My husband and I did a non-private tour in June. It was the 2 park tour. Forgive me in advance, but I forget things so I may not be able to give you the best details. Also, I know I’ll give the synopsis out of order. So my apologies.
Shortly before the tour, like a week, few days(?), Universal sent an email with check-in instructions. We booked a 9:30am tour. The email told us to be AT the check-in desk 30 mins early. Of course, we arrived earlier than that. Maybe 45-50 mins. They scanned our park tickets, gave us a VIP lanyard and directed us to the restaurant. Checked in at the podium and the hostess directed us to our table. She said, “this is your tor group for the day.” And sat us at the table with them. Some of the other tour folks were already there but some arrived after we did. There were other tables with other groups. It was a buffet with hot food. We ate and introduced ourselves to each other. Small talk. Tip: grab water bottles to carry around from the buffet. We also took pics by a little VIP backdrop. Nothing fancy.
As breakfast wrapped up, our tour guide came over and introduced herself. She asked if anyone had any must-dos or any aversions. There were two children in our group. Both boys about 10. They wanted to do “the big rides” and none of the adults objected.So pretty much we agreed to do the major attractions. 4 of the adults were huge Harry Potter fans so tour guide agreed to keep that in mind.
We went right outside the restaurant and the tour guide gave us a rundown of the day. She explained that most of the rides were entered through back doors so if you like the theming in the lines, you’ll miss most of it.
We rode Transformers, Mummy, Jimmy Kimmel (Hashtag was in the “off limits” back area that we got to tour. The little boy was excited), Hulk, all the Harry Potter rides (I think there are 4(?) including Hagrid’s, Spider-Man, Kong, Jurassic Park (tour guide said they don’t usually do water rides because the whole group might not want to get wet. But we all did. It was sweltering. NONE of us got wet on the ride. Ugh), Rip-Ride-Rock It and maybe some others but I don’t remember. Minions was closed when we went so we couldn’t ride it. We toured the back offices of the Studio Lots too.
In the middle of all this, we had lunch in the same restaurant as breakfast. It was really good. It was a also a buffet with a large selection. At the end of the day, we rode the Harry Potter roller coaster. Not Hagrid’s. The one with a bird on it(?). Sorry I don’t know the name of it. I have never read or seen Harry Potter books/movies. I didn’t ride because I was too afraid it would be super bumpy like RRR. We walked from Universal Studios to IOA through a back hidden shortcut. We came out in Seuss Land.
When the tour was over, the guide pretty much said that’s it. Have fun. But much more eloquently. The little boy and his parents went off to ride more rides. Some others left the park. We were in IOA and I wanted to ride Minions. So the guide took us and the folks that were left to the park-to-park train through the back way for our last VIP perk and we rode back to Universal. My husband decided he was tired of walking so I didn’t ride Minions. But I got a Butter Beer so I was happy about that.
Random stuff: my feet hurt BADLY. It was pretty much constant walking the whole day. There are no lines so you’re just walking from ride to ride and no standing around waiting. Prepare for that. The tour guide holds all the bags. We didn’t know that. My husband and two of the other husbands had backpacks. They felt so bad giving everything to her to tote while we were on rides. Minimize what u carry if you can. At the beginning, literally we got on the 2nd ride and when we came off, one of the little boys was gone. The tour guide told us his mom said he was autistic and it was too much stimulus. With an odd number of people, sometimes someone had to ride in the car/row by themselves. But she usually switched up who. The tour guide would tell us how the ride was set up beforehand. Like we would walk up to outside, she would give the backstory and ride history, maybe fun facts, and she’d say, for example, “this ride is rows of 4. I’m going to put u in rows of 3. Sansa,Jon,Rob then Peggy,Bud,Al, then Steph,Lebron,Kobe.” She mixes up the combos too. It was very organized that way and not awkward for people who may be uncomfortable picking partners. But of course on two people rides, parties of two rode together. We didn’t really go into any stores. We would duck in to cool off in the air conditioning. We stopped at restrooms whenever someone needed to go. The only shopping we did was a candy store in Harry Potter land (?) and we paused once during the tour so people could buy butter beers and try to use their wands under an umbrella(?). One of our tour mates was sorta miffed that we didn’t stop to look at the pictures the take while you’re riding. We were just go,go,go. I mean, we would take a few seconds to look them over. But the tour didn’t stop to give you time to get in line to buy.
Disclaimer: please do not flame me. This was my 1st trip. I liked the park but I don’t have a personal investment in it. I don’t know the names of rides/etc. It’s just a fun day to me. Fun enough that I’ll be returning in December 2019 and then
HHN 2020. The VIP tour was so worth it. Because I had never been, I wanted to be surprised. But you can’t be surprised if you have to make a ride plan so you can maximize your visit on a June day. This way I just went along with the flow and didn’t miss anything. Plus we were only there for one day and I wanted to get the most bang for my buck. I would pay for it again in a heartbeat. Lastly, at the end of the tour, your VIP credential becomes an Unlimited Express Pass! So if you planned to buy the express pass anyway, subtract the cost of the pass from the tour cost and that’s the true cost of the tour (if you’re staying offsite) which is even more super worth it.
I tried to not be too random, but again, my mind does it’s own thing. So if you have any questions, hopefully I’ll see them to answer. I don’t get on here much.
And I figured this way, we'll get all, if not most of the rides we'd want to do all out the first day and the second day can be for relaxed shows, shopping and dining. There's not a whole lot of detailed info however on Universal's site about the VIP tour. Hoping someone who's been on it can answer some questions for me. Here are some questions I had:
