boated to parks everyday. Lots of restaurants/bars before you get to park. Fun at night!

2. Fast pass at Universal comes with hotel room (its your key card). This is AWESOME. Almost every ride (except that one Harry Potter one) has a separate fast pass lane. You just use your key card all the time (no limits). At height of Spring Break break, we waited at most 10-15 min for Spiderman, Mummy rides, etc where regular lines often hit 1 hour! One evening, we rode Mummy like 8 times in 30 minutes...lol

 
Just went on Saturday. I've been to Orlando for 18 years in a row for trade shows, so I know the area quite well. We stayed downtown and made the drive to Universal as to avoid the touristy areas for most of our stay.

We only did the one day pass for the Islands park. We got there and went straight back to Harry Potter land. Of course it's summer, but I was still surprised how busy it was. We only waited 10 minutes for HP roller coaster and ended up riding it 3 times in a row to start off the day. We then hit the single rider line for the HP castle ride which was ####### fantastic. I really wish I had been high for that. It blew my mind.

Hulk roller coaster was down during the afternoon so we missed it. :(

I can't imagine going to this place during a busy period.

 
Went to Universal for 3 days during a "trip of a lifetime" to Orlando last December that hit four Disney Parks, two Universal parks, two SeaWorld parks, LegoLand, and Downtown Disney.

We stayed on Disney property, so we drove in to Universal. Consider VIP parking. It's $10-15 more expensive, but IMO it had value. The general parking is close to a mile from the park gates, while the VIP dropoff is right by CityWalk. So we shaved 25-30 minutes off our arrival time and at least a half-mile of walking before we started, and it was nice not having that extra half-mile back to car afterwards. On our first day there, the valet even washed our car for us, which was nice since we drove over 1200 miles to Orlando and didn't want to waste time getting the car washed while on vacation.

We bought into the Xpress line. Totally worth it at Islands of Adventure. Keep in mind it's neither jumping to the front of the line nor a separate ride like at Disney. It's a separate line that is much shorter with seats on rides reserved for the Xpress line. If you want to wait 10 minutes for a rollercoaster with a posted 60-minute wait time, Xpress is for you. If you want to ride Hulk from the front row, you have wait in line with the plebes. Xpress does not apply at Harry Potter Forbidden Journey, the signature ride in the Harry Potter section. More on that when I discuss HP in more detail.

IMO, the Xpress ticket wasn't worth the extra cost at Universal Studios. They added no benefit at the theater experiences like Terminator and Shrek, and the queues for Simpsons and Men in Black were such cluster####s I was surprised the rides were operational.

We got 10% off at the food counters and souvenir stores. I can't remember if that was a perk of buying into Xpress or a discount for AAA members. There was something from our trip where our AAA membership more than paid for itself outside of lodging. I'll try to think of it later.

If you don't stay on Universal property, your park ticket is printed on movie ticket stub paper. It's their way of pushing ticketholder lanyards for $10 a pop. This is why my daughter is the proud owner of a Gryffindor ticketholder lanyard.

I'm going to break this up into multiple posts. More coming...

 
Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure

On our "trip of a lifetime", the most impressive subsection of any of the parks we visited on the entire trip was the Harry Potter section of Islands of Adventure. I may be biased here as we have seen all the Harry Potter movies, and my daughter has read all the books multiple times and wants to be Hermonie Granger. (Considering she was the brains of the operation within Harry's crew, there are far worse heroes.) Anyway, the setting really is spectacular - most of the buildings were constructed using the blueprints from the movie sets, and there are several sightlines where all you can see is Harry Potter's world. I was impressed with how immersive the experience was.

If you or yours aren't into Harry Potter, skip Olivander's. If you are...

Olivander's was a great show. They let people in about 20-25 at a time, and Olivander picks one of the kids in the group to fit them for a magic wand. We instructed our daughter to stand front and center and look right up at Olivander with eyes wide open. He picked her. After she tried two different wands with results of two failed spells, the third was a winner. As Olivander says, "the wizard doesn't choose the wand. The wand chooses the wizard." As Olivander opened the box of the third wand, the lights got a little brighter, and the Hedgwick's Theme started playing in the background. The wand worked, and my daughter got to keep the wand from the show - if we wanted to buy it for $30. So that's how my daughter became the proud owner of a $30 stick.

