oumagic
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
I am not a big trip report person, but I wanted to touch on a few things because I said I would report back. My family is from Arizona and we do not get out to Florida, this was our first trip to Orlando since my wife and I went from Kansas before kids and relocating to Arizona back in the '90's. We had a Disney cruise roundtrip from Miami for 5 nights (3/12 thru 3/17) and rented a vehicle on the 17th and drove to Orlando. We were exhausted and arrived at 2:30pm on the 17th and checked into Royal Pacific and they had our room ready (others were waiting for rooms). We were in Tower 2 and had a standard view room on the 4th floor. The beds were great and we enjoyed the room and the resort. I had booked with the annual passholder rate and they honored the rate and did not ask to see my pass. I was concerned because we had not got our annual pass yet.
We went into the parks for a few hours and mostly just looked around: wait times were 80 minutes for the train and I think 75 minutes for Gringotts. I don't remember exactly what we did for 2 hours but then went to Toothsome Chocolate for dinner. The wait was 30 minutes and my family enjoyed it. My wife has a severe food allergy, and they had the sous chef come to our table and ask what she wanted and assured her that she would be fine. We had a great server named Alexander and I had their chocolate stout, meatloaf, and cherry chocolate mule and liked all (mule was a little sweet, but good). We were exhausted and called it a night.
We had the Express pass and it helped this trip. The parks were busy from my perspective on the evening of 17th and then 18th and 19th they were busy around 11:30AM until 5:30pm (there were Universal concerts both nights). Even with Express passes, we did not see everything and do all of the rides we wanted. We were only in the parks for roughly 2 hours Friday, 8 hours on Saturday (long break 12-4pm) and 6 hours on Sunday).
The Harry Potter lands are simply amazing and Gringotts is the best ride I have ever been on with Forbidden Journey in second. My kids both bought wands (my son was "chosen" in the Ollivander show) and we spent a lot of time going through all of the shops and we ate at Leaky Cauldron and had frozen butterbeer and the regular and liked both (frozen got the nod from my family).
The rest of Universal Orlando and Islands was also fun, but we didn't ride the main coasters (only Flight of Hippogriff). We rode Fallon, Spiderman, Transformers, Simpsons, Minions, ET, Men in Black, Popeye. We never rode Jurassic, Kong, Hulk, Rock-it and didn't see any shows. Potter was simply too good because my kids (age 11 and 13) just wanted to go hang out there. Frankly, had we not had express, I am not sure we would have rode all of the things we did. Wait 45 minutes in line for Minions when they could have a butterbeer and do some spells? The choice was clear for my kids. When I could say, let's hit some of those rides and wait 5-10 minutes, it was an easier sell.
We would like to go back again and did upgrade our park tickets to seasonal pass. We had four 4 days at price of 2 tickets and received $85 and some change credit to upgrade ($21/ticket). I am not sure we will have money for airfare before these expire, but there was zero risk when we got money back to upgrade.
Years ago we went to Universal Hollywood after 3 days at Disneyland and it was a big letdown. That was before UH had Potter and my daughter was too short to ride Jurassic or Transformers, so there just was not much there for her to do and it just didn't compare to Disneyland and California Adventure. This Universal Orlando trip definitely put Univ. Hollywood back on the radar simply to go have a butterbeer and ride Forbidden Journey. Ironically, it also put Disneyworld back on the radar for us. As of now, I prefer Disneyland to Disneyworld and could not justify the additional cost to visit DW instead of DL ($75 in gas vs. $2000 airfare). As much as we enjoyed Universal Orlando, we will try to do a long trip to see both in the next 4-5 years.
If I can answer any questions, feel free to ask. We are Disney fans that really enjoyed Universal Orlando. My wife doesn't ride the rides and has always enjoyed the atmosphere of Disneyland (and the shows) compared to Universal Hollywood when she was roaming and relaxing while others rode. That said, she also enjoyed the atmosphere of Universal Orlando. Specifically, she enjoyed the Royal Pacific versus the budget hotel we stay in Anaheim (both are in the $250 range when we travel). When I asked her what she enjoyed better, taking out the airfare, she said it was close, but she would prefer a Royal Pacific and UO trip versus a Disenyland/budget hotel trip. When you add $2000 airfare into the equation and we used that to upgrade to a Disneyland Hotel stay and it really gets close for her.
