Pre-Trip Planning/Report Universal/Seaworld-without catchy title!

I don't post a lot, but I do read a lot to learn the tips and tricks. So I wanted to start a thread to get even more great tips and for others to learn as well.

My family: Myself, My wife and 3 boys 12,10, and 6.

Where we are going: Universal, Seaworld and Aquatica this trip. I bought Seaworld/Aquatica AP's for $90 each back in January and will be getting Universal AP's before we go (should have bought them as prices have gone up!) We have been to Seaworld and Aquatica and loved them both, this will be first time at Universal, the boys are pumped because they LOVE roller coasters! We have been to Disney 4 times in the last 6 years-and we are kind of Disney'd out-and for the pricing I am too!

Dates: 6/1/15 to 6.12.15 (we are driving from Ohio, so will be staying in Orlando 6.2.15 to 6.11.15 and stopping in Charleston to visit friends for a night on way back)

Where we are Staying: Royal Pacific Resort-June 2nd for 3 nights (got AP rate of $175/night!). Then on June 5th we will move over to Hilton Grand Vacation Suites Seaworld for 6 nights (was going to stay at Vistana (thanks for all the info Gina! I am sure we will stay there in a future trip) but I was too late in booking and 2 bedrooms were no longer available!)-got HGVS for around $520 bucks for the stay-great rate through Cheaptickets with 25% off promo code they had! We normally like the house/condo for our trips, but really wanted Front of the Line at Universal-and the HGVS is so close to Seaworld and it is a 1 Bedroom with sleeper sofa and is almost 900 sq feet of space.

Some of the things I would appreciate learning about:
Best value places to eat in Orlando or at Universal? We will be eating onsite for those first three days and then when we transition over to HGVS we will do some eating in and eating out. I know the canadians think eating out is cheap! But for some reason it kills me to spend $80+ on an average meal when I can grill awesome steaks for less than 40 bucks. We will probably do Mythos and Three Broomsticks-any other can't miss spots in Universal?

Best way to go around Universal? I am so used to FastPass and planning for Disney-and I see a lot of people say you need no plan for Universal. I would think just a small plan of attack would seem to be better than no plan. We will have Front of Line passes by staying onsite, so lines for most rides should be good. But is it better to visit the Potter areas in morning or night? Which is less crowded? (my kids never really got into Potter, but it still seems like an area they would enjoy)

My 6 year old loves super hero's-are their any super hero characters he can meet?

Is it worth taking a day to visit Kennedy Space Center?

Any other tips and tricks for Universal and Seaworld/Aquatica are most appreciated! Thanks!

Looking forward to hearing about your trip! You will love Mythos! It was our absolute favorite when we went. I think that June might be a busy time, more so than when we went, so I would advise making a reservation just in case! I have heard good things about Cowfish in Citywalk. There is also a pizza place, I think. And a couple of "fast food" places.

Keep in mind, your Fast Passes won't work on the HP rides! My understanding is that you should go there the very first thing! IofA is sort of like a big circle. You can just make your way around, if you'd like. We had things we wanted to see and do, most of them we experienced. To do it over again, I would have planned to catch a couple of the shows and planned around them. Other than that, we didn't time ourselves or anything. Now, Diagon Alley wasn't opened yet when we went. But we did spend a lot of time at Hogsmeade because Hubs and I are HP nerds! We just kept gravitating back there.

There are Superhero characters out and about. I don't know about the timing though. We actually didn't catch any of them when we were there, but I've seen pics of people elsewhere with them!

Never been to Kennedy Space Center, so no opinion there.

Best tip: Don't wear jean shorts when you are planning to do water rides! LOL! They take forever to dry!

Thank you for the tips mrsabbott.

I meant to get back to add to this report earlier this week, but got sick, and my kids sports schedule is insane. 12 year old plays AAU hoops, Travel Baseball and Little League all at same time. 10 year old is doing AAU and Little League and my 6 year old does coach pitch.

We have 10 days til we leave.

So we have decided on some places we are going to eat at for sure.