Forbidden Journey was my favorite ride at either Universal park. You can get a big thrill rollercoaster in many cities, but you can't ride along with Harry and the gang anywhere else. This one doesn't have an Xpress line, but the queue had plenty to look at and do while you waited - recreations of several elements of the Hogwarts campus, and the setup for the ride's story. The ride itself had a great story, moved quick, and has truly a unique experience.

Dueling Dragons were fun coasters, and with Xpress we could hop on them with almost no wait. For HP superfans, in the queue there are elements of the Tri-Wizard Cup competition from Goblet of Fire, as well as the Weasley family's flying car gone wrong from Chamber of Secrets. The coasters were fun, and it was interesting seeing another coaster out on the tracks while you were riding, too.

If you're into HP souvenirs, the shop inside HP world is not the only place to get HP stuff. There's another clothing store near the Islands of Adventure entrance that has scarves, cloaks, t-shirts. The more unique stuff, like replicas of Hermonie's time-turner, are only found in the HP store.

We dug the mini-stage that had the Tri-Wizard opening ceremonies show and the frog choir. But if you're not into HP, that's probably skippable.

The store resembling the novelty shop the Weasley Twins opened in Half-Blood Prince was a hoot. Chocolates shaped like frogs and stuff like that. It did get a little crowded inside there in December, though.

The sitdown restaurant in HP was decent. Roasted meats, veggies, potatoes, butterbeer. Islands of Adventure has an all-day eating pass that saves a lot of money if you're there from open to close, but the HP restaurant isn't part of that meal plan, so we didn't buy the meal plan.

Solid photo op by a Hogwarts Express locomotive, and beware of the owls hanging out in the rafters throught the HP section.

The HP stuff is such a hit, Universal may try to expand it. They are about to retire the Jaws ride at Universal Studios, and the rumor is they will replace it with a Harry Potter-themed experience, and add an interpark shuttle remembling the Hogwarts Express train or the Night Bus connecting the two Harry Potter sections that folks with dual-park tickets can ride. Haven't checked lately to see if that's really in development.

 
Suess Landing

I'm into Dr. Suess, and this section done up for the holidays "Grinchmas" style was great. Much like the Dr Suess books, Suess Landing avoids straight lines whenever possible. A broad array of the Suess canon is represented, and the kid rides in it are better than you think.

When we were there in December, the theater ran a mini-musical based on "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" that was well-done, but more inspired by the Ron Howard/Jim Carrey movie than the book or animated special based on it.

The Cat In The Hat ride is a dark ride a lot like the Fantasyland stuff at Walt Disney World like the Pooh and Snow White rides. But it's a lot better than those. You get the entire story of the Cat In The Hat, and the car you're in gets a lot more action, turns, and twists, that you expect. IIRC Xpress saved us a ton of time there, too.

The trolleys are fun. The audio isn't the same every time, and you get good views of the park. One of the trolleys takes you through one of the restaurants, a big hit with kids both in the trolley and the restaurant. Again, Xpress was a huge time-saver here.

The carousel was all creatures from Suess books, and none of the poles were straight lines.

My only culinary regret within Universal was NOT taking down a serving of Green Eggs and Ham at the Green Eggs and Ham counter. Can't remember what I got instead, but it wasn't good enough or memorable enough to pass on green eggs and ham.

If you ever wanted adult sized Grinch or Cat In The Hat footed pajamas, that void can be filled at the clothing store in Suess Landing.

 
Nothing much to add outside of agreeing that the single rider line for HP is well worth separating for.

Also paid the extra for the VIP parking and was happy I did.

We went at the tail end of our April break and there were no lines at IOA. Really enjoyed the Spiderman ride also.

 
Marvel

One of the best 60 minutes we had on our "trip of a lifetime" was the first hour Islands of Adventure was open on Christmas Eve. We had been to Islands of Adventure once already and got our fill of Harry Potter and Suess. So when the park opened on December 24 and everyone there at rope drop bumrushed to the right to get in the Harry Potter and Suess lines, we walked left and rode the Marvel rides with no wait. We had time to pose for pictures in front of everything because there was no rush to get in the ride lines. It was amazing.

