After our original trip was pushed from February to October, we were very ready and had been anticipating this trip for almost a year!
Aside from a day trip to Legoland FL, our family has never done theme parks. DH is not a huge fan and would rather spend our money elsewhere so I decided to use my earnings as a stay at home Ebay reseller to fund this trip.
Here are my overall thoughts on things, what we would have done differently, and fyi things for first-timers.
Family of 6 with me, DH, DS 14, DD 12, DS 9, DS 7; we had 3+2 day promo and 5 nights at Dockside in a suite room.
FOOD:
Food was a stressor for me going into the trip: I've always been worried about how we would do food - making my peace with spending money but at the same time saving where we could. I hate cooking and to have a real vacation, I don't want to have to cook or plan cooking. But at the same time, it KILLS me to pay for food out constantly especially when we basically have 3 adults and 3 kids eating. This trip I felt like we had a good balance. One thing I did before we left was buy snacks and food specific to the trip that we don't always have at home. That helped make it more special so the kids didn't feel like they were missing out too much on snacks at the park. I went to Aldi and got protein bars, veggie chips, ramen soup cups, 100 cal cookies, and Pringles from Amazon S&S. We never bought breakfast or coffee once and just made our own in the room. (I don't know how I didn't buy SBX with them being everywhere!!)
For lunches we came back to our room the first day and ate food we brought, the next day we ate at Citywalk Panda Express and Moe's, one day we got Central Park crepes (Studios near Central Park sign) - these were YUMMY. My kids got the sweet ones though and couldn't eat them all. I wish we had gotten more savory ones instead of one of the sweet ones. But they are filling and $10-$12. The London jacket potatoes were also a hit (near Knight Bus and Sirius' house in Studios). Again, super filling, we shared with all. The Bumblebee tacos (NOT the Transformer but an actual Bumblebee, lol in Simpsons area in Studios) were a letdown. $12 and you get two little soft tacos with meat and cilantro and some chips. The salsa was super chunky and not the best. We just weren't impressed.
For dinners we ate at the Leaky Cauldron (Studios) which was really enjoyable! They assigned us a table and we ordered in the app and they brought the food right to us. Great atmosphere, good food and of course butter beer! We did BK in Citywalk the next night and the worker gave us an extra drink b/c "you just spent almost $50 at a fast food restaurant".
Ate at the hotel cafeteria the next night and it was quite tasty and not too overly expensive - pizza for 2-3 kiddos, chicken and waffles and a turkey sandwich DH and I split. We had leftover chicken too.
We brought our snacks into the park every day and used them! The only snacks we bought in the park were icees in Suessland (IOA) and Florian's ice cream (Studios) - the cups were under $6 each so a couple of my kids spent their own money to get their own. The ice cream was pretty good but not amazingly so. We also bought a dozen mixed Voodoo donuts in CW to eat later that night/the next morning. $22/dozen and they were okay but honestly tasted just like Dunkin so nothing special IMO.
I did have a reservation at Toothsome's but ended up cancelling it b/c I felt like it tied us down to a specific time when we had other things planned. (It was at 2:45pm)
I think we spent about $500 on food overall.
Daily Schedule
Monday - 830am@ Islands of Adventure - straight to Velosicoaster (25m wait?) then did hulk. Back to hotel for lunch and back to IoA then rode train to Studios and ate dinner there then left.
Tuesday - Studios at 9, ate lunch in CW then took train to IoA and closed the park out with hulk at night (so pretty!)
Wednesday - Studios at 930ish, lunch in park 1130, back to hotel to change then water rides at IoA, hotel to change and ate at hotel, swam at hotel pool
Thursday - 815am@ IoA straight to Hagrids with 105m wait then train back to Studios to do gringotts, ate lunch then walked over to IoA to do Velosicoaster with a 80m wait. Ate with family offsite.
Notes:
Water rides - Popeye's Bilge Rat Barges gets you SOAKED but that's the only one we went on like that (Ripsaw Falls was closed). We had to rent a large locker for $5 to do that ride so we did the ride 3x to get our money's worth. It was SO much fun and probably one of my top highlights with the family. Not much of a wait b/c you get so wet, no one wants to do it lol. Jurassic Park River Adventure barely gets you wet so doesn't really count as a water ride IMO. It's fun tho!
Ride strategies - Earlier in the week/day is better for line waits. Mornings are better b/c it's cooler and there are less people but Thurs morning still had long line waits. HP areas are ALWAYS busy and that's frustrating b/c a lot of the wand spots are right on the main thoroughfare (esp in Hogsmeade). I liked Diagon better for that reason - it wasn't quite as crowded (I think b/c it wasn't a path to many other things like Hogsmeade is) and atmosphere I just enjoyed more.
