***OI Meetup*** June 3-4, 2022

[RocketCityMama]

Hello friends! The "next" meetup is on June 3-4, 2022 and tickets went on sale 12/14 at 10 EST. So tell us about you, how many meetups have you been to? How many are in your family? Where are you staying and how many days?

What we know so far

On Friday and Saturday, June 3-4, 2022, Orlando Informer is taking over Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure. Beginning at 5:00 pm, you'll have access to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ - Hogsmeade™ & Diagon Alley™, Marvel Super Hero Island®, Jurassic Park, and more.

Friday, June 3: Universal's Islands of Adventure will close to the public at 8:00 pm. Universal Studios Florida will close to the public at 9:00 pm. Our Orlando Informer Meetup will conclude at 1:30 am.

Saturday, June 4: Universal Studios Florida will close to the public at 8:00 pm. Universal's Islands of Adventure will close to the public at 9:00 pm. Our Orlando Informer Meetup will conclude at 1:30 am.

** it looks Royal Pacific, Hard Rock and Aventura hotels are all sold out for the meetup price currently, so keep checking back if one of those interest you!

 

[RocketCityMama]

So I will start I am Frances, have been married for nearly 22 years (we'll celebrate our anniversary when we visit!) and we have 3 girls (21, 16 and 11), only one will be coming with us this time, the youngest. The other 2 have "jobs" that keep them too busy LOL their loss This will be our 3rd meetup, we did June 2021 and Nov 2021 and enjoyed them immensely and can't wait to come back! We are staying at Hard Rock (booked the room right at 10 am this morning) and are dates are June 1-June 8 (we arrive in Fl on June 2).

We are excited and can't wait to come back, which will probably be our last visit for awhile. Our AP's expire I think in Sept if I remember, so we wanted to use them one more time! Of course, I could be lured back for another winter meetup LOL

 

[Darrah]

Hi! Darrah here. This will be our 2nd meetup (June 2021 was our first), but our 6th(?) trip to UO. Four of us will be attending: DH, me, DD (15 at time of travel) and our 17 yo exchange student before she heads home to Italy. Last year we took our previous exchange student to the meetup, so I guess you could say it's a tradition now? LOL We managed to snag RPR rooms right at 10, though not without some panic on my part because the site got really laggy and I was afraid it was going to error out on me. We debated HRH, but we love RPR too much to try something new.

We'll be there June 2-5, but we arrive in Florida on the 1st so we can hit Siesta Key for a day before we make our way inland.

I don't feel like we were very stratetic with our first meetup, so I'm hoping to maximize our investment this time. We still had a blast, but we were kind of helter-skelter. We haven't decided yet if we'll do daytime tickets or not. We did them last year and it was nice to be able to come and go all day, but it would be nice to save $1200! Oof. Room rates are way higher than they were for last year's meetup--I understand why, but it's still a hard pill to swallow.

 

[Krisshay13]

Hi Frances & Darrah
Thanks for starting this, Frances!!! I'm Christie.... married 42 years!!! My 13 yr old granddaughter & I attended the OI Meetup this past Nov. It was also our 1st time at Universal. 5 days/HRH......it was wonderful. We had the best time. Will be hard to go when it's not Grinchmas time.

For this meetup, I've booked Dockside for Thurs-Mon & RPR Mon-Wed. Would love not to have to move but, that jump in the resort price was worse than I expected.
It will be me, & my 2 granddaughters (13 & 9...they are cousins).

Darrah.....I felt the same way for our 1st OI Meetup, I don't feel we planned it well & missed out on a lot. It was our 1st day ever at Universal & I was just figuring out the park map. And it kept raining......ugh....that was a bummer. Not that it stopped us, it was just annoying. We didn't plan our food very well except Butter Beer.....OMG, we drank so much Butter Beer..........LOL. Saturday night was better & we enjoyed it so much.

So happy to be going back for a meetup!! I am trying to do a spring break trip in March, too. So, hopefully, we will have been back before June.

