Universal trip report from 8/15/15-8/23/15

This will be a summary of my family's recent trip to Universal. I don't know how to post pictures so I won't be doing that but I wanted to post my observations/suggestions to help anyone else planning a trip to Universal.

Let me start by saying that we are a Disney family first and foremost so my report is not totally unbiased and is just our opinion. Our family is me, 41, my husband, 42, my son 14 and my daughter 10. We have been to Disney 3 or 4 times since our youngest was almost 4 and wanted to try something different. My kids and I are big Harry Potter fans so I thought we would give Universal a try. For our family it is more cost effective to do Disney for a week or Universal for a week based on room prices and ticket prices being a better value the longer you stay.

Saturday 8/15 We drove from Virginia to Pooler, GA (outside of Savannah) the first day. We stayed at a Country Inn & Suites. It was very clean but beginning to show some wear and tear. We did eat at the Mellow Mushroom nearby which had great pizza and customer service.

Sunday 8/16 We drove from Pooler to Orlando. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for lunch ($27.92) Of course we also had to stop at the Florida rest stop for the obligatory photo and yummy orange juice. We checked into Royal Pacific and were given our request for a Tower 1 room. The room was nice and I believe we were upgraded to a garden view as we were not looking at a parking lot. We decided to head first to City Walk to buy some lanyards and then to the park to activate our Photo Connect star card. We walked around Hogsmead to check it out and drank our first frozed butterbeer. My husband and daughter loved it. I thought it was a little too sweet and my son wouldn't touch it. He doesn't like cream soda which is what it tasted like. We got this at the Snowman Butterbeer card ($6.50).

After that we headed to dinner at Applebee's ($44.78) and then to Target to get some breakfast food and snacks for our room ($49.81). The Target was very busy but we had the fastest cashier I have ever had. This is also a good place to get Disney souveniers(sp?) at a good price. Then it was back to the room for TV and bed.

Monday 8/17 Most days we went back and forth between parks. As I have zero sense of direction I had to keep asking my husband and son...which park is Diagon Alley in? Which park has the Sponge bob store?? It was easier for me to remember what rides were in what parks in Disney with the 4 distinct parks vs. Universal with the 2 parks you could easily walk between. That day we ate lunch at Mythos ($63.56). This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. The burgers were excellent. We went offsite to Steak & Shake for dinner. The total there was ($37).

This day we did take advantage of the early entry to IOA to get on Forbidden Journey. We walked straight to the lockers and then to the ride. Just in the time it took us to get into line the wait changed from 30-45 minutes. That was the only day we did early entry as the time for the Harry Potter rides seemed to be around the same regardless. Some points in the day there would be a 75 minute wait but sometimes in the evening there would be a 30 minute wait for say Gringott's.

That is all for now. I have to take the kid's to the dentist. I hope to finish my report in the next day or two and answer any questions. I will go over rides also but I just can't remember which rides we did which day for the most part. Since I was keeping a written budget I do know what days we ate and where.

Thanks for following so far!

Sounds like a great trip

Thanks for following along dixonsontour.

Tuesday, August 18 I can't remember which rides we did at which time since we went back and forth so much so I will describe some of the rides on each day even though that may not have been the day we actually did them. As I said earlier we did ride Forbidden Journey which I really enjoyed. The wait was about 45 minutes even though we were there for early entry. The theming was really cool. I really wish there was a whole Harry Potter theme park with a themed hotel. My daughter wanted to go to Ollivander's to see if she would be selected for a wand. We did this in Diagon Alley since I had read there were 3 rooms vs. the 1 in Hogsmeade and b/c in the movie that is where the real Ollivander's is. We had no wait for this. We were in a group with a few other kids...no B-day buttons and 2 kids who already had wands so I thought my daughter had a good chance at being picked. Instead there was a family wearing matching T-shirts with a little girl. The Ollivander's witch asked the little girl who should select a wand and she picked her Mom. The Mom and Dad did the ceremony which I thought was kind of crappy when there were kids in the room but oh well. My daughter ended up selecting one of the non-character interactive wands. The shop was very crowded but there was a helpful employee who helped us find the type of wand she was looking for. She tried the wand at one of the interactive wand stations but could not get it to work. The not very helpful "wizard" outside just kept saying "Try Again" in a dry voice over and over. He did give a few hints but we gave up and thought we would try again later. The theming in Diagon Alley was awesome...just like being in the movie.

