First time Universal Vacation

Zooey72

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 28, 2007
We were going to Disney originally between Sept 2-9. Than they dropped GE opening a few days before we got there, so we dropped our vacation. Now we are going on a Royal Carib. cruise Sept. 2-6 and Universal 7-9th.

The meal plan for universal seem underwhelming, so I will probably end paying OOP. I know I want to have a Krusty Burger, a Flaming Moe, and a Duff beer. Other than that I have no plans. We are staying at Hard Rock Hotel. I will do a sit down if any of them are worth the $. I just don't want to shell out a bunch of cash and have the food suck, or whatever. We intend on staying at each park 1 day, and the water park on the last day.

I hear the butter beer is supposed to be good.

At any rate, any good advice or secret stuff that I should know to make my trip better?

Thanks!
 
The counter meal plan only saves a few bucks
Since your trip for the darkside is 3 days, enjoy other places instead

Check out some of the stickies and other threads where questions are asked about advice for the parks

Sometimes they have suggestions from posters that will be if benefit to you

Enjoy your cruise and the darkside parks!
 
Hi congrats on your first Uni vacation. We got hooked about 7 years ago. It is a less hectic vacation. Once you use express pass you will be spoiled.

Yes butterber is awesome. Personally my family likes the frozen the best. Tip when you are in Hogsmeade get your butterbeer from the hogs head pub. There is not a line usually unlike the carts.

I did the dining plan once and wouldn't again. The only thing I found was saved a couple of dollars using the snack for butterbeer. You can save a little with the dining plan if you eat where there are combo meals. You would get a shake in addition to a drink. You can make your decision that day and buy it that day.

Volcano Bay is awesome. I would suggest getting there for early entry that day. You can get a lot done in the first hour. Do the headliners first. Check out the VB thread.

The HP workds are best during early entry less crowds. You have express pass so no planning for rides.

We like Toothsome in City Walk and Bubba Gump. We like both HP restsurants. I would check out the threads for the restaurants.

Enjoy your trip.
 
Is the express pass really a big deal? It seems that if everyone has one that stays at a hotel it is like nobody has one (Meaning are the lines for that just as long as a normal line since so many people have them?)

I always did the Disney Dining plan because I hate budgeting once I am in the park. However it doesn't even look like very many resteraunts are on the plan, and the only one I know for certain wasn't listed (Moe's and Krusty Burger). It is hard for me to justify a sit down meal unless I know before hand it is supposed to be really great.

Also, I think the lines may not be too bad because we are going after Labor Day. That is pretty much the only time we would go to Disney, and would have gone this year if not for Galaxy's Edge. I am betting the lines are going to be nightmarish. The plan is to go next year so that we are between Galaxy's Edge opening and the 50th. That way we get to see the whole Galaxy's Edge as well as some of the other rides they are opening up. I am hoping some people will put off going in 2020 and wait until 2021. The truth of the matter is that I would not go to Disney or any other park if they paid me during the summer or Christmas.

At any rate, I think I saw some kind of light show or something on HP castle. Is that worth seeing, or is it better to use that time to get on rides?

Hard Rock looked like the funnest Hotel. We are also going with a couple of teenagers, so seemed like the logical choice.
 


EP does make a difference. There is only three hotels that technically have it, it's not as if all resorts have access to EP, so it isn't as if EP is the same wait as the queue. Even then, not all Universal guests are hotel property guests anyway. EP shouldn't be that much of a wait, but depending on the peak times / seasons, it can be up to about half the wait time (during those peak moments). As Universal and Disney, seem to have a different ratio, or concept on how many they let enter before letting people from the regular queue in. Disney seems to be good at adjusting and has a certain flow to FP, but it's been reported that during peak times / seasons that at Universal the EP wait can increase, but still won't be as long as the queue.

HRH is personally the favorite for me. It's the only one I've been to technically, however I love the atmosphere and a huge fan of rock, so naturally I'm partial to it and is the reason why I always pick HRH over the others. Also, it's the closest hotel to Universal and can literally walk there no problem, which is a nice bonus.

Hard Rock Cafe is great when it comes to the food. Just like everything, it's expensive, but the wings are a personal favorite of mine, the sauce we pick is unique and they're also grilled. Portions are decent sized for entrees, so I suggest if anything, you can split a meal which would help with cost. Besides unless you're winding down for the day, or plan to rest mid-day, you shouldn't be eating a big meal anyway in my personal opinion. A lot of people like CowFish though when it comes to City Walk as well. In terms of eating within the parks, for quick service I recommend, any of the Harry Potter themed restaurants, but for those non-HP related for IoA - Terrance Falls and for USF - Simpson's (which sounds like you plan to anyway).

As for drinks, people are partial to butter beer, especially since it's the most known and "famous" drink from the series, but pumpkin juice is my personal favorite due to the fact I prefer that flavor and is refreshing. People typically describe butter beer as tasting like cream soda.

The light show starts at dusk and is until closing, so you'll have plenty of time to gaze upon the castle, even if you go onto other rides and what not.
 
Is the express pass really a big deal? It seems that if everyone has one that stays at a hotel it is like nobody has one (Meaning are the lines for that just as long as a normal line since so many people have them?)

