New Universal Visitor

[Miss Stitch]

I will be visiting Universal parks in september coming from the UK. I have not been before although I have been to Orlando in 2005 but just did Disney. We were disappointed that time that we could not go to Universal due to staying in LBV and not having a car. (taxi too expensive). So we decided to return mainly for a visit to Universal.

We are staying on I Drive, so that we are inbetween everything, and dont drive. We have bought the 14 day unlimited access to both Universal parks. My DH and I will be travelling with 3 kids, all boys aged 14, 12 and 8.

My question is what shall I not miss? Please give me some tips? I didnt find the DIS till after my last trip, and missed a lot of things at Disney, dont want to do the same at Universal.

My DS14 and DS8 love coasters but my DS12 hates any rides, but loves shows etc. They love meeting characters. How intense are things like Earthquake, Spiderman and twister? What characters can they meet, they love Crash Bandicoot (so do I!!) Can we meet him? How can we get to Universal from I-Drive?

Please help to make our visit great!

 

[t-and-a]

I will be visiting Universal parks in september coming from the UK. I have not been before although I have been to Orlando in 2005 but just did Disney. We were disappointed that time that we could not go to Universal due to staying in LBV and not having a car. (taxi too expensive). So we decided to return mainly for a visit to Universal.

We are staying on I Drive, so that we are inbetween everything, and dont drive. We have bought the 14 day unlimited access to both Universal parks. My DH and I will be travelling with 3 kids, all boys aged 14, 12 and 8.

My question is what shall I not miss? Please give me some tips? I didnt find the DIS till after my last trip, and missed a lot of things at Disney, dont want to do the same at Universal.

My DS14 and DS8 love coasters but my DS12 hates any rides, but loves shows etc. They love meeting characters. How intense are things like Earthquake, Spiderman and twister? What characters can they meet, they love Crash Bandicoot (so do I!!) Can we meet him? How can we get to Universal from I-Drive?

Please help to make our visit great!

Earthquake, Spiderman and Twister are not very intense. Your 12 year old should be fine on those. At IOA in Seuss Landing, you can meet Dr. Seuss characters, like the Grinch, the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, at Marvel Island you can meet Marvel characters like Spiderman, Wolverine, Storm, and others. At US, you will see Doc Brown (Back to the Future), Madagascar characters, Jimmy Neutron, Dora the Explorer, Scooby and Shaggy, Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona, the Blues Brothers, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball. There are more, but I can't think of them right now.
Your DS14 and DS 8 will probably LOVE Revenge of the Mummy, Hulk, and Dueling Dragons. Your DS12 could probably do a couple of coasters, like the Flying Unicorn and the Woody Woodpecker Nuthouse Coaster. If you can talk him into riding something more intense, you may be surprised! My older son was 12 on our last trip and hated coasters. We talked him into riding Dueling Dragons and he absolutely LOVES all the coasters now!

I could go on, but I have to leave for work now. If nobody comes back to help, I'll be back later....

Have fun!

 

[robvia]

Welcome aboard.

Staying 14 days will give you plenty of time to visit Universal. You'll even have time to visit Sea World of Florida and Busch Gardens Tampa.

What hotel are you staying at on I-Drive?
If you visit a site like maps.yahoo.com you can type in the hotel address, and the address of the Hard Rock Hotel to get directions and see how far away you are. The HRH is located literally next to USF.
Hard Rock Hotel
5800 Universal Blvd
Orlando FL 32819

Most hotels have a shuttle where you pay a small fee. They leave the hotel around 9am, and pick up at 5pm. If the hotel doesn't have a shuttle service, then you'll have to hire a taxi or limo service each day. If you keep reading this forum, you'll see threads where people recommend limo services. September has very light crowds, you are coming at the best time possible. In the morning, the parks will be a ghost town, in the afternoon there are more crowds.

To get to Busch Gardens Tampa from Sea World of Florida, they have a shuttle for a small fee, you can visit the Sea World Web site for info
https://secure.mearstransportation.com/MearsExpress/BuschGardens.asp

 

[Miss Stitch]

We are staying a Hawthorn suites, just off I Drive, on the I Drive Trolley route, on westwood boulevard nr. SW. Am thinking about visiting SW and KSC. We will also do a day at each Disney Park, which will leave plenty of time for US, we dont do rest days lol like to be on the go all the time.

Think it would be cheaper for us to go on the trolley as far up I Drive as poss to US and then a taxi from there, as our hotel only does shuttles to Disney.

Any tips would be welcome as I so looking forward to going,

 

[robvia]

The Hawthorne Suites is located at
6435 Westwood Blvd
32821

You are half a mile from Sea World of Florida. The walk is about 15 minutes and can be done. Bring up maps.yahoo.com and type that address in and you'll see SWF below your location.

I don't think you'd save much money taking the I-Trolley up I-Drive and then switching to a Taxi. Taxi's charge by distance, and going up I-Drive is only a couple miles, then one more to Universal. The best idea is to take a taxi the entire way, or a limo service. One time when I was at the Amerisuites, some people hired a limo to take them over to Universal. I joined them and pitched in with the money. So you may find a group of people willing to hire a limo to take you to Universal and back as opposed to a taxi. I'm sure people at the front desk of the hotel will have ideas when you arrive. They might have a favorite limo service that takes people to Universal and back.

The drive over to KSC is 1.5 hours, you'll need a tour bus for that.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

With that kind of time, you'll have plenty of time to do everything at both parks and then do all your favorites again and again! Definately go to Sea World too! I was so impressed with SW and US--much better than I remembered 12 years ago! And IOA was just as great as I remembered!