For lunch we ate at Mel's Diner which was a little worse than typical theme park food...more like Sea World quality than Disney. It was air conditioned though which was a plus. Our total with tax was $48.47. We got to ride Hogwart's Express both ways while we were there and that was really cool.

For dinner that night we ate off site at a Mexican restaurant, El Patron. It was in the same strip mall area as the Steak n' Shake we went to. The food was really good but a little different and more expensive than the Mexican place we eat at in Virginia. I got an appetizer for my meal...chips with guacamole, peach salsa, and queso dip. There was a lot left over so the waitress boxed it up for me and gave us more chips so we could eat it at the hotel. This was another favorite meal of mine. The total with tax and tip was $67.34.

Wednesday, August 19 We had been missing Disney and had decided to head to Downtown Disney/Disney Springs around lunchtime. We were able to find a parking spot in the parking garage without too much problem. The sports store my son had been wanting to visit was no longer there. We are not sure if that is a permanent change or if it is going to come back with the reconstruction. I was also looking to buy some of the Mickey and friends figures in Star Wars costumes but apparently those are no longer sold in either the toy store or the World of Disney store. We ate at Earl of Sandwich for $37.51. We continued to walk around and got to interact with a Disney employee. This was nice. While the Universal employees were not generally rude and a few were actually very helpful, for the most part they lacked the interaction you get with Disney employees. We walked around a bit and then visited a few stores in an Outlet nearby. The Nike outlet was HUGE!!!

We ended up going back to the parks that night. We ate at Louie's so that means we were in Universal Studios. The pizza was not bad but the salad was wilty. This was where we encountered the grumpiest employee. He did not crack a smile for the 20 minutes or so we were there. We got to ride Men In Black. That was kind of fun. I did not figure out the red button. We also rode twirl in hurl which was OK and we rode the Simpsons ride. The Simpsons ride was pretty good. On the way out that night we went to City Walk. I got some strawberry cheesecake at Boulangerie for $5.21 and my husband and daughter had frozen yogurt at Menchie's for $10.62. All of the snacks were good!

I should mention that we took some rest breaks and pool breaks during the week. We really liked the pool at Royal Pacific. They allowed you to have beach balls, noodles, and pool floats in the pool which was fun. Also the water was a nice temperature each day. We always were able to find chairs also. The best chairs were taken earlier in the day but for the most part we just needed somewhere to put our stuff while we swam.

We also did laundry in the middle of the week. It is located by the exit of Tower 1 near the pool. There were 3 or 4 washers and 3 or 4 dryers. The cost was $3 for one of the machines and I think $3.25 for the other.

Trip report continued...

Thursday, August 20 Based on suggestions on the boards we decided to do a morning/early afternoon of water rides. We went to Poseidon's Fury because I thought you get wet on that. Apparently that is only true if you are near the edge. This is a corny walk through attraction. The actor Taylor did a great job but the show reminded me of one of those cheesy Power Rangers films. After that we did Jurassic Park which was a cool water ride. That will be neat to see if they add more things to the area from the current movie. We decided to eat lunch at Thunder Falls terrace. This was a mistake. This was possibly the longest line we met our whole week there. We were in line 45 minutes just to get lunch. We were hot and this was the only air conditioned place we were near. My son thought they needed express pass for this counter service restaurant. LOL The food was better than average for theme park food, especially the brookies which we all shared.

Next we decided to try to ride Ripsaw Falls. We had express pass but I will tell you that this line was like waiting in a coffin. I am mildly clausterphobic and if I had had to wait in the full line I probably would have passed out. The problem with some of the Universal lines was that they were "inside" a building with some openings to the outside and some fans but not completely inside a building where you could have air conditioning. The line was back in a humid dark area with no air conditioning and then the ride broke down. So we decided to do Bilge-Rat Barges. This was one of my favorite rides. Normally on these types of rides, I as the Mom tend to attract the water no matter where I am sitting. I will be drenched while others are a little wet. This ride was awesome in that no one will be dry. We rented a locker for $4. They said you could take your things on the raft and there was actually a cover in the middle so I think we would have been fine without the locker.

