First Trip

[la79al]

Decided yesterday that we are going to be taking our first trip to Universal in March. We are currently looking somewhere around the 16th. Dates are adjustable by a few days only. Planning on doing 3 days park to park and getting tix from Sam's Club. Currently planning on staying with family a little over an hour away but that also allows us to pack food to take into the parks. Obviously the biggest point here is trying to make the trip as cheap as possible since this was a relatively last minute plan and one of many vacations already planned for the summer. Kids will be almost 10, 15 and 17. Anything you would add or change or anything I can do between now and then?

 

[Kit Jackson]

What kind of food were you planning to bring? Were you thinking about bringing sneaks or meals? What size bags were you planning to bring to the park? Were you planning on carrying the bag or bags with you all day?

People can give better recommendations if they know a bit more about the travel party. Any franchises/fandoms that anyone is really into? Do ride tolerances (susceptibility to motion sickness, ability to handle simulator rides, or rides that spin) need to be taken into consideration? Are you traveling with ride cowards, thrill seekers, something in between, or a mix of all of the above?

If you are willing to buy a book, this was incredibly helpful when I planned my first trip.

https://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-G...79&sprefix=Unoffocual+Guide+to,aps,111&sr=8-1

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You might look at a hotel for one of the nights. Either Surfside/Dockside or a nearby off-site hotel, to save 2hrs drive & 2 days of parking garage costs. Bring an overnight bag.

3 day tickets have a use period of 5 days or so, make sure to pick the cheapest date that covers all the days you want to go. You don't have to have tickets that start on your first day, they just have to cover every day you want to go. (IE if your first day is a Sat you might find that buying tickets starting Thurs or Fri is cheaper).

Download the Universal App, for ride wait times, schedules, map, hours, etc. Has a lot of useful info.

The last few hours that the parks are open will be your shortest lines. If you aren't doing open to close (which is a long day with an hr+ drive on both ends), you will do better to hit the evening hours than the morning ones. Especially Epic! Make sure you can hang until the very end when nearly all the lines will be very short.

If you are going on a weekend day, try to put Epic on that day. The other parks are most crowded on weekends (esp Sat) and generally Epic is less crowded on weekends.

Bring collapsible water bottle(s) which you can fill for free with cold filtered water at the many Coke freestyle machines throughout the park. Or you could get one freestyle mug & share, take turns picking what drink to fill it with. Includes icees too.

Try to hit Hagrids around late lunch time or hop in line right at the end of the day. Do not go first thing in the morning without early entry, that will be the longest the line gets.

Note the water rides Popeyes Barges & Dudley Dooright flume will leave you soaked. The lockers for those are not free, you can bring bags on. There is a compartment on the barges which normally stays pretty dry (may want to put stuff in a big plastic bag in case), but expect anything on the flume to become soaked unless it is wrapped up. Feet/shoes too. These are waterproof sandal rides. You can also use the free lockers at Hulk or Forbidden Journey, you get the ride wait time plus 15min grace period - if the wait for one of those is nice and long, you are all set but don't go over the time or you will have to pay.

 

[la79al]

What kind of food were you planning to bring? Were you thinking about bringing sneaks or meals? What size bags were you planning to bring to the park? Were you planning on carrying the bag or bags with you all day?

People can give better recommendations if they know a bit more about the travel party. Any franchises/fandoms that anyone is really into? Do ride tolerances (susceptibility to motion sickness, ability to handle simulator rides, or rides that spin) need to be taken into consideration? Are you traveling with ride cowards, thrill seekers, something in between, or a mix of all of the above?

We were planning on bringing probably sandwiches and a few snacks. Not sure if we would leave these in the car or rent a locker at the front of the park. Not sure how far the walk back to the car might be. Carrying around all day doesn't seem like it will work with ride lockers. We aren't really picky eaters but everyone always wants something different so it's easier if we all just have to suffer through sandwiches instead.
We have a few Harry Potter fans so that will probably be our main focus. Most of us will ride anything except the ones that are super likely to cause motion sickness or the ones that get you super wet.

You might look at a hotel for one of the nights. Either Surfside/Dockside or a nearby off-site hotel, to save 2hrs drive & 2 days of parking garage costs. Bring an overnight bag.

3 day tickets have a use period of 5 days or so, make sure to pick the cheapest date that covers all the days you want to go. You don't have to have tickets that start on your first day, they just have to cover every day you want to go. (IE if your first day is a Sat you might find that buying tickets starting Thurs or Fri is cheaper).

Download the Universal App, for ride wait times, schedules, map, hours, etc. Has a lot of useful info.

The last few hours that the parks are open will be your shortest lines. If you aren't doing open to close (which is a long day with an hr+ drive on both ends), you will do better to hit the evening hours than the morning ones. Especially Epic! Make sure you can hang until the very end when nearly all the lines will be very short.

If you are going on a weekend day, try to put Epic on that day. The other parks are most crowded on weekends (esp Sat) and generally Epic is less crowded on weekends.

Bring collapsible water bottle(s) which you can fill for free with cold filtered water at the many Coke freestyle machines throughout the park. Or you could get one freestyle mug & share, take turns picking what drink to fill it with. Includes icees too.

Try to hit Hagrids around late lunch time or hop in line right at the end of the day. Do not go first thing in the morning without early entry, that will be the longest the line gets.

Note the water rides Popeyes Barges & Dudley Dooright flume will leave you soaked. The lockers for those are not free, you can bring bags on. There is a compartment on the barges which normally stays pretty dry (may want to put stuff in a big plastic bag in case), but expect anything on the flume to become soaked unless it is wrapped up. Feet/shoes too. These are waterproof sandal rides. You can also use the free lockers at Hulk or Forbidden Journey, you get the ride wait time plus 15min grace period - if the wait for one of those is nice and long, you are all set but don't go over the time or you will have to pay.

I have been looking at the hotel option and I'm currently leaning towards not doing that but that may change. Budget is the biggest concern and we have several more days in FL so I'm trying to decide if hotel money would be better spent here or doing a tiny beach trip at another point in the week.
I am looking at the ticket start day option and ordered collapsible water bottles. I downloaded the app already and was excited to see that I could already get info from it without adding tickets. I am also excited to see that lines get shorter later in the day. We are not morning people so we will have no problem making it to park close (plan is to also get there at opening but, kids). I am hoping to skip the water rides but the kids already informed me I will be doing Popeyes Barges with them. I'm secretly hoping for chillier weather but I have a feeling my husband will skip it and be on bag duty. I have included ponchos on my packing list and I'm pretty sure the kids will just be wearing crocs for the entire trip anyhow.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Those collapsible water bottles work great at the airport too. We discovered them a year ago and they have been great for both the airport and the parks. Then they just cram in a pocket when empty. So convenient, so much better than buying drinks.

The two main motion sickness culprits are Forbidden Journey and Simpsons. If spinning is your nemesis, also beware Men in Black.

You will probably be fine bringing sandwiches in a bag, the free lockers are reasonable size but flattish shaped. The smallest ones are just taller than a soda can but have more width and especially depth. You can also get multiple free lockers, one ticket/bar code per locker. You might start the day with a separate bag of sandwiches and snacks and by the end of the day that empty bag is rolled up and stuffed into your other park bag. Note you can also bring cans or bottles of soda/juice in (guess how I know how tall the lockers are).

That said, depending on how the weather is you might need to be conscious of what type of sandwiches and how long they can go unchilled - ie you probably don't want to be eating cold cuts that have been traipsing around park in 80 degree weather for 5hrs... In that case renting a locker for an insulated bag or leaving in the car in a cooler might work best.

The walk to the car isn't too bad depending on where you're parked, but not something that I'd intentionally plan for. I would estimate that the distance from the park entrance to the security hub is probably 2x the distance from the front of the park to the back, plus however far away you parked.

 

[la79al]

Those collapsible water bottles work great at the airport too. We discovered them a year ago and they have been great for both the airport and the parks. Then they just cram in a pocket when empty. So convenient, so much better than buying drinks.

The two main motion sickness culprits are Forbidden Journey and Simpsons. If spinning is your nemesis, also beware Men in Black.

You will probably be fine bringing sandwiches in a bag, the free lockers are reasonable size but flattish shaped. The smallest ones are just taller than a soda can but have more width and especially depth. You can also get multiple free lockers, one ticket/bar code per locker. You might start the day with a separate bag of sandwiches and snacks and by the end of the day that empty bag is rolled up and stuffed into your other park bag. Note you can also bring cans or bottles of soda/juice in (guess how I know how tall the lockers are).

That said, depending on how the weather is you might need to be conscious of what type of sandwiches and how long they can go unchilled - ie you probably don't want to be eating cold cuts that have been traipsing around park in 80 degree weather for 5hrs... In that case renting a locker for an insulated bag or leaving in the car in a cooler might work best.

The walk to the car isn't too bad depending on where you're parked, but not something that I'd intentionally plan for. I would estimate that the distance from the park entrance to the security hub is probably 2x the distance from the front of the park to the back, plus however far away you parked.

I think all of the kids are going to take fanny packs or similar size bags. I might make them do a trial run on what they are putting in their bags to see if we can just get away with one of those per person. I'm not completely delusional and I know we will end up buying food in the park but anything we don't have to buy would be helpful. I did mention the other day that we might just pack a completely disposable lunch and carry it locker to locker until it all just goes to the trash. This will be our first theme park trip where taking a stroller would look oddly out of place.