 

[hjeick]

Hello!! We are going Sat. June 4th. It will be our first Meetup. We are staying at Cabana Bay. Have not been back to Universal for 4 years so I am excited to return.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Hi! Darrah here. This will be our 2nd meetup (June 2021 was our first), but our 6th(?) trip to UO. Four of us will be attending: DH, me, DD (15 at time of travel) and our 17 yo exchange student before she heads home to Italy. Last year we took our previous exchange student to the meetup, so I guess you could say it's a tradition now? LOL We managed to snag RPR rooms right at 10, though not without some panic on my part because the site got really laggy and I was afraid it was going to error out on me. We debated HRH, but we love RPR too much to try something new.

We'll be there June 2-5, but we arrive in Florida on the 1st so we can hit Siesta Key for a day before we make our way inland.

I don't feel like we were very stratetic with our first meetup, so I'm hoping to maximize our investment this time. We still had a blast, but we were kind of helter-skelter. We haven't decided yet if we'll do daytime tickets or not. We did them last year and it was nice to be able to come and go all day, but it would be nice to save $1200! Oof. Room rates are way higher than they were for last year's meetup--I understand why, but it's still a hard pill to swallow.

Hi Darrah! good to see you again and yay for another meetup! That is so awesome for you to take your exchange students to the meetup, I would say that is a great tradition! This will be our families 5th trip to USO, my 6th lol went once as a young teen back when Jaws was still around and T2 etc but half the stuff was closed when we went ;p due to tech stuff, I kind of remember them giving us a ticket to come back another day, but that was in the early 90's probably. We could have gone either way on RPR vs HRH, we have done both now, but I slightly enjoyed HRH more, which is weird lol but they are both great and only a $20/night difference, can't go wrong! The hotel is the bulk of our cost too, minus meetup tickets, we have AP's, so we can go the other days. We won't even bother early day time hours on the meetup days, because the 11 yr old can't handle it, which makes us miserable at the end of the night!

Hi Frances & Darrah
Thanks for starting this, Frances!!! I'm Christie.... married 42 years!!! My 13 yr old granddaughter & I attended the OI Meetup this past Nov. It was also our 1st time at Universal. 5 days/HRH......it was wonderful. We had the best time. Will be hard to go when it's not Grinchmas time.

For this meetup, I've booked Dockside for Thurs-Mon & RPR Mon-Wed. Would love not to have to move but, that jump in the resort price was worse than I expected.
It will be me, & my 2 granddaughters (13 & 9...they are cousins).

Darrah.....I felt the same way for our 1st OI Meetup, I don't feel we planned it well & missed out on a lot. It was our 1st day ever at Universal & I was just figuring out the park map. And it kept raining......ugh....that was a bummer. Not that it stopped us, it was just annoying. We didn't plan our food very well except Butter Beer.....OMG, we drank so much Butter Beer..........LOL. Saturday night was better & we enjoyed it so much.

So happy to be going back for a meetup!! I am trying to do a spring break trip in March, too. So, hopefully, we will have been back before June.

Hi Christie! Welcome back, good to see you again! I am so glad you guys had a good time when you were there in Nov. Grinchmas was amazing, we saw it twice! The resort prices are CRAZY this time, 100% agree, I just didn't want to deal with buses again and since we are there for a longer time, we wanted EP's for those days. We did a split stay in June 2020, did the first 4 days at Dockside and 4 at HRH -loved them both for various reasons. We paid like $99/night for a 2 bedroom at Dockside I think, the price was amazing! HRH in June last time was $330/night, so now $399/night is def more for same time. This is our last trip for awhile and since it's only 3 of us, we spent the money we would have spent on another meetup ticket, for the room instead LOL kinda evens out? that's what I am telling myself anyway! The rain last June on Fri was a pita! I am thankful that it finally did ease up and we enjoyed the rest of the time. IT was just bad right there when parks were closing and before the meetup started. Fingers crossed for better weather this time!

Hello!! We are going Sat. June 4th. It will be our first Meetup. We are staying at Cabana Bay. Have not been back to Universal for 4 years so I am excited to return.

Welcome to the June meetup group/thread! You are going to have such an amazing time, you won't believe how slow/quiet it really is. Empty streets for great photos, ride lines non existent (minus 2 Hagrid/VC) and even then they are not bad at all, free food/drinks and amazing people! I want to stay at Cabana Bay sometime! Maybe we'll do a split stay whenever we make it back again! Let us know if you have any questions about the meetup!

