I have used all the wise info on this board to plan many trips so I figured I would share my recent trip to IOA & US with you in hopes of helping someone else plan the "perfect Trip".
To get started, we left Rhode Island on Wed,Feb 16th (3 days before the President's week vaca started for schools up here) in hopes of avoiding the crowds at WWOHP. I have to say the Southwest nonstop out of Providence is the best! I will suggest to anyone who is not sure about purchasing the early bird boarding to do it, especially on a trip to Disney/Universal when you probably will be in a park the day before departure and not at a computer to print your boarding passes! Early Bird, for $10 per person, automatically checks you in 36 hours prior to your flight so you can get those coveted "A" boarding passes. No need to go on their website exactly 24 hrs prior to get "A's". Since they check you in, you can print passes whenever you want to up to an hour prior to boarding. Well worth the money to me to alleviate the stress on vacation!
We chose RPR for the first 2 nights of our week since I wanted to take advantage of Early entry and Express pass. Paid $186 AAA rate for park view room in bldg 1. The hotel was fantastic! Valet parked our rental car ($22/day), but they allow you to leave the car on day of departure also. Valet told me they do not charge accounts until midnight for next day so as long as you leave before then, you're ok, even on check out day. They hold your bags after you check out so you can go to parks all day. Self parking was $15 I believe. We were going to Daytona 500 on Sunday so we needed rental car.
I purchased the Flex Pass which gave us unlimited entry to IOA, US, Seaworld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens for $245 per person through undercover tourist. I have to say their service is incredible. I bought online and had the tkts in 4 days! Since it would cost $135 for just two days, two parks at Univ and another $80 per person for Seaworld, the extra $30 was worth it to us to have unlimited entry to Univ parks (for up to 2 weeks), in case it was warm enough to do Aquatica (great water park, by the way) or do a third day at Univ because of crowds. I would not hesitate to buy from them again.