Bottom line is that a 3 day Disneyland with 1 day Universal Hollywood at a budget hotel in CA are more likely to be in our vacation budget annually than either flying to Orlando or upgrading to a Disney property in Anaheim. But we do plan on flying at least once in the next 5 years to Orlando or going to DL and staying at Disney property.
We went into the parks for a few hours and mostly just looked around: wait times were 80 minutes for the train and I think 75 minutes for Gringotts. I don't remember exactly what we did for 2 hours but then went to Toothsome Chocolate for dinner. The wait was 30 minutes and my family enjoyed it. My wife has a severe food allergy, and they had the sous chef come to our table and ask what she wanted and assured her that she would be fine. We had a great server named Alexander and I had their chocolate stout, meatloaf, and cherry chocolate mule and liked all (mule was a little sweet, but good). We were exhausted and called it a night.
We had the Express pass and it helped this trip. The parks were busy from my perspective on the evening of 17th and then 18th and 19th they were busy around 11:30AM until 5:30pm (there were Universal concerts both nights). Even with Express passes, we did not see everything and do all of the rides we wanted. We were only in the parks for roughly 2 hours Friday, 8 hours on Saturday (long break 12-4pm) and 6 hours on Sunday).
The Harry Potter lands are simply amazing and Gringotts is the best ride I have ever been on with Forbidden Journey in second. My kids both bought wands (my son was "chosen" in the Ollivander show) and we spent a lot of time going through all of the shops and we ate at Leaky Cauldron and had frozen butterbeer and the regular and liked both (frozen got the nod from my family).
The rest of Universal Orlando and Islands was also fun, but we didn't ride the main coasters (only Flight of Hippogriff). We rode Fallon, Spiderman, Transformers, Simpsons, Minions, ET, Men in Black, Popeye. We never rode Jurassic, Kong, Hulk, Rock-it and didn't see any shows. Potter was simply too good because my kids (age 11 and 13) just wanted to go hang out there. Frankly, had we not had express, I am not sure we would have rode all of the things we did. Wait 45 minutes in line for Minions when they could have a butterbeer and do some spells? The choice was clear for my kids. When I could say, let's hit some of those rides and wait 5-10 minutes, it was an easier sell.
We would like to go back again and did upgrade our park tickets to seasonal pass. We had four 4 days at price of 2 tickets and received $85 and some change credit to upgrade ($21/ticket). I am not sure we will have money for airfare before these expire, but there was zero risk when we got money back to upgrade.
Years ago we went to Universal Hollywood after 3 days at Disneyland and it was a big letdown. That was before UH had Potter and my daughter was too short to ride Jurassic or Transformers, so there just was not much there for her to do and it just didn't compare to Disneyland and California Adventure. This Universal Orlando trip definitely put Univ. Hollywood back on the radar simply to go have a butterbeer and ride Forbidden Journey. Ironically, it also put Disneyworld back on the radar for us. As of now, I prefer Disneyland to Disneyworld and could not justify the additional cost to visit DW instead of DL ($75 in gas vs. $2000 airfare). As much as we enjoyed Universal Orlando, we will try to do a long trip to see both in the next 4-5 years.
If I can answer any questions, feel free to ask. We are Disney fans that really enjoyed Universal Orlando. My wife doesn't ride the rides and has always enjoyed the atmosphere of Disneyland (and the shows) compared to Universal Hollywood when she was roaming and relaxing while others rode. That said, she also enjoyed the atmosphere of Universal Orlando. Specifically, she enjoyed the Royal Pacific versus the budget hotel we stay in Anaheim (both are in the $250 range when we travel). When I asked her what she enjoyed better, taking out the airfare, she said it was close, but she would prefer a Royal Pacific and UO trip versus a Disenyland/budget hotel trip. When you add $2000 airfare into the equation and we used that to upgrade to a Disneyland Hotel stay and it really gets close for her.
Bottom line is that a 3 day Disneyland with 1 day Universal Hollywood at a budget hotel in CA are more likely to be in our vacation budget annually than either flying to Orlando or upgrading to a Disney property in Anaheim. But we do plan on flying at least once in the next 5 years to Orlando or going to DL and staying at Disney property.
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