First Universal trip in 10 years US, IOA with 5 year old son...the good, bad and ugly

[3DisneyNUTS]

This is part one of a long series of trip reports.
Cast
Dh 36
ME 35
DS 5
MIL &
FIL early sixties

Since we own DVC we will report seperately on our stay at SSR and touring Universal with 5 year old child with special needs. I will also be doning a ride by ride comparison list of my opion of Universal attractions compared with similar Disney ones.

Ok let me start by saying I was a little nervous because we are Disney addicts and this trip was planned to go to Universal only but staying at SSR since we own there. So I was worried that we would miss the Disney parks especially with everything Disney being in our face at the resort. Well that worry was for nothing. While there are things I like better at Disney there is alot I like better at Universal. This shocked me.

We arrived on Sunday May 7th. We did a day at the resort just mulling around since everything seemed to take longer than expected. The flight arrived early 9:20am but getting the rental car (alamo wait at counter 30 minutes), getting out of the airport parking lot (35 minute wait in line) the stop at Target for snacks and stuff for the room....plus instead of renting a stroller we bought one at Target for $50. I will detail the stroller on my post in disabilities. Lets just say we loved it. Check in at SSR was crowded we waited there about 20 minutes so when we finally sat down to "breakfast" it was 1:30!!!!!!!!

After eating and dropping the stuff in the room we went for a dip in the pool. My opinions about SSR changed GREATLY on this trip and I will detail that in my SSR report in the DVC boards. Lets just say the main pool was CROWDED! I lost count at over 90 people in the pool and not counting the loungers. 90 wouldn't be alot if the pool was bigger but I am sorry to say the concerns about pool size for this resort are warranted on the DVC boards.

So after eating at Bongos (really good) in DTD westside we called it a night with a little shopping. We wanted to be rested for our first trip to Universal in 10 years the following morning.

We arrived at Universal at about 10am. We parked and walked and walked and walked. That seems to be a negative. I know that Disney properties are much bigger but the 'feeling' of a far walk is stronger at Universal IMO. The sterile garages and the unthemeing walking in makes the walk feel long. We were pleasantly surprised to see how nice City Walk is. Not everything is done being under construction alot of signage saying that things will be done this summer.But the place is really awesome. Small but really nice. The themeing of citywalk is very exciting. It is nice to see the variety of restaurants and eateries.

We decided to do IOA first since our son is a Jurrasic Park nut. Our first experience with the team member at guest services unfortunately wasn't pleasant. I will detail it in the disabilities board but my son needs a GAP and my experiences with Disney while nervewracking they have been smooth. This instance the team member made me cry.

Picking up the tickets we purchased online was a breeze. The kiosks are really easy to use and there were plenty of them. My MIL forgot the credit card she used so she needed to go to guest services also. That was hadled easily.

We went into the park and we love the themeing. You can definitely tell it is a newer park. We also loved how even though it is small (relative to the Disney parks) the use of the space is amazing. We were close to alot and went right away past the hulk ride to the spiderman ride. My son LOVED this as did we. We have to say hands down this was the best ride at IOA. We were also impressed by the little dining info reservation stands in the park. They had menus available to look at and could make priority seating arrangements.

We headed over to the Jurrasic Park section and we did the river adventure which our son also loved. We olauyghed so hard at the end when we got wet the picture came out great! Also Dh went on the Ptererdon flyers with Ds they loved that too. Along with the kids cave park play climb area.

I still must say we loved the themeing of this park. We were also pleasantly surprised with how much there is for a 5 year old to enjoy. The food is better at Universal than our more recent past experiences with Disney dining. We ate at Mythos and loved it. I actually left craving their salad! I also got the tempura sushi and that was great Dh ordered the Pad Thai and loved that too. Ds went with old faithful pizza and that was a hit. The service was fantastic. FIL and MIL liked what they got too. FIL ordered the chefs special pizza and MIL ordered a flatbread appetizer.

There is a greek inspired attracton across from Mythos that we loved. It was really great and the guy that did the acting (Taylor) was amazing! We were totally wowed! I am sorry I forget the name but when I write my compariuson report later I will look up the names.

The amount of time we got to see characters was awesome too. They seem to put many out at once so there isn't a line at each one. Even though the park was busy this week with alot of school groups and youth organizations it still wasn't insanely crowded.

We also loved Suess's Landing. Those rides were really cute for younger kids and tthe Cat in the hat should not be missed by adults either. It was fun.

