traveljunkie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2005
- Messages
- 423
A week ago I got back from our first trip to both US/IOA --we haven't been since it was just US in 2001. A big Thank You to everyone who contributes to this board. It was very helpful!! It was me and two of my daughters. We had a great time--celebrated these daughter's upcoming graduations--one from high school, one from college.
I had a lot of questions on here about upgrading my tickets. I purchased tickets over 2 1/2 years ago from Undercover Tourist--2+1 day Park to Park for a trip that we had to cancel 48 hours before our flights
. Back then, I got the tickets for $197 each. I had emailed Universal's customer service about upgrading (thanks to this board). Luckily I did because I would have found out in the entrance line early the next morning that I needed to exchange my tickets at the guest services before going to the park since they were so old, she said they wouldn't be able to scan them. So glad I found this out! Her email also said they would be worth $305 currently. We went to customer service at 7:00pm and was shocked that it took us 45 minutes in line to do this! There were 4 windows open but 2 of the lines had people that just weren't moving. Finally opened 2 more windows right when I got to the front of the line. I had my email from customer service and my transaction took less than 5 minutes. Since it was a block out period, I couldn't upgrade to season passes until the end of my third day. I was nervous because I had booked Annual pass rooms at Portofino and Cabana Bay. I checked into Portofino and I was prepared to have to upgrade to a Premier pass if needed. I was never, ever asked for my pass at Portofino (and I had a couple of interactions with the check-in desk & hotel ticket desk). However, when we moved to Cabana Bay, I WAS asked for my pass when I checked in. By then, I had my season pass 
. On our last park night, I went to Guest Services inside US (as advised here) around 9 pm and there was no line. It took the guy a little time because he was shocked to see that he would actually owe me $20 per ticket refund!!! He kept rerunning the numbers--yep he handed me $60 
and we received our shiny new AP passes. Not even sure if we’ll be able to use them again but hey—they paid ME!
We were really glad we stayed onsite for the FOL passes. It was pretty busy and we are forever spoiled having those passes. Even with the FOL, on our last park day --we waited around 40 minutes for Gringotts, the train & Kong (Kong was surprising). We didn't have things really planned out like I've had to with Disney. We started every day with US--the Harry Potter area while it wasn't very busy and then took the train over to IOA around 11:00-12:00. We did stop into Despicable Me very quickly our first day on the way to HP. Once was enough for us. We only rode Forbidden Journey twice as it really made our heads & stomachs spin for hours after (sadly because we enjoyed the awesomeness of it). Every day we took a break around 3:00 back at Portofino, rested and went back to the Park around 6:00-7:00. Midday it was very difficult to walk around the Harry Potter areas let alone trying to do spells. Definitely recommend hitting those areas 1st if HP is a priority. When we went back in those areas after 8:00pm (parks closed at 10:00 our days) it was pretty cleared out again.
Portofino was very nice. We had a bay view room. I had requested to be put by the boat dock. We were in the building right behind it which also put us by the path to walk (which we did twice). We had a balcony but it was a little weird because it was also another room’s shared balcony. Once when I stepped out there, I stunned a teenage boy who was sitting out there on his phone and another time, a woman was out there drying her clothes. It was great looking out onto the water though. The ticket desk at the hotel was not able to help me exchange my tickets. We put our bags in the hold area the first day to wander around and go to lunch because early check-in was not available. When I got the text our room was ready, the man at the luggage hold station was able to get our room keys printed for us (so we wouldn’t have to stand in the check-in line) and took us to our room with a luggage cart.
We watched the Mardi Gras parade one night. Had an awesome viewing area right in front of the Horror makeup theater. We were right on the corner in front of the theater and didn’t show up there until about 15 min before the parade. Got a ton of beads.
Speaking of...We loved the Horror make up show! We were front row because of the FOL passes and my daughter was chosen to pull a knife out of actor’s belly.
Very fun show!
Cabana Bay was fun--hung out at the pool & bowled. We were allowed to check in at 1:00 and had a free late checkout of noon our departure day. Bowling was $8.00/pp (shoes included) if you were there before 3:00 ($16.00/pp after 3:00). However, they have a fixed time--so for 3 people, we got 45 min to bowl. We are pretty fast bowlers and we only got through 1 1/2 games. There's 10 lanes and it's first come, first serve. We had a Poolside Family Suite (thanks to APH rate) which says it sleeps 6. It would be really tight to have 2 people on the pullout couch in my opinion. Since there was only 3 of us, we had plenty of room.
I did not rent a car—used Lyft to and from the airport and Universal’s transportation…that worked out great for us.