Yes! It's a big deal. Only 3 of the onsite hotels offer this (not all of them). During your visit it may not REALLY be needed, but there will be some rides you'll be happy you had it for. You'll pretty much walk onto everything. :)

See the castle light show at Islands of Adventure, but also the Epic Cinema Under the Stars evening show at Universal Studios (around the lagoon). You'll have ridden all the rides twice by evening, so see the shows.
 
EP is great for us no matter what the crowd level is. It has changed how I do the parks. So much more time to just explore the parks without having to keep an eye out for the time, what ride has the shortest wait time. Think about how much nicer a visit to disney would be if you walked in the gate with unlimited fast passes that did not have to be booked months in advance.

We are serial repeat riders on our favorites. How many times have you been able to ride your favorites in disney in a row. My group hit hulk 10 times over 2 days on our last trip. We would have not been able to do that without EP and still ride everything else we wanted to during that time.

I don't recommend the universal dining plan. Just not worth it to me. We never do sit downs in the parks. That takes up too much park time. We usually have a nice sit down meal after we leave the park in the orlando area.

Be sure and come back and tell us if you think the EP is a big deal after you have had the opportunity to enjoy having it.
 


What do you guys think about shelling out an extra 100 bucks a day for club level? There will be 5 of us (2 being teenagers). Do you get anything other than the snack food? If I did it I would eat breakfast and dinner there, and than eat lunch in the parks.
 
What do you guys think about shelling out an extra 100 bucks a day for club level? There will be 5 of us (2 being teenagers). Do you get anything other than the snack food? If I did it I would eat breakfast and dinner there, and than eat lunch in the parks.

Which premier hotel are you booking?

I’ve done club only at hrh and rpr
From what I have read in trip reports, all 3 of the premier hotels have similar or close to same breakfast in club

Snacks during the day are basic but soda, coffee and water are available at all times the club lounge is open

The dinner hours vary based on which hotel you do your club stay

Read some of the trip reports to see what peeps are currently offered for that time period

With the surcharge of an extra adult in your booking, you might find club will help offset your food costs by using the club room for two if their meal periods
(When you stated two in your group were teens, thought you might have an 18 yo in your party)

It can cut into your park time as each hotel has the dinner period starting around 5:00
 
What do you guys think about shelling out an extra 100 bucks a day for club level? There will be 5 of us (2 being teenagers). Do you get anything other than the snack food? If I did it I would eat breakfast and dinner there, and than eat lunch in the parks.

I think $20 per person per day for breakfast, evening meals and drinks is well worth it.
 
What do you guys think about shelling out an extra 100 bucks a day for club level? There will be 5 of us (2 being teenagers). Do you get anything other than the snack food? If I did it I would eat breakfast and dinner there, and than eat lunch in the parks.
The evening club offering really isn’t sufficient for dinner, unless you make you lunch your big meal of the day. Mainly just appetizers there for happy hour. But breakfast is good and convenient. I think it is worth the extra $, especially if you enjoy a few beers or wine before heading out for the evening.
 
Definitely try and get to Diagon Alley first thing in the morning while its still relatively empty, you'll get to see so much more and just take it all in and get some great photos too!

Oh and my vote goes for warm Butterbeer, yummy!
 
We just got home. We stayed at Portofino Bay (Got a great deal though Costco Travel). We upgraded to club level and it was worth it. We stayed there 4 night. Each morning we ate breakfast, each evening we ate dinner, adult drinks and had desserts. We had unlimited bottles of water, soda and coffee. It was plenty of food to call it a dinner meal. Dinners included an entree, cooked vegetable, potatoes or rice, several salad options, raw veggies, breads and cheese platters. We did not eat big lunches and the dinners were more than enough for us.

Express passes were great. We never waited in line for over 10 min. Standby queue lines were 30-60 min.

Our favorite was frozen butterbeer. Warm is seasonal and not available this time of year. The pumpkin juice tasted like apple cider with pumpkin pie spice.

Our favorite time in Diagon Alley was in the evening. We would return to the hotel for dinner as soon as they started serving it, then returned to the park. By 7:30ish, Diagon Alley was basically empty. The girls were able to play with all the interactive wand stuff as long as they wanted to. No waiting in line. It was a sight to see with all the lights on at night.
 
Awww thats so lovely to read, sounds perfect!

Universal has a habit of doing that :)
 
For us EP is worth it. Cuts the wait into walk on in most cases.
We were just there and bought the dining plan twice. Once first thing to get the mug. Then on future days you can ask for paid individual refills. (They don’t tell you this is an option, and will ask you what you mean, do you want to reactivate mug) Much cheaper than buying drinks full price. Then another time we bought the $23 dining plan. It’s worth it when purchasing the expensive meals over $16 and getting $6 or over for snack. I used drink credit for pumpkin juice, snack for Fortiscues
Icecream. But I don’t want to eat heavily like that all the time. And if you don’t use it to eat the most expensive meals and snacks you can actually loose money. Orlando Informer has a good article on it.
 
I am just lurking around till I ask my questions but learning so much until then :D
 
First timer here too. We are stating at RP. I need to read up on how to get to the parks etc. I know all the ins and outs of Disney but nothing about Universal. We leave in 3 weeks!
 
First timer here too. We are stating at RP. I need to read up on how to get to the parks etc. I know all the ins and outs of Disney but nothing about Universal. We leave in 3 weeks!

You can walk, or ride the boat. The hotel is just out of sight of the parks.
 

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