Reserving everything at Universal?

[AngelaVa]

I'm planning my very first trip to Universal !!!
I have been to Disney 20 times, 7 to 9 days each trip, I know to plan park times, reserve rides, reserve dinner and make sure I have Genie Plus?
My question is do I have to all this reserving at Universal parks?

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

No but there are a few things you do. If you go to Volcano Bay and want to splurge, get a cabana-that you will have to reserve. I highly recommend it.
When we went in September, we did have to reserve and pay ahead for breakfast at Leaky Cauldron, but we love breakfast there so it didn't matter. You may want to reserve for a City Walk restaurant depending on the time of day you go/the time of year you go (like HHN season for example), but other than that you really don't have to reserve anything other than what was mentioned. Just know you will need a park hopper in order to ride the hogwarts express!
Anything else you wish to know feel free to ask!
BH5

 

[isabellea]

No but there are a few things you do. If you go to Volcano Bay and want to splurge, get a cabana-that you will have to reserve. I highly recommend it.
When we went in September, we did have to reserve and pay ahead for breakfast at Leaky Cauldron, but we love breakfast there so it didn't matter. You may want to reserve for a City Walk restaurant depending on the time of day you go/the time of year you go (like HHN season for example), but other than that you really don't have to reserve anything other than what was mentioned. Just know you will need a park hopper in order to ride the hogwarts express!
Anything else you wish to know feel free to ask!
BH5

How do you reserve breakfast at Leaky Cauldron?

 

[Kit Jackson]

There a few popular places in City Walk where its a good idea to make reservations: Cowfish, Toothsome, and one or two others. Most of the eating in the parks is quick service, so no reservations needed.

You do not need to make reservations for rides.

If you have any other questions, please ask. The people on this board are happy to help. Planning for Universal is much less stressful than planning for WDW.

 

[AngelaVa]

There a few popular places in City Walk where its a good idea to make reservations: Cowfish, Toothsome, and one or two others. Most of the eating in the parks is quick service, so no reservations needed.

You do not need to make reservations for rides.

If you have any other questions, please ask. The people on this board are happy to help. Planning for Universal is much less stressful than planning for WDW.

Thank you

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

How do you reserve breakfast at Leaky Cauldron?

If you are staying on property, the vacation planners or concierge in the lobby can help you. I think you need to call ahead for not staying on property but I could be wrong ( I did the former this most recent trip though I did not have to do that in previous years)

 

[Mom2Anna&Elsa]

Reserve restaurants on Citywalk ahead of time-- but many of them don't open up reservations to book until around 6 months ahead of time. When we were there last month, we saw numerous people being turned away at restaurants at dinner time, or told it was a 2 hour wait, because they didn't have a reservation. I had never been more thankful to have the Disney planning mentality where I booked everything months prior.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Reserve restaurants on Citywalk ahead of time-- but many of them don't open up reservations to book until around 6 months ahead of time. When we were there last month, we saw numerous people being turned away at restaurants at dinner time, or told it was a 2 hour wait, because they didn't have a reservation. I had never been more thankful to have the Disney planning mentality where I booked everything months prior.

This is true for some but not all. We found we were able to get into BigFire relatively quickly on a Friday night during HHN season at around 7:30. Granted we are three adults, but they were letting in some fairly big parties and the most we had to wait was 5 minutes.

I would say Toothsome, Antojitos, Hard Rock, Vivo and maybe Cowfish would be the ones you should reserve ahead of time for. The others we have never had an issue with.

 

[Mom2Anna&Elsa]

This is true for some but not all. We found we were able to get into BigFire relatively quickly on a Friday night during HHN season at around 7:30. Granted we are three adults, but they were letting in some fairly big parties and the most we had to wait was 5 minutes.

I would say Toothsome, Antojitos, Hard Rock, Vivo and maybe Cowfish would be the ones you should reserve ahead of time for. The others we have never had an issue with.

We saw people even being turned away from Margaritaville last month. There were a bunch of extra tables on the large patio (the porch of indecision), where we were seated, that weren't being used at all. I think it is because they didn't have the staffing for it, so they didn't even seat people there.

I think it's a combination of a few things:
a) increased crowds/travel to UO
b) staffing shortages due to the labor market
c) peak summer travel

 

[UOAP-Naples]

Planning is good but you need to be able to adjust a little bit if a ride is closed or there are weather closures. We head to Studios if it rains because they only have 3 rides that close because of the weather. IOA has about 10 rides that will close because of inclement weather.

Confisco and Mythos take reservations in IOA and both are very good. Finnegan's and Lombard's are the two that take reservations in Studios. Finnegan's is very good. We aren't big fans of Lombard's.

The resorts and City Walk give you plenty of other good options depending on what your family prefers.

You don't have to reserve rides.

You don't have to make meal reservations but certainly can if you like a sit-down meal. If you make a few reservations a month or two in advance, you can always look on the website and add a few reservations once you arrive and figure things out. Cowfish and Toothsome are the ones that seem to require longer planning for reservations. Maybe Antojitos needs some planning as well. We've had good luck making reservations for the other restaurants just a day or two before when we arrive and decide what we're doing. If it's noon and you decide you want to eat dinner at NBC Sports Grill or something similar, you should be able to get a reservation for that evening.

We usually make one meal reservation per day (either lunch in the parks or dinner at City Walk or our resort). We like sitting down and getting off our feet and into the AC for an hour at some point. We don't make reservations for both lunch and dinner because then we feel like our day is too programmed. We'll find food from a quick service place for our other meal once we get hungry.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

We saw people even being turned away from Margaritaville last month. There were a bunch of extra tables on the large patio (the porch of indecision), where we were seated, that weren't being used at all. I think it is because they didn't have the staffing for it, so they didn't even seat people there.

I think it's a combination of a few things:
a) increased crowds/travel to UO
b) staffing shortages due to the labor market
c) peak summer travel

Ding Dang! Margaritaville is always quiet when we go (then again we don't go to florida in the summer-my apologies to Mr. Buffet)

Definitely would add that to the call ahead

 

[AuroraluvsPhillip]

It doesn't hurt to make reservations online, can always cancel them the day of if something comes up. We usually have breakfast in the room, grab a snack for lunch from Starbucks or a stand, and have a sit down meal early in the evening. At that point I need to get off my feet and enjoy some air conditioning.
I know I'm probably overplanning, but at least I have something booked just in case. I have often changed my mind for dinner and cancelled the same day. But this was all pre-covid. Now with the continued staffing issues, I'd rather be safe than sorry because I wouldn't want to deal with a long wait for a table.