The Hulk coaster is phenomenal - I thought it was the second-best thrill ride in Orlando behind the Kraken coaster at SeaWorld, but if I was more into comic books, Hulk would probably be my #1. Fast, smooth, unexpected bursts and turns, great loop... just all-around phenomenal.

As great as the thrill of Hulk was, I think I appreciated Spider-Man even more. With the 3-D glasses, storyline, turns, and movie set elements of heat and steam, it was a more unique experience than a big-### rollercoaster. Again, I'm not much of a comic book guy, but I thought that was great.

My daughter loved the Dr Doom ride. It's a power tower shooting up with a great view of the parks from the top. Since we were the only ones there with Xpress passes, the attendant let us ride it mutliple times without having to exit the ride and requeue.

I wasn't as familiar with the Marvel stories as I am with HP and Suess, so there were probably a lot of little details that were lost on me, like street signs with significance in the comic books and movies.

 
Anything else in IOA... I'm no help. We passed on Toon Lagoon and the Jurassic Park stuff - those characters meant nothing to our daughter, the log flumes at Magic Kingdom and SeaWorld are much better, and I thought the first Jurassic Park movie sucked and never saw the sequels. Any thought we had of walking through it just to be was removed when we saw Marvel was empty - we just hit those lines until the main crowd arrived.

IOA seems more crowded than it actually is because of the park layout. Since there's a big lake in the center of the park creating the "Islands of Adventure", there isn't the wheel-and-spokes layout a lot of other big amusement parks use. So, foot traffic is concentrated a bit more in the "wheel" park of the park and you have people crowding one section who are only there to pass through and get to the next section. Then with Harry Potter being so popular in December, IOA limited foot traffic even more to control crowds within HP. Don't know how much of that would still be true at a less-busy time of year and with the HP section now a couple years old and no more books or movies to be released in the series.

 
'Bruce Dickinson said:
Anything else in IOA... I'm no help. We passed on Toon Lagoon and the Jurassic Park stuff - those characters meant nothing to our daughter, the log flumes at Magic Kingdom and SeaWorld are much better, and I thought the first Jurassic Park movie sucked and never saw the sequels. Any thought we had of walking through it just to be was removed when we saw Marvel was empty - we just hit those lines until the main crowd arrived. IOA seems more crowded than it actually is because of the park layout. Since there's a big lake in the center of the park creating the "Islands of Adventure", there isn't the wheel-and-spokes layout a lot of other big amusement parks use. So, foot traffic is concentrated a bit more in the "wheel" park of the park and you have people crowding one section who are only there to pass through and get to the next section. Then with Harry Potter being so popular in December, IOA limited foot traffic even more to control crowds within HP. Don't know how much of that would still be true at a less-busy time of year and with the HP section now a couple years old and no more books or movies to be released in the series.
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The Jurassic Park flume ride is actually better than it looks. It's not as good as Atlantis at Sea World, but it's both relaxing and fun alternately, and definitely worth a ride. Everything else in that section is only worthwhile if you're a little kid or really into dinosaurs. I usually blow through and hit the flume on the way through it.
 
'Evilgrin 72 said:
The Jurassic Park flume ride is actually better than it looks. It's not as good as Atlantis at Sea World, but it's both relaxing and fun alternately, and definitely worth a ride. Everything else in that section is only worthwhile if you're a little kid or really into dinosaurs.
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My kids loved running around in the Jurassic Park play area with all the nets and the tunnels and water guns. At least there was no line for that.
 
Universal Studios

Overall... not as much for little kids to do. Universal in general is more of a preteen/teenager park, especially compared to Disney. Our main day there also happened to be the only unseasonably warm day we had the whole trip, so the park wore us down a little.

The Terminator theater show was ####### awesome, but scared the #### out of my 9-year-old daughter who has not been properly desensitized to violence yet. With the 3-D glasses, the liquid metal shards of the T2 villian were right in your face, and Sarah Connor running around the theater and firing off a few rounds right by us didn't help my daughter's psyche, either. Get there early to catch the preshow - the video presentation is fun, especially if you've seen T2 a few times.

