firechick139
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
- Messages
- 414
Just booked a spontaneous trip to Universal! I was debating and debating on where to go this summer. We are going to Disney next year ( and the year after that
) so I was trying to think of something different. We were going to go to Cedar Point, but then it popped into my head to go to Universal. I was planning on going for a day during our Disney trip, but we have never been there, and my daughter adores Harry Potter and Legos. SO, I decided to just plan a whole trip there. What started out as 5 days (actually 3 due to our flight times) has snowballed into 8 days (actually 6, once again due to flight times). We are going from July 29 to August 5. I plan on going to Legoland for one day, then go to (wait a minute, I have to look up the abbreviations
) IOA for 2 days, US for 2 days, and plan on going to CityWalk for a day, also. I have NO IDEA whatsoever about anything Universal, so I don't know if this is too long of a time, or what. In my extremely short time browsing so far, it looks like it is recommended only one day each for IOA and US, and doesn't say anything about CityWalk, so I don't know if it is actually big enough to constitute a whole day. I'm wondering if we should add the Water Park. I have never even seen pictures of anything, yet. I probably should have researched everything first before I booked anything, but I sort of panicked because the trip is in 2 months! We are staying off-site because I don't have enough money to stay onsite right now, since it was such short notice. Maybe next time. We are staying at the Best Western Orlando Gateway. I got it for an average of $60 per night through an AAA 48 hour sale. I thought that was pretty good. I really need a hotel that has free shuttle service to the park because we are not renting a car. I have already purchased the 1 day Lego ticket and our flight tickets. The only thing I haven't done so far is get the Universal tickets. I thought it was kind of expensive when I looked up a 4 day p/p pass, and went to my AAA website, but didn't realize you can't get the AAA rate unless you call them. I will be doing that soon. I looked at other places, but so far, without knowing what the AAA rate is, buying the tickets directly from the website is the least expensive. I'm trying to figure out what to get. Since we have never been there before, (by the way, it will be myself, my 10 year old daughter, and my roller coaster freak brother going on this trip. Guess I should have mentioned that
) I was thinking base tickets would be fine to get because we would have enough to do in each park to not need a park hopper. Opinions? Also, my concern is shuttle service. I don't know if we would be able to go from park to park in the middle of the day. I'm thinking the hotel shuttle will take us there in the morning and pick us up at park closing. Period.
Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm going to do some research, but any tips, opinions, or comments will be greatly appreciated for us newbies!



Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm going to do some research, but any tips, opinions, or comments will be greatly appreciated for us newbies!