Need some serious US/IOA help!

[r4blessings]

Hi all! I've been to Disney 4 times in the last 9 years and DH and I are disney lovers! But we've been given a gift trip to the HHH during the Feb break to go with very DSIL and very DBIL and my two nieces! We can't wait and I've always wanted to try US/IOA. Both SIL and BIL love it there so we are going to celebrate DH's 40th birthday!

Anyway, what I've noticed is that their is not the same kind of obsessive compulsive planning I find with the disney go-ers, and so I'm a little panicky! Can you tell I"m one of the OCD planners?

It will be me, DH, ds9, ds8, dd4 and ds2, and I'm just looking for advice, suggestions on what to do, what not to miss, where to eat, etc! I would like to do a character meal, but can't seem to find any info on it. Also can't seem to find any info on the restaurants like I do on the disney dining board. Can any one help me plan my trip?

Thanks!

 

[RVGal]

There isn't as much of a need for the pre-planning at Universal as there is for Disney, so relax. I do know, however, all about wanting to have an idea of where I am going and what's good once I get there. I'm sure you'll get lots of help here.

First, I can help with the character breakfast. There is one at Confisco Grille in IOA. When we were there, we saw Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2, and Spiderman. There is also an extra charge on top of the listed price for juice or milk if you want it. From Universal's website: http://www.universalorlando.com/hd_new.html

Don’t Miss the Character Breakfast at Islands Of Adventure!

Breakfast is not just the most important meal of the day…now it’s the most fun!

Bring the whole family and enjoy breakfast with special animated characters and appearances at Islands of Adventure's Confisco Grille®, each Thursday through Sunday morning from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

The breakfast is $15.95 for Adults and $9.95 for children, plus tax and gratuity. Call 407-224-4012 for reservations.

I think some of the onsite hotels also have character meals, but I'm not sure when or what characters. Somebody else might?

The 8 and 9 year olds should be able to ride everything they want to. The 4 and 2 year olds might find some things that are height restrictive, but those things would not be age appropriate anyway. Mine were 5 and not quite 2 when we went back in May and they had a blast. At US, they loved the Barney show and Barney's Backyard Playground, the Animal Actors show, Curious George playground (some areas are wet play), Woody Woodpecker Rollercoaster (kinda like Goofys Barnstormer in MK), Fievel's playground, the ET ride, Jimmy Neutron, and Shrek 4-D.

Ooops, my dryer just buzzed at me so I must go shuffle laundry. I'm sure you'll get more replies, but I'll be back too.

 

[Spidey7]

The reason you don't have to do as much planning because if you stay at one of the onsite hotels, your room keys act as fast passes to all the rides so you basically don't have to wait in line for any of the rides. THis makes the whole thing much more fast and you can pretty much just follow the paths and do the rides at will. I would advise just following the paths the first day or 2. Get your bearings, then after that you can decide which rides you like the best and go from there.

Restaurants are: IOA: Mythos, Enchanted Oak (Mythos is a must do)
City Walk: Jimmy Buffets Margharitaville, Emerils
Royal P: Tchoup Chop and Jakes American Bar (I love Jakes) Main Universal park: Finnegans, Lombardis

 

[r4blessings]

Thank you! I am so excited, and I know we are going to have an awesome time! I will look into the character breakfast and I am thinking of having DH's birthday dinner at Margaritaville. Ds2 just loved goofy's barnstormer in Aug when we were at WDW, so he will probably love woody woodpeckers. And dd4 is a ride junkie (she actually went on TOT in Aug, and she is only 3 now, not turning 4 till Jan! She is tall, made the height and begged and begged. So I took her on and she loved it!)

Thank you so much!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

One place to look for more info is at allears.net. You can see ride descriptions and height restrictions, restaurant menus and more.

I second the staying on site for front of the line access. The resorts are a little pricey but they are deluxe and it's worth it just for the FOTL access.

My family went last Spring Break (2006) and didn't know a thing. We stayed offsite and didn't know much about US/IOA since it had been 12 years since we'd been to US.
You don't need to do tons of research but I wish we had done some because it would have helped with the crowds but we decided to wing it.
At the very least, I would have known to book an on-site resort to stay at.

We still had fun - we just weren't able to ride all the rides that we really wanted to.
I'm doing a do-over in July 2008 with just the kids and I so I've been using allears.net for the research.

Have fun playing at the "darkside".

 

[r4blessings]

We are staying onsite (Hard Rock Hotel) so I'm excited to see that that makes such a big difference!

I glanced at allears last night and will have to really get into it tonight once the little ones are in bed!

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Spidey7]

You'll have a blast, I like WDW too, but I think universal has surpassed it in so many ways, you'll love it. Its the best theme park in the world IMO.