First Trip to Universal

[Limmer]

Well, it has been a while. After having to cancel our group trip to Disney in 2020 we are back but with some major modifications.
We are just traveling as the four of us, it is our last big family trip before oldest starts college and for the first time I let the kids pick and they picked Universal.
I am excited but nervous as I know what to expect and how to plan a Disney trip but no idea what I am doing with Universal. This is going to be a very different vibe than what I am used to. We are driving and staying at Cabana Bay for 5 nights. We plan on a beach/shopping day to Cocoa Beach. And much shorter park days with lots of time at the pool/water park.

Any advice/suggestions/warnings for a Disney Planner hitting Universal?

 

[spewey]

This is for August? Can I ask which week?

We have made many trips to Universal or Disney the last week of the summer - ie the week that ends in Labour Day weekend, just before our school starts. Nearly all US kids have gone back already, and you'll find mainly Canadians, and families from the North East or outside of North America in the parks.

That week used to be awesome at Disney, but like most things there over the years the crowds have picked up. Universal, however, not so much. We were there last August and it was D-E-A-D. I mean, crowds so low to the point it was almost too quiet.

I see you are at Cabana Bay. Never stayed, hear great things. Normally, I would strongly advise staying at one of the three "premier" hotels - Hard Rock, Portofino, or our home, the Royal Pacific - as that gives you unlimited Express Passes included with your room. But again, depending when you go - like us last year - those may not be that important at all.

For example - you still get early entry by staying at Cabana Bay. And as of today, the two new big roller coaster attractions - which are FANTASTIC - Hagrid's and VelociCoaster - do not take EPs. Nor are the hotel EPs good at Volcano Bay, which is another must do, for which you also get early entry. Plus, if you want, you do have the (pricey) option of adding Express to your tickets for a day.

In general, like at Disney, plan to rope drop and beeline it to the busiest attractions first. Go as hard as you want, and you should have plenty of time in the afternoon/evening for pools, etc (pool hopping is definitely allowed at Universal as well). But also consider leaving the water rides at Islands of Adventure to either last thing in the day, or return before close to ride them. They are amongst the best of their kinds in the world, and one two of them - Bluto and Dudley - you will get soaked. Jurassic River can be hit or miss, drenching-wise.

Happy to provide even more details - we LOVE that place!

 

[disneyseniors]

OP, I know you and your family will have a wonderful time at Universal, especially the older kids.
After planning for disney vacations for years, it is so freeing to just GO and walk around and do what you want when you want. You can even ride one attraction over and over if you want. No need to plan restaurants, except for Mythos or Toothsome. You can take your time and explore both parks. The Harry Potter lands are not to be missed. I could spend a whole day at each land It is so well done, so immersive, and entertaining. My favorite attraction is Gringotts at the Studios side. It out shines anything disney does, IMO. The one at IOA is too jerky for me and I always feel like I am going to fall over backwards. But if things like that bother you, you can do a walk through their immersive que - well worth the visit.
There is so much to do and see, I'm sure you will have a ball.
We are Universal converts, even though it is not cheap but you get your moneys worth there; not so at disney anymore sadly.

 

[damo]

Universal crowds are not what they used to be. They are busy!!!!! Hotel prices are way up reflecting the new crowds. August is going to be busy and very hot so be prepared to go to the parks first thing in the morning and go back to the hotel for a break after lunch.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Universal crowds are not what they used to be. They are busy!!!!! Hotel prices are way up reflecting the new crowds. August is going to be busy and very hot so be prepared to go to the parks first thing in the morning and go back to the hotel for a break after lunch.

I agree.

I was prepared for crowds when we were there in February, but I was unprepared for the crowds that were there. We had our best luck of riding rides in the evening. We knocked most of our rides out in the evening. We only did one day ( wished dh would have wanted more) but we did quite a few even though it was crazy busy. By the time we decided to buy the express pass for the day...it as sold out! So if you decide to do it for one day...BUY IT EARLY!!!