Shrek 4D was a great theater show, and you don't need to be familiar with the characters to enjoy it. The Xpress passes were advertised for this show, but they added no value - didn't get us into the show sooner, no preferred seating.

I dug the Simpsons ride, but I was a Simpsons fanatic for the first 7-8 years of the show. My wife got a little emotionally hijacked because of a snafu involving the Xpress queue that made a posted 40-minute wait in the general queue a 40-minute wait in the Xpress queue as well, and we never quite figured out what went wrong. My enjoyment was also dampered by discovering my daughter's lack of familiarity with the Simpsons characters, which made me feel like a failure of a parent.

The Men In Black ride has been surpassed by shooter rides than have come after it. Again, the Xpress queue got folded into the regular queue awufully early in the line, but that may have been attendant error. The ride hit some sort of delay while we were on it, leaving us in front of a blank screen in a transition portion of the ride for several minutes. Had we been a little farther along, we would have had targets to shoot at to pass the time. Still, the shooter ride IMO has been surprassed by Buzz Lightyear at Magic Kingdom and especially Toy Story Mania at DHS.

Jaws had its moments, but I can see why it's getting retired. The Jaws experience at Universal in LA is a jillion times better. And again, a child in tow already a little freaked out by the Terminator wasn't all that enthusiastic about the ride centered around the man-eating shark.

The Mummy coaster was cool, but would have been too scary for my daughter. I rode it solo.

Rip Roarin Rocket or whatever the big jukebox coaster is called: HOLY ####### #### WAS THAT ONE AWESOME!!! The climb is straight up vertical, as in perpendicular to the ground. You can customize the music to play in the speakers by our ears as you ride. My daughter and I LOVED this one, we rode it multiple times, and I admired her hustle after the long day and some scary stuff along the way to beat the rope closing to beat the buzzer and get on the last ride of the night.

 
Just piling on that Harry Potter Islands of Adventure is worth the admission on it's own. Everything about the castle ride is top top notch. They even did a fantastic job with making the lines interesting with all sorts of cool areas. If you rush through the line and don't take time to soak it in, you're really missing out.

Hell, I went with a few guys from the office when we had a down day during a trade show and even given our demographic (4 guys in their 30's), we had a blast in the park and were blown away by the HP experience (castle ride in particular). :thumbup:

 
'Bruce Dickinson said:
The Men In Black ride has been surpassed by shooter rides than have come after it. Again, the Xpress queue got folded into the regular queue awufully early in the line, but that may have been attendant error. The ride hit some sort of delay while we were on it, leaving us in front of a blank screen in a transition portion of the ride for several minutes. Had we been a little farther along, we would have had targets to shoot at to pass the time. Still, the shooter ride IMO has been surprassed by Buzz Lightyear at Magic Kingdom and especially Toy Story Mania at DHS.
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Buzz Lightyear opened about a year and a half before Men In Black.
 
'Wrighteous Ray said:
'Evilgrin 72 said:
The Jurassic Park flume ride is actually better than it looks. It's not as good as Atlantis at Sea World, but it's both relaxing and fun alternately, and definitely worth a ride. Everything else in that section is only worthwhile if you're a little kid or really into dinosaurs.
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My kids loved running around in the Jurassic Park play area with all the nets and the tunnels and water guns. At least there was no line for that.
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The Pteranodon Flyers look cool for kids, but I'm too big/old to ride them.
 
'Evilgrin 72 said:
'Wrighteous Ray said:
'Evilgrin 72 said:
The Jurassic Park flume ride is actually better than it looks. It's not as good as Atlantis at Sea World, but it's both relaxing and fun alternately, and definitely worth a ride. Everything else in that section is only worthwhile if you're a little kid or really into dinosaurs.
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My kids loved running around in the Jurassic Park play area with all the nets and the tunnels and water guns. At least there was no line for that.
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The Pteranodon Flyers look cool for kids, but I'm too big/old to ride them.
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:lol: They are ok not worth the wait.
 
