Hi everyone,
We just returned from our first trip to US and IoA. It was awesome! Thank you to those of you who helped us with our plans.
Brief intro - family of 4, kids 10 and 13. We stopped doing Disney 4 years ago because...same reasons many other people stopped. We came to hate it. We promised to the kids 4 years ago that we'd consider going back, but as we got into year 4, there was no way, especially now since we perceive Disney to be worse, that we were going to go back. Kids were okay with that; they no longer really like Disney either other than Avenger stuff.
But we wanted to still kind of honor the 4 year promise and the kids are super nutty about Harry Potter, as is my wife. So we took a chance. We surprised the kids and didn't tell them; woke them early the day of departure for the adventure and they were so pumped!
Originally planned for early November, but Hurricane Nicole suggested we cancel. So glad we did. We rebooked to last week and were able to get a better hotel, one extra day and Christmas decorations. All at about $300 less due to cheaper airfare.
We booked air via Frontier Bundle package (thus why we could easily cancel the flight in November). Rebooked again at $300 less.
We booked via Universal the Harry Potter package and it was great. It included BF at Leaky and 3Brooms and a photo shoot.
The photo shoot was surprisingly fun. We almost didn't do it because we thought it would be lame. It was a combo of shots, mugshots and video. Highly recommend it.
We stayed at Royal Pacific. Perfect hotel for our tastes. And walking to the park was a breeze. (Boats were down last week). We had a basic room reserved, but when we told them my wife has health issues (which she does) they gave us a super quite high level park facing room. Just awesome service.
Since we never had been, we did IoA first day on recommendations we see Hogsmead first. I thought it was amazing and so that set the stage. The next day we did US and went to Diagon and Holy $#!T. That was unbelievable. I won't say more about it because if you're a newb you should actually not over indulge in the details. That area was so amazing I can't believe it. Disney is amateur hour at this point. We literally spent 4 hours walking around and riding Diagon. Hogsmead is awesome too, but Diagon is next level stuff. There is just nothing like it that I know of.
We loved that Christmas decorations were up. Especially in Hogsmead and Diagon. Seuss land was super pretty at night as well. Basically all the Christmas lights were great.
We all bought wands; even I liked the interactive magic stuff. My kids LOVED it plus it's great for crowd control.
We got to ride Hagrids - awesome, but frankly Velocicoaster is next level amazing! Probably our family's top favorite coaster.
We never stood in line more than 60 minutes (Hagrids) but Hagrids got up to over 2 hours on days. Personally loved the ride, but would not wait that long for it. I would wait an hour for Velocicoaster, but we did that during early hours each day.
We did every major ride except Transformers and RideIt. Hulk was fun as well. The family put it second to Velocicoaster. I put it third because I liked Hagrids more. We did Mummy too since it was open. Thought it was really fun for being an older ride. We liked everything but I'm getting old and the 3D stuff can only be taken in small doses. I would do Velocicoaster all day though. Every ride was okay to amazing. Favorites were mentioned already. Plus loved all the Harry Potter rides. Did not really care for Simpsons or Minions, but the rest of everything we thought was good. Oh and we did not do Jimmy Fallon because we think he's a total clown.
The Macy's parade was awesome and very traditional and I really hope they keep it that way. It was overall just wonderful. The NY Christmas lights scene was also awesome.
Every area seemed well done. No litter; no trash. People were normal. Crowd control got heavy on the weekend, but nothing horrible. We liked pretty much all the lands/areas. Surprise area for me was the Marvel comic area. I figured it'd suck because Disney bought the TV rights, but US has the comic thing down perfectly. I was also amazed how easy it was to do character meets at Seuss, Marvel, and comic book land. They were everywhere and maybe 5 minute lines (on the weekend too).
Big miss for me was missing Manheim Steamroller. We got incorrect information online when it was supposed to start and end. So we ended up showing up late and missing most of it. I also spilled my beer that I roady'd over to enjoy while listening. I was really bummed, BUT we missed it because we hung out in Diagon just walking around enjoying the Christmas lights and drinking funny HP drinks and beer until we thought it was supposed to start. So it wasn't like we missed it due to a late bus or something. But I would have really liked seeing that.
