UO newbie--restaurant res., pressed pennies, autographs???

[Jennifer_W]

Hi, we're going to UO/IOA for the first time during President's Week. We have the 3 park unlimited (14 day) passes & are staying off-site. We will probably go to the parks 3 or 4 days, and spend 1 day at Legoland. I am an obsessive WDW over planner. So just briefly:

--do we need to make dinner ressies? Mythos or the seafood sit down place, 3 Broomsticks & Leaky Cauldron are what I'm thinking

--my 7 year old was asking about autographs--not worth bothering with an autograph book? or are there a lot of opportunities like at WDW?

--same deal with pressed pennies?

--CAMERA --bring (lug) my smaller sized SLR camera or rely on my iphone 5?

 

[macraven]

there have been older threads on the pressed pennies.
use the search button and it will bring them up.

autograph books are popular, they are sold in the shops in the darkside.


use opentable for reservations

 

[DPCummerbund]

AFAIK Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks don't take reservations for lunch or dinner (just breakfast, and only then if you've booked a special Harry Potter package.

None of the Harry Potter characters (Harry, Hermione, Ron, etc.) appear in the parks, so there's no real reason for autographs in the HP areas. Other characters do appear, such as the Simpsons, Transformers, Minions, and others.

Many rides require you to store any personal belongings in a locker before you ride. Some are very strict, and won't let you even bring a phone. If you're definitely going to be carrying a purse, bag, etc. and need a locker anyway, then adding the SLR might not make much of a difference. If you want to be a "minimalist" and avoid the lockers, you might want to just use your phone. There a bunch of threads on here that go over which rides have locker requirements, how strict they are, and what sort of bags (if any) are exempt. I hope that helps!

 

[Kivara]

Jennifer,
I LOVE pressed pennies. I buy a book every year I go from the Universal stores (I've been to Universal 3 times now, and I still have some to get!)

 

[Jennifer_W]

Thanks, guys! Good advice. I think I will bring the SLR. I know I'll be disappointed if I don't get good pictures. And maybe I'll wait to see about the autographs till we get there. With WDW, I have always made a very detailed, fancy autograph book for my kids before we left home & then put the photo of them with the character on the facing page when we arrive home. Maybe I'll just go with the flow and buy one there **gasp**! I just saw a ention of a pressed penny machine tracker site, I will gauge that, as well. Because, yes, I would feel the need to make a decorated Mentos & M&M mini container for the pressed and shiny pennies.

 

[johde]

For reservations, they are recommended but not required even presidents day weekend you can probably make them the day before no problem. Only if you wanted to eat at Finnegans on an October evening right before HHN or Christmastime you might need to make reservations weeks in advance.

 

[festus105]

We were there two weeks ago... low crowds... obviously we didn't need reservations for any of the restaurants... there never seemed to be a crowd at any of the HP eateries...
Autographs... to be honest we didn't see that many characters... definitely not as many as at WDW... Not even sure how many of them actually give autographs...(we just did pics)... We saw one of the Transformers (don't think they do autographs), Minions, Lucille Ball, Scooby and Shaggy, Dora was out and about... I'm sure there were others...