Finnegans (thanks to Gina's review!)
Mythos (a lot of people love this in their reviews so we have to try it)
3 Broomsticks
NBA City (my kids LOVE hoops and I am making reservation for hopefully a day/time when our Cavaliers are playing in the NBA finals!)
Hash House GoGo (thanks to Gina's review!)
Captain American place in Universal (my wife said we HAD to do this for our 6 year old-so I need to research it more)
And probably Bubbalou's

Anyone tried this place: http://lighthouselobsterfeast.com/the_feast.htm Any good? Worth it?

From there we will just wing it.

I have not gotten my universal AP's yet--going to this week--does anyone know if you can upgrade the power pass to a premier? For the times we are going so far we don't need premier, but if we go next spring break that may be a black out period-so I would just upgrade. So thinking of doing one premier (to get free parking and discounts at restaurants, etc) the others as power pass.

We are still debating if we are driving straight through or stopping. It is about 16 hours total. If we around Columbia that would be about 10 hours in with 6 to go. So if we stop we get into Orlando around 2:00, if we don't stop we get in around 8 AM. Or we can stop at rest stop for a few hours and still get in around 10 or 11 AM. It is generally best to drive while the kids are sleeping-so straight through has its advantages.

Definitely keep Bubbalou's on your list.....it was awesome. I doubt I will get it reviewed before you leave in 9 days (but hey, you never know!) but we thought the prices, service and food were outstanding. If you like barbecue, you will love Bubbalous!

Another place I would recommend for dining is Confiscos, if you are looking for another in-park location. Its a sit-down, full service location with a very casual, comfy decor. Great food and prices are very reasonable. Right next door is Croissant Moon Bakery, and their sweet treats are divine. Plan to indulge at least once and enjoy dessert there.....they have so many sweet treats from which to choose, it was hard to decide (but DH is still raving about their caramel cheesecake, and my Napoleon bar was out of this world).

For your little one who likes super heros, we met Spiderman, Captain America, Wolverine, the Green Goblin, Storm, Rogue and Cyclops at Marvel Super Hero Island in IOA. Be sure to ask a TM when they will be arriving on their 4-wheelers, because its very cute to see them roll in (and when they're done, drive away) on their bikes.

My biggest tip for all the parks is to arrive early....you will be amazed at how much you will be able to get done at park opening until lunch time. Definitely plan to visit the Harry Potter sections first thing with your early entry privileges. Later in the day will be shoulder-to-shoulder, but the hour before the park opens to regular guests is simply divine.

We really, really loved having the Photoconnect Star Card for our trip. If your budget would allow, and park photos are important to you, it might be something you want to check into. With only two of us, we ended up with 79 photos over the course of the week (some were "meh", some okay, some fantastic....probably close to 20 that I absolutely love). You should be able to get way more with a family of 5. Check out their Facebook page for pre-purchase offers, if its something that might interest you. Even if you save $10 or so, its worth buying it before you go.

Just an addition to the above......DH reminded me that he also met Dr. Doom .

Thanks Gina. My 6 year old is going to be so excited for Marvel Super Hero Island. (I think my 10 year old will be also!)

I think we will definitely get the photoconnect-did you get the annual? 89 bucks? I think that is worth it for us, all those ride photos will be great.

Check out my boys (they were 11 and 9) on Rockn Roller Coaster, can you tell they like coasters?


We leave in 7 days! Can't wait to get away and try and relax....

One thing I did with my kids was to measure them and look into which rides they were tall enough for. There were a few roller coasters that they couldn't ride and knowing that ahead of time helped them not be as disappointed. That didn't stop them from checking at the beginning of the line to see if *maybe* they had grown 2 inches in 3 weeks.. LOL! But, they weren't quite as disappointed because they knew what to expect.

disneyavonohio said:

Thanks Gina. My 6 year old is going to be so excited for Marvel Super Hero Island. (I think my 10 year old will be also!)

I think we will definitely get the photoconnect-did you get the annual? 89 bucks? I think that is worth it for us, all those ride photos will be great.

Check out my boys (they were 11 and 9) on Rockn Roller Coaster, can you tell they like coasters?

We leave in 7 days! Can't wait to get away and try and relax....