The swag was great. The wands were super neat and not cheap like I thought they might be. I rarely buy souvenirs, but bought Marvel, Jaws, and Harry Potter Petronas as his Stag against dementors thing t-shirt (yes, I still don't know what I'm talking about with HP). Kids got stuffed animals and clothes. Bought son a HP robe. We used the $300 gift card option and they gave us free wands. Yes, we spent $600 on souvenirs and stuff. The wands for four alone was almost $280 so from that point it wasn't hard to hit another $300 in swag and food/drinks which you could use the card anywhere. We had also budgeted $150 for each kid out of pending Christmas gifts for this trip so that we could go a bit crazy for them. We normally won't go big like that but we went in thinking this might be a one-time trip. We have no regrets.
The weather was perfect.
City walk was super cool to just walk around at.
Not once did we have any serious problems with staff. Everyone was either average/as expected or out-right amazing except at Mythos. Mythos food was great; service was horrible.
Food:
1. First night City Walk Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. Food was very good or meh. My Reuben was outstanding; Mushroom risotto also awesome. Fish meh; son got some kid meal I don't remember. We also got the icecream 3000 calorie things. They were all awesome, but too much. We were sick a bit about it.
2. Day two - BF at 3Brooms. It was fine. Fun ambiance. Lunch ate at Kababs in IOA - super good chicken kababs. Drank Butter beer. Too sweet for us. Daughter liked it though. Dinner at Mama Dellas. Very good. Shared Spaghetti and Bolognese dishes among the four of us.
3. Day three - BF at Leaky. Same, fine. Lunch was snacking out of our backpack. Got kids something I don't recall randomly for dinner. Wife and I went to dinner at Bull and Bear for anniversary dinner (2 months late). Next level stuff there. Service was amazing, food was amazing. Awesome. We shared Ceasar made at the table; I got filet with Frittes and wife got pasta explosion and lobster bisque as meal. All excellent, but probably one and done given the pricing. Highly recommend it though. We ubered there about $65 roundtrip.
4. Day four - snacked for BF; lunch at Mythos - super good. I got the scallops. Awesome. Wife pad thai, awesome. Daughter got the app that is the cheese and olive plate and hummus. She liked it. Son got kids steak. Service sucked though. We waited 30 minutes after our reservations partly due to watching VIP (I think football or baseball players or something, group of 26) get to cut in front of us. Total BS. Our server was non existent as well. But the food was top notch. Dinner at Royal Pacific Sushi place. Sushi was great. Service was great.
5. Day five. Packed up, checked out, sat at the pool until departure, and ate lunch at the pool at Royal Pacific. Excellent pool food for what it's worth. Service was excellent. Left around 1:30 for 4:30 flight.
Best tips we received for newbies:
1. Don't overplan it. US allows you to do that and it's worth it to be surprised and go at your pace.
2. Get express pass or stay at a hotel with one.
3. Hogsmead first then Diagon Alley for wow factor via Hogsmead Express.
4. Watch the movies or read the books for HP world since that makes it super fun.
5. Park crowds spiked dramatically on Saturday and Sunday, so EP is really valuable. But even with spiked levels, no rides except Hagrids was over 60 minutes.
6. You do, in fact, need to be at MCO airport at least 2 hours in advance, probably 3. Such a zoo.
7. No need for a car. Uber was cheap and easy. $50 each way for airport.
8. Backpack lockers was chaotic but we got the hang of it. Definitely don't go bigger than 22 liters on the pack or you'll have a hard time fitting it. Don't have a frame backpack either. Better off having two people carry packs than have the father family mule which is what we did. I think my 14 liter ski backpacks would be perfect since the stretch out to only 6 inches and have nothing to snag. I have a dakine 14 poacher and a Osprey 20 L also. I mighth use them next time.
9. If weather is not that hot, carry a lightweight sweatshirt with pocket zips so that on most locker rides (not Velocicoaster) you can still carry your wallet and phone. I use an Icebreaker hoody with three pocket zips. Perfect for this. Stays reasonably cool up to 80 degrees; keeps you warm in the morning. Zips are bulletproof. This helped with locker management.
Overall, I would have told you two weeks ago prior to leaving that this will likely be our last Orlando trip just to honor that 4 year promise to our kids, but we absolutely loved everything about this trip. My kids both said it was one of their favorite trips ever. I'm amazed I liked it so much. My wife and I all but gave up on Orlando but this totally saved it for us. Universal is just doing things right. Hopefully they don't screw it up like Disney as they get bigger- especially with the new Epic park planned.
God willing, we're definitely going back; maybe within the next year.
Feel free to ask questions and happy to opine.
Thanks again everyone!