 

[Krisshay13]

OMG, rain is such a pain, even if it's light. But, we make it work.

Was it a pain to change resorts?
I dread doing that but, it saved me close to $1000 & yes, that paid for 3 2night OI tickets so, had to make that decision. And really, on OI party days, we didn't spend a lot of time at the parks (outside party time)....so, just need EP the other days.

 

[musika]

Newbie here... just curious, what's the excitement around these meetups?

 

[cristen72]

My family will be at the meetup for both nights. My husband and I went to a meetup in 2019 but this will be the first one for our kids. We’re staying at Dockside.

 

[RocketCityMama]

OMG, rain is such a pain, even if it's light. But, we make it work.

Was it a pain to change resorts?
I dread doing that but, it saved me close to $1000 & yes, that paid for 3 2night OI tickets so, had to make that decision. And really, on OI party days, we didn't spend a lot of time at the parks (outside party time)....so, just need EP the other days.

Agree on the rain, but a rainy day at the parks beats a day at home lol least that is what I tell myself!

So we drive down, so we move our luggage ourselves. We stayed at Dockside the first few days (and first meetup night) and what we did was before we went to the meetup, literally pack everything up minus what we needed that night and clothes the next morning. Did the meetup, came back and slept and checked out at the last moment possible lol then headed to HRH, and checked in. Luckily our room was available, so we unloaded and ate lunch and napped/rested before the Sat night meetup.

Are you driving or do you need them to hold your luggage? I think that is the biggest part of the issue is getting everything from one to the other and a room not available, so they have to hold it. When we went in Nov and our room was not ready at RPR, we just left our stuff in the car, then went to city walk for our lunch reservation, hit Grinchmas, then back to the hotel to unload/take to room before heading to the park for the meetup.

I think it makes sense what you are doing! I think we all tend to overthing the situation lol

Newbie here... just curious, what's the excitement around these meetups?

Afterhours event, non existant lines, free food/drinks (only a few things not included) and empty parks! It is simply magical! The longest lines for rides will be VelociCoaster and Hagrids, and even then they aren't that bad, compared to day time lines. Everything we went on in June 2021, Nov 2021 was walk on minus those 2 rides. The food lines right when the meetup starts (esp in WWoHP) can be a little longer but they die down pretty quickly. Start at the front of the park and move towards the back. Meeting characters with little to no lines, people are nicer and it's just awesome walking down the streets and almost seeing no one! Just a great experience!

My family will be at the meetup for both nights. My husband and I went to a meetup in 2019 but this will be the first one for our kids. We’re staying at Dockside.

Welcome aboard! We stayed at Dockside in June and it was awesome for a family! We had the 2 bedroom suite, which was nice to have 3 beds so my kids had their own bed, we had our own room (though small) but it gave us some privacy. The kitchenette area was a nice bonus with table/seats. I bet your kids love it all!

 

[Krisshay13]

We will fly down......I can't do the drive all day from Birmingham. So, yes, unfortunately, we'll have to deal with moving the luggage.
I did edit my dates at RPR up a day to Sunday. So, now I'll have to decide to keep it or Dockside for Sunday night.

My options:
A....Move to RPR on Monday......save around $300. BUT, to take advantage of EP, we would need to head over to RPR 1st thing that morning to get our room cards. (we maybe could head to EE and then to resort but, I really don't want to waste EP time moving too much around the resorts)
B....Move to RPR on Sunday.......after the Saturday night OI Meetup, we'll sleep in on Sunday. We could pack & move mid-morning. Get our room cards for EP & head to the parks. Even if our room isn't ready & we leave our luggage, it would be a more laid back move than Monday.

Does this make sense? What would you all do?

 

[Krisshay13]

Newbie here... just curious, what's the excitement around these meetups?

Up until this fall, I had no idea what this was. Then we attended in Nov for 2 nights.....and I will do my best to do at least 1x a year now. It was our 1st time to visit Universal & really enjoyed the OI Meetup!!

