Momto8
Proud Grandmother to 19 Grandchildren!
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2000
We just returned from our first trip to Universal and for the most part found it to be very crowded except for the first day. We expected this, though, since it was Christmas week. With all our trips to Disney, this was our first time there. It was me, my DH, 2 DDs, 14 and 12 and my DN, 11. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Kirkman Road. We really wanted to stay onsite, but $249/night was the best rate we could get and that was more than we wanted to pay.
The first day there, Thursday, 12/27, we went to USF and it was empty. We got there about 8:45, and we first had to turn in our vouchers to get our APs activated, so we lost about 45 minutes there (we didn't know where to get them....got into about 3 different lines before we found the right place to get them). We even asked an employee and she directed us to the wrong line.
After that, we did Terminator 2 (wait was less than 20 minutes), Twister, Kongfrontation, Earthquake, Jaws, and The Wild West Stunt Show (also got Express passes for MIB and BTTF). We liked T2, Kong, Earthquake and The Wild West Show (thought this one was especially funny). Didn't really like Jaws and was disappointed with it....thought it would have more than it did. We did all this by 1:30 and then decided to eat lunch. After that did our express passes for MIB and BTTF. We really liked these rides....especially BTTF.....Disney needs to update their simulator rides.
By now, it was much more crowded, but we still avoided the long lines and probably only waited 20 minutes at most for the shows. Did the Horror Make-Up show and Alfred Hitchcock (liked both of these shows especially Horror). Did Animal Planet (enjoyed this one also) and BTTF again (someone gave us their express passes because they were leaving). By this time it was starting to get dark and we were tired, so decided to call it a day.
All in all, I thought we got a lot in for the first day, but IOA was another story. Went there on Friday and it was very crowded, but it helped being able to get 2 express passes at a time. We got Spiderman and Hulk ones right away. Then went to Dr. Doomsday....the line here was saying 40 minutes, but we were on and done in 40 minutes. It was then time for our Spiderman passes (we loved this one especially my DH). After that we decided to wait in the regular line for the Hulk (wait was saying 40 minutes), but the ride broke down right after we got in line, so decided to do Storm Force as the line was very short. We then decided to eat lunch early. Went back for our passes for Hulk after lunch and found out that we accidentally got the wrong passes (Storm Force)....didn't know that you could get passes for Storm Force and the Hulk at the same kiosk and it didn't give us a choice to pick which ride....it just printed them automatically for Storm Force. Gave those away to someone as we didn't like this ride...they just don't spin very fast. So we got in line for another pass (those lines were very slow moving but we found that if you went all the way to the right at Hulk that those lines were much shorter and moved quicker). When it was finally time for our Hulk passes, the wait time was 90 minutes and the express line wasn't much shorter due to the ride being down for 3 hours that day (2nd time in the same day), so after 3 tries in one day for this ride, we said forget it. We didn't want to wait that long even in the express pass line.
BTW, we found the lines at Dueling Dragons for the most part to be much shorter than Hulk. We usually had waits of 30 minutes or less when we didn't have passes, but we mostly used the passes there. My kids LOVED this ride....we probably rode it about 7-8 times during our stay. Also really liked the Sinbad show. I like JPRA, but my husband didn't. But he also doesn't like Dinosaur at WDW. Didn't really care much for Poseidon's Fury...thought it was corny (JMHO). But they did have technical difficulties and we were told to exit the show before it was done. Went back the next day to finish it and had no problems this time. This time I thought it was better with the ending and all. The kids liked the Triceratops Discovery Trail (absolutely no wait but it was late in the day). Thought the triceratops really looked and acted real. They also liked the Discovery Center. For our last ride, we did Dudley Do-Rights and it was a walk on. It was probably around 6:30 or 7:00 by then and we got soaked, but it wasn't cold out, so that was no problem for us. We never did do Popeye (no one wanted to get wet...can't figure this one out, but yet they wanted to do Dudley which you get absolutely soaked).
On our 3rd day there, I found out from one of the employees at IOA when we were having trouble getting passes printed for Hulk that there was a computer glitch, and that we weren't supposed to be getting more than 1 at a time. I thought that we were supposed to be able to get 2 since we had APs and told her that was what we were doing, but she said no, only one at a time. So we tried it later just for the heck of it and we were able to get 4 at one time (we probably could have gotten more). I think that was why most passes were gone by 1pm. This time we had better luck with the Hulk. Also did Spiderman again, Dr. Doomsday, and of course, did Dueling Dragons several times.
On our 4th day there, we did all our favorites again at IOA. Also did JPRA again during the day (we did it at night and I wanted to ride this one during the day also). Then went to USF to ride ET and did the Lucy Show. Tried to get passes for MIB and BTTF, but they were gone by then.
All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed both parks. I think that everyone in our group agreed that IOA was better than USF. I did like the shows better in USF, though, except for Sinbad. We are planning on going to Disney in June and will use our APs for Universal again then. We got the AAA $99 price, so this was a great deal for us. My DH also wants me to book either the Portofino or Hard Rock (can't decide which one). I'm hoping they still have discounts for June...we have the Entertainment card also. I will have to call right away to see if there are any left.
