Hi -- posted before we left and you were all so helpful. I am a devoted disney fan so this trip was a huge departure from the norm for me. My sister and I wanted to take our boys (ages 11, 13 and 16) somewhere for a quick trip and we decided on Universal because of the express passes we would get if we stayed on site. Stayed at portofino on club level. Rather than give you a blow by blow on each day, thought I would just provide some overall thoughts on the trip:
1. Photoconnect. I posted on the specifics of this deal in another post but for $42 you get all of your ride photos plus park photos plus a lanyard and miniature picture plus a 5 by 7 print. I think this was a great deal. I am not sure why they do not advertise it at all at the photo store or kiosks -- I had to ask the person at the photostore for information about the package because I did not see any signage on it or pricing. Make sure to lower your expectations a bit though -- this is not photopass and you will only see photographers at the front of the parks so mostly I bought this for all of the ride photos.
2. Lockers. HATE THEM. OK, so I read about these on these boards and I did not appreciate what a huge pain they are until I got there. Imagine, it is 95 degrees out and you need to stash your stuff to ride the mummy ride. You go to the lockers and then you need to wait in line for a computer screen to open up so that you can push the right buttons, have your finger scanned and then get assigned a locker. This often took a while because the screen would not recognize my touch or kept failing at the finger scan. (I later learned that you should use your finger nail rather than the pad of your finger to choose your options -- that always worked better). In any event, you ride the ride and then you have to go back to the computer screen so you can be rescanned and have your locker open. When it is hot out and there are crowds around, this process can be stressful and annoying. Solution, as many have pointed out here, the oh so beautiful fanny pack. That is right, I exchanged all fashion sense for a hideous fanny pack to avoid all future locker visits. After a while, I got used wearing it but boy I wish I had removed it when taking those photoconnect shots in front of the park. Bottom line, I would dig out your fanny pack if you are going any time soon. What you lose in fashion points you will more than gain in ease of getting on to rides quickly.
3. FOTL pass -- LOVE IT. I really did not believe it could work as well as everyone said --- but they were not exagerating. We did not wait in a single line more than 5 minutes. The parks were mobbed and the non-express lines were often 60 plus minutes but we just walked on to everything. I can't imagine going in August without this benefit -- I think I would have melted waiting in line. We rode everything multiple times without any fuss at all.
4. Forbidden Journey -- I am really claustrophobic and was worried that the harness would be too confining for me but it worked out just fine and I loved the ride. After we rode once all together, did single rider after that. What a great option -- only three minutes from the start of the line to boarding the ride.
5. Marathon pre-shows. One of the big differences I noticed between Universal and Disney was the length of the pre-shows. They just seemed so long at Universal. I am thinking specifically of the Despicable Me ride and the Simpsons rides. I wish that there was a special line for people who just want to skip the preshows. I mean the preshows are all great except you only need to see those once.
6. Fear Factor. With three boys, we had to see it. I just want to know what makes a person want to drink a milkshake made of bugs when the reward is a plastic mug for the winner. Also, for anyone who has seen the show --what does the person who gets strapped in to the bug cube get? I just don't understand what is motivating the participants. All that aside, the boys loved the show and it was a nice break from the sun.
7. The magic? OK -- you know that I am going to say that Universal lacked tht magic that Disney has. But wait, we actually had a few moments that made me smile and give Universal some credit for having its own bit of magic. Let's see -- it was getting late at night and my son really wanted to ride ripit rocket. We got to the ride expecting it to be a short wait because the rain had just stopped and the coaster had been down during the rain. No luck -- the wait was already 40 minutes for both regular and single riders. "Oh well," I said to Michael, the teammember who was greeting guests at the ride, "we will come back tomorrow morning and ride it." Michael grinned and asked if we wanted to ride it right now -- and then proceeded to let my son go up a special path with a pass in his hands so he could ride instantly. WHen he returned after the ride to thank Michael again, Michael asked him if he wanted to go again. I was not expecting this at Universal - but it was a great surprise. Then there was Andrea, the concierge at the PBR. We were getting ready to go back to the parks for the night when a huge storm hit. I mentioned to Andrea that we were trying to get the kids excited about plan b, which was watching a movie in our room. I asked about getting a dvd player and dvds. Andrea told me that they could get us a dvd player but they did not have dvds in the club to borrow. She told me I could rent a movie off of the hotel system instead. From the look on my face, she apparently realized that I am way too cheap to pay 17 dollars for a movie rental so she said "it is not your fault that it is raining so how about if you do rent a movie, let me know and I will ask my manager to comp the movie." How nice is that? (Now, don't all of you go hitting Andrea up for free movies -- I don't want her to regret her extremely nice gesture). Anyway, we did watch a movie and they did comp it. How is that for a little magic?
