First Trip to Universal 3/27-29/2018

DisMom256

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Hi, I guess I've had an account here for a long time, but I've only just lurked here and there. I was a frequent contributor on another board a few years ago and I am an in depth planner. My three daughters (ages 13, 13, 12) and I will be visiting Universal for the first time over their spring break. My MIL invited us down to Florida for the entirety of their break, but we're going to sneak away for a few days in the middle to satisfy their Harry Potter loving souls. We are active, experienced and capable of O/Cing a theme park enjoyably (open to close, we did this with both King's Island and Cedar Point last summer). We've been to Disney 3 times (2009, 2012, 2015). I don't believe such in depth touring plans are needed for Universal, but please correct me if I am wrong. Two of the girls are full out adrenaline ride junkies, I will likely be sitting out of a couple of the more extreme rides with the one that likes mild to medium coasters but doesn't like upside down or very high hills. I like rides, but I can take one for the team either way.

I'll be getting 3 day/2 park, park-to-park passes so that we can do Hogwart's Express. Our itinerary is roughly this, we will have a car:

Tue 3/27 Late arrival, cheap hotel tonight (booked Days Inn), do at least Ollivander's Wand Shop and dine at Three Brooksticks (both special requests by the girls) because Express Passes won't help us with those.
Wed 3/28 Check out of cheap hotel, check into Royal Pacific (also booked) bright and early, get our Unlimited EPs. Be at one of the gates in time to enjoy our extra morning hour. Do what the girls want to do, probably take a midday break at RP, returning for the evening.
Thur 3/29 Check out of RP, be at the other gate bright and early for the extra hour, hit it hard until we can't take it anymore. Put the chattiest/awakest girl in the passenger seat to keep me awake on the way back to MILs.

We want to ride the water taxi to or from RP at least once, but I've read that walking will probably be faster for us most of the time. I explained this to the girls and showed them the map and they are on board.

I'm looking to avoid pitfalls, wait times, and excess expenditures, BTDT advice gratefully accepted. I'm willing to read old threads you think are helpful, just link a girl up please! I read today about the refillable mug, we will probably do one of those. There will be a grocery run on the way there for quick breakfast items/hotel snacks.
 
One thing stands out in your plan that I have a question on- are you assuming the parks toggle which has early entry day to day? Because it rarely does. It’s usually just one park for a block of weeks.
Also, while mugs might seem handy, we prefer to travel light. With so many rides requiring use of lockers, it’s nice not to have extra stuff.
 
Just wanted to let you know that especially first thing in the morning the water taxi service from RPR was excellent during our Thanksgiving week trip. It was definitely not a boat every 20 mins. As soon as one boat was loaded the next was hovering nearby ready to swoop in. The lines were such that we usually got on the 2nd boat we were there in time to catch. Our experience was that going for park open (early or regular) the taxis were probably just as fast as walking. Other times of the day the boats were not always right there but we didn’t ever see a 20 min gap between boats. It was really nice (so different than Disney buses).
 
I was assuming the early opening parks toggled, but no matter, we will start with our extra hour at flavor of the day, even if its the same both days. Early is the best part of a theme park day.

I am not a fan of carrying around the souvenir cup all day, but I have read Universal have free lockers for the rides where they make you leave everything. I am also not a fan of paying $4 for a cup of soda every hour or so. We share (shhh), my biggest concern about it is getting my straw chewer to not do that. I'm happy about the free lockers, Cedar Point (my eternal point of reference, sorry) charges for the same idea outside a few select rides. We won't be carrying around much else, a couple fanny packs basically. Will I have to put those in the lockers as well? I read something about the ride line hosts sending you back to the lockers to ditch stuff, can you just presume you need to ditch and do the locker thing before approaching the ride?

That info about the water taxis is excellent! I presumed it would be like the Disney bus situation.
 


Walking is quick and easy - from Royal Pacific it's like 5 minutes to the IOA entrance, a couple more to the USF entrance.

I would think the only rides you should avoid based on your comments are Hulk and Hollywood Rock-It, both of which are pretty hardcore. The Mummy ride and Gringotts should be fine, and the rest are basically 'ride simulators' (that's not a criticism - they're very good - but they don't actually send you down huge drops or through 360 loops. As long as you're not prone to motion sickness you should be able to enjoy those.) Hulk and the Hollywood coaster are the only 2 rides where you can't bring ANYTHING onboard with you. I don't know if you can get away with keeping a fanny pack in Mummy, Forbidden Journey, etc. as they don't require you to empty your pockets, but they do require you to stash your backpack/purse in a free locker before getting in line.