We just returned from our first trip to US and IoA. It was awesome! Thank you to those of you who helped us with our plans.
Brief intro - family of 4, kids 10 and 13. We stopped doing Disney 4 years ago because...same reasons many other people stopped. We came to hate it. We promised to the kids 4 years ago that we'd consider going back, but as we got into year 4, there was no way, especially now since we perceive Disney to be worse, that we were going to go back. Kids were okay with that; they no longer really like Disney either other than Avenger stuff.
But we wanted to still kind of honor the 4 year promise and the kids are super nutty about Harry Potter, as is my wife. So we took a chance. We surprised the kids and didn't tell them; woke them early the day of departure for the adventure and they were so pumped!
Originally planned for early November, but Hurricane Nicole suggested we cancel. So glad we did. We rebooked to last week and were able to get a better hotel, one extra day and Christmas decorations. All at about $300 less due to cheaper airfare.
We booked air via Frontier Bundle package (thus why we could easily cancel the flight in November). Rebooked again at $300 less.
We booked via Universal the Harry Potter package and it was great. It included BF at Leaky and 3Brooms and a photo shoot.
The photo shoot was surprisingly fun. We almost didn't do it because we thought it would be lame. It was a combo of shots, mugshots and video. Highly recommend it.
We stayed at Royal Pacific. Perfect hotel for our tastes. And walking to the park was a breeze. (Boats were down last week). We had a basic room reserved, but when we told them my wife has health issues (which she does) they gave us a super quite high level park facing room. Just awesome service.
Since we never had been, we did IoA first day on recommendations we see Hogsmead first. I thought it was amazing and so that set the stage. The next day we did US and went to Diagon and Holy $#!T. That was unbelievable. I won't say more about it because if you're a newb you should actually not over indulge in the details. That area was so amazing I can't believe it. Disney is amateur hour at this point. We literally spent 4 hours walking around and riding Diagon. Hogsmead is awesome too, but Diagon is next level stuff. There is just nothing like it that I know of.
We loved that Christmas decorations were up. Especially in Hogsmead and Diagon. Seuss land was super pretty at night as well. Basically all the Christmas lights were great.
We all bought wands; even I liked the interactive magic stuff. My kids LOVED it plus it's great for crowd control.
We got to ride Hagrids - awesome, but frankly Velocicoaster is next level amazing! Probably our family's top favorite coaster.
We never stood in line more than 60 minutes (Hagrids) but Hagrids got up to over 2 hours on days. Personally loved the ride, but would not wait that long for it. I would wait an hour for Velocicoaster, but we did that during early hours each day.
We did every major ride except Transformers and RideIt. Hulk was fun as well. The family put it second to Velocicoaster. I put it third because I liked Hagrids more. We did Mummy too since it was open. Thought it was really fun for being an older ride. We liked everything but I'm getting old and the 3D stuff can only be taken in small doses. I would do Velocicoaster all day though. Every ride was okay to amazing. Favorites were mentioned already. Plus loved all the Harry Potter rides. Did not really care for Simpsons or Minions, but the rest of everything we thought was good. Oh and we did not do Jimmy Fallon because we think he's a total clown.
The Macy's parade was awesome and very traditional and I really hope they keep it that way. It was overall just wonderful. The NY Christmas lights scene was also awesome.
Every area seemed well done. No litter; no trash. People were normal. Crowd control got heavy on the weekend, but nothing horrible. We liked pretty much all the lands/areas. Surprise area for me was the Marvel comic area. I figured it'd suck because Disney bought the TV rights, but US has the comic thing down perfectly. I was also amazed how easy it was to do character meets at Seuss, Marvel, and comic book land. They were everywhere and maybe 5 minute lines (on the weekend too).
Big miss for me was missing Manheim Steamroller. We got incorrect information online when it was supposed to start and end. So we ended up showing up late and missing most of it. I also spilled my beer that I roady'd over to enjoy while listening. I was really bummed, BUT we missed it because we hung out in Diagon just walking around enjoying the Christmas lights and drinking funny HP drinks and beer until we thought it was supposed to start. So it wasn't like we missed it due to a late bus or something. But I would have really liked seeing that.