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Yes, we did get the annual pass, but rather than the current price, we paid an incredible $49.95. They offered a deeply discounted presale offer last October, so we took advantage of the AP sale then (since it didn't activate until the day of first use). I still would have purchased it for $89, though, and considered it a good value.

Looking forward to reading about your trip......your boys look like they will really enjoy Universal

Thanks for the tips everyone.

My 10 and 12 year old are both more than 56" so they can ride everything. My 6 year old is tall enough to ride the things he would want to ride. He is not as adventurous yet.

Quick story about my 10 year old. When he was 7 he rode RocknRollerCoaster with me for the first time--during the ride he was actually crying and wanting to get off. Once the ride stopped and we hopped out he said, "that was awesome!". Now I thought he was trying to show his older brother how brave he was. So I said you want to go again, expecting a "not right now dad". But nope, he said, "Yes! Let's go again now!" So we did and then he proceeded to ride it at least 10 times that trip.

And he actually rode this ride before his older brother would, last year when he was 9 years old: https://www.cedarpoint.com/rides/Roller-Coasters/Top-Thrill-Dragster

Perspective on how high the Dragster ride is:


That blue coaster is awesome also, my kids have rode every ride at Cedar Point- it is a great coaster park--does not have the theming of a Disney or Uni though.

I did get the photo connect for AP, paid the 89 bucks. I think it will be worth it, thanks Gina for bringing it up.

The weather is looking scary at the moment!


Rain every single day. Hoping they are quick passing storms each day!

We are back. It was a lot of fun (when my kids were behaving!).

Don't think I will do a full trip report because I am just not a good writer and not sure I have the time!

I will post some of the highlights and low lights and answer questions if anyone has any.

The weather turned out to be much better than the forecast looked. It was overcast and rained our first evening and then overcast our 2nd day and then it was nice out until the last day when it poured in the afternoon. We got super drenched on that day at universal--as we tried to make a run for it-big mistake!

disneyavonohio said:

We are back. It was a lot of fun (when my kids were behaving!).

Don't think I will do a full trip report because I am just not a good writer and not sure I have the time!

I will post some of the highlights and low lights and answer questions if anyone has any.

The weather turned out to be much better than the forecast looked. It was overcast and rained our first evening and then overcast our 2nd day and then it was nice out until the last day when it poured in the afternoon. We got super drenched on that day at universal--as we tried to make a run for it-big mistake!

Click to expand...

Welcome home! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures .

We arrived around 2:00 on June 2nd. Lucky for us they had a room ready at Royal Pacific and we did get one of the refurbs! It is a nice room, but after many years of renting condo's and houses on vacation it was SMALL! The plus's of early entry, walking to the parks and most important of all express passes out weighed the small room for sure though. When doing Universal we will always stay on-site, it is just so much more convenient than driving and parking. For this trip I wish we would have had 4 or 5 nights at RPR and 3 or 4 nights at the Hilton Grand Vacation Suites at Seaworld (from now on it will be known as HGVS! HGVS resort was very very nice as well-I will get more into that later).

While I was checking in mom and the boys got leis and a picture in the lobby:

RPR is a very nice resort. Very tropical and peaceful.

I thought I had a picture of the room, but can not find it anywhere.

We got settled into the room and went down and got our annual passes (yes you can get them at the kiosk in the hotel, which was nice) and our express passes and headed off to IOA. At this point it was overcast but not raining--yet. Once in the park, make a quick stop to get our photo connect star cards.

We had to get one ride in before eating--so the older boys and I did the Dragon Challenge--very little wait--fun coaster, the boys liked it a lot.

We were hungry by this time so we headed to Three Broomsticks. I don't have many meal pictures over-all and none from this meal. Here we got 2 of the meal plans and a chicken salad and few sides as well as some butterbeers as snack credits. We had Chicken,Ribs, a Chicken Salad and frozen butterbeer, regular butterbeer, Pumpkin Fiz (I think), and some lemonade. I thought it was pretty good, the boys liked is, however mom was not a fan of the food. And believe it or not, no one loved the butterbeer-kind of shocked me, I thought the boys would love it. Turns out they love the coke freestyle machine though and we never had another potter drink the rest of the trip. Personally I thought the frozen butterbeer was good, just not something I had to have though.