We only did 1 park day but we had park to park tickets. I wish dh would have wanted to at least one more day. We did have some big wait times....such as 2 hrs for Escape from Gringots (not worth the wait IMO) and 2 hrs for Hagrid's (totally WORTH the wait). We did wait 60 minutes for velosicoaster (totally worth the wait). Those were out biggest waits...and those ones never really did shorter all day - even end of the day.
We did get to ride Transformers, Men in Black, ET, Forbidden Journey, Kong, Jurasic River ride (AWESOME ride to ride at night) Spiderman and dh rode Hulk as well. I thought for the wait times for the day - and no EP - we did pretty good! We were tired as it was a VERY long day lol. The only ride that I wanted to do that we didn't was Bourne Spectatular. I totally forgot about that one! But all in all, we knocked out quite a few for only one day - even waiting for 5 hrs in lines for 3 rides.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

We were there for spring break and will be there in August also. Volcano Bay is amazing and the best water park I've ever been to. There will likely be thunderstorms almost every afternoon and crowds are generally low right after and into the evening. You'll likely have no issues getting everything done even with lots of breaks and no planning. Also, the parks are right next to each other so park to park tickets are ideal.

 

[spewey]

I hear what people are saying about being more crowded, but then again we were there last August - again, very last week - and the parks were nearly empty. That could be more due to COVID then anything else, I suppose, but still remains one of the best times to go, crowd-wise.

But yes, brutally hot, and chance of rain most days - although in about half a dozen August trips to Orlando, totaling more than 40 days, I think maybe one day, or two at most, had rain that actually impacted our plans.

To me, though, the heat justifies - no, demands - going on their brilliant water rides, plus a day at Volcano Bay. Check the sticky on VB and their wrist-band ride reservation system. I love it; some find it confining. But in our experience there are always enough "Ride Now" slides, or attractions like the wave pool or their rivers - one lazy, one crazy - to fill a day anyway.

I should have mentioned the park-to-park option, as noted above. People debate that, and it often comes down to whether or not you need to ride Hogwarts Express (you require a park-to-park for that). It's a neat experience, different each way, but I'm not sure it alone is worth a P2P ticket more than one day just for the ride. It is, however, the only way to get from the Studios side to IOA from the back of the park, so in that sense it becomes VERY convenient if your plan involves working front to back at one park and then crossing over.

 

[Etch]

Just did our first trip to Universal in March. Keep in mind that this was spring break and very busy but I can offer you a couple of observations while I was there:

1. Dining Reservations: People will tell you that you don't need them at Universal except for Mythos, Toothsome and maybe Bigfire. I believe this was once true but there was absolutely no availability day of (both parks and city walk), and in some cases the whole week. Now August should be better then March break but I don't think it hurts to make some reservations at your must do restaurants. You can always cancel them as they don't charge you anything for day of cancellations if plans change.

2. Volcano Bay: Great water park! We used our early entry at 9:30am with maybe 50 other people there to start. We had done every slide, including aqua coaster multiple times, by 11:30am. That's when the masses started to arrive. Even then they use a virtual que system (tapu,tapu) that allows you to tap into the most popular slides and they let you know when its your turn to ride. Maybe our favorite overall day at Universal.

3. Hogsmeade, Hogwarts and Diagon alley: This is Universal at its best for sure. I would try to set aside lost of time to explore these areas. There is a ton to see and do even if you're not huge Harry Potter fans. Hagrids and Escape from Gringotts are amazing rides.

4. If you're into coasters Velocicoaster is fantastic. Hulk and R.R. Rocket also still hold up really well. The water rides (Jurrasic & Dudley) were also a lot of fun but we did get soaked on both so plan accordingly.

5. Most of the screen rides don't do a lot for me. Several would be one & done for me for sure.

If I think of anything else I'll add it.

Have fun!

 

[Sue M]

Keep watching hotel rates, they go up and down frequently. There is a Canadian resident offer going on now. Doesn’t hurt to phone for details.

staying on-site take advantage of early entry and get to gates 30 min before early entry opens! Same with regular opening. Get there early and go straight to Harry Potter areas first.
Read Orlando Informer web site. They have extensive info on Universal including touring plans. Free.