Here are some quick thoughts...we have been to Disney a ton of times, and basically, I am at the point where I can feel "I can navigate the flow of the crowd" and find my way to the least line, for the best ride...with that said, about two years ago, we took for a day at Universal, and had a just a great time. I would love to tell you we knew what we were doing (wife did some research, but still did not predict our experience).

Scenario:

Typically, when we go to Disney, we rent a 3 bedroom apartment offsite...I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it is not expensive (roughly $125/night) and comes with a kitchen, so breakfast is close to free (for a family of five, it saves me $25 each day including cost of food we buy). I also like it, because we always seem to have a napping kid, and when I leave the park in the car, I can watch TV or work as the kid sleeps, and meet up with the family again for dinner at the park and later fun.

My wife saw that if you stay at one of the onsite hotels, you get in an hour early...we left our condo/hotel and stayed for a night at the Polynesian (or some place like that) and cramped in a two bed room for the night...it was fine and I heard they have a good buffet, but we were out at the crack of dawn, energy bars in hand and were there for the early opening...now, I can tell you, if 600 people are there for the early opening, 595 are going straight to Harry Potter...that is fine, we just went with the crowd, got on the two main rides (not the dueling dragon, the other two) and barely waited. Here is where the stroke of genius happened...we had a two-year old at the time and he was getting frustrated he could not get on a ride (he was too small for anything there), so my wife suggested he and I go to Suess while she took my other two to oleanders...fine by me, but as we were walking out, I felt like a salmon going upstream...the commoners were allowed to come in at this time and he and I waded ourselves through the wall of people trying to get into Potterland. When we got to Suess, it was deserted...I mean, we were literally the only people there. We hit 9 rides in 21 minutes...basically, we would go on the the ride, the operator started it up, it would last 45-60 seconds, stop and then she would look at me, I would nod, and it would begin again.

I have never had an ROI on an amusement park like that in my life. The best part is, we were a step ahead of everyone. So while everyone was going to Harry Potter, we just got back together and went to Marvel and had small lines. I would guess we hit about 25+ rides that day, and that is just not common at a park like that.

Time of year: We live in NC and have something called "year round schools" which my children attend...basically, instead of a 12 week summer, they go to school for 9 weeks and are out for 3 weeks...we just love it, but we are also off in october, and that is when we went...pretty much a dead period, so that added to the greatness we experienced.

 
'Evilgrin 72 said:
'Wrighteous Ray said:
'Evilgrin 72 said:
The Jurassic Park flume ride is actually better than it looks. It's not as good as Atlantis at Sea World, but it's both relaxing and fun alternately, and definitely worth a ride. Everything else in that section is only worthwhile if you're a little kid or really into dinosaurs.
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My kids loved running around in the Jurassic Park play area with all the nets and the tunnels and water guns. At least there was no line for that.
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The Pteranodon Flyers look cool for kids, but I'm too big/old to ride them.
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Just throw on a Goofy t-shirt and your short bus status will be confirmed (and accepted).
 
'Bruce Dickinson said:
We got 10% off at the food counters and souvenir stores. I can't remember if that was a perk of buying into Xpress or a discount for AAA members. There was something from our trip where our AAA membership more than paid for itself outside of lodging. I'll try to think of it later.
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Turned out we bought Universal park tickets through AAA at a discount and got 10% off at most food and souvenir stores inside the parks from showing our AAA card. You will probably be able to beat AAA's discounted price for park tickets if you shop around - the AAA discount wasn't noticable until the 3-day ticket price level. For our purposes, three 3-day park tickets through AAA plus a 2-driver 1-year membership was cheaper than buying three park tickets at the gate. If you're looking to stay on Universal property, AAA will get you 10% off the top of lodging costs there. With some advance planning and shopping around you can probably beat AAA's discounts, but their prices IMO are nice comparisons to figure out what is a good deal. (I have no affiliation with AAA. They've been on my mind lately because our paid-off-for-years cars started showing their ages recently. We have utilized our membership to the fullest, discussion for another thread.)
 