As we sat down to eat the sky's opened up and started pouring. As we finished it was down to sprinkle, light rain. So we headed over to Forbidden Journey-I think the wait was just 20 minutes. We did parent swap for this one, so the older boys got to ride twice. The boys and I loved it, mom liked it-she is not big on motion rides, upsets her stomach a bit. (we did take dramamine with us and I believe she took it, but didn't help much).



Now my older son loves coasters and is a dare devil, but on this ride I guess he is afraid of spiders! (I guess there is a big spider in this part of the ride, I don't remember it, but this is what he told me!) He still loved the ride though. I really liked it as well. For some reason we never made it back to ride it again though. (For those who claim they can be done with Universal in half a day-well they must not ride ANYTHING and don't like to have fun. We spent about 5 days in total in the parks and still didn't do a few things and really didn't ride many rides multiple times either.)

It was still raining a bit, but we made our way into Jurassic Park section and the boys rode River Adventure, don't remember why I chose not to ride it that time, but they liked it a lot and we ended up riding it 3 or 4 more times, even got my 6 year old on it! Picture to come of that!


Next up was Spiderman. Everyone loved it except Mom-she thought it was good, but upset her stomach a bit. At this point it was raining harder and mom wanted to take the 6 year old back to the room. So the older boys and myself stayed in the rain--so what better thing to do in the rain--that is right, water rides!

We did Rip Saw Falls-

I think it is safe to say they LOVED this ride.

Then we went over and did Bilge Rate Barges-and got drenched! It was a ton of fun, the only problem is the cold water, the rain, the temp drop and it being overcast and getting late-meant it was cold being that wet!

Don't think you can tell how truly drenched we were in this picture, but notice all the rain gear all around us! The boys shoes were wet for days--they may still be wet!


When we got back to the room, the boys said they were hungry and wanted pizza, so I ordered pizza hut and ran out to get it--and by the time I got back everyone was sound asleep!

It was a great first day in spite of the rain!

More to come when I have time!

Great start!!

Shame about the weather but glad you still managed to have fun.

Yes I sometimes think people underestimate on Bilge barge just how wet they will get........Glad you enjoyed RPR...........

An awesome start to your trip report! Love your Photoconnect pics!

I am with you all the way.....I never understand people saying there's only enough to keep them busy at Universal for a day. Like your family, we were in the parks for the better part of 5 days and still have a few things we didn't get to a well.

Looking forward to the next installment. Hopefully your 2nd day is a dryer one!

Great start to your trip report. We have 2 days at US in 49 sleeps! yes I am now counting in sleeps!

We have been to US & IOA on a few occasions and don't know if we have ever fully managed to do the 'whole' park let alone do it in a day! How can you possibly see everything and ride everything in a short time.

Sorry for delay. Been super busy at work and with sports!

Day 2

We started each day at Islands of Adventure at what became "our" breakfast spot-Croissant Moon Bakery. The french toast muffin the kids loved (I do have a few pictures of this, but I think it was next day when we took them). The "meal" is a muffin, fruit cup and coffee. We also got the Coke Freestyle cup-made the kids share one--as more than that would just be way to much sugar for them! They loved mixing different flavors at the freestyle machines-so each morning we paid the 6 bucks to re-active the cup.


This day was mostly cloudy again, so not sure how our first picture at the park for the day shows all this sun?!




Once we ate, we headed back to the Potter Section. My little one wanted a wand really bad-even though he has watched just part of the first movie! So this was one of his souvenirs. For $47 I was expecting it to talk to me! Man is this a money making machine for them. The store was jam packed. My older kids did not have any interest in one, thankfully! And honestly for my little one-the "fun" of having it wore of in the first day--and I don't think he has touched it since! Anyone want to buy it for discount




At this point we wanted to take the train over to UO, so we got in line, wait was only about 10 minutes. Really cool theming to this--I can see why those into the movies like this area so much.