For us, carrying a bag and stuff was fine as my wife doesn't ride hardly any of the rides that require you to use a locker, so we didn't have to deal with that process except the one time we managed to get her on Gringotts. If I was doing an express pass, I might deliberately 'go light' so that I could skip dealing with stuff and just race through the rides.

We did the refillable mug thing (1 for our party of 4) and it's a decent money saver if you prefer to stay well-caffeinated on your trip. It's one more thing to lug around, but it's not that big or heavy (we used a carabiner to attach it to our pack that held our ponchos, wands, sunscreen, etc.)

I'm curious how the crowd levels will be for your trip. We found the weekday crowds to be extremely light (in the off season) but the weekend was a lot busier. Of course, you're going in spring break season which changes the dynamic considerably.
 
I sprung for the RPR because I think it will be very crowded and miserably long lines without it. The separately priced EPs for our days were $169.99 per person, per day. That was the same as the Christmas Week EPs, so it looks the same. The Saturday EPs were about $60 less, then right back up, so I'm guessing they are expecting a lot of Saturday-to-Saturday vacationers. We didn't have a choice about our dates (other than within the week), as my kids are on Spring Break, so MIL invited us down, and we were supposed to go this past summer and didn't for health (my husband's) and financial (also because of his health) reasons, so I'm making it up to the girls as best I can. He can't handle more than a couple hours of walking, and he can't handle the heat, and he was never into theme parks like I was, so he's going fishing and we're doing US. Two of the girls really can't handle missing any school the way their grades are, so we're stuck going at some higher traffic time of year.

Ponchos, I forgot about ponchos and Florida. We had a whole backpack full of them at Disney, but I don't really want to cart them around. The cup and the lockers really shouldn't be that bad. I usually put a lightweight drawstring backpack in my fanny pack to carry the cup/similar things. Maybe I should be thinking of things with indoor queues/gift shops for the probable cloud bursts and just skip the ponchos. Or maybe get some lighter weight ponchos.

I found an article at Touring Plans just now about the short-term lockers. It looks like there are 7 rides we'll have to ditch the cup, including 3 that we'll also have to ditch the fanny packs. That's not too bad IMO. We won't be dragging around any more than that. Oh, the wand(s) they want. I don't think I'm going to get a wand in either fanny pack. No big deal, they really want those wands, we'll have to do the lockers. It looks like the fanny packs are allowed if they can be securely fastened and tucked beneath a shirt, but honestly, if we're putting stuff in a locker I'd probably do that as well. Possibly I will be able to separate them from their wands for parts of the day.

I might see if the girls want to do mostly ice water/collapsible bottle with water flavoring (already have this, it rolls up and easily fits in the fanny pack) rather than the refillable cup, with just a few soda purchases. I know I'll end up buying a couple butter beers. I'll let it roll around in my head some more.

It sounds like I might want to look around my office at work for some lanyards with plastic pockets for our passes.

BTW, I read your trip report, good stuff in those, thanks! It sounds like your approach is similar to mine.
 
As a NE Ohio guy, I understand Cedar Point as your point of reference.

Let me say this - staying at RPR, you will be spoiled! My kids expect Fast Lane Plus every trip to the Point now, which makes it as expensive as Uni! Also, the "thrill" rides at Uni will not thrill you as much, although there a few legit coasters at Uni, but the theming is awesome compared to the concrete and metal at the Point! If I want to go high and fast, I make the hour trip to Cedar Point, no place better. If I want rides that I enjoy based on IPs I love that I can ride over and over without a wait (ie Blutos Barges), then Uni is the place for my family!

Hope you love it as much as we do!
 


As a NE Ohio guy, I understand Cedar Point as your point of reference.

Let me say this - staying at RPR, you will be spoiled! My kids expect Fast Lane Plus every trip to the Point now, which makes it as expensive as Uni! Also, the "thrill" rides at Uni will not thrill you as much, although there a few legit coasters at Uni, but the theming is awesome compared to the concrete and metal at the Point! If I want to go high and fast, I make the hour trip to Cedar Point, no place better. If I want rides that I enjoy based on IPs I love that I can ride over and over without a wait (ie Blutos Barges), then Uni is the place for my family!

Hope you love it as much as we do!