Travel between parks & hotels - Switching parks was NOT as easy as I thought it would be. The fingerprint scanners are a PITA and anyone 10 and over had to scan their finger. DH and I both had to rescan our fingers. DH had his ID and for me they asked me park questions. The fingerprint thing is SO annoying. Plus - germs?! Hello! Ugh. If you switch parks via train they don't do your print - it's just at the main gates. Train often had a long wait though so it wasn't always the best way to switch. We generally stayed in one park for a long time and if we left the park or went to CW we would go to the other one after.
Going back to the hotel wasn't that quick/easy. We did it for lunch the first day and after lunch another day and it does take a good amount of time out of the day however if it's really hot and/or crowded, it's a good thing to do.
LOTS of walking. We stayed in a hotel that we couldn't walk to but if I were closer, I would still probably take the bus b/c just walking through the park, out and through CW, and then out to the buses was a LONG WAY.
Time - We pretty much maxed out our four days. We did leave at 5ish two of those days but we needed all of that time to do everything we wanted. We split up a couple times but generally stayed together. Since we have a 7yo who likes the kiddy rides and isn't tall enough for everything, but then we also have the rest of us who like coasters, we did just about everything in the park. I think the only rides we didn't do were The Simpsons Ride and Jimmy Fallon b/c we just aren't fans. Fast & Furious we shouldn't have done, lol but the kids wanted to. Definitely plan to stay until park close for one day, the lights are really cool.
CHILD SWAP: Super awesome if you have a nonrider! MOST of the rides have a room inside so you can have one adult hold all of your stuff and stay with nonrider while the rest ride THEN you can switch and the kiddos can ride TWICE - once with each parent! (Or if you have a sacrificial son, YOU can ride twice!
Anyway, that was a really awesome perk but it did take up extra time, especially when the nonrider *could* have ridden but just didn't want to. :/ There are a few rides - Hulk, VC, and RRR I think - that have inside child areas but still require you to use lockers b/c of the metal detectors. The attendants don't tell you why though - they just tell you you have to use the lockers either way. But you can opt to get a ticket from the attendant and just wait outside with all of the stuff. DS3 enjoyed listening to the Hulk roar over and over while waiting! But it was a bit confusing when we had been going straight to the line and then the attendants tell you you have to use a locker and then you go back and forth... etc.
HOTEL INFO - Dockside. Our hotel was nice. We actually had a good amount of space with the suite b/c there's a picnic table in the kitchen area for eating so that was VERY nice. It didn't feel cramped at all. The wifi was not great as it kept kicking me off, saying I was quarantined. It wasn't secure so I'm not sure what you would do if you needed to use it for work or something... Also the TVs only had cable stations and no streaming services so we were at the mercy of what was on TV - horrors! LOL but that was kind of annoying b/c we couldn't just choose to watch a movie together. You could maybe bring a Firestick or Chromecast but w/ the wifi being the way it was, it may not have worked. Staff communicated by text if we needed anything and got beds made/trash changed/new soaps/towels every day. Our room was also SUPER far from the lobby so we had to fill up our waters when we left/came back so a minor inconvenience. The buses were great, never got too busy that we had to wait too long. We NEVER stay at hotels and usually opt to get an AirBnb house for our family so this was a "treat." For the amount of time we actually spent in the hotel, it worked well. It was SO nice to not have to drive into the park every day and to have everything there and not have to worry about it. However, our boys are really loud and if we had spent much more time in the hotel it would have been a problem to keep them occupied. I would say if you are going on a trip and want to spend 1-2 days at Uni but do other things other days, stay offsite.
Regrets:
-Booking with a travel agent. Initially I did it b/c I had NO idea how to plan a big trip like this and it did make it easier b/c I had no idea what hotel to pick etc. If I had done the research beforehand, however, I could have booked it myself no problem. I didn't like not having control over my reservations and when we had to change our trip we had to pay $50 to the agency but they communicated with Universal to get the other fee waived.
-Waiting until the last day to do the more popular rides. On Monday, the wait times were WAY shorter than they were on Thursday so we had to wait 80m and 100m for two rides that we/some of us hadn't gotten to do yet.
-Finishing one day in Studios b/c they closed earlier than IOA and it wasn't worth it to go to the other park. We basically took the train over and ate dinner and then left. :/
-Not buying pizza tots - we were RIGHT there in Suessland and I just misread my notes app and didn't see it
-DH didn't realize we had 5 park days and wished that we had used our 5th day but we had obligations at home so we weren't able to stay longer.
Phew! I hope this helps someone plan their trip! We had a REALLY great time - even DH was happy with the way it all went. It was nice that our kiddos are past naps and the 7yo struggled the last day but was a trooper for the most part. Looking forward to the new park being ready in a few years - the teenager says maybe the next time we go *he* can pay for *us.* <3
Aside from a day trip to Legoland FL, our family has never done theme parks. DH is not a huge fan and would rather spend our money elsewhere so I decided to use my earnings as a stay at home Ebay reseller to fund this trip.