8. The portofino. We liked it. Fitting five people in a room is never easy but it was big enough for us to make do. The room was in the villa wing on the second floor which was a bit of a haul from the club but really close to both the villa and beach pools as well as the spa. On the topic of the spa, it is really lovely. We would go to the parks each morning and then in the afternoon, my sister and I (in an effort to escape our teenagers) would go to the spa to shower. Sometimes that included a bit of time in the hot tub and one afternoon it involved a lengthy session in the lounge catching up on people magazine. The spa has pepermint scented towels -- very refreshing -- as well as cucumbers so that you can lounge about in a robe with cucumbers on your eyes and recover from your morning park time. Great products and nice showers. This is the place to go to escape if you have a full room of people.
9. More on the portofino -- I thought it would be too far to walk to the park in the heat but with the short cut I read about on these boards, it was about a 7 minute walk to get to universal from the hotel. I think it was bubbasmom who posted directions with pictures in the portofino thread -- read that before you stay at this hotel and you will be good to go for those days that you don't feel like waiting for the boat.
10 Overall, it was a very fun trip. I will never have the emotional response to universal that I have to disney, but once you get past that, universal has a lot of benefits. The rides are mostly really top notch and the fotl privilege is amazing. Coming home from the parks on a boat was a really peaceful way to end the day -- far less chaotic than a lot of the disney transportation that I have taken at the end of the day.
That is about all I can think of for now -- let me know if you have any questions.
Lauren
1. Photoconnect. I posted on the specifics of this deal in another post but for $42 you get all of your ride photos plus park photos plus a lanyard and miniature picture plus a 5 by 7 print. I think this was a great deal. I am not sure why they do not advertise it at all at the photo store or kiosks -- I had to ask the person at the photostore for information about the package because I did not see any signage on it or pricing. Make sure to lower your expectations a bit though -- this is not photopass and you will only see photographers at the front of the parks so mostly I bought this for all of the ride photos.
2. Lockers. HATE THEM. OK, so I read about these on these boards and I did not appreciate what a huge pain they are until I got there. Imagine, it is 95 degrees out and you need to stash your stuff to ride the mummy ride. You go to the lockers and then you need to wait in line for a computer screen to open up so that you can push the right buttons, have your finger scanned and then get assigned a locker. This often took a while because the screen would not recognize my touch or kept failing at the finger scan. (I later learned that you should use your finger nail rather than the pad of your finger to choose your options -- that always worked better). In any event, you ride the ride and then you have to go back to the computer screen so you can be rescanned and have your locker open. When it is hot out and there are crowds around, this process can be stressful and annoying. Solution, as many have pointed out here, the oh so beautiful fanny pack. That is right, I exchanged all fashion sense for a hideous fanny pack to avoid all future locker visits. After a while, I got used wearing it but boy I wish I had removed it when taking those photoconnect shots in front of the park. Bottom line, I would dig out your fanny pack if you are going any time soon. What you lose in fashion points you will more than gain in ease of getting on to rides quickly.
3. FOTL pass -- LOVE IT. I really did not believe it could work as well as everyone said --- but they were not exagerating. We did not wait in a single line more than 5 minutes. The parks were mobbed and the non-express lines were often 60 plus minutes but we just walked on to everything. I can't imagine going in August without this benefit -- I think I would have melted waiting in line. We rode everything multiple times without any fuss at all.