Yeah, I wonder how Uni got its reputation as a “thrill ride park”. 6 flags has lots more of the bigger, faster, “real” coasters. I seem to recall that maybe IOA had more when it first opened maybe? Personally I think Uni is not great on thrill rides (I don’t love screens) but knocks it out of the park on theming. HP, the Simpsons, and even Seuss landing are so well done. That’s what they excel at (IMO). They’re middle of the road on thrill rides. I would even argue that across all 4 parks Disney even has more thrill rides. This is not intended as a knock on Uni at all - just an honest question about why it has that reputation.
 
Thanks so much for the feedback! I worked 3 summers at Cedar Point as a ride hostess back in the day, I sometimes wish I could go back, but it wouldn't be the same 30 years later. I am surprising the girls with our first Platinum Passes for Christmas. 2018 is the year of the vacation for us! I've considered it strongly before, but my husband inherited property in the Hocking Hills a few years ago and we've gotten an existing structure up to habitable, so now we mainly live 1.5 hours from Cedar Point (Medina) and our second home is 2 hours from King's Island. The girls are also about the optimal age for taking them to theme/thrill parks and they still like hanging out with me. Middle school has been the suck for the twins, so I'm going to spoil them a bit.

I'm ok with Uni not being a comparable thrill rides park. My favorite thing about WDW is the theming. As for CP, I like the old school "big coasters" and have fond memories of them, but those are plenty for me. I have ridden Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, etc., but I am just as happy to let my two coaster junkies ride them and hang out with the other one on Pipe Scream, Mine Ride and her other favs. I am sure she will find something we can do while her sisters ride Hulk and Hollywood Rock-It.

I am thinking the jump from Days Inn to RPR the next night is going to make our jaws drop. LOL
 
When you use the free lockers, memorize the number on that locker.
Or have a pen and write the # down on your arm/hand, kid's face.......j/k about the kid's face...



One year I could not remember the number I stored my items in when I went on MIB
Had to have a TM help me locate my locker
 
Good tip, I can stow a Sharpy in my pack. I may have written "Language Arts at Lunch" on one kid's arm this week. LOL
 
We had a great time. Here is my takeaway advice:

* If you have days with Express Passes and without, check which rides have virtual queues (Jimmy Fallon for sure, I think some kid flyer ride at IoA) and do them the non-pass day.
* 10:30am is a great time for 3 Broomsticks
* No need to plan this to death like WDW, especially if you have Express Passes. The girls brought up what they thought of as overplanning for Disney. I explained that Fast Passes had an hour window on them, so I really did have to do that to keep them from standing in line all day.
* Not so many attractions as WDW. 3 days (2 with Express Passes) was plenty. I think 2 days in low season and/or passes is enough for most to do all the things if you're squeezing it in.
* The theming is just as wonderful as WDW. I figured out part of the appeal: complete sensory overload. It knocked everything out of my head that had been whirling and festering, at least for a few days. Wonderful break.
* Our favorite rides were Spiderman, Forbidden Journey, and Jimmy Fallon. Your mileage may vary.
* My Fitbit reported 18k+28k+24k=70k steps (about 35 miles) on our three days. Decent footwear, folks. You can reduce the distance by planning a route, rather than my teenage daughters' more random path taking, but still, keep this in mind.
 
When you use the free lockers, memorize the number on that locker.
Or have a pen and write the # down on your arm/hand, kid's face.......j/k about the kid's face...



One year I could not remember the number I stored my items in when I went on MIB
Had to have a TM help me locate my locker

I forgot about this, but luckily, it seems my daughters have excellent memories for this. Two of the three knew the number every time. The other is lucky her head is attached. ;)
 
Glad you had a great trip! Love staying onsite and EP. Can I say that I love how you write? So engaging and funny!
 
Thanks for reporting back how it went! What did you end up doing for drinks? Did you get a collapsible water bottle or the refillable mug? Feedback on how it worked out?
 
Thanks for reporting back how it went! What did you end up doing for drinks? Did you get a collapsible water bottle or the refillable mug? Feedback on how it worked out?

We did a couple Butter Beers early the first day, then a refillable mug that day and the next. The girls were surprised I couldn't just recharge the first one. The last day, I started out ordering ice water at 3 Broomsticks because we hadn't gotten a mug yet and they don't do that, then everyone seemed happy enough to just ask for ice water.

ETA: The free lockers all over made it as easy as anything. Though I am content to shove barely anything in a fanny pack and spend an entire day at the parks, it seems my newly minted 14 year olds must take their newly acquired purses EVERYWHERE! So, yeah, always a locker, though my fanny pack got a confirmed pass on pretty much everything. I travel light.
 
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