Here are my overall thoughts on things, what we would have done differently, and fyi things for first-timers.
Family of 6 with me, DH, DS 14, DD 12, DS 9, DS 7; we had 3+2 day promo and 5 nights at Dockside in a suite room.
FOOD:
Food was a stressor for me going into the trip: I've always been worried about how we would do food - making my peace with spending money but at the same time saving where we could. I hate cooking and to have a real vacation, I don't want to have to cook or plan cooking. But at the same time, it KILLS me to pay for food out constantly especially when we basically have 3 adults and 3 kids eating. This trip I felt like we had a good balance. One thing I did before we left was buy snacks and food specific to the trip that we don't always have at home. That helped make it more special so the kids didn't feel like they were missing out too much on snacks at the park. I went to Aldi and got protein bars, veggie chips, ramen soup cups, 100 cal cookies, and Pringles from Amazon S&S. We never bought breakfast or coffee once and just made our own in the room. (I don't know how I didn't buy SBX with them being everywhere!!)
For lunches we came back to our room the first day and ate food we brought, the next day we ate at Citywalk Panda Express and Moe's, one day we got Central Park crepes (Studios near Central Park sign) - these were YUMMY. My kids got the sweet ones though and couldn't eat them all. I wish we had gotten more savory ones instead of one of the sweet ones. But they are filling and $10-$12. The London jacket potatoes were also a hit (near Knight Bus and Sirius' house in Studios). Again, super filling, we shared with all. The Bumblebee tacos (NOT the Transformer but an actual Bumblebee, lol in Simpsons area in Studios) were a letdown. $12 and you get two little soft tacos with meat and cilantro and some chips. The salsa was super chunky and not the best. We just weren't impressed.
For dinners we ate at the Leaky Cauldron (Studios) which was really enjoyable! They assigned us a table and we ordered in the app and they brought the food right to us. Great atmosphere, good food and of course butter beer! We did BK in Citywalk the next night and the worker gave us an extra drink b/c "you just spent almost $50 at a fast food restaurant".
Ate at the hotel cafeteria the next night and it was quite tasty and not too overly expensive - pizza for 2-3 kiddos, chicken and waffles and a turkey sandwich DH and I split. We had leftover chicken too.We brought our snacks into the park every day and used them! The only snacks we bought in the park were icees in Suessland (IOA) and Florian's ice cream (Studios) - the cups were under $6 each so a couple of my kids spent their own money to get their own. The ice cream was pretty good but not amazingly so. We also bought a dozen mixed Voodoo donuts in CW to eat later that night/the next morning. $22/dozen and they were okay but honestly tasted just like Dunkin so nothing special IMO.
I did have a reservation at Toothsome's but ended up cancelling it b/c I felt like it tied us down to a specific time when we had other things planned. (It was at 2:45pm)
I think we spent about $500 on food overall.
Daily Schedule
Monday - 830am@ Islands of Adventure - straight to Velosicoaster (25m wait?) then did hulk. Back to hotel for lunch and back to IoA then rode train to Studios and ate dinner there then left.
Tuesday - Studios at 9, ate lunch in CW then took train to IoA and closed the park out with hulk at night (so pretty!)
Wednesday - Studios at 930ish, lunch in park 1130, back to hotel to change then water rides at IoA, hotel to change and ate at hotel, swam at hotel pool
Thursday - 815am@ IoA straight to Hagrids with 105m wait then train back to Studios to do gringotts, ate lunch then walked over to IoA to do Velosicoaster with a 80m wait. Ate with family offsite.
Notes:
Water rides - Popeye's Bilge Rat Barges gets you SOAKED but that's the only one we went on like that (Ripsaw Falls was closed). We had to rent a large locker for $5 to do that ride so we did the ride 3x to get our money's worth. It was SO much fun and probably one of my top highlights with the family. Not much of a wait b/c you get so wet, no one wants to do it lol. Jurassic Park River Adventure barely gets you wet so doesn't really count as a water ride IMO. It's fun tho!
Ride strategies - Earlier in the week/day is better for line waits. Mornings are better b/c it's cooler and there are less people but Thurs morning still had long line waits. HP areas are ALWAYS busy and that's frustrating b/c a lot of the wand spots are right on the main thoroughfare (esp in Hogsmeade). I liked Diagon better for that reason - it wasn't quite as crowded (I think b/c it wasn't a path to many other things like Hogsmeade is) and atmosphere I just enjoyed more.
