Totally clueless thinking about a trip

ariel53098

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 28, 2007
I am 100% cluseless about universal. We’ve always done Disney. My kids (ages 16 (boy), 11,11 (twin girls)) love Harry Potter and have a few days off of school so I was thinking about flying in to MCO the evening of Friday, Nov 2 and flying home Wednesday, November 7. That would give us 4 full days. Is that enough time? Too much time?
My focus would be all things HP. If we have time to do anything else (no idea what else there is) then that would be a bonus.
We’ve had a rough year as a family (including some serious health issues for one child) so the goal of this trip is to just get away and be with each other. We MAY have a wheelchair depending on where my daughter is health-wise.
So any suggestions of how to do this trip (getting from airport), where to stay at the resort, tips for the wheelchair, meal plans, fast passes (do they have those???), etc
Also, any suggestions of things for me to read to learn more??
TIA!
 
Universal sounds like the perfect break for you guys. Stay at one of the three deluxe hotels and you get unlimited express passes. You will have time to do everything.

Scoot over to the resorts board and there is a sticky on transportation. Tony Hinds is highly recommended. We've used him for a large group and he was great.
 
That sounds like a great trip! You could do the trip in 3 days, but 4 gives you a lot of time to just relax and enjoy everything. I would start every day with Harry Potter (early entry for on-site guests), explore other things when it gets busy, and return to HP in the evening.

I highly recommend staying at one of the 3 deluxe onsite hotels - Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, or Portofino Bay. In these hotels, the Unlimited Express Pass (EP) is included with your room - it is like a FastPass that can be used on almost every ride. You can buy the EP separately, but with 5 people, it will work out cheaper to get a room or rooms in one of those hotels. Any of them are great - I decide based on price. I would not say that the express pass is mandatory during that week, especially with 4 days, but it sure is nice to have it!

The meal plans aren't that great. They have them, but I haven't found them to be worth it. You can even buy the one-day at the register if a particular meal would be cheaper on the plan! The plan that includes sit down restaurants has to be part of a package, and I usually find the price of the package is more than the individual components.

Other people will have better advice on transportation. I keep it simple and get a cab at the airport, even though it is more expensive than planning ahead. I usually ask concierge to arrange a town car to return to the airport.

There is less planning for Universal. You don't have to book rides in advance, and you really don't need dining reservations, though there are a couple where it cuts down on the wait. At a lot of the restaurants, you can tell them that you are staying onsite, and it will jump you ahead in line.

Oh, and especially on a first visit, download the Universal app before you get there. It will give you walking directions from place to place within the park.
 
Great amount of time. That was our stay and it was wonderful.

You can relax while you tour the parks and enjoy the resort.

I also recommend Portofino, royal pacific, or hard rock due to the Express Pass.

I basically echo everything justcallmemommy said above.
 


Thanks for the replies so far! I’ll definitely do one of the hotels suggested. So far Royal Pacific has caught my eye the most.
Any idea what crowds are like at that time? When I went to Disney I purchased a membership to a program where I told it what rides I wanted to do and it told me what order and what time to do everything. Is there anything like that for Universal? Maybe I wouldn’t need something like that with the EP?
 
Thanks for the replies so far! I’ll definitely do one of the hotels suggested. So far Royal Pacific has caught my eye the most.
Any idea what crowds are like at that time? When I went to Disney I purchased a membership to a program where I told it what rides I wanted to do and it told me what order and what time to do everything. Is there anything like that for Universal? Maybe I wouldn’t need something like that with the EP?

Was it touringplans? If so, they have one for Universal, too. I built some plans, but left them at the resort after the first day. I found them unnecessary with Express Pass; what I found very helpful were the touringplans.com ride descriptions and the maps, to help orient and pick rides. Really, it’s just so lovely with Express Pass. I am taking a last minute trip to UO later this week and I am completely unworried about lines/times. You will love this.

Touring plans has crowd calendars for UO, too, as do others. I really like the site orlandoinformer.
 
Universal sounds like the perfect break for you guys. Stay at one of the three deluxe hotels and you get unlimited express passes. You will have time to do everything.

Scoot over to the resorts board and there is a sticky on transportation. Tony Hinds is highly recommended. We've used him for a large group and he was great.

Agree with using Tony’s transport!
 