After that we went back to Ripsaw Falls which was working. We used child swap on this ride as my daughter didn't want to ride this. I also liked this ride since it was a longer log flume , like Splash Mountain. After the water rides we went back to the hotel to rest up or swim. We went offsite to a Chick-fil-a for dinner ($26.72) and to a Walmart for a few snacks.

Friday, August 21

We decided to see the Marvel super heroes this day. We got to have some interaction and pictures taken with Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Spiderman. Spiderman was the best...talking to us and taking selfies with people on their phones. We ate lunch at Captain America ($47.22), typical theme park food but it was OK and air condioned. We got to ride the Hulk which was a lot of fun and Storm Force Acceleration which we liked. We were not brave enough to ride Doctor Doom. We got to ride the Hippogriff which was about 30 seconds long but fast for a kid's coaster. We liked it and wished it were longer. We also got to ride Dragon Challenge which was fun. At some point we rode Gringott's which I LOVED but my husband and son thought was just OK. They said they would have liked it better but the warning sign said it was a high speed coaster which it was not. The theming in the line is incredible.

At some point we did Twister which was a joke...no wind even blew and you could see the strings holding the stuff flying around. Minion Mayhem was really cute and we liked both the Transformers and Spiderman ride. The mummy ride was another favorite of mine. ET seemed a little tired as did Terminator 2.

We ended up going to Hard Rock Café in Citywalk for Dinner. I thought I had made a reservation but apparently I made it on my phone for the hard rock in CA. Oops! Luckily they were still able to seat us. I have never been to a Hard Rock and this place was cool. My nachos could have fed a family of 6. Our waiter Lance was great! Our total with tip and tax was $92.27.

We walked through Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade a bit and got a frozen butterbeer with a souvenier cup for $13.

Trip report continued...

Saturday, August 22 We had decided to make this a pool day for the afternoon. We enjoyed awhile in the pool and then ordered lunch from the Bula Bar. We had a great server named Gio. He would walk around to see what anyone wanted from time to time. The nachos were huge!! Can you tell I like nachos? Our total with tip was $41.79

While we were eating a storm came and we went back to our room. We decided to freshen up and go to Mellow Mushroom for dinner that night. There was one across from Sea World. The total with tip was $37.15. We decided to go back to the park that night to walk around Diagon Alley a bit as my daughter wanted to buy a time turner necklace. I think we also visited the night bus which was cool. For a snack I treated myself to a Lard Lad donut to take back to the room. I got the big pink one and didn't share it!!

Sunday, August 23 We did express checkout through the TV and drove home to Virginia!



Final thoughts: We are a Disney family through and through. We are glad we tried Universal but to us it was missing the magic of Disney. There was no Universal bubble in our opinion. Universal felt like more of a regular theme park like Busch Gardens. I didn't get teary eyed like I do when I hear Jiminy Cricket during wishes. It was just different. I think if I had gone to Universal for 2 days and then to Disney that would have been better. For us a week was too long for Universal. I thought it would be more relaxing than Disney and in a way it was. We did not to rope drop other than one day. Express passes were awesome but we had no desire to ride anything over again (other than Gringott's). I missed the customer service of Disney. We made my husband watch all of the Harry Potter movies before we went so he could interact with the people at Universal. There was no interaction like this other than once in awhile. In some ways I am glad Universal has the rights to Harry Potter so it was built quickly but on the other hand I wish Disney had the rights because of the customer service and magic they provide.

We haven't been to Disney since FP+ so I don't know if this this will change our view or not. I don't mean to be negative but just to share how we felt. This is just our opinion. It was nice having fun together as a family and to get away but it just didn't have the magic of Disney to us.

Universal did have some strong points. The Express pass is great and something I would definitely want to have in the summer. Harry Potter areas look exactly like the movies. Some employees tried to give extra attention. The guy in the sponge bob area helping with pictures noticed our Harry Potter lanyards and only liked Slytherin and then showed us his death eater tattoo!! Royal Pacific is beautiful and the pool is nice. All in all if we ever go back it will be at the beginning of a vacation split between Universal and Disney.

