New to Universal

deakam

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Mar 7, 2011
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I have been looking at the Universal website---really don't like it----anyway, I can not locate a place to make dining reservations. Is this even possible? I want to schedule a meal for The Three Broomsticks or the new Leaky Cauldron. The website states that both offer sit down dining experiences but does not say how to get a reservation. Also we are thinking about going the end of September beginning of October. I am assuming that the Horror nights will be starting around then. I do not wish to attend but am curious as to what time the parks close. Would also like to know if I need the Universal "fastpass" at that time of year. I realize that none of the Harry Potter experiences are going to have this option so is it even worth paying for especially since that is the big reason we are going to Universal, well that and Transformers which I don't think has the option either?
 
I have been looking at the Universal website---really don't like it----anyway, I can not locate a place to make dining reservations. Is this even possible? I want to schedule a meal for The Three Broomsticks or the new Leaky Cauldron. The website states that both offer sit down dining experiences but does not say how to get a reservation. Also we are thinking about going the end of September beginning of October. I am assuming that the Horror nights will be starting around then. I do not wish to attend but am curious as to what time the parks close. Would also like to know if I need the Universal "fastpass" at that time of year. I realize that none of the Harry Potter experiences are going to have this option so is it even worth paying for especially since that is the big reason we are going to Universal, well that and Transformers which I don't think has the option either?

if you stay onsite, you will recieve the express pass usage for ride/show lines.
off site, by purchase only.

if you stay away from the weekends, end of sept or early oct, you will miss HHN.
on nights HHN will be on, the studios will close at 5:00, with ioa probably at 7:00.

all other days parks will have closing at 6 most likely, some nights possibly at 7:00 pm.

most use opentable for eatery reservations but the ones you mentioned are not on that system.
the only time i have ever heard of ressies for the 3 B"s was in the first year it was opened, and that was for the breakfast hour only.

when i was last there in january, no system for reservations for the 3 B's.

leaky cauldron has not opened yet so no info on that part of your question.
 
Three Broomsticks is only "sit down" in the physical sense, you do sit at a table to eat your food once you've purchased it. It's not just a counter service window outside. You don't get reservations though. You stand in a queue to order, and once you have your food you are guided into the dining room and seated by a cast member. You cannot enter the dining room without first going through the line and purchasing food there.

It's a good system because the line moves decently quickly in our experience (and we were there on high crowd Christmas holiday week last year), plus you are guaranteed a place to sit (which doesn't necessarily happen at WDW).

No idea about Leaky Cauldron yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't work exactly the same way. They seem to be good at moving people through TTB at a pretty decent pace, and they don't have to deal with a reservations system, table servers, etc. I don't think they could serve as many people per mealtime with a traditional restaurant table service model.
 
Thanks for the quick responses. We are not planning on attending on a week-end. With the new Diagon Alley opening in June we were thinking that the mid week might be less crowded. Probably Tuesday and Wednesday.We are more than likely staying at Disney, will be a definite if they come out with free dining, but we wanted to try TTB maybe for lunch. My son wants to try Bubba Gump Shrimp as well. Can I get a reservation for that?

Any thoughts on the $89 cost for the Universal pass? With 2 full days will we need them. We are not adverse to using single rider. I just really do not want to spend the majority of our trip standing in line. I have considered staying on site but then I have to consider the increase in hotel costs----we stay at a moderate at Disney----plus the cost of transportation from the Airport or to the Airport plus the move from or to Disney.
 

The only three in park restaurants that accept reservations are Lombard's Seafood Grille and Finnegan's Bar and Grill at USF and Mythos at IoA, and you have to contact the reservation lines for the parks to set them up. Places out in CityWalk do, but overall in park "dining" is much less formal at UO than it is at WDW.
 
Do yourself a favor and stay onsite at one of the 3 hotels that offer the express pass. The new hotel does not.

It is well worth it. Even if you will be visiting Disney and staying there, switching hotels would be well worth it. You can fit so much more in within a short time. Halloween horror nights is also well worth it and I'd highly recommend it - RIP Tour is also very much worth it as you can see everything at HHN in one single night. It's not cheap, but such a great experience.

We only go once a year roughly and end up spending just a 2-3 day weekend there. We can do everything during the day and see all of HHN in that time. All due to staying onsite and the RIP tour. Without it, we could still ride all the rides, but would not get to ride as many times as we do.
 
onsite room rates for m-th for the last week of sept and the first week of oct are generally at a good rate.

if you have AAA, it gives a decent discount for the rooms.

in past years, the above time period has been a slow time.
with parry hotter 2 coming out this summer, can't say for sure how the crowd flow will become.

won't know until we start reading reports on the attendance levels at the parks.
 
At this point we have NO idea exactly how the new expansion is going to impact the park crowds /dynamics.It will DEFINITELY drive up crowds in both parks,but how much is not known.October is usually slower, but I am doubting it will be as slow as it has been in years past. Express pass will likely not help with the HP stuff, BUT EARLY ENTRY will and that is another perk of staying onsite.Express pass is good at all shows and attractions except: Pteranodon flyers, HP Forbidden Journey and Ollivanders wands show.The new stuff at HP( Hogwarts express and escape from Gringotts ) will likely not offer it either.

Keep in MIND a few other things ...You WILL need PARK TO PARK tickets if you want to ride the Hogwarts express
Bubba Gumps does not take reservations.
and
on certain nights , Halloween Horror nights closes the studios at 5pm and IOA will close between 7-8pm
 
I know this doesn't really answer your question but we are going to Disney and US in October and decided to stay onsite at both since we are also going to Sea World. I also asked a few months ago (when we were trying to decide between staying at a hotel with it and without) if it was worth it to have the Express Pass in October and the replies I got convinced me to pay the extra for the hotel with the pass. I'm also hoping that the extra hour in the morning will be worth changing resorts. Are you using a Travel agent? Ours was able to quickly give me a price that included the transfers from Disney to US and then from US to the airport.

I so agree with you about Universal's website…as someone who hasn't been to US since I was a kid, I'm finding it much more difficult to plan that portion of our trip than the Disney part. Universal needs a Moms panel, lol.
 





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