Once we got to UO we headed into Diagon Alley. Funny thing is I was trying to find it and had no idea it was behind that wall . Again the theming of the area was really impressive. Kind of makes me want to make the kids watch the movies for the next time we visit! We did ride Escape from Gringotts--that is an amazing ride-all the technology to make that work is just impressive. Everyone really liked it. Wait was only about 20 or so minutes, so not bad at all. (Did not think we could take our phone into the ride-so no pictures of the inside this time)


Here is a picture of my little one casting a spell with some help:


Next we headed over to Men In Black. Everyone liked it. But we never did make it a point to do it again, I think my older boys just love coasters, thrill rides so much that this one was not as "exciting". Oh and off course I won



From there we went through Simpsons Land--again the theming of this area was just top notch. My little one just had to do the Twirl N Hurl. And my wife just can't do rides that go in circles--so I got to do it with him.



Next up was the Simpsons Ride. My wife sat this one out as motion rides just don't agree with her and she didn't want to chance it. I will say, this was the ride that even gave me a bit of motion issues-it is a great ride though-and I am thinking it was because my stomach may have been a tad upset before we rode it.

The boys loved it, even my little guy.


Then we headed over to ET. My wife passed on this one as she was not feeling 100% this morning (she did eventually ride it and liked it).

We then were heading over to ride RRR and just so happened to see Spongebob and Patrick photo op so my little one wanted a picture (I personally am not a fan of that show at all, my kids do like it when we let them watch it that is!). So my wife and him got in line and the older boys and myself were watching through the window, and when it was time for my little one to get his picture-Spongebob and Patrick insisted that my older boys and myself join in- so we walked in through the exit and got this picture:



Off next to RRR for myself and the older boys.


This was one of the favorites for the boys and the rode it many more times over the next few days. (I have some arthritis in my next that causes tingling at times and for some reason this ride enhanced it, so I didn't go again during the trip even though I loved the ride).

Older boys and I then hit the Mummy-another favorite-maybe the favorite ride.



While we were hitting the rides, my little one and mom found Scooby and Shaggy. He loves watching Scooby cartoons.



At this point it was time for lunch.

We went to Finnegan's. No pictures of the food here. I thought it was so-so, I had the reuben, didn't come with much meat on it. My oldest got the bangers and mash and liked it. My wife got a salad and said it was ok. My little one's got children's meals-not bad, not great. This will be the recurring theme with the park restaurants, we just didn't think they were very good over-all. For theme park food, I guess they were ok. I am very hard on restaurants though-really didn't find any of the Disney restaurants all that great either. And I am one who would much much prefer to grill my own steak than go out to eats-so take what I say about the restaurants with a grain of salt.

Once done with our lunch we went over to Transformers ride. We all did this one. And everyone liked it, wife included! This was a top 5 ride with the boys and myself. After the ride, we got to meet a few transformers, it was pretty cool how they interacted with the kids.





After this we headed back to IOA to get this ride in!

We loved the Hulk Ride--very good coaster. A top 5 ride for the week.

And while we did that my little one found this character-he loves super hero's. He has a wolverine costume that he has worn a hundred times!




At this point we decided to head back to the resort and hit the pool for a bit.


My kids loved the pool area (they did however like Hard Rock's better because of the slide-more on that later). At this point it was sprinkling a bit-but they didn't care. They messed around in the pool for a couple of hours while we relaxed.

These were the clouds we saw for most of the first 2 days...

But thankfully it was great for most of the rest of the trip.

We had brought a stroller from home for my 6 year old, but he wanted nothing to do with it--he walked the entire trip-so we never took it out once! However this is what happened when we went back up to the room around 6:00...


And he was out for the night! Didn't get up til the next morning.

Since we already had swimming gear on and were wet, the older boys and myself did what any smart people would--headed back to IOA and rode the water rides. This was the great part about being so close and being able to walk over in a few minutes!


Now pay close attention to my 10 year old in this next picture--he had timed it so he could give his brother bunny ears at the moment the picture was being taken on the drop of this next ride!



When we got back I thought my little one would be up after his "nap", but he was worn out so we decided to let him sleep. The wife got a "date night" with the older boys at CitiWalk while I stayed back and ate leftover Pizza.

They had Ice Cream FIRST-


Then they got some food at one of the fast food options after this. Whopper bar and some noodles I guess. They liked it. Mom loved having her date night with the boys!





That wraps up day 2!

Croissant moon is a good way to start your day.........