Since we had a 5 day pass we took our time to do everything. It was nice to have that much time plus IMO if you don't like going commando 5 days is the perfect amount of time to enjoy the parks. We visited IOA 3 ad a half days and US one and a half.

US is a little more familiar to us since alot has remained unchanged since our visit 10 years ago. We did the old faithfuls like jaws, earthquake, T2, back to the future and the animal stars show then we went on to the newbies for us Twister, MIB, Mummy and Shrek. MIB was cute and the themeing of the mummy was awesome. We also loved the twister attraction. Shrek was so cute. The jabs at Disney are hysterical. It was really cool that the exit to the show leads right to the character area. It seems that the characters enjoy themselves a little more. It seems like they are less scripted than the Disney characters. It made it fun.

Also before I forget the character breakfast at Confisco's is definitely worth the $$. The breakfast is simple but good and the charaters again seem less scripted and are allowed to be fun. Spiderman that was there this past Thursday morning May 11th was GREAT! They were all really awesome. We had a blast there.

Now for the negatives.......there are not many and we cannot wait to go back so it wasn't that negative to us....

Having to walk through city walk to get to parking is a little annoying especially with older family members. I like getting out of the park and being out of the park. Having to walk through another attraction area to get out gets old quick. It is my comparison of having to walk through DTD when you get out of MK. Being tired and just wanting to get back to the car having that menatlly gets annoying. While DH and I are not physically impaired my inlaws were definitely complaining about that part. I am sure we would complain about it too if we didn't have the stroller. Having a tired kid complaining about the walk would have made us insane.

Dueling dragons only being open on Friday Sat Sun was odd. I understand it is a slower time of year but that was strang.

Preferred parking is a huge rip off. Basically it is parking on the same level as the attraction enterance. You could be farther away from the enterance but still on the same level so that makes it more $$$. Paying regular price still may give you closer parking just an elevator or esaclator ride away. 3 out of 5 days we were closer with regular parking than the day we paid extra. What a rip!

I am on the fence about having to pay for express pass. It definitely allows for cheaper ticket prices. But if you add in that option for 5 days it is $100 per person more. Making the ticket price closer to Disney prices. I guess it is nice to have the option though. So I am not sure if that is a negative or not. The cheaper ticket prices definitely open the park up to groups and at times the kids were completely unattended running amouk. But that is techincally not UNiversals problem it is poor supervision on the groups side.

So all in all we LOVED Universal. Did we miss going into the Disney Parks. NOT ONE BIT! I am so happy we did this and look forward to our next universal trip.

Oh yeah we ate at Tchoup Chop and it was AWESOME. That resort is amazing. We are actually jealous it is nicer (from the grounds POV than SSR!

I definitely recommend Tchoup Chop. It was awesome!!!!!!

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Oh yeah I completely forgot about this. It seems like Universal likes to make their guests feel appreciated through discounts. I am a member of the fan club so that was 10% off merchandise in the parks. I received a coupon booklet for doing an online survey which had dining, shopping and ticket discounts that were better than 10%. We had to bring a confirmation printout to the Univseral studio store in the parks to pick it up.

That is the one thing that really gets my goat about Disney. DVC gets no mrrechandise discounts even at our home resort and definitely not on park merch. Even being an annual pass holder gave discounts with strings...only available at breakfast, not lunch, dinner only at this shop in DTD.


It seems that just by giving this discount Universal figured out how to keep me in the park and got me to spend more $$ there. Plus making guests feel appreciated.

 

[lindalinda]

Thanks for the report. I know what you mean about the parking, I would suggest valet parking when you go back next time. It puts you right at the escalator and the moving sidewalks. I am not sure the price now, last time I did it it was 16$. I think its definitely worth it, esp. for your in-laws sake. I am curious about the issues with your DS and guest services? I hope it was resolved, I hate to hear about problems like that.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Thanks I think next time we are doing an us only trip (haven't done that in a few years) and we will stay onsite. The RPR looked beautiful!!!!!


Here is the link to the disabilities thread with the guest services experience.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=12680479#post12680479

 

[gschmerl]

The attraction across from Mythos is Poseidon's Fury.
So glad you had a great time.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

The attraction across from Mythos is Poseidon's Fury.
So glad you had a great time.

Thanks!!! That was amazing! The water part was so cool.

