PTR Aug 9-15 2018. Any and all advise & ideas welcomed

[spacefly67]

We are planning our First Ever trip to Universal August 9-August 15. We have never been (we are usually a Disney family) but decided to change it up. Here's my plan. Let me know what you think.

My family is myself, hubby, and kids (10 & 8). Hubby will do big coasters by himself, kids will do all the other rides. We are a rope-drop to fireworks family. We want to see and experience as much as possible. Not big on fancy meals, fun restaurants or quick snacks are more our thing.

We will be staying at the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal.

Arrival - Thursday 8/9 about 9am.
Check in to hotel, explore City Walk, late lunch/early dinner at Toothsome, play minigolf.

I would love to do a character dinner this night, but I don't know if there are any available

Friday 8/10
Volcano Bay

Sat 8/11
Legoland - kids are huge Lego fans and I think they would love to go before they are to big

Sun 8/12- Tuesday 8/14
UO and IOA
We have PTP passes, no express pass. Planning on basically one park each day with the third day to do all of the stuff we missed.

Wed 8/15
Time to go home
Maybe a Cool breakfast. Again don't know if there is a character breakfast or something fun.

 

[pattyw]

Yay! First time at Universal! You will have a great time!! 3 park days is good- you can see and do a lot!

As far as character dining, there is a Marvel character dinner at IOA. It's held Thursday-Sunday at 5pm. There is also a Minion character breakfast at Sapphire Falls resort. We did this in May and it was so fun! It's held on Saturday mornings-I see that's your Legoland day. They have 3 seatings : 7:30-8:30, 9:00-10:00, and 10:30-11:30(in case this would fit before you leave for Legoland).

The crowds will start to thin somewhat in August as the southern schools go back in session. Your husband may want to check out the single rider lines on the coasters he's doing alone. It will save a lot of time waiting in line. Fallon & Fast and Furious have virtual lines that you can book times for either on your phone or at the ride kiosk.

Download the Universal app on your phone and you can check wait times. Have a list of must dos, then everything else is a bonus!! Universal doesn't require a lot of advance planning!

Have fun and please come back and tell us about your trip!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Consider adding a day to your tickets and going on arrival day for a taste of the parks. Adding the 5th day would be cheap. Unless you are planning: A. a lot of pool time in the hotel; or B. to explore something on I-Drive or wherever. Other than minigolf and eating, there's not much to keep you occupied all day at City Walk. You could also ride water taxis to the on-site hotels if you'd like. But make sure to read what's at City Walk - it's really not an all day thing.

You didn't ask, but you can easily walk from that hotel to the parks. It's a nice path (once you cross the huge road at the traffic signal) which takes you to the valet security entrance (ie, no line for security).

 

[bobbie68]

We are planning our First Ever trip to Universal August 9-August 15. We have never been (we are usually a Disney family) but decided to change it up. Here's my plan. Let me know what you think.

My family is myself, hubby, and kids (10 & 8). Hubby will do big coasters by himself, kids will do all the other rides. We are a rope-drop to fireworks family. We want to see and experience as much as possible. Not big on fancy meals, fun restaurants or quick snacks are more our thing.

We will be staying at the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal.

Arrival - Thursday 8/9 about 9am.
Check in to hotel, explore City Walk, late lunch/early dinner at Toothsome, play minigolf.

I would love to do a character dinner this night, but I don't know if there are any available

Friday 8/10
Volcano Bay

Sat 8/11
Legoland - kids are huge Lego fans and I think they would love to go before they are to big

Sun 8/12- Tuesday 8/14
UO and IOA
We have PTP passes, no express pass. Planning on basically one park each day with the third day to do all of the stuff we missed.

Wed 8/15
Time to go home
Maybe a Cool breakfast. Again don't know if there is a character breakfast or something fun.

Hi good advice from previous posts. I stayed at the same Double Tree a few years ago. We decided to walk to the parks in the morning. It was about 20 minutes. By the end of the night we were too tired and got a taxi. It cost me about $6.00 one way for three of us. It is a nice walk but can be long at night.

I would make sure you are at VB about an hour before the park actually opens. You will have to catch the bus from the City Walk garage and it can get really busy and to capacity in the summer. I would check out the VB information thread and also I will be posting another trip report hopefully in the next week. I went to VB twice this trip.

We love Toothsome we just ate there twice last week. I love walking around city walk with all the shops and stuff.

Honestly, since you have park to park tickets I would take advantage of taking the Hogwarts Express both ways to the parks. It is a different experience each way. It is really cool. We find that we hop parks during the day and we like that freedom.

Just a few tips for the studios get there before the park opens to get in line. I would do Minion Mayhem on your way in. If you are interested in HP then as you are walking there I would get virtual passes for Jimmy Fallon and Fast and Furious. These 2 are like Disney's FP+ system. I would do HP worlds as early and as later as possible. These two areas are busy from like 11:30 and 7:00. Hogsmeade has the new castle light show which is cool. I believe the studios will have their lagoon show by then.

For restaurants we like the HP ones in each land. In IOA we like Thunderfalls Terrace.

Enjoy your first trip! It is so exciting. We love Universal and keep going back every year. We love the more relaxed pace of it as we are getting older.