Lovely pics and weather looked good in most of them.........you got some good character pics today........

That is one exhausted little boy!!

Sounds like a real fun day.

One day I am going to get around to working/finishing this trip report--been a very busy summer of sports with three boys!

However we are going again in November and I started to do some planning!

Dates:Nov 18th through the 26th (flying on these two dates was way way cheaper than any other--$700 for 5 seats round trip! Includes 2 checked bags each way with Frontier)

So we will be getting there in evening of 18th-making the kids go to school so they miss one less day-and on the 26th, which is Thanksgiving we will be flying out at 9 PM-so we will have the whole day in Orlando that day.

We will be staying at Hard Rock this time, all 8 nights--got it for just over $1500 including taxes! Cheaptickets had a 20% off deal on top of the stay more save more. I do love staying in Condo's, but it is so nice to be able to walk everywhere at Universal and we have to have the front of the line passes-they are so worth it.

We have annual passes to Universal, Seaworld and Aquatica--so tickets are covered.

Car rental is $152 for a Ford Fusion-not used to driving a car (I drive a big Dodge Ram Truck), but for that price I can make do for the 8 days! Have to add in the $160 that the hotel will charge for parking as well. It would be cheaper to get car service, about $140 (including tip)--but we plan on going to Seaworld and Aquatica-and I am thinking by the time we paid taxi it would not be much savings.

So total for the 5 of us for 8 Nights will be about $3700 ($1200 food allowance, we will probably go over! But I am "thrifty", my wife calls me cheap! We stop and get breakfast items, snacks and drinks at Walmart or Costco--so generally we eat one big meal out per day-and then spend money on different snacks-IE-Big Pink Donut and other desserts/snacks).
We didn't really care for most of the restaurants in Universal-they were not awful, just not as good as I was thinking-

• Margaritaville-this was one of the favorites from first trip
• Hash House A Go-Go-another favorite
• Bubba Gumps-something new
• Antojitos-something new
• Leaky Cauldron-something new
• Bubbalou's-didn't get to try this one last time-so want to get there this time
• We will go to Royal Pacific Pool area one night-last time they got us some apps (calamari and wings) from Jakes Bar along with the Nacho's from pool bar and it was really good-and really relaxing--so we will do that again.
• Any other must do's anyone can think of?

The one thing we are thinking of adding is ONE day at a Disney park. it is expensive to do this with a family of 5, but my wife loves the Christmas decorations at Disney and the boys have their favorite park (Hollywood Studios)....

So the choices are:

• Doing the Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom-cost about $380 for 8 hours-but they have quite a few rides the kids still like-Thunder Canyon,Space Mountain, Splash Mountain,--they have not done SDMT, so that would be new--and the Christmas Parade and Fireworks.
• OR
• Hollywood Studios for a whole day-Cost about $500 for 11 hours. The boys LOVE RnR and TOT. They also like all the shows. Osborne lights are really cool and they have fantasmic.

Am I missing big pluses or minus's with either. Probably looking at going on Nov 19th or 20th to whichever one we choose. Can you do fastpass+ from 4 to 7 on the Christmas Party day?

Any other tips are welcome!

How did I miss your earlier entry on this report?

The pic of your little fellow passed out on the bed is absolutely precious. I feel the same way after a full day of mogging around in the parks, I just don't look as adorable when I finally succumb to the weariness .

I wish you weren't kidding about the wand being for sale. We mighta been able to work a deal . Its one of those things I couldn't rationalize splurging on at full price, but that looked mighty fun nonetheless!!

You have a GREAT price for your November trip, and a big woohoo for making that happen! I just totalled up our October expenses and we're up to $3900 for just the two of us (the HHN RIP Tour, MNSSHP, and a few other splurges are kicking the snot out of my budget). Perhaps I shouldn't have added it all up!

As far as your Disney day goes, I would do the Christmas Party versus HS....just because its one of those seasonal things you can't do all the time. Strike while the iron's hot, seize the day, and all that kind of advice, ya know? But then again, I'm a Christmas lover too.....so perhaps I'm not the most objective. That said, cookies and hot chocolate at MK sounds awfully festive. Let us know what you ultimately decide!!