Planning Days - is this the best route?

[JenniferK]

Planning a trip for Feb 2017, the 15th-20th. We are going to stay at RPR, so will have Express pass and are getting park to park passes. Originally we were going to see Blue Man Group on our arrival day (flight coming in late afternoon), but decided since we are traveling from Chicago in February there is a good chance of being delayed due to weather. So now we are going to just keep that day open and visit Citywalk if able then see Blue Man Group on one of our park evenings. Trying to decide which one would be best.

Also wondering if the park days we chose are best. We will spend 3 days at Universal on one at Sea World. Since we are not going to get the SW equivalent of EP, we thought we would go there the least crowded day. I checked out the Crowd calendar on Undercover Tourist and am using that as a guide.

Thurs 5/10 - Sea World
Fri 7/10 (IOA green USF yellow) - Harry Potter Day (both parks)
Sat 8/10 (IOA red USF yellow) - USF Day
Sun 9/10 (IOA green USF green) - IOA Day

This is also Mardi Gras time, but no idea if anything will be scheduled for these dates at this time, so might shift if necessary.

So I guess I have three main questions:
1 - Does that look like a good choice for park/day line up?
2 - With crowds at those levels, how bad will the lines be (considering I will have EP)?
3 - Which day would be good to see BMG, I think it would be 8pm?

We will be checking out and heading home Monday.

 

[macraven]

I hear you about Chicago weather in February as I moved from there in December

Mardi Gras concerts / parades happen on weekends
Not sure if start date but you could find that on the UO site now ( for the one that just finished )

If you saw bmg in Chicago , the one in Orlando was different when I saw it
Enjoyable and entertaining, hope you like it.

Can't say how crowds will be this far out
Will have a better idea in months to come

 

[JenniferK]

I did check the Mardi Gras schedule for this year, and pretty good chance there might be something while we are there. Not sure when they will post dates for next year.

We have not seen BMG in Chicago, looks like we are going to go all the way to Florida to do it, lol.

We had a mild winter this year, but even with that there were bad travel days, so you just never know. I would have preferred to do BMG on arrival day instead of after a full park day, but don't want to chance getting tickets and then not making it.

 

[macraven]

You can always check what seats are available if you arrive earlier than planned and want to watch bmg arrival day.

 

[JenniferK]

Ha ha - that would make me twitch just a bit. I must have things planned (I am a little OCD I admit). I was going to buy tickets ahead and get them in the poncho section. I know I am complicating it more than it needs to be...

 

[johde]

To be honest, staying onsite with Express Passes I would consider the possibility of park hopping every day. The Hogwarts Express is different in each direction between the parks so riding a couple of times in each directions is not a bad thing.

As the dates get closer, you might also want to check to see if an Annual Passholder discount comes out for those dates. With 3 days in the parks, it may be cheaper to upgrade (at least 1 ticket) to a power pass for the savings on the room. Although, when I went for a longer trip Stay more, Save More with a third party discount from somewhere like Orbitz was cheaper.

That way, on arrival day, you could also go to a park, get the lay of the land and ride a few rides. Then, possible move Blue Man Group to after Sea World. Since, Sea World often closes early.

Than on your other 3 days, you could plan on some resort time in the afternoon or evening to relax.

 

[JenniferK]

I do already plan to see if the annual pass discount will work out better for us when we get closer and sub it for one of the park to park passes.

As for park hopping, we will definitely do that on our HP day. I was hesitating to do that the other days because it seemed like a waste of time getting from one to the other when we could be visiting the attractions (it would BE part of the attractions for our HP day). We bought park hopper passes at Disney one time and never hopped once - was a total waste of money, so i really didn't consider it. Though I realize these parks are much closer together. Originally we were going to do a 4th Universal day and use it to do faves at each park, but my son said he wanted to go to SW.

