Universal studios orlando Sept/Oct 2013

[australiankaren]

well hello there,
thanks for choosing my thread...come ..linger....put your feet up and relax...

now down to business...

we will be staying onsite UST royal pacific sept 29-oct 3 2013......

so what are you doing?????

 

[Travel Mum]

Nice choice Karen

On those dates, I'll be in Wellington but two days later will be flying to Fiji.

 

[cola]

I'll be in Vegas staying at the Hilton Elara

 

[Caroline NZ]

We will be in Las Vegas on the 29th at the Tahiti Village Resort, Three Rivers (Sequoia National Park ) on 30Sep-2nd Oct, & Yosemite National Park on the 3rd ( for both National Parks we will be in private vacation rentals)

 

[Andona]

Current planning is VERY fluid but I am seriously hoping that we will be in Italy....that's if we can unload DS on a big September holidays school trip. If the school trip gets scratched then Plan B is that the three of us head to Hawaii. Plan C - who knows?

Andona

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I'll be down the road at the House of Mickey. I'll wave across to you at Universal Studios from the top of the Expedition Everest Ride (if I'm brave enough to try it).

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Sigh....I'll be in Canberra working. I hate you girls right now

 

[alicia1506]

I will be right there with you. Sept 28 - oct 1 at royal pacific resort. Then winging our way across the country to stay at dlr oct 1 - 7.

 

[DizOz]

I feel your pain Shuttergirl,

I will also be working hard while Karen in swanning around US having a great time.

On the bright side I will also be counting the days to our vacation on Nov 30.

 

[battymum]

I will be home with my dd and I about to kill each other as she prepares for the HSC!

 

[australiankaren]

ahhhhh the joys of HSC.......not fatal but near enough

my way of dealing with my DS....send them into boarding for yr 12......

anyway........so pumped re universal....i think I'm more excited about that then the disney part.....shock horror!

 

[alicia1506]

We were ridiculously excited about universal. We loved it there and aside from spending a small fortune on souvenirs, we really enjoyed the theming throughout the various worlds especially wwohp. We also loved the ambience at royal pacific.. Very pretty and relaxing and lots of pretty orchids and a huge water feature in the courtyard and a 2 min boat trip between our room and margaritaville

 

[cola]

Universal Islands of Adventure is my favourite park, out of Universal/Disney/SeaWorld/etc
EVERY time I go to Orlando I go to IoA, not so worried about Universal Studios, or Epcot, or Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom, or even the Magic Kingdom, we've only ended up at the Magic Kingdom the last couple of times because of MNSSHP and the Christmas party. Next trip with the Fantasy Land expansion etc particularly if there is some dragon thing in it, I'm sure it will be a good solid Disney holiday

The only other theme park I am anxious (and not that anxious) to see is MoominWorld but it is only open for 3 months over summer and one week in winter. I never seem to get to Europe in summer, and I'm not going to Finland mid-Winter! This is totally a childhood thing, I grew up on the Moomin books!

 

[Marlea98]

Probably at home or in a classroom busily squirrelling away more Disney dollars for our trip end of Nov '13. I will be seriously keeping an eye on your TR for IoA etc as we will be there after our Fantasy cruise

 

[australiankaren]

we may be flying home earlier, so will need to scrap the after cruise UST....so we'll do a day at IoA before our cruise......we will do ust this feb in LA....at least this will save me around $1400.....oh well, maybe next next time

 

[WanderlustNZ]

we may be flying home earlier, so will need to scrap the after cruise UST....so we'll do a day at IoA before our cruise......we will do ust this feb in LA....at least this will save me around $1400.....oh well, maybe next next time

Oh that's a shame. At least though you will get a chance to see the WWOHP.

I think the US in LA actually looks better than the one in Orlando. Would love to do the VIP tour and get to walk around the Desperate Housewives set. Twas one of my guilty pleasures.

 

[australiankaren]

so looks like we are doing a day excursion to universal studios in LA, and a day at IoA in orlando.....dh doesnt do rough rides so what are the must do's...since we only have a day at each???

 

[frangipanisam]

so looks like we are doing a day excursion to universal studios in LA, and a day at IoA in orlando.....dh doesnt do rough rides so what are the must do's...since we only have a day at each???

Well we did a day in US in LA and it was fun but there are not a ton of rides, more about the shows I guess?

We did the Studio Tour (a good must do but nothing to rave home about in our opinion), The Simpsons ride (motion simulated roller-coaster, GREAT fun!), The Mummy Ride (indoor coaster type, kinda of Space Mountain like but wayy shorter and not as many turns/twists, I loved it) and The Transformers ride (motion simulated ride, bit jerky at times I enjoyed but the other three felt a bit sick after from all the jerky movements).

The Jurassic Park ride was down as was the House of Horrors so that was it for rides for us. We did watch the Waterworld Show and the Special Effects Show which were both good. Word of warning be prepared to get wet during Waterworld

We also watched Shrek 4D which we loved (much better then Sea Worlds 4D show) and loved Donkey's little show from inside his waffle van

All in all I'd only consider going back to Universal if Jurassic Park was running and they had a new ride because at $77 (even with a second day free) I did not think it was worth it. Just my opinion

It was easy to get through all the rides, we didn't get to all of the shows but we didn't care. The sucky part was going down like five massive escalators to get between the upper and lower lots. I think that took longer then some of our ride waits! Nice not to being walking up and down stairs though lol

 

[alicia1506]

at IOA, i would recommend HP and the forbidden journey, jurassic park ride (it's essentially a flume ride), popeye & bluto's bilge rat barges & flight of the hippogriff is a really cute coaster ride that isn't rough at all.

ollivander's wand shop experience is a mini show in which 1 person per group gets to be 'picked' to be a wizard, the jurassic park discovery centre is essentially a replica from the movie and there is the whole marvel super hero island section if you're into comics/geek stuff. there are not that many rides at universal IOA that aren't coasters (dr dooms fearfall, spiderman 3d, storm force accelatron, incredible hulk coaster etc).

 

[Marlea98]

so looks like we are doing a day excursion to universal studios in LA, and a day at IoA in orlando.....dh doesnt do rough rides so what are the must do's...since we only have a day at each???

Haven't been to IAO yet, but at US in LA I would say def go to the SImpsons ride. It had the longest wait ever for us but worth it. So much fun. It was a bit rocky but not overly bad.

The donkey in the waffle cart is so cheeky and my kids loved him. Donkey was bossy with the Japanese tourists who would cut in to his time with individual kids, too. I loved that!

The food there was crap and Pink's hot dogs was so expensive!