 

[tinkerone]

I always get an annual pass for myself and regular tickets for everyone else. The AP gives discounts on tons of stuff. Dinning, purchases, tickets, hotel rooms, it pretty much always pays for itself. Give that a thought.
Another tip I haven't seen posted, we have found that crossing the street at Cabana Bay and taking the boat from Sapphire Falls saves time as you go through security right there and when you get dropped off you can just go straight to the parks. Very easy.
Loads of really good restaurants and half the price of Disney dining.

 

[Juventus]

A couple of newbie questions concerning Universal Orlando that I posted elsewhere:

-On the app; is there a way to see the wait times without tapping on each ride?

-Are the wait time accurate (more so than at DW)?

-looking at a couple posts above, if staying for 4-6 days mid August, is express pass not really necessary? We're looking at staying onsite and the top tier hotels just for this, but obviously more pricey.

Thanks!!

 

[torgo228]

A couple of newbie questions concerning Universal Orlando that I posted elsewhere:

-On the app; is there a way to see the wait times without tapping on each ride?

-Are the wait time accurate (more so than at DW)?

-looking at a couple posts above, if staying for 4-6 days mid August, is express pass not really necessary? We're looking at staying onsite and the top tier hotels just for this, but obviously more pricey.

Thanks!!

In the app bring up the Map, then on the map page press the menu button in the top right (the one that's 3 rows of a dot followed by a line.) That will just be a scrollable list of rides and wait times.

I find you'll want to always mentally add an extra 15 minutes. It's not that they're inaccurate, but they go by 15 minute intervals so if the line says 45 it may be 90% of the way to being ticked up to 60 when you hop in.

I've never done it myself, but what a lot of people do is just 1 night at the top tiers for the express pass for part of the trip, then a less expensive one after. You don't need an express pass every day.

 

[Average Joes]

We found going from Portofino to Cabana Bay easy in January 2020. They shipped our luggage and we went to Volcano Bay. Then we walked to Cabana. Having Express Pass was relaxing. No planning. For us we stayed 5 nights at Portofino and 1 night at Cabana. Oddly if we stayed Sunday to Friday only at Portofino it opened up Club Level for $40 total for the entire trip from a standard room. Had we added Friday night it was hundreds of dollars more. The point being play around with the days if you are flexible and not married to Cabana Bay and you might get lucky with pricing.

 

[spewey]

A couple of newbie questions concerning Universal Orlando that I posted elsewhere:

-On the app; is there a way to see the wait times without tapping on each ride?

-Are the wait time accurate (more so than at DW)?

-looking at a couple posts above, if staying for 4-6 days mid August, is express pass not really necessary? We're looking at staying onsite and the top tier hotels just for this, but obviously more pricey.

Thanks!!

Personally, the value of having unlimited, anytime Express Passes is so great - it basically eliminates the need for planning, save for the attractions (currently two) that don't have Express - that we stay at the Royal Pacific every visit, regardless of crowds. It also helps that it's a wonderful hotel, with an awesome pool (no slide, though, if that's important).

Having said that, there are undoubtedly times when EPs are not that important. Mid-August, though, may not be one of those. Kids do start returning to school in the U.S. that month, so I guess it depends on what you mean by "mid"? In the past, the first two weeks of August were considered high season, and then attendance starts to slowly fall through the rest of the month. As I noted above, the end of that month last year was a ghost town during our visit, but with stuff (hopefully, all fingers and toes crossed) returning to normal I would assume crowds would also. But all things being equal, the latter half of August is one of the better times to go, assuming no one in your party melts.

 

[CanadianKrista]

We found going from Portofino to Cabana Bay easy in January 2020. They shipped our luggage and we went to Volcano Bay. Then we walked to Cabana. Having Express Pass was relaxing. No planning. For us we stayed 5 nights at Portofino and 1 night at Cabana. Oddly if we stayed Sunday to Friday only at Portofino it opened up Club Level for $40 total for the entire trip from a standard room. Had we added Friday night it was hundreds of dollars more. The point being play around with the days if you are flexible and not married to Cabana Bay and you might get lucky with pricing.