Sea World should be open until 7pm the day we go and I estimate we will be there pretty close to that. Maybe that would be the best day to do BMG since I have an end time, whereas I am not as sure for the other days. My concern I guess would be how reliable the return shuttle is (we won't have a car). ANother plus is that we would be having this late night earlier in our vacay rather than the end when we are more tired and probably would welcome quiet resort time in the evening! I think I am going to lean towards this. Anyone know how reliable the return shuttle to RPR from SW is?

 

[johde]

As for park hopping, we will definitely do that on our HP day. I was hesitating to do that the other days because it seemed like a waste of time getting from one to the other when we could be visiting the attractions (it would BE part of the attractions for our HP day). We bought park hopper passes at Disney one time and never hopped once - was a total waste of money, so i really didn't consider it. Though I realize these parks are much closer together.

For someone used to WDW, I know we can talk about the 2 parks being close but until your there it's tough to picture just how close they are for real. Both Universal theme parks fit in an area about the size of EPCOT (Disneyland and DCA are also about that size). The Difference is instead of having Future World and World Showcase, you have USF and IOA. And Instead of having a walking path in the middle, you have 2 main gates on one side connecting the 2 and the train connecting the 2 on the other side.

The point being, don't exclude park hopping because you think it's going to take a long time. It's not. You're looking at maybe 15 minutes tops front of park to front of park. And you may enjoy riding the HE on more than just your HP day.

 

[macraven]

I do already plan to see if the annual pass discount will work out better for us when we get closer and sub it for one of the park to park passes.

As for park hopping, we will definitely do that on our HP day. I was hesitating to do that the other days because it seemed like a waste of time getting from one to the other when we could be visiting the attractions (it would BE part of the attractions for our HP day). We bought park hopper passes at Disney one time and never hopped once - was a total waste of money, so i really didn't consider it. Though I realize these parks are much closer together. Originally we were going to do a 4th Universal day and use it to do faves at each park, but my son said he wanted to go to SW.

Sea World should be open until 7pm the day we go and I estimate we will be there pretty close to that. Maybe that would be the best day to do BMG since I have an end time, whereas I am not as sure for the other days. My concern I guess would be how reliable the return shuttle is (we won't have a car). ANother plus is that we would be having this late night earlier in our vacay rather than the end when we are more tired and probably would welcome quiet resort time in the evening! I think I am going to lean towards this. Anyone know how reliable the return shuttle to RPR from SW is?

UO website:
SeaWorld Orlando®, Aquatica™, & Wet 'n Wild® Transportation
There are complimentary scheduled buses available to transport guests to SeaWorld Orlando®, Aquatica™ and Wet 'n Wild®. Reservations are required for this service. Upon arrival, contact the concierge desk at the individual hotel to confirm transportation.


last year there were quite a few posts (and from the year prior) about the return service of shuttle from sw back to UO hotels.
many stated during the summer there were 2 morning shuttles and one afternoon return shuttle and a 5:30 shuttle back to the hotels from sw.
that info is changeable so it is best to call for current info for your dates you plan to use this free service.

the best way to return to UO would be taxi.
or über.

from the Loews website regarding shuttles:

Seaworld®, Aquatica™ & Wet 'n Wild® Waterpark
Besides enjoying two amazing theme parks and spectacular nightlife, guests of Loews Royal Pacific Resort also enjoy complimentary scheduled transportation* to Wet `n Wild® Waterpark, SeaWorld®, and Aquatica™. For more information, contact the concierge at 407-503-1200.




do note that this is outdated and from 5 years back.
but this is what the sign in the hotel at the attraction desk might have up.

 

[kohlby]

I do already plan to see if the annual pass discount will work out better for us when we get closer and sub it for one of the park to park passes.

As for park hopping, we will definitely do that on our HP day. I was hesitating to do that the other days because it seemed like a waste of time getting from one to the other when we could be visiting the attractions (it would BE part of the attractions for our HP day). We bought park hopper passes at Disney one time and never hopped once - was a total waste of money, so i really didn't consider it. Though I realize these parks are much closer together. Originally we were going to do a 4th Universal day and use it to do faves at each park, but my son said he wanted to go to SW.

