Been 15 years, please help, a lot of questions

[goldielocks222]

Hi everyone,

So excited to plan our trip! We haven't been in over 15 years, and now we have a 4 year old to bring with us. I have some specific questions hoping you all could help. I read back through the majority of posts to January (I like to research our trips!), so I think I have a good idea about some things, just not all the info I need.

Our first park day is Friday, July 3. We will be at the parks Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. We are staying offsite and will not have express passes. We have three day park to park tickets. My son is not afraid of anything and would do the big coasters if he could but his measurement last night was only 41 inches.

So if you could help me with the following questions I would really appreciate it.

How long does it take to get to rope drop once you get to the parking garage? Taking into account parking time, walking from garage, security and anything else I am missing.

How strict is security in the following items:

Our cooler bag is a bit bigger than what is allowed per the website, but it's not huge, more like a big purse. Will they not let me bring it in?

What if I bring in a sandwich for my son? Small in my own foil not huge like Publix sub etc., will they not let us bring it in? We still plan on eating lunch in the parks.

Do they thoroughly check your bags and how does it compare to disneys security?

How long do you think lines will be on July 4 weekend? Are we talking about 30 minutes or an hour wait? Remember no express passes.

We aren't really into HP stuff. I assume my son can ride hog warts express? Didn't see measurements for that. We would definitely go on the small roller coaster. Does the small roller coaster line get filled up quickly too?

Other than HP, looking at the rides my son can go on, it looks like spiderman and minions would be the rope drop attractions to focus on each day. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Photo Connect card...
If we buy the three day and upgrade to annual pass during the trip, can I upgrade photo connect as well and pay the difference?

I thought I read that you had to pay extra to add the cool backgrounds to the photos (for ex. Spiderman). However, from another post it sounded like it was like Disney photopass and you could add in while editing your pictures. Is this correct? If not, can someone please explain and do I need to ask for special backgrounds, which others should I ask for as well?
Where do you pick up photo connect card once you get into parks? Looks like you can get the pass from the photographers first and then go to the store to get actual card?

How long are waits for character meet and greets? Do they have express pass options that other people will be using for this?

Regarding annual passes: I am thinking of upgrading two of our passes to power pass and one to preferred. Thinking about the free parking. How does the parking work for this? For example, we go the first day and pay for parking and also upgrade our tickets on the first day. Would the second day parking be free since we technically paid for parking the first day? I read the first day parking isn't free for some reason. Or would parking be free on our third day since we had 3 day tickets on our first day, and then upgraded preferred the second day.

Ok, I think that's all for now.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and answer.

 

[kbelle8995]

The park will be busy as you are going July 4th weekend.
Bag check is on the walkway into the park.
Your son will be able to ride the Hogwarts express. There is no height restriction. Flight of the Hippogriff It states that you have to be at least 36". Minions has a habit to open busy and stay busy so yes Rope drop would be good time to ride it.

I have seen them check bags pretty througholy. I have regular AP and I do get free parking but I don't get Premium parking. I am fine with this. Show them my pass and that's it. Last time they did scan it.

Universal has a very good section on their website regarding food especially what is allowed and not allowed. Go to What to bring to Universal.

 

[back2universal]

Having just came back last week I think you are good with the cooler. Mine was a soft-sided about your size and in a big backpack, the sandwich was packed in ziplock and not foil but I doubt that would matter. I found the baggage check to move much faster than whenever I have been to the disney parks.

 

[FargoBear]

https://www.universalorlando.com/Resort-Information/Ride-Height-Requirements.aspx

There is a list of the height requirements for the rides. If you can stretch him an inch or find some thick-soled shoes and get him to 42 a few more rides open up, like Gringotts and Jurassic Park, but that may depend on how close to 41 or 42 he is currently.

 

[KatieCharlotte]

We just returned. We had express passes from staying in the resorts, but I did take note of wait times. This weekend will likely be a little busier, but I can give you a general idea. Sunday was much less crowded than Saturday. Get as much done in the mornings as you can. Despicable Me had the longest lines -- from 30 min in the early morning (it is open for early entry so there will already be a line when the park opens) to 90+ min in the afternoons, so it's your main rope drop attraction. The line for Shrek also seemed much longer than in the past, because of it's location next to DM. Spiderman will also have 60 min lines in the afternoon, but you should be okay in the morning, so pick a different day to do this first. We didn't ride the small Woody Woodpecker coaster, but the lines did not look bad.

Hogwarts Express is for all ages and very fun for those too small or scared for the other HP rides. The line got up to 30 min in the afternoon. There are also interesting things for a child to see in the Harry Potter store windows and of course the Diagon Alley dragon breathes fire. I would recommend the HP areas at night, but I don't know if your child will be able to stay awake past 8 p.m. The first day, my seven-year-old was full of energy after an afternoon swim break and dinner.

You'll want to explore Seuss Land. The wait times seemed to vary between 5 and 30 minutes for all three rides in the area. Don't miss the play areas. Jurassic Park has a great area to run around and explore caves and bridges (you may want to stick close because it's huge) and Curious George has a large water play area where many children play in swimsuits and adults also cool off. Plus, there's a fun two-person-raft water slide at the Woody Woodpecker play area. Speaking of cooling off, you can get free cups of ice water anywhere that offers fountain soda pop, regardless whether you buy food, and they were very accommodating about this at Universal. Take advantage!

Meet and greets are very different than at Disney. No express passes and I never saw a really long line.

 

[RMulieri]

It is a bit of a walk from the garages to the park gates( along moving walkways). Bag check is along the walkway.They check bags pretty thoroughly .It is going to be VERY busy .Parking should be free with an AP after the FIRST day ( first day isnt free)Potter stuff will be busy likely all day( onsite guests have early entry), but may be much less an hour or so before closing .wait times will be long by late morning..90-120mins for things like despicable me and 60-90mins or more for things like Spiderman.

 

[ForMyBoys]

I'm hijacking this thread a bit because I saw OPs post about upgrading to annual passes. I thought if you upgraded to a power pass you would have black out dates. And it appears almost all of July is blacked out. So if she has a 3 day ticket and upgrades it on day 2, will they not allower her in on day 3? I'm asking because we have 14 day park to park tickets and are going in a couple of weeks. I would also like to upgrade those since we will be back in Feb, but didn't want to buy power passes straight away due to the black out period in July. Thanks!

 

[*LittleMermaid*]

The OP can upgrade the power passes on the last day before leaving but the Preferred pass on the first day in order to get the next couple of days with the free parking and discounts.

 

[goldielocks222]

Great info everyone! Definitely some things I didn't think of. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. Tomorrow is our first day! So excited!

 

[hydrotony]

The upgrading a 3-day park to park ticket to a power pass should be done on the last day if you are within the black out dates because you lose the Park-to-park ability when the upgrade occurs. However, if you are in the park, they will not evict you after upgrading. But you lose the ability to ride Hogwarts Express if one park is blacked out.