'Sweet Love said:
Scenario:Typically, when we go to Disney, we rent a 3 bedroom apartment offsite...I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it is not expensive (roughly $125/night) and comes with a kitchen, so breakfast is close to free (for a family of five, it saves me $25 each day including cost of food we buy). I also like it, because we always seem to have a napping kid, and when I leave the park in the car, I can watch TV or work as the kid sleeps, and meet up with the family again for dinner at the park and later fun. My wife saw that if you stay at one of the onsite hotels, you get in an hour early...we left our condo/hotel and stayed for a night at the Polynesian (or some place like that) and cramped in a two bed room for the night...it was fine and I heard they have a good buffet, but we were out at the crack of dawn, energy bars in hand and were there for the early opening...now, I can tell you, if 600 people are there for the early opening, 595 are going straight to Harry Potter...that is fine, we just went with the crowd, got on the two main rides (not the dueling dragon, the other two) and barely waited. Here is where the stroke of genius happened...we had a two-year old at the time and he was getting frustrated he could not get on a ride (he was too small for anything there), so my wife suggested he and I go to Suess while she took my other two to oleanders...fine by me, but as we were walking out, I felt like a salmon going upstream...the commoners were allowed to come in at this time and he and I waded ourselves through the wall of people trying to get into Potterland. When we got to Suess, it was deserted...I mean, we were literally the only people there. We hit 9 rides in 21 minutes...basically, we would go on the the ride, the operator started it up, it would last 45-60 seconds, stop and then she would look at me, I would nod, and it would begin again.I have never had an ROI on an amusement park like that in my life. The best part is, we were a step ahead of everyone. So while everyone was going to Harry Potter, we just got back together and went to Marvel and had small lines. I would guess we hit about 25+ rides that day, and that is just not common at a park like that.Time of year: We live in NC and have something called "year round schools" which my children attend...basically, instead of a 12 week summer, they go to school for 9 weeks and are out for 3 weeks...we just love it, but we are also off in october, and that is when we went...pretty much a dead period, so that added to the greatness we experienced.
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:goodposting: Glad you had so much fun and got so much out of your time there.Some travel sites and amusement park enthusiast forums will post crowd level ratings, estimates of how busy parks will be at different times of year. Generally speaking, if you can go to Universal (or Disney) when most of the country is in school, the parks will be less crowded. If you have year-round schools like Sweet Love's kids do, try to hit the parks during those extended breaks in fall or spring. Early-mid December, the window after Thanksgiving but before Christmas vacations start, is one of the lowest-traffic times of year. The weather can be a bit of a wild card in Florida that time of year, but if you're coming from snowy weather Florida in December will feel fantastic. Another possibility is mid-late May. The week before Memorial Day sometimes slides in before summer prices kick in, and a lot of the schools in Florida and the southeast run from Labor Day through earyl June, so the locals won't be out of school yet.
 
Would a travel agent be the best way to go or can you find deals just as easily online yourself?Also, can any of the locals speak to the crowd levels toward the end of March? I'm hoping most schools don't have spring break that early.

 
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'Bruce Dickinson said:
The HP stuff is such a hit, Universal may try to expand it. They are about to retire the Jaws ride at Universal Studios, and the rumor is they will replace it with a Harry Potter-themed experience, and add an interpark shuttle remembling the Hogwarts Express train or the Night Bus connecting the two Harry Potter sections that folks with dual-park tickets can ride. Haven't checked lately to see if that's really in development.
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Conversion of Jaws into a new Harry Potter world is underway. The old Jaws will be the London/Daigon Alley part of the HP universe. The signature ride will be the Gringotts Bank, believed to be more like Forbidden Journey than a straight-up rollercoaster. A new double-queue Olivander's will replace the one currently in IOA, opening up some space to add more Hogwarts/Hogsmeade elements to the HP section in IOA. The Hogwarts Express train will run between the two HP sections, and you will need a 2-park ticket to ride it. The train windows will be video screens that will play out different experiences inspired by the train scenes in the movies, believed to be a series of scenes that will run at different times so each ride won't be the same and each scene can play out a little more during the ride. And yes, in the London section of USF, you will board the Hogwarts Express at Gate 8 3/4 at the train station.Outside chance it will be ready for summer 2014, but now that USF's #1 construction priority is getting a Transformers experience up and running by Memorial Day 2013, the HP construction schedule may get a a little less aggressive.
 