I am 100% cluseless about universal. We’ve always done Disney. My kids (ages 16 (boy), 11,11 (twin girls)) love Harry Potter and have a few days off of school so I was thinking about flying in to MCO the evening of Friday, Nov 2 and flying home Wednesday, November 7. That would give us 4 full days. Is that enough time? Too much time?
My focus would be all things HP. If we have time to do anything else (no idea what else there is) then that would be a bonus.
We’ve had a rough year as a family (including some serious health issues for one child) so the goal of this trip is to just get away and be with each other. We MAY have a wheelchair depending on where my daughter is health-wise.
So any suggestions of how to do this trip (getting from airport), where to stay at the resort, tips for the wheelchair, meal plans, fast passes (do they have those???), etc
Also, any suggestions of things for me to read to learn more??
TIA!

I'm in the same boat at you. We've done Disney 5 times in the last 8 years and I can plan those trips no problem since I'm so familiar with Disney. However, DD and DH want to do a Universal trip. I have no idea how to go about planning this trip. I've researched and have decided we'll stay at the Royal Pacific so the express pass will be included. I priced up staying somewhere else and then buying the express pass, but it is a better deal to stay at one of the hotels that include it. I think I'm so used to planning the Disney vacations and having to made ADRs 6 months and FP+ 60 days in advance, that it seems strange to me that there's not that much to plan with Universal. Pick the dates and the hotel and that's about it.

Thanks for the replies so far! I’ll definitely do one of the hotels suggested. So far Royal Pacific has caught my eye the most.
Any idea what crowds are like at that time? When I went to Disney I purchased a membership to a program where I told it what rides I wanted to do and it told me what order and what time to do everything. Is there anything like that for Universal? Maybe I wouldn’t need something like that with the EP?

I have a subscription to Touringplans.com for Disney World and just yesterday I added the Universal part, I think it was $6.95 for a year. I liked them for my Disney trips, especially the personalized touring plans. I played around with it a little bit and putting in our dates of June 3-7, and the wait times were minimal when checking the box to include unlimited express passes. So I don't think we'll have a problem doing everything we want in 3 days.

DH and DD told me I owe them money every time I compare Universal to Disney!
 
So I just found out that Friday night is senior night at the football game and I can’t miss that since my son will be a senior. Soooo, we have to leave Saturday morning with an arrival at the Orlando airport around 11:30am.
I’m wondering if it’s even worth touring that day cost and time wise (USF closes at 5pm and IOA closes at 8pm) and if we don’t, would 3 full days be enough?
 
The studios will close nov 1-2-3 at 5:00 due to the hard ticket hhn event

For those dates, hop over to IOA by 3:00 and stay there until that park closes

Go with P2P passes so you can move from one park to the other
 
Think we posted about the same time

Yes, you can see it all in a 3 day period

Start the day at the studios and do IOA to finish each park day up
 
So I just found out that Friday night is senior night at the football game and I can’t miss that since my son will be a senior. Soooo, we have to leave Saturday morning with an arrival at the Orlando airport around 11:30am.
I’m wondering if it’s even worth touring that day cost and time wise (USF closes at 5pm and IOA closes at 8pm) and if we don’t, would 3 full days be enough?

Take a look at tickets (a lot of us have bought through Undercover Tourist), and compare the prices to annual passes. At UO a lot of the time the difference between 3 and 4 day/AP is incredibly small. Scroll through the first couple of pages here and people even GOT MONEY BACK when upgrading. With that I’ll say we go on arrival day, even if it’s only a couple of hours. Evenings at UO, especially the HP areas, are fantastic. You’ll be able to get a taste for several rides and start your trip with a bang. Another tip if you go the AP route is to keep checking your hotel dates using the AP discount code. The discounts can be significant and often pay for the pass and more (you don’t have to have the pass in hand to make the reservation or check in and can wait to upgrade to the pass once you get there).

3 full days with EP will be fantastic. Be prepared that your kids may want to ride a ride over and over and over again since some rides are basically walk right on or wait less than 5 minutes with EP.
 
We did 3 days with EP for our first trip and we found that was more than enough to see everything and ride lots of rides multiple times.
 
Touring plans gives weird Universal advice, imo. I just don’t think it’s necessary though it looks like you might have already spent the money on it. Run it by here and we can tell you if it’s logical. :)
 
Touring plans gives weird Universal advice, imo. I just don’t think it’s necessary though it looks like you might have already spent the money on it. Run it by here and we can tell you if it’s logical. :)
Oh I haven’t purchased it. It sounds like I don’t need it with EP and the dates I’m going.
 
Go. It's definitely worth it. WDW will always hold a special place in my heart, however US is a very close second. HP alone is worth the price of admission. I'd stay at a resort that has Express Pass. In the past few years my wife and I have enjoyed US as much as Disney. Is it the same, no but sometimes that's a good thing.
 

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