 

[Shellyinbama]

Hi all. i‘ve lurked for so long, but had to come out of the shadows to post here. My teen son and I attended the Nov 2021 meetup and had the best time. We have signed up for the June meetup - both days - and will be staying at Aventura - which will be new to us. We chose the non-deluxe hotel this time due to the price difference. We stayed at HRH in Nov and it was a great deal…sad that it was so expensive during the summer (but understand). We will hopefully learn from our previous meetup to maximize our time during the summer. We had some hiccups with getting food. We were trying not to spend additional $ (using the gift cards instead) for snacks/drinks between the time we could enter & the actual event start. We will have a better plan for the next meetup. We are excited about our upcoming trip and it’s nice to have something to look forward to!

 

[Krisshay13]

Hi all. i‘ve lurked for so long, but had to come out of the shadows to post here. My teen son and I attended the Nov 2021 meetup and had the best time. We have signed up for the June meetup - both days - and will be staying at Aventura - which will be new to us. We chose the non-deluxe hotel this time due to the price difference. We stayed at HRH in Nov and it was a great deal…sad that it was so expensive during the summer (but understand). We will hopefully learn from our previous meetup to maximize our time during the summer. We had some hiccups with getting food. We were trying not to spend additional $ (using the gift cards instead) for snacks/drinks between the time we could enter & the actual event start. We will have a better plan for the next meetup. We are excited about our upcoming trip and it’s nice to have something to look forward to!

Welcome!!! Another from Alabama!! I live south of Birmngham.

I agree with the sticker shock at HRH........we stayed in Nov and was spoiled with the price. I hesitated when I saw the new price & ended up deciding on a split stay. and I'm all for trying new resorts!!

 

[maverik85]

Newbie here... just curious, what's the excitement around these meetups?

I had just found out about them after this past summer's Meetup and seeing videos on YouTube. We went to the one in November and they are great. People get excited for them as there is such a fun atmosphere to the parks while there, but you also get to enjoy them all night long with very little crowds and tons of food. You can gameplan a bit about what you want to make sure to hit or what food to eat, but really it's a trip that you are able to just show up and be able to walk up and ride whatever you want when you want with next to no wait (Hagrid's is the only ride with any real wait and that was pretty minimal in November) or walk up a grab food as you walk around without having to worry about cost or dig out your wallet. They also had the games all open to play for free (no prizes) and it was fun to just compete with each other to see who could win the most or do better.

 

[dmetcalfrn]

Our family will be attending both nights. This will be our 3rd meet up. Staying at Cabana Bay this time. Can't wait!!

 

[RocketCityMama]

We will fly down......I can't do the drive all day from Birmingham. So, yes, unfortunately, we'll have to deal with moving the luggage.
I did edit my dates at RPR up a day to Sunday. So, now I'll have to decide to keep it or Dockside for Sunday night.

My options:
A....Move to RPR on Monday......save around $300. BUT, to take advantage of EP, we would need to head over to RPR 1st thing that morning to get our room cards. (we maybe could head to EE and then to resort but, I really don't want to waste EP time moving too much around the resorts)
B....Move to RPR on Sunday.......after the Saturday night OI Meetup, we'll sleep in on Sunday. We could pack & move mid-morning. Get our room cards for EP & head to the parks. Even if our room isn't ready & we leave our luggage, it would be a more laid back move than Monday.

Does this make sense? What would you all do?

Oh I get that! We drive from Huntsville, but I've learned my lesson and don't drive straight there, we stop in Tifton or Valdosta usually and stay the night. We sometimes drive it straight back home though, like this past Nov. When we got in June, I may stop on the way back, just depends on how I feel on the drive!

So I don't know if you decided what to do yet, but I would lean to moving on Sunday so you can have a more relaxed day on Monday, it would cost a little more but you have a good night rest on Sun night before getting up early on Monday for EP, ya know? We moved on Saturday when we hopped in June and it worked out in our favor, only because our room was ready at HRH around lunch, so we checked in, unloaded, grabbed some food and then rested until time for Sat night meetup. We slept in as long as we could on Sat morning before moving, but had everything packed on Fri night before the meetup so there wasn't much to do to move resorts.

