First post can anyone direct me?

[Gerbiljo]

I guess I will have to chat to my husband and take some time out to do some maths! Thanks guys

 

[macraven]

Don’t know if it is still like that for this year but past years peeps were given the limited ep pass after the day tour which covered the rest of the day until park closing

I hate to say what the set up was as peeps read the threads and assume it is still the same policy

Things change at uo and we don’t know about it unless we read about it

The UOAP newsletters I get from UO are usually behind announcements of changes

Like the ability to downgrade a 3 park ap to a 2 park ap at renewal time just came to light in the last few weeks

New change for the ap



So call and ask at Vip tours office if they still give the limited ep to all in the public tour group that can be used for the rest of the park day

 

[skylock]

Well whatever you decide, I am sure you will have a nice time. Be sure and buy your daughter an interactive wand the first day so she can do the spells both days.

Also, she can mail a postcard to her friends at the owl postoffice in hogsmead. She can buy them there, but when we did it we took our own postcards. You can get the stamps there also.

 

[macraven]

With your days already planned out, consecutive days for UO won’t work

Too much rearranging mickey things this late in the game

Some adr’s and fp would be impossible to get now if you don’t keep your original schedule

Run numbers for the cheapest hotel room that has the free unlimited ep

Just go with the room that is cheapest which would be Sunday- Thursday
If it is cheaper than the Vip tour costs, go with that

You don’t have to use the room, just check in and get the room keys

You could use it after you are done with park for a shower
Check out that evening

Use Uber/Lyft for pick up from the hotel to return to your Disney hotel

 

[gotomu212]

Just one thing to add in case you didn’t know since you have a smaller kid and mentioned the ride swap- at UO the whole family stays together in the queue and when you get to the ride load (or almost there) you split off to the swap room. So the swap part goes really quickly, and doesn’t require you to exit the ride.

I would really second (third? Fourth?) getting the on-site room and cancelling the VIP- even if it only works for one day with your planning. Check the hotel prices (hard rock, Royal Pacific, or Portofino) and see the price of the room compared to the VIP tour. Depending on the date you MAY even be able to do the throw away room twice for the cost of the VIP and have it fit your split days.

 

[skylock]

From the website:

https://www.universalorlando.com/we...es/vip-experience/vip-guided-tours/index.html

• Complimentary continental breakfast
• Priority front-of-the-line access to rides and attractions during the tour
• Exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences in the park (subject to availability)
• Reserved seating at shows (excludes live performances during Mardi Gras and Mannheim Steamroller during the holidays)
  
• Complimentary valet parking (one vehicle)
• One Universal Dining Plan – Quick Service™ meal^, valid at over 100 locations
  
• Universal Express Unlimited™ ride access at participating rides and attractions throughout the rest of the day (during normal park operating hours)
• A VIP Experience souvenir lanyard and credential..

So it is now an unlimited express pass but it also seems to be $259 per person for the second week in Aug.

The op can probably get 3 throwaway rooms at club level for that price.

We do club level and have breakfast in the club lounge both mornings and have been known to stop by and partake in the evening offerings.

They do not need the parking.

OP, run the numbers, but I still think hotel express pass will be best. I haven't run hotel numbers for that time period, but I think I am paying around $300 a night for my room. 1 with 2 adults and 3 kids and one with 4 adults.

And for the record when we did the tour, our backstage tour was the immigration tour in men in black which anyone can do and about three min in I think it was spiderman control room, but to be fair, they were having some problems that day.

I don't know what express pass for that day is without a hotel room, but for us it was running $159 pp pd and we have 9 people.

 

[ktak08]

Really I can’t imagine doing a group tour where you are with total strangers and having to compromise on what to see and ride. If you’re choices are Group Tour or Express Pass, I would just go with Express Pass since your wait times are reduced, and you can just enjoy the parks leisurely at your own pace. But if you’re able to splurge on a private tour, definitely do it! We did a private tour last week and absolutely loved it.

 

[robl45]

hi everyone

First post though I have read posts here many times.

We are Disney pros, and ready to go in just 6 weeks eeek. 4 of us including our daughters 9 (52inches) and 4 years old (will hit 40 inches on dry land in shoes!) who’ve all been before. We’ve booked the restaurants the fast passes and we know the system well but this time we’ve decided to do something different... Usually we try and go just to Disney, no car to keep the cost down but staying within those parks/resorts etc.

My daughter has been doing about Harry Potter at school and so we’ve splurged on universal... we have 2 days there, were gonna go via Uber, seems like a plan from what we’ve read and we’ve booked a despicable me breakfast for the first day.

The second day we’ve splurged again on a vip pass, so can anyone give me any tips or recommendations or if there’s an article on how to get the best out of this first day as the second day wel be taken care of? I am going to presume we should completely avoid Harry Potter on this first day and save it for the vip... I’ve read some good stuff but I’d like some tips really if anyone has any ?

Oh also my oldest daughter was so excited but we looked at rides last night but when she saw the rollercoasters she cried‍She can do every Disney ride (not water) Aerosmith and Everest etc no probs are any of these rides significantly worse that we should avoid? I’m trying to find an article comparing rides between the two places?

My last visit to universal was over 20 years ago and a lot has changed (back to the future ) so I’m treating it as a complete beginner!!

Any constructive suggestions would be super thanks Jo

I haven't been on Hulk in years, at least 10 or more, but while it has more to it, I would not say its any worse than aerosmith coaster. I"m not sure about the dark thing mentioned later on here, you can see just fine in aerosmith. Only RRR and Hulk would be at the same scale as Aerosmith and I think she would be fine. My son did Aerosmith at 8 and complained that Space Mountain was scarier

 

[*LittleMermaid*]

Another thing to keep in mind is that you cannot do child swap on the group tour. You mentioned your daughter riding twice but no. The tour only stops once at each ride. The private tour will be able to do child swap because it is only your family on tour.

 

[bobbie68]

Hi I did the non-private VIP tour last year. I did do it on my first day there but for no reason specifically. We did it for a couple of reasons. I would like to share them to give you something to think about. I will also share a link with my trip report so you can read my VIP tour day.

I love the idea of a personal guided tour. On the tour yes you go to the front of the line of the rides you pick. You do not wait and it is really cool. However, in a non-private like we did and you are you do not usually do a ride multiple times. The guide usually picks about 12 rides that is the consensus of the group. Now I did both parks so there were a lot more rides that we needed to do. If you were doing one park you might do a ride a couple of times. In addition to the great ride access we got on the tour we get little bits of information that usually isn't out to the public. We did take a walk through tour under the Mummy. I got to see where they maintain the spider man vehicles as well as how they work. Sometimes they do MIB behind the scenes. We had a kick butt breakfast in the morning. I did get a discount at the end of the day for shopping. It was either 10 or 20% and I did get the express pass the rest of the evening. I thought that was great. We were in a group of 12 (3 other families). We did get a variety of ages but we were lucky that we all wanted to do the same things. Our guide was able to make every one happy. We had a great group and enjoyed it and made new friends.

I would do and recommend a tour to peeps. Here is the link to my report last year. The non-private VIP tour is a little ways down. https://www.disboards.com/threads/summer-trip-report-finally-yay.3642765/

 

[humphreydog]

We always have express passes but we usually use the single rider line to ride both HP rides multiple times. Waiting on a 45 minute line (on both) lets you see everything, then use the single rider.

You will not be able to do Despicable Me and many others without express(always too long).