Trying to start a Universal family tradition!

Ashunte

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 21, 2017
I'm trying to create a stress free vacation with my wife and 2 sons(10&5). We've been to Disney but let's just say it was a mess, heat, lots of people and a severe lack of shade quickly ended that trip. Hopefully, with the opening of Volcano Bay, the parks might be a little less crowded the week of May 26-Jun 3, and with the EP's from Royal Pacific over the weekend with a switch to Sapphire Falls Tuesday during the week everything should go smoothly. I can't do anything about the heat but staying on property should provide a quick get away if it gets to bad. I hope this is the first of many great Universal vacations!
 
First couple of days re-cap, Universal is great! Had Gringott's go down for 15mins mid-ride got an golden express pass, Mummy went down in the flaming ceiling room, breathed gas for 5-8 mins. Got to Sapphire Falls and was upgraded to Sapphire Suite for free after they could not meet my King Suite reservation....It is HOT! But, the wife and kids are loving it. Hoping the rest of the week goes as smoothly as the first couple of days!
 
Can't wait to read more. It's a shame they had you breathing the gas at the Mummy for so long :crazy2: But glad to hear about the upgraded room! I'd love to hear more about Sapphire Falls, as we will probably not stay there (I look at the other hotels, but always end up at RP...home away from home <3 )

Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!!
 


First couple of days re-cap, Universal is great! Had Gringott's go down for 15mins mid-ride got an golden express pass, Mummy went down in the flaming ceiling room, breathed gas for 5-8 mins. Got to Sapphire Falls and was upgraded to Sapphire Suite for free after they could not meet my King Suite reservation....It is HOT! But, the wife and kids are loving it. Hoping the rest of the week goes as smoothly as the first couple of days!


You sound like the lucky rabbits foot....
I need to go with you and your family next time

Lol
 
Day 3 and 4(Volcano Bay!)
Day 3 we spent the entire day at Sapphire Falls pool area and while I would have liked a little deeper option(I'm 6ft and 4'6" just doesn't do it for me) the kids loved it! However the wife's neck and shoulders burned and the top of my head burned, we finished the nigh at Toothsome and were the last boat back before they shut them down due to weather. Side note: get the Nachos at the pool bar/restaurant.

Day 4 ( Volcano Bay)
Right off the bat, if your staying on property and using early entry go directly to the aqua coaster, they have no single rider line, both lines will be open, let me be more direct, when you enter the ride there are two lines the one on the left is normally single rider, during the hour of early entry it is not, rode the ride 3 times before crowds. Everyone keeps saying how express pass is needed but it just eliminates the need to tapu-tapu you still get in line and wait, there's no express line like at US and IOA. The aqua coaster went down once, and for some reason they had no waves in the big wave pool until 10ish, which also coincides with when the crowds show up. All the videos I had seen of the the two lazy rivers everyone had been wearing life jackets in the floats, someone came to there senses and that is no longer the case. I suggest some type of water shoe or sandal as wet sand is very abrasive, and it's every where. Couple of side notes, the middle lines getting into Volcano Bay seem to move the fastest, and make sure you seated comfortably on the fast moving river, seen a lot of people flipping over turning the fast lazy river into a coaster! There's a lot of Cabana's still under construction, reserve them as soon as you can if you want one don't hesitate, same with premium seating, this place is really fun but regular seats are in the direct Florida sun, and it's no joke. We were there from 8-12:45pm as the wait times increased the heat to thrills index dwindled, at one point the tapu time went from 115mins down to 90mins and back up to 120mins before even getting on so we called it and will revisit in the morning.
 
Days 5&6
Day 5(VB Early Entry)
The caught on to the Krakatau line glitch as they had team members there this morning sending single riders up the left side, however at the top no asked any questions, so some people still rode in groups. With early entry still got in 2 Krakatau rides 2 TeAwa laps, 2 Kopiko rides and a Puihi rides before 10:30! Went back to the hotel relaxed until 3:30 went over IOA and US, why they close IOA at 8pm and US at 9pm at this time of year is beyond me, when the rain hits around 6:30pm you night is pretty much over as everyone heads to the inside rides and everything else gets shut down.

Day 6(VB early again!)
They're getting better, this morning on Krakatau they were queing people before loading the rafts. They had sets of people ready to load before the rafts were up and empty from the last riders. They need more things to do while waiting, instead of eating or the other 3 things you can go onto immediately(Kopiko-lazy river, TeAwa fast river, Waturi Beach-wave pool) they were finally filling up the Reef today left before it finished. As we were loading up on Maku the other side Puihi? was stopped by some guys sun tan lotion falling out of the raft as they loaded up and going down the ride by itself. Rain struck again in the afternoon, shutting down our universal visits until around 7pm seems to be the recurring theme these last couple of days. Side-note, Sapphire Falls freestyle cups are smaller than the park ones, however time to refill is only two minutes, Volcano Bay's freestyle cups visually seem bigger however with one day left i can't justify buying one to test my theory.
 


Still have the last day at universal to post but man I am sunburned! I'll get to it next week, spent sat-sun @ Animal Kingdom lodge to try it out, big mistake more on that later.
 

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