The swag was great. The wands were super neat and not cheap like I thought they might be. I rarely buy souvenirs, but bought Marvel, Jaws, and Harry Potter Petronas as his Stag against dementors thing t-shirt (yes, I still don't know what I'm talking about with HP). Kids got stuffed animals and clothes. Bought son a HP robe. We used the $300 gift card option and they gave us free wands. Yes, we spent $600 on souvenirs and stuff. The wands for four alone was almost $280 so from that point it wasn't hard to hit another $300 in swag and food/drinks which you could use the card anywhere. We had also budgeted $150 for each kid out of pending Christmas gifts for this trip so that we could go a bit crazy for them. We normally won't go big like that but we went in thinking this might be a one-time trip. We have no regrets.
The weather was perfect.
City walk was super cool to just walk around at.
Not once did we have any serious problems with staff. Everyone was either average/as expected or out-right amazing except at Mythos. Mythos food was great; service was horrible.
Food:
1. First night City Walk Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. Food was very good or meh. My Reuben was outstanding; Mushroom risotto also awesome. Fish meh; son got some kid meal I don't remember. We also got the icecream 3000 calorie things. They were all awesome, but too much. We were sick a bit about it.
2. Day two - BF at 3Brooms. It was fine. Fun ambiance. Lunch ate at Kababs in IOA - super good chicken kababs. Drank Butter beer. Too sweet for us. Daughter liked it though. Dinner at Mama Dellas. Very good. Shared Spaghetti and Bolognese dishes among the four of us.
3. Day three - BF at Leaky. Same, fine. Lunch was snacking out of our backpack. Got kids something I don't recall randomly for dinner. Wife and I went to dinner at Bull and Bear for anniversary dinner (2 months late). Next level stuff there. Service was amazing, food was amazing. Awesome. We shared Ceasar made at the table; I got filet with Frittes and wife got pasta explosion and lobster bisque as meal. All excellent, but probably one and done given the pricing. Highly recommend it though. We ubered there about $65 roundtrip.
4. Day four - snacked for BF; lunch at Mythos - super good. I got the scallops. Awesome. Wife pad thai, awesome. Daughter got the app that is the cheese and olive plate and hummus. She liked it. Son got kids steak. Service sucked though. We waited 30 minutes after our reservations partly due to watching VIP (I think football or baseball players or something, group of 26) get to cut in front of us. Total BS. Our server was non existent as well. But the food was top notch. Dinner at Royal Pacific Sushi place. Sushi was great. Service was great.
5. Day five. Packed up, checked out, sat at the pool until departure, and ate lunch at the pool at Royal Pacific. Excellent pool food for what it's worth. Service was excellent. Left around 1:30 for 4:30 flight.
Best tips we received for newbies:
1. Don't overplan it. US allows you to do that and it's worth it to be surprised and go at your pace.
2. Get express pass or stay at a hotel with one.
3. Hogsmead first then Diagon Alley for wow factor via Hogsmead Express.
4. Watch the movies or read the books for HP world since that makes it super fun.
5. Park crowds spiked dramatically on Saturday and Sunday, so EP is really valuable. But even with spiked levels, no rides except Hagrids was over 60 minutes.
6. You do, in fact, need to be at MCO airport at least 2 hours in advance, probably 3. Such a zoo.
7. No need for a car. Uber was cheap and easy. $50 each way for airport.
8. Backpack lockers was chaotic but we got the hang of it. Definitely don't go bigger than 22 liters on the pack or you'll have a hard time fitting it. Don't have a frame backpack either. Better off having two people carry packs than have the father family mule which is what we did. I think my 14 liter ski backpacks would be perfect since the stretch out to only 6 inches and have nothing to snag. I have a dakine 14 poacher and a Osprey 20 L also. I mighth use them next time.
9. If weather is not that hot, carry a lightweight sweatshirt with pocket zips so that on most locker rides (not Velocicoaster) you can still carry your wallet and phone. I use an Icebreaker hoody with three pocket zips. Perfect for this. Stays reasonably cool up to 80 degrees; keeps you warm in the morning. Zips are bulletproof. This helped with locker management.
Overall, I would have told you two weeks ago prior to leaving that this will likely be our last Orlando trip just to honor that 4 year promise to our kids, but we absolutely loved everything about this trip. My kids both said it was one of their favorite trips ever. I'm amazed I liked it so much. My wife and I all but gave up on Orlando but this totally saved it for us. Universal is just doing things right. Hopefully they don't screw it up like Disney as they get bigger- especially with the new Epic park planned.
God willing, we're definitely going back; maybe within the next year.
Feel free to ask questions and happy to opine.
Thanks again everyone!