We had a great trip! Hoping to use our passes again in the next year...husband has a business trip to Tampa in September so maybeeee......
Thanks again for all who post here!!
I had a lot of questions on here about upgrading my tickets. I purchased tickets over 2 1/2 years ago from Undercover Tourist--2+1 day Park to Park for a trip that we had to cancel 48 hours before our flights
. Back then, I got the tickets for $197 each. I had emailed Universal's customer service about upgrading (thanks to this board). Luckily I did because I would have found out in the entrance line early the next morning that I needed to exchange my tickets at the guest services before going to the park since they were so old, she said they wouldn't be able to scan them. So glad I found this out! Her email also said they would be worth $305 currently. We went to customer service at 7:00pm and was shocked that it took us 45 minutes in line to do this! There were 4 windows open but 2 of the lines had people that just weren't moving. Finally opened 2 more windows right when I got to the front of the line. I had my email from customer service and my transaction took less than 5 minutes. Since it was a block out period, I couldn't upgrade to season passes until the end of my third day. I was nervous because I had booked Annual pass rooms at Portofino and Cabana Bay. I checked into Portofino and I was prepared to have to upgrade to a Premier pass if needed. I was never, ever asked for my pass at Portofino (and I had a couple of interactions with the check-in desk & hotel ticket desk). However, when we moved to Cabana Bay, I WAS asked for my pass when I checked in. By then, I had my season pass . On our last park night, I went to Guest Services inside US (as advised here) around 9 pm and there was no line. It took the guy a little time because he was shocked to see that he would actually owe me $20 per ticket refund!!! He kept rerunning the numbers--yep he handed me $60 and we received our shiny new AP passes. Not even sure if we’ll be able to use them again but hey—they paid ME!We were really glad we stayed onsite for the FOL passes. It was pretty busy and we are forever spoiled having those passes. Even with the FOL, on our last park day --we waited around 40 minutes for Gringotts, the train & Kong (Kong was surprising). We didn't have things really planned out like I've had to with Disney. We started every day with US--the Harry Potter area while it wasn't very busy and then took the train over to IOA around 11:00-12:00. We did stop into Despicable Me very quickly our first day on the way to HP. Once was enough for us. We only rode Forbidden Journey twice as it really made our heads & stomachs spin for hours after (sadly because we enjoyed the awesomeness of it). Every day we took a break around 3:00 back at Portofino, rested and went back to the Park around 6:00-7:00. Midday it was very difficult to walk around the Harry Potter areas let alone trying to do spells. Definitely recommend hitting those areas 1st if HP is a priority. When we went back in those areas after 8:00pm (parks closed at 10:00 our days) it was pretty cleared out again.
Portofino was very nice. We had a bay view room. I had requested to be put by the boat dock. We were in the building right behind it which also put us by the path to walk (which we did twice). We had a balcony but it was a little weird because it was also another room’s shared balcony. Once when I stepped out there, I stunned a teenage boy who was sitting out there on his phone and another time, a woman was out there drying her clothes. It was great looking out onto the water though. The ticket desk at the hotel was not able to help me exchange my tickets. We put our bags in the hold area the first day to wander around and go to lunch because early check-in was not available. When I got the text our room was ready, the man at the luggage hold station was able to get our room keys printed for us (so we wouldn’t have to stand in the check-in line) and took us to our room with a luggage cart.
We watched the Mardi Gras parade one night. Had an awesome viewing area right in front of the Horror makeup theater. We were right on the corner in front of the theater and didn’t show up there until about 15 min before the parade. Got a ton of beads.
Speaking of...We loved the Horror make up show! We were front row because of the FOL passes and my daughter was chosen to pull a knife out of actor’s belly.
Very fun show!Cabana Bay was fun--hung out at the pool & bowled. We were allowed to check in at 1:00 and had a free late checkout of noon our departure day. Bowling was $8.00/pp (shoes included) if you were there before 3:00 ($16.00/pp after 3:00). However, they have a fixed time--so for 3 people, we got 45 min to bowl. We are pretty fast bowlers and we only got through 1 1/2 games. There's 10 lanes and it's first come, first serve. We had a Poolside Family Suite (thanks to APH rate) which says it sleeps 6. It would be really tight to have 2 people on the pullout couch in my opinion. Since there was only 3 of us, we had plenty of room.
I did not rent a car—used Lyft to and from the airport and Universal’s transportation…that worked out great for us.
We had a great trip! Hoping to use our passes again in the next year...husband has a business trip to Tampa in September so maybeeee......
Thanks again for all who post here!!