Sea World should be open until 7pm the day we go and I estimate we will be there pretty close to that. Maybe that would be the best day to do BMG since I have an end time, whereas I am not as sure for the other days. My concern I guess would be how reliable the return shuttle is (we won't have a car). ANother plus is that we would be having this late night earlier in our vacay rather than the end when we are more tired and probably would welcome quiet resort time in the evening! I think I am going to lean towards this. Anyone know how reliable the return shuttle to RPR from SW is?

Hopping at Universal is totally different than Disney. For starters - it's all really the same park. Think about US/IOA as more like Future World and World Showcase but connected by a train. We used to go between the parks before the train and it wasn't a huge deal - but then we had to go through security one more time and walk to the front of the park. Hogwarts Express is so easy! So easy that we found ourselves hopping back and forth quite a bit on our last trip. We would decide we wanted ice cream or a certain ride and then hop. Of course, it could be a bit different when you're going - as you'll have crowds to consider and we didn't. But as long as Hogwarts Express isn't backed up a lot, hopping is really easy. Also, depending on if your child is a adult child or a child child, you may find yourself repeating favorite rides.

*I just noticed someone else made the same Future World and World Showcase comparison.

 

[JenniferK]

Thank you that gives me some perspective!

I ave been reading some about the crowds, not only for Pres Day wknd, but also for the Mardi gras concerts (and for Pres Day wknd they do them Sat and Sun). This has me worried and I am rethinking a bit. Maybe will do our HP day on Thurs, USF Fri and IOA on Sat (leaving open the option to hop from one park to the other if we want to). We will do Sea World Sun. There will be more crowds there, but I was reading some crazy stuff about the crowds on concert days and I think I want to stay away so that will be the better option.

 

[mommajen08]

We were just at Universal over spring break. We stayed at Cabana Bay, so we had early park admission, but no Express Passes. We spent 3 days a the parks and each day was an 8 or a 9 crowd-wise. We honestly had no trouble getting on anything. With Express Pass, you'll not only get to do everything you want, but you'll get to go back for more if you'd like!

Our first day at USF, we didn't get there until 10:30 or so because we had to take a trip to CVS minute clinic in the morning (YDD had an ear infection ). We were there from 10:30 until 8:30 and managed to only wait in long lines for Simpsons (45 minutes), Forbidden Journey (45 minutes) and Transformers (45 minutes). We skipped Despicable Me and Rip Ride Rocket that day because we knew we were going to spend another day there.

At IOS, lines were mostly longer, but I felt like there were less rides. We did the spinny ride over by Hulk, Spiderman, two of the water rides (we skipped the JP one), Gringotts, YDD did Flight of the Hippogriff, ODD did Dragon Challenge twice, and Cat in the Hat. YDD also went to the Stunt Show and did Poisiden's Fury as well as hung out in the JP play area for a while. We were there from 9-5.

On our second day at USF, we got there at 8 (still couldn't wake up early enough for EA!). We did Despicable Me and Rip Ride Rocket right away. I think we had a 15 min wait for DM and a 5 min wait for RRR. We checked later in the day and DM waits were up to 3 hours! RRR was almost just as bad. We were only there from 8 to 2 that day, but still managed to get in a number of rides while also taking it easy enjoying the park.

I was so worried about crowds before we went. But with smart planning, and frequently checking the wait times both on the Universal app and the Touring Plans app, we were able to do everything we hoped to and more during our 3 days, even without Express pass. I don't think you'll face any trouble with lines. I think the hardest part on the heavy crowd days is getting through the HP areas. Everything is so crowded, it can be hard to enjoy all there is to explore, although YDD had no trouble getting use out of her interactive wand each day