universal studios & IOA

[wideeyes]

Hi, we are going to us and Ioa for the first time this year, I was wondering how much would a taxi cost? we are staying at Disney - not sure where yet as we are booking on thursday for free ddp.

Where would you recomend to eat at us & ioa?

What characters are there? I have a 6 y/o who loves to meet characters.

Any must do rides?

 

[luke]

For burgers, i enjoyed Mel's Drive In at U.S., but really didn't like the burgers at all in the Jurassic Park restaurant in I.O.A., and couldn't understand how they could be so different from U.S. - they tasted like frozen Birdseye ones!!

 

[The Fetherstons]

I think a round trip cost us about $60 -70 from All Stars, we also used Mears coaches but you have to prebook them at a cost of about $14 each and then ring them a half an hour before you want to leave to arrange a pick up.

We have never driven in Florida before.

We ate at Hard Rock Cafe this year we are going to try Bubba Gumps

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Spiderman, Scooby doo, shaggy, Woody Woodpecker, Rugrats, Cat In The Hat , Jimmy Neutron, Barney and co, Shrek - all characters that you see around the park.

Great rides are Shrek, Spiderman, The Mummy, Hulk, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Jimmy Neutron, Popeye's Barges. Guess it depends on what your tastes are.

 

[wicket2005]

Out the two parks the best meals we have had are in Islands. The Mythos restaurant gave us the best meal all holiday and we all agreed on this. We also like Thunder Falls restaurant, in particular the chicken salad.

Universal also had the penguins and lion out of Madagascar the last 2 years we went, which my kids loved even though they are big. Shrek and Donkey can be found at certain times of the day near the exit for the Shrek ride and as Johnny mentioned loads of other characters. Spiderman and company usually appear quite regularly near the Spiderman ride and unsurprisingly Popeye and company are in the Toon Lagoon section, whilst you guessed it the Cat and the Hat and company are in Seuss Land.

 

[crabbie1]

We ate the character breakfast at Confissco grill.It had spiderman cat in the hat and thing 1 &2.My 5 year old loved it .It was a buffet breakfast and very reasonable.We also ate in circus mcgurcus in seuss landing.Great fun and seeing the train trolly riding through and the bright colours keeps them occupied.

 

[WooGuin]

The Mythos restaurant is fab, I would recommend this, we always eat in here.

 

[Bigbluebear]

Ive never eaten in Mythos, but it wins an award for best theme park restaurant almost every year so it must be good. Its a table service meal.

The enchanted oak is where i normally eat when in IOA. Its right beside Duellin Dragons. Great food from it, plus if its your type of thing theres a bar in it aswell.

 

[Chilly]

I found Bubba Gumps really nice (City Walk)

 

[wideeyes]

my dd is quite sensitive so a bit concerened about some of the rides as not sure what they are like. she was scared of Fantasmic, she won't like anything with 'Baddies'.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

my dd is quite sensitive so a bit concerened about some of the rides as not sure what they are like. she was scared of Fantasmic, she won't like anything with 'Baddies'.

It's a difficult thing to advise on as naturally you know your child best.
Certainly the Cat In The Hat area of IOA is good for children, with rides similar to what is on offer at Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom.
US has Barney, ET and Shrek plus more.

 

[fuse04]

We have used the prebookable Mears shuttle for our last two trips at a cost of $16 return each. As mentioned earlier you ring a hour or so before pickup. They are generally reliable but sometimes there can be a wait.

This is because they pick up once an hour but they don't tell you that at the time..basically this is a scheduled shuttle which they try to make sure they fill. We would use them again but for next year we are hoping to stay at Universal

 

[Lisash]

Finnegans at US is pretty good (irish/american) and Mythos in IOA is definitely worth a visit. We are also fans of Bubba Gump at City Walk it's always on our must do list