4. Forbidden Journey -- I am really claustrophobic and was worried that the harness would be too confining for me but it worked out just fine and I loved the ride. After we rode once all together, did single rider after that. What a great option -- only three minutes from the start of the line to boarding the ride.
5. Marathon pre-shows. One of the big differences I noticed between Universal and Disney was the length of the pre-shows. They just seemed so long at Universal. I am thinking specifically of the Despicable Me ride and the Simpsons rides. I wish that there was a special line for people who just want to skip the preshows. I mean the preshows are all great except you only need to see those once.
6. Fear Factor. With three boys, we had to see it. I just want to know what makes a person want to drink a milkshake made of bugs when the reward is a plastic mug for the winner. Also, for anyone who has seen the show --what does the person who gets strapped in to the bug cube get? I just don't understand what is motivating the participants. All that aside, the boys loved the show and it was a nice break from the sun.
7. The magic? OK -- you know that I am going to say that Universal lacked tht magic that Disney has. But wait, we actually had a few moments that made me smile and give Universal some credit for having its own bit of magic. Let's see -- it was getting late at night and my son really wanted to ride ripit rocket. We got to the ride expecting it to be a short wait because the rain had just stopped and the coaster had been down during the rain. No luck -- the wait was already 40 minutes for both regular and single riders. "Oh well," I said to Michael, the teammember who was greeting guests at the ride, "we will come back tomorrow morning and ride it." Michael grinned and asked if we wanted to ride it right now -- and then proceeded to let my son go up a special path with a pass in his hands so he could ride instantly. WHen he returned after the ride to thank Michael again, Michael asked him if he wanted to go again. I was not expecting this at Universal - but it was a great surprise. Then there was Andrea, the concierge at the PBR. We were getting ready to go back to the parks for the night when a huge storm hit. I mentioned to Andrea that we were trying to get the kids excited about plan b, which was watching a movie in our room. I asked about getting a dvd player and dvds. Andrea told me that they could get us a dvd player but they did not have dvds in the club to borrow. She told me I could rent a movie off of the hotel system instead. From the look on my face, she apparently realized that I am way too cheap to pay 17 dollars for a movie rental so she said "it is not your fault that it is raining so how about if you do rent a movie, let me know and I will ask my manager to comp the movie." How nice is that? (Now, don't all of you go hitting Andrea up for free movies -- I don't want her to regret her extremely nice gesture). Anyway, we did watch a movie and they did comp it. How is that for a little magic?
8. The portofino. We liked it. Fitting five people in a room is never easy but it was big enough for us to make do. The room was in the villa wing on the second floor which was a bit of a haul from the club but really close to both the villa and beach pools as well as the spa. On the topic of the spa, it is really lovely. We would go to the parks each morning and then in the afternoon, my sister and I (in an effort to escape our teenagers) would go to the spa to shower. Sometimes that included a bit of time in the hot tub and one afternoon it involved a lengthy session in the lounge catching up on people magazine. The spa has pepermint scented towels -- very refreshing -- as well as cucumbers so that you can lounge about in a robe with cucumbers on your eyes and recover from your morning park time. Great products and nice showers. This is the place to go to escape if you have a full room of people.
9. More on the portofino -- I thought it would be too far to walk to the park in the heat but with the short cut I read about on these boards, it was about a 7 minute walk to get to universal from the hotel. I think it was bubbasmom who posted directions with pictures in the portofino thread -- read that before you stay at this hotel and you will be good to go for those days that you don't feel like waiting for the boat.
10 Overall, it was a very fun trip. I will never have the emotional response to universal that I have to disney, but once you get past that, universal has a lot of benefits. The rides are mostly really top notch and the fotl privilege is amazing. Coming home from the parks on a boat was a really peaceful way to end the day -- far less chaotic than a lot of the disney transportation that I have taken at the end of the day.
That is about all I can think of for now -- let me know if you have any questions.
Lauren