How did you do this club level upgrade? You were still in a regular room, but had club privledges?

 

[Average Joes]

How did you do this club level upgrade? You were still in a regular room, but had club privledges?

I do not know if the Club rooms are in a certain location or if they use regular rooms and add Club privileges.

 

[damo]

How did you do this club level upgrade? You were still in a regular room, but had club privledges?

You can get club privileges from any room. Sometimes it is a hike to get there but it is done. The Club lounge is very close to the lobby and you don't have to access a special floor for it.

 

[Terrarankin]

Well, it has been a while. After having to cancel our group trip to Disney in 2020 we are back but with some major modifications.
We are just traveling as the four of us, it is our last big family trip before oldest starts college and for the first time I let the kids pick and they picked Universal.
I am excited but nervous as I know what to expect and how to plan a Disney trip but no idea what I am doing with Universal. This is going to be a very different vibe than what I am used to. We are driving and staying at Cabana Bay for 5 nights. We plan on a beach/shopping day to Cocoa Beach. And much shorter park days with lots of time at the pool/water park.

Any advice/suggestions/warnings for a Disney Planner hitting Universal?

Wow i am in the EXACT same boat as you! Going to Universal for the first time instead of Disney with our 2 teenage girls. Driving from Ontario. Staying at Cabana from Aug 22-30. Will follow this thread as I have no idea what im getting into. Although I researched disney and had it pretty figured out the first time we went so I think I can manage!

 

[Limmer]

This is for August? Can I ask which week?

We have made many trips to Universal or Disney the last week of the summer - ie the week that ends in Labour Day weekend, just before our school starts. Nearly all US kids have gone back already, and you'll find mainly Canadians, and families from the North East or outside of North America in the parks.

That week used to be awesome at Disney, but like most things there over the years the crowds have picked up. Universal, however, not so much. We were there last August and it was D-E-A-D. I mean, crowds so low to the point it was almost too quiet.

I see you are at Cabana Bay. Never stayed, hear great things. Normally, I would strongly advise staying at one of the three "premier" hotels - Hard Rock, Portofino, or our home, the Royal Pacific - as that gives you unlimited Express Passes included with your room. But again, depending when you go - like us last year - those may not be that important at all.

For example - you still get early entry by staying at Cabana Bay. And as of today, the two new big roller coaster attractions - which are FANTASTIC - Hagrid's and VelociCoaster - do not take EPs. Nor are the hotel EPs good at Volcano Bay, which is another must do, for which you also get early entry. Plus, if you want, you do have the (pricey) option of adding Express to your tickets for a day.

In general, like at Disney, plan to rope drop and beeline it to the busiest attractions first. Go as hard as you want, and you should have plenty of time in the afternoon/evening for pools, etc (pool hopping is definitely allowed at Universal as well). But also consider leaving the water rides at Islands of Adventure to either last thing in the day, or return before close to ride them. They are amongst the best of their kinds in the world, and one two of them - Bluto and Dudley - you will get soaked. Jurassic River can be hit or miss, drenching-wise.

Happy to provide even more details - we LOVE that place!

Thank you so much for the advice! We are going the very last week because the crowd calendars said it was very low crowds. We have been to Disney in August before but think the heat is worth the lower crowds.
We were thinking of Hard Rock for the EP but it was a bigger room, and cheaper at Cabana and a big draw for my teen girls was Volcano Bay so we landed on Cabana.
We are definitely rope drop people so we will take your advice with that. And from what I read we can balance out not having EPs with being there 5 days, though our very loose plan is to rope drop, deal with the heat as long as we can and then head to the pool/Volcano Bay.

 

[Limmer]

Wow i am in the EXACT same boat as you! Going to Universal for the first time instead of Disney with our 2 teenage girls. Driving from Ontario. Staying at Cabana from Aug 22-30. Will follow this thread as I have no idea what im getting into. Although I researched disney and had it pretty figured out the first time we went so I think I can manage!

That is hilarious. We are there the 21-28th, also driving from Ontario. Maybe we will see each other!