Please feel free to ask any questions if you have them! Thanks!

Thanks for the report. Sounds good and bad but still fun!

A Death Eater tattoo!! NO WAY! That is some serious fandom!

Excited about RPR.

Makes me sad you didn't have an awesome experience. We are hard core Disney people, make anywhere from 1-4 trips per yr, owned at the BWV's since 1999. That all being said we were blown away by the customer service during our summer trip to Universal. Disney has nothing as immersive as the Harry Potter areas, we will be rotating our AP's between the two from here on out.

disappearingme said:

Thanks for the report. Sounds good and bad but still fun!

A Death Eater tattoo!! NO WAY! That is some serious fandom!

Excited about RPR.

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Yes, the death eater tattoo was cool and unexpected!

SnowWitch said:

Makes me sad you didn't have an awesome experience. We are hard core Disney people, make anywhere from 1-4 trips per yr, owned at the BWV's since 1999. That all being said we were blown away by the customer service during our summer trip to Universal. Disney has nothing as immersive as the Harry Potter areas, we will be rotating our AP's between the two from here on out.

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It made me sad too. I almost didn't want to post a trip report because I didn't want to seem picky or ungrateful that we got to go. We did have fun as a family and are glad we tried it but for us it would have been better to do a split trip between the parks...better fun wise but not money wise. LOL

Thanks for reading!

sunnyshari said:

It made me sad too. I almost didn't want to post a trip report because I didn't want to seem picky or ungrateful that we got to go. We did have fun as a family and are glad we tried it but for us it would have been better to do a split trip between the parks...better fun wise but not money wise. LOL

Thanks for reading!

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Well, I am glad that you shared your trip report. We're heading to Universal for the first time as a family next August. We are also a Disney family and I'm glad that we decided to stay at Fort Wilderness for our Disney fix. We'll hit IOA and Universal with a two day, two park ticket. We have reservations for Royal Pacific for the night. I think a full week would be too much for my family as well.
How did you find the heat? Obviously it's going to be hot, but it seems like you were able to find air conditioning when needed.

WorldWacky said:

Well, I am glad that you shared your trip report. We're heading to Universal for the first time as a family next August. We are also a Disney family and I'm glad that we decided to stay at Fort Wilderness for our Disney fix. We'll hit IOA and Universal with a two day, two park ticket. We have reservations for Royal Pacific for the night. I think a full week would be too much for my family as well.
How did you find the heat? Obviously it's going to be hot, but it seems like you were able to find air conditioning when needed.

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Yes, I think 2 days at Universal would be good, especially with the express pass. We found the heat pretty bad. We live in VA where it is humid but doesn't really start getting hot until about 11 am or so. At Universal it seemed humid even at 9am. We did the parks one evening and that was a lot better! The restaurants and shops were air conditioned but the lines didn't feel like they were. If you can do a pool break in the middle of the day that would be nice. The week we were there the parks closed at 9 so just keep that in mind.

sunnyshari said:

Yes, I think 2 days at Universal would be good, especially with the express pass. We found the heat pretty bad. We live in VA where it is humid but doesn't really start getting hot until about 11 am or so. At Universal it seemed humid even at 9am. We did the parks one evening and that was a lot better! The restaurants and shops were air conditioned but the lines didn't feel like they were. If you can do a pool break in the middle of the day that would be nice. The week we were there the parks closed at 9 so just keep that in mind.

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Thanks for the tips! I'm hoping we can get it all in, in the two days. I wanted to reserve a room for the Express Passes, to not have to travel back and forth between Disney and Universal and to have the option of the pool. Looks like we may need it!

Just found your trip report. We are planning on going this August. We have booked 2 nights at Nickelodean resort followed by 4 nights at universal. I just can't decide between the Hard Rock Hotel and RPR. How did you find the crowds in August? We went to Disney in September 2015 and it seemed to be very crowded to us compared to what we were used to. I'm hoping the express passes will help to avoid some of the crowds. We've never been to universal before, so we are looking forward to something different. I'm just hoping I can get through without comparing everything to Disney! Although, after this last trip, it might not be so bad.