Travel between parks & hotels - Switching parks was NOT as easy as I thought it would be. The fingerprint scanners are a PITA and anyone 10 and over had to scan their finger. DH and I both had to rescan our fingers. DH had his ID and for me they asked me park questions. The fingerprint thing is SO annoying. Plus - germs?! Hello! Ugh. If you switch parks via train they don't do your print - it's just at the main gates. Train often had a long wait though so it wasn't always the best way to switch. We generally stayed in one park for a long time and if we left the park or went to CW we would go to the other one after.
Going back to the hotel wasn't that quick/easy. We did it for lunch the first day and after lunch another day and it does take a good amount of time out of the day however if it's really hot and/or crowded, it's a good thing to do.
LOTS of walking. We stayed in a hotel that we couldn't walk to but if I were closer, I would still probably take the bus b/c just walking through the park, out and through CW, and then out to the buses was a LONG WAY.
Time - We pretty much maxed out our four days. We did leave at 5ish two of those days but we needed all of that time to do everything we wanted. We split up a couple times but generally stayed together. Since we have a 7yo who likes the kiddy rides and isn't tall enough for everything, but then we also have the rest of us who like coasters, we did just about everything in the park. I think the only rides we didn't do were The Simpsons Ride and Jimmy Fallon b/c we just aren't fans. Fast & Furious we shouldn't have done, lol but the kids wanted to. Definitely plan to stay until park close for one day, the lights are really cool.
CHILD SWAP: Super awesome if you have a nonrider! MOST of the rides have a room inside so you can have one adult hold all of your stuff and stay with nonrider while the rest ride THEN you can switch and the kiddos can ride TWICE - once with each parent! (Or if you have a sacrificial son, YOU can ride twice!
Anyway, that was a really awesome perk but it did take up extra time, especially when the nonrider *could* have ridden but just didn't want to. :/ There are a few rides - Hulk, VC, and RRR I think - that have inside child areas but still require you to use lockers b/c of the metal detectors. The attendants don't tell you why though - they just tell you you have to use the lockers either way. But you can opt to get a ticket from the attendant and just wait outside with all of the stuff. DS3 enjoyed listening to the Hulk roar over and over while waiting! But it was a bit confusing when we had been going straight to the line and then the attendants tell you you have to use a locker and then you go back and forth... etc. HOTEL INFO - Dockside. Our hotel was nice. We actually had a good amount of space with the suite b/c there's a picnic table in the kitchen area for eating so that was VERY nice. It didn't feel cramped at all. The wifi was not great as it kept kicking me off, saying I was quarantined. It wasn't secure so I'm not sure what you would do if you needed to use it for work or something... Also the TVs only had cable stations and no streaming services so we were at the mercy of what was on TV - horrors! LOL but that was kind of annoying b/c we couldn't just choose to watch a movie together. You could maybe bring a Firestick or Chromecast but w/ the wifi being the way it was, it may not have worked. Staff communicated by text if we needed anything and got beds made/trash changed/new soaps/towels every day. Our room was also SUPER far from the lobby so we had to fill up our waters when we left/came back so a minor inconvenience. The buses were great, never got too busy that we had to wait too long. We NEVER stay at hotels and usually opt to get an AirBnb house for our family so this was a "treat." For the amount of time we actually spent in the hotel, it worked well. It was SO nice to not have to drive into the park every day and to have everything there and not have to worry about it. However, our boys are really loud and if we had spent much more time in the hotel it would have been a problem to keep them occupied. I would say if you are going on a trip and want to spend 1-2 days at Uni but do other things other days, stay offsite.
Regrets:
-Booking with a travel agent. Initially I did it b/c I had NO idea how to plan a big trip like this and it did make it easier b/c I had no idea what hotel to pick etc. If I had done the research beforehand, however, I could have booked it myself no problem. I didn't like not having control over my reservations and when we had to change our trip we had to pay $50 to the agency but they communicated with Universal to get the other fee waived.
-Waiting until the last day to do the more popular rides. On Monday, the wait times were WAY shorter than they were on Thursday so we had to wait 80m and 100m for two rides that we/some of us hadn't gotten to do yet.
-Finishing one day in Studios b/c they closed earlier than IOA and it wasn't worth it to go to the other park. We basically took the train over and ate dinner and then left. :/
-Not buying pizza tots - we were RIGHT there in Suessland and I just misread my notes app and didn't see it
-DH didn't realize we had 5 park days and wished that we had used our 5th day but we had obligations at home so we weren't able to stay longer.
Phew! I hope this helps someone plan their trip! We had a REALLY great time - even DH was happy with the way it all went. It was nice that our kiddos are past naps and the 7yo struggled the last day but was a trooper for the most part. Looking forward to the new park being ready in a few years - the teenager says maybe the next time we go *he* can pay for *us.* <3