Hi all. i‘ve lurked for so long, but had to come out of the shadows to post here. My teen son and I attended the Nov 2021 meetup and had the best time. We have signed up for the June meetup - both days - and will be staying at Aventura - which will be new to us. We chose the non-deluxe hotel this time due to the price difference. We stayed at HRH in Nov and it was a great deal…sad that it was so expensive during the summer (but understand). We will hopefully learn from our previous meetup to maximize our time during the summer. We had some hiccups with getting food. We were trying not to spend additional $ (using the gift cards instead) for snacks/drinks between the time we could enter & the actual event start. We will have a better plan for the next meetup. We are excited about our upcoming trip and it’s nice to have something to look forward to!

Hi Shelly! Welcome aboard the June trip! We are from Bama as well, Huntsville. We also attended in June and Nov 2021 and had a fab time, so it was a no brainer to come back in June. Aventura looks nice, I almost booked them last year, you'll have to let us know how you like it! I don't blame you one bit for picking a non premier, they are pricey this time around, esp compared to Nov. If we had our 16 yr old going, we may have chosen a less pricey hotel, but since we saved on the meetup ticket, we justified the cost lol or something like that in our head We totally forgot to use our gift cards, so we'll be using them this time around, which I guess works just as well lol Also want to go ahead and book reservations now for the best times available for any sit down restaraunts you want to eat at.

Our family will be attending both nights. This will be our 3rd meet up. Staying at Cabana Bay this time. Can't wait!!

Welcome to the June thread! This is our 3rd meetup as well! I want to stay at CB sometime, it looks so fun and love the retro colors/designs!

 

[Krisshay13]

I haven't finalized that Sunday but, the more I think about it, even though it will cost me some $$, I think I will move on Sunday. Like you said, we can hit the parks early on Monday.

June will be here before we realize it. Sure hope all the covid spikes & flight cancelations are over & done with.
We have a cruise out of Port Canaveral at the end of Feb. Fingers crossed flights are not being canceled like they are now

 

[RocketCityMama]

I haven't finalized that Sunday but, the more I think about it, even though it will cost me some $$, I think I will move on Sunday. Like you said, we can hit the parks early on Monday.

June will be here before we realize it. Sure hope all the covid spikes & flight cancelations are over & done with.
We have a cruise out of Port Canaveral at the end of Feb. Fingers crossed flights are not being canceled like they are now

I think that is a good plan and will let you relax and rest on Sunday night. It will make Monday more manageable, hopefully It really will! I will be so busy with work and school, it'll probably fly by even more! I hope Covid is def under control more by then. Last June wasn't too terrible, masking was just pulled basically while we were there, but now numbers are going up so much right, it is worrisome!

Good luck on your cruise! We have had 2 cruises canceled since Covid started. My dh and I were supposed to take a 20th anniversary cruise in May 2020 - it was canceled in March. Then we decided surely it'll be over by 2021- we booked a 21st anniversary cruise to Alaska (my bucket list) and that one too was canceled early in 2021... that's when we opted to come to USO and the June meetup in 2021. One day I suppose we may get to cruise, but at this rate, I think we'll just wait until our 25th in 2025 lol maybe things will be under control by then!

 

[Krisshay13]

We did Disney during covid, Nov 2020 & May 2021. I am fine with wearing masks if needed (would rather not but, will) I just don't want things canceled.

We had just returned from a cruise 1st week March 2020, stayed 1 night at Disney, woke up to the news "Temperature checks now at Port Canaveral".......ugh. We had not booked anymore & glad we haven't had to deal with any cancelations. fingers crossed on this upcoming one!!!

Now, for Alaska......1st off, congrats on 20 years!!! Our very 1st cruise was for our 25th anniversary.......and we've past our 42nd anniversary now (our 40th was spent on a private island in Belize....if you ever want a romantic peaceful trip, I can let you know the name.....so nice!!)
We did an Alaskan cruise a few years ago. Do not remove it from your bucket list!!! It was the best cruise we've ever done. We did it up nice with excursions, Dog Sledding, float plane flying, whale watching, helicopter site seeing, etc.... The whale watching turned into a trip around Eagle Island, which I was in heaven watching those beautiful birds. We only did a 7day cruise.......if you can do a land tour, too, that would be my dream!!

anyways.......stay warm tonight. Was surprised with the snow this morning. We had it on our deck but, roads were fine.......just so darn cold. I know Huntsville probably got a nice layer.