Itinerary help

[saraheli]

We will be at Universal April 11-13. I purchased a 3 day Park to Park ticket. We are staying at Royal Pacific, so will have express passes and early entry. Can someone please help me come up with an itinerary? Traveling with 2 girls age 10 and 6, I think my older one will not have any height restrictions but my younger daughter is around 45 inches so there are some rides she won't be able to go on. I'm finding planning to be overwhelming, I just want an itinerary we can stick to that will allow us to see everything but allow us to relax a little since we'll be there 3 days. the only thing i've booked so far is Mythos on Day 2 at 2pm. Any help will be super appreciated!!

 

[jagafen]

In general, there isn't a whole lot to putting together an itinerary (it's not like Disney-intensive), and the EPs will be INVALUABLE during your stay as far as reducing waits and helping you to see everything. I'd start with whichever park has early entry, and hit the Harry Potter attractions on that side of the park. I think the only rides your youngest won't be able to go on are Rip Ride Rocket and Revenge of the Mummy in US, and Incredible Hulk Coaster, Dr. Doom's fearfall, Forbidden Journey (Harry potter), and Dragon Challenge (Harry potter) in IOA.

Depending upon how flexible your youngest is, you may be able to do child swap with the 16 y/o so that she can go on the bigger thrill rides. If your youngest won't be too upset by that, that is. For us, we have a family rule (easier, since we only have 1 child), that we won't go on any ride that kiddo isn't big enough for (being a short family, back in 2012 when we last went, DS was just over 48"). So we didn't do any of the thrillier rides.

The thing I like about Universal, especially with the express passes, is that you don't really have to worry about intensive itinerary planning. Once you do the Harry Potter lands, you're free to hit the rest of the parks as you'd like. IF you're doing early entry every morning, you could probably do US one day (starting with HP), IOA another (starting with HP), and then on your last day, hit your favorites again, using the train to commute to the other park...

There are a couple good planning sites too. I like Orlandoinformer.com for park info, and touringplans.com for their touring plans. The latter is a paid subscription (I think $7 for a year of access to their plans and customization for the Universal part of the site), but well worth the $$ considering the $$ you're dropping on vacation...it's the price of a butterbeer, to put it in perspective!

 

[schumigirl]

Staying onsite you really don't need a touring plan for Universal.

Check out the website with park maps and layouts .......... www.universalorlando.com

Familiarise yourself with where the rides that your family want to do are and plan accordingly.......you know what your family is interested in doing. Also, the website has a list of all rides with height restrictions so you'll know in advance what if any, your younger child can't do.

Restaurant, hotels and Citywalk info are all on the website. Also the stickies on these boards have a wealth of info.......

 

[hm8453a]

I totally understand the stress. I'm from FL originally and my family used to go 4-5 times a year when I was little, so the parks are sort of second nature to me. I do have some random tips I can give, but in terms of general planning, it may be useful to include the whole family. Let everyone get psyched for it. Maybe you can print out the maps (there are only two, so it's not a lot of paper nor ink), and go through all of the attractions with your girls and anyone else who may be going. Have everyone talk about what excites them. Then, you can plan to go around counter to where the sun will be and when, if that makes sense. Good idea, booking Mythos. It gets crowded, and it's a great restaurant. With air conditioning. I would suggest going back to the hotel after lunch, changing into bathing suits, and then doing any water rides in the afternoon. The sun will dry everyone off, and you could even go back to the hotel to change again if you want. Royal Pacific is only like a ten minute walk. And going back to the hotel in the afternoon means everyone will be energized and ready to head back and stay a little bit later, do the water parks and anything else.

 

[janicept]

With 3-day park to park with early entry and EP you won't have any trouble seeing everything you want and many things more than once. I guess it must be spring break time since some of the APs have blockout days then. It's been awhile since I've stayed at Royal Pacific but if you get to the boat and lines are really long you can walk to the park. The path comes out between Margaritaville and IOA. Maybe someone that was there last year at spring break could say more specifically how bad the lines are for the boats early am. Getting in the full hour of early entry is important. I was there with my family at Thanksgiving without EPs but I have Premier pass for early entry. We went to Minions first since I knew lines later w/ no EP would be crazy. We got to Gringotts by 8:20 and waited in line an hour before getting on the ride. The only comfort we had was that technically if they hadn't got in early it would have been way worse. There are limited rides open at early entry so you can only ride those for the first hour and look around.

If you want to go to the Olivander's wand shop show go to the Studios side. They have many more shows running and less wait - there are also no EPs taken here. You'll see the huge line at IOA for this - it's crazy. The early entry schedule isn't up yet for you timeframe so just check back in a week or so for planning. https://ww2.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/early-park-admission/index.html#universal-studios-florida

I like to ride the HP train at the end of the early entry time since the lines are short plus is doesn't take EPs. When it's not crowded you can take time through the line. Just let people go past you if you're stopping to take pics and don't feel like you have to rush through. The line is half the fun of the ride. The train holds a ton of people so you will likely be on the same train as all the people that may go past you. My first trip after the train opened (in the afternoon) I waited in line 45 minutes - at a slow time of the year. Now if I switch parks and the train line is long I just go out to CityWalk and walk around.

If it gets really crazy during the day you can always go back to the hotel or just go out to CityWalk. You can also take the boats to other hotels. I noticed the parks are open 9 am to 10 pm during your trip; those are long days. There is also an AMC movie theater at CityWalk.

Another tip would be that if you want to see the Cinematic Spectacular show do that the first night. Then on the other days during that time you can go into the HP areas when it will be much less crowded. Easier to take pics or use your wands w/o as much of a line. I personally don't care for this night show. They project old movie clips onto falling water and have fireworks. You definitely don't need to see it more than once.

Here is a link to height requirements. https://ww2.universalorlando.com/we...ts/index.html#universals-islands-of-adventure

I almost forgot since I've never ridden it but if you want to go on Ptaradon Flyers there's some type of ticket thing that you get then come back at a certain time. If your little ones want to ride you might do a specific search for it. Or just check it out your first day and if it doesn't work out try again another day.

Don't forget to go to the Dinosaur Encounter in Jurassic Park. It's toward the HP side near the Discovery Center I think it's called. There will also be a long line for this if you wait, no EPs here either. It usually opens around 10 am. You can check it out on Youtube. They take pics with your camera for you also. There is a place behind Discovery Center where you can get good pics of the park across the water. It's never busy since it's off the main area.

I've also never done this but I think there is a line through Forbidden Journey you can walk through to just take pics and not ride.

 

[hm8453a]

I've also never done this but I think there is a line through Forbidden Journey you can walk through to just take pics and not ride.

There is! There is also the single rider line, which I highly recommend. Your entire group will be together while you wait, and during the ride, you won't be talking anyway. They frequently pull from the single rider line, sometimes for every vehicle. I highly recommend using it. It will save a lot of time, sometimes upwards of an hour. If you're concerned about keeping the group together, A parent can go first and then wait at the exit for the children.