Now I'm back to planning our next trip.....can't wait to go back!!
The first day there, Thursday, 12/27, we went to USF and it was empty. We got there about 8:45, and we first had to turn in our vouchers to get our APs activated, so we lost about 45 minutes there (we didn't know where to get them....got into about 3 different lines before we found the right place to get them). We even asked an employee and she directed us to the wrong line.
After that, we did Terminator 2 (wait was less than 20 minutes), Twister, Kongfrontation, Earthquake, Jaws, and The Wild West Stunt Show (also got Express passes for MIB and BTTF). We liked T2, Kong, Earthquake and The Wild West Show (thought this one was especially funny). Didn't really like Jaws and was disappointed with it....thought it would have more than it did. We did all this by 1:30 and then decided to eat lunch. After that did our express passes for MIB and BTTF. We really liked these rides....especially BTTF.....Disney needs to update their simulator rides.
By now, it was much more crowded, but we still avoided the long lines and probably only waited 20 minutes at most for the shows. Did the Horror Make-Up show and Alfred Hitchcock (liked both of these shows especially Horror). Did Animal Planet (enjoyed this one also) and BTTF again (someone gave us their express passes because they were leaving). By this time it was starting to get dark and we were tired, so decided to call it a day.
All in all, I thought we got a lot in for the first day, but IOA was another story. Went there on Friday and it was very crowded, but it helped being able to get 2 express passes at a time. We got Spiderman and Hulk ones right away. Then went to Dr. Doomsday....the line here was saying 40 minutes, but we were on and done in 40 minutes. It was then time for our Spiderman passes (we loved this one especially my DH). After that we decided to wait in the regular line for the Hulk (wait was saying 40 minutes), but the ride broke down right after we got in line, so decided to do Storm Force as the line was very short. We then decided to eat lunch early. Went back for our passes for Hulk after lunch and found out that we accidentally got the wrong passes (Storm Force)....didn't know that you could get passes for Storm Force and the Hulk at the same kiosk and it didn't give us a choice to pick which ride....it just printed them automatically for Storm Force. Gave those away to someone as we didn't like this ride...they just don't spin very fast. So we got in line for another pass (those lines were very slow moving but we found that if you went all the way to the right at Hulk that those lines were much shorter and moved quicker). When it was finally time for our Hulk passes, the wait time was 90 minutes and the express line wasn't much shorter due to the ride being down for 3 hours that day (2nd time in the same day), so after 3 tries in one day for this ride, we said forget it. We didn't want to wait that long even in the express pass line.
BTW, we found the lines at Dueling Dragons for the most part to be much shorter than Hulk. We usually had waits of 30 minutes or less when we didn't have passes, but we mostly used the passes there. My kids LOVED this ride....we probably rode it about 7-8 times during our stay. Also really liked the Sinbad show. I like JPRA, but my husband didn't. But he also doesn't like Dinosaur at WDW. Didn't really care much for Poseidon's Fury...thought it was corny (JMHO). But they did have technical difficulties and we were told to exit the show before it was done. Went back the next day to finish it and had no problems this time. This time I thought it was better with the ending and all. The kids liked the Triceratops Discovery Trail (absolutely no wait but it was late in the day). Thought the triceratops really looked and acted real. They also liked the Discovery Center. For our last ride, we did Dudley Do-Rights and it was a walk on. It was probably around 6:30 or 7:00 by then and we got soaked, but it wasn't cold out, so that was no problem for us. We never did do Popeye (no one wanted to get wet...can't figure this one out, but yet they wanted to do Dudley which you get absolutely soaked).
On our 3rd day there, I found out from one of the employees at IOA when we were having trouble getting passes printed for Hulk that there was a computer glitch, and that we weren't supposed to be getting more than 1 at a time. I thought that we were supposed to be able to get 2 since we had APs and told her that was what we were doing, but she said no, only one at a time. So we tried it later just for the heck of it and we were able to get 4 at one time (we probably could have gotten more). I think that was why most passes were gone by 1pm. This time we had better luck with the Hulk. Also did Spiderman again, Dr. Doomsday, and of course, did Dueling Dragons several times.
On our 4th day there, we did all our favorites again at IOA. Also did JPRA again during the day (we did it at night and I wanted to ride this one during the day also). Then went to USF to ride ET and did the Lucy Show. Tried to get passes for MIB and BTTF, but they were gone by then.
All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed both parks. I think that everyone in our group agreed that IOA was better than USF. I did like the shows better in USF, though, except for Sinbad. We are planning on going to Disney in June and will use our APs for Universal again then. We got the AAA $99 price, so this was a great deal for us. My DH also wants me to book either the Portofino or Hard Rock (can't decide which one). I'm hoping they still have discounts for June...we have the Entertainment card also. I will have to call right away to see if there are any left.
Now I'm back to planning our next trip.....can't wait to go back!!