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'Mr. Chumley said:
Would a travel agent be the best way to go or can you find deals just as easily online yourself?Also, can any of the locals speak to the crowd levels toward the end of March? I'm hoping most schools don't have spring break that early.
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March 22-30 will be one of busiest times of the year for Universal. Most popular Spring Break week for grade schools. March 10 to April 6 will be crowded. April 14 until Memorial Day weekend will be slow.
 
'Bruce Dickinson said:
'Mr. Chumley said:
Would a travel agent be the best way to go or can you find deals just as easily online yourself?Also, can any of the locals speak to the crowd levels toward the end of March? I'm hoping most schools don't have spring break that early.
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March 22-30 will be one of busiest times of the year for Universal. Most popular Spring Break week for grade schools. March 10 to April 6 will be crowded. April 14 until Memorial Day weekend will be slow.
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Super. We are going March 25 - 29th :lmao:We are staying at the Hard Rock. I've only been to one of the parks (the one with HP and Marvel) but it has my 2 favorite roller coasters (Dueling Dragons and Hulk). We will also be going to Sea World, which I wasn't initially happy about but it seems like after reading this there is more there than just Shamu.
 
We went on a Universal vacation and also went to SeaWorld. We avoided Disney as we are gong there in the future. Islands of Adventure was significantly better than Universal Studios. Yes, there were a few interesting things at the Studios - but not enough to spend a whole day there. Kids were bored out of their minds after a few hours. The next day we went to Islands of Adventure and they couldn't get enough. In retrospect we should have just went to Islands both days. Sea World was amazing. The orca show was awesome, but there is so much more. Rides, shows, and not as crowded as the Universal attractions. So I highly recommend Islands of Adventure and ZSeaWorld...Universal Studios I would recommend only if you don't have younger children as they might get bored.

 
'Corporation said:
'Bruce Dickinson said:
'Mr. Chumley said:
Would a travel agent be the best way to go or can you find deals just as easily online yourself?Also, can any of the locals speak to the crowd levels toward the end of March? I'm hoping most schools don't have spring break that early.
Click to expand...
March 22-30 will be one of busiest times of the year for Universal. Most popular Spring Break week for grade schools. March 10 to April 6 will be crowded. April 14 until Memorial Day weekend will be slow.
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Super. We are going March 25 - 29th :lmao:We are staying at the Hard Rock. I've only been to one of the parks (the one with HP and Marvel) but it has my 2 favorite roller coasters (Dueling Dragons and Hulk). We will also be going to Sea World, which I wasn't initially happy about but it seems like after reading this there is more there than just Shamu.
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Sea World has Manta and Kraken, both of which rival Hulk as my favorite coaster in town. The Atlantis ride is cool too, if you don't mind getting a little wet. Here's a tip - if you want to get really wet on that ride, sit in the front of the car. If you don't, go to the back row, regardless of where the zit-covered minimum wage hump tells you to go. You'll see what I mean when you get there, there's kind of a staging area before you get in, the guy will tell you which row to go to. Just go to the back row if you want to stay relatively dry. And then just hope the ###hole kids don't pop a buck into the water cannons that ring the observation area and blast you as you go by...
 
'Mr. Chumley said:
So is the meal plan at universal worth it? It costs about $245 for a family of 4 for 3 days. any one do this?
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Everything I've eaten there sucks pretty hard with the exception of Mythos and Three Broomsticks (I think that's what it's called - the big restaurant in HP area) I'd stick to those two if you can, otherwise you end up with horrendous burgers/pizza in Marvel or Jurassic Park. At Universal Studios, there's an Irish bar whose name eludes me right in the center of the park, near the Disaster! ride that's supposed to be decent - there's also a seafood place and a burger joint in that same vicinity, but I've never eaten at them. On the exceedingly rare occasions that I eat in that park, I usually go to Nathan's over by the Jaws ride, where the boardwalk games are.
 
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