 

[lindalinda]

3disneynuts, I read you rpost on the disabilities board. I think you should definitely email guest services about it. I'm sure it would be useful info for them, and they would need to make sure ppl are trained properly.

Glad you had such a good time. I cant wait to go now!

Ppl hardly ever mention posiedons fury, or Sinbad either, I love them both!

 

[phamton]

Dueling dragons only being open on Friday Sat Sun was odd.

Dueling Dragons was closed for refurbishment but was opening on Fridays and Saturdays during the rehab.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Dueling Dragons was closed for refurbishment but was opening on Fridays and Saturdays during the rehab.

OHHHHHHHHHHH I got it well that is good then at least people had the option to ride it


and Linda I think I will email guest services.

Autism is a brain disorder and there are thousands of brain disorders that have identical issues but are not technically autism. I think I will explain it that way. Our son is a stroke survivor but letting people know that he had a stroke they just look at me like "what babies have strokes?" forget about adding the inutero part.......

SO if I explain it this way I think they will understand better.

 

[phamton]

Guest Services is not trained in medical issues. Your son's medical diagnosis is private and, as such, they can't really discuss medical issues. Just as a deaf person might not say they have nerve damage, it is just much easier to say, they need an interpreter or a clicker that turns on the closed captioning. Just say that he has autism-like symptoms and other medical problems and as such can't be waiting in long lines. Your best solution is a GAP Express and a GAP family room. That way some of your party can go through express while you wait in the family room with your child. Then when they reach the ride load area, you can join them on the ride. You won't be waiting long and your child will have an airconditioned area to wait in, away from the crowds.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Guest Services is not trained in medical issues. Your son's medical diagnosis is private and, as such, they can't really discuss medical issues. Just as a deaf person might not say they have nerve damage, it is just much easier to say, they need an interpreter or a clicker that turns on the closed captioning. Just say that he has autism-like symptoms and other medical problems and as such can't be waiting in long lines. Your best solution is a GAP Express and a GAP family room. That way some of your party can go through express while you wait in the family room with your child. Then when they reach the ride load area, you can join them on the ride. You won't be waiting long and your child will have an airconditioned area to wait in, away from the crowds.

Yeah see in our case the epilepsy is the biggest problem. He has all the similar traits of autism but we have been doing ALOT of behavior modification. I actually use the waits in line to teach my son patience. He can handle about 30 top 45 minute wait and then it gets hairy. What I felt the TM wasn't 'getting' was that when Chris has a seizure we have to get out of the line and wait for him to recover then get back in line without the GAP we would never get a thing done. Sometimes his seizures knock him out from 30 minutes to 2 hours. He would lose it if he had to wait in line repeatedly without the reward of going on the ride KWIM? So when he is having frequent seizures we don't attempt to wait since he could have one at any minute but when they are under somewhat of control we us the GAP only when we need to leave the line and come back. In additition to helping him learn patience it teaches him not to take advantage of something KWIM?

Like this past trip we only had him have about 1 hour and a half of being out of it sleeping in the stroller from the meds. Last Sept he was having about 7 seizures a day. He was more in recovery mode all day than not. So this trip we were able to wait on lines and have him be patient (knowing the ride is the reward is a great motivator for him)

After trying to explain all of this to the TM he made it get medical since he kept suggesting the family centers which would not work for us. It teaches Chris nothing about waiting and it would make him feel like he was in a hospital doctors office which would escalate his behavior. Even with the GAP the small waits teach Chris to wait and get the reward. If he wasn't experincing any line at all it would not help his development.

It may sound crazy that I have to analyze it so much but in such a crowded environment I have learned that if I do it right my son can learn hundreds of life skills at a theme park.

 

[samepoohdifferentday]

Thank you for your report. We are planning to stay on Disney property (VWL)and travel to Universal parks for 5 days. Did you find the drive back and forth from Disney to Universal long?

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Thank you for your report. We are planning to stay on Disney property (VWL)and travel to Universal parks for 5 days. Did you find the drive back and forth from Disney to Universal long?

Nope about 20 minutes. It is an easy drive. I would say if you have small children or people who can't walk a distance to get a stroller or see if there is a way to drop the people off. My FIL had a hard time with the walk from the parking to the enterance. My son had a stroller so he was fine. It is $10 a day to park and $14 for preferred we were actually closer on the days we parked regular. The preferred just gives you the same level as the parks enterance. Where with regular you may be one level up or down but there are elevators and escalators. We were actually closer with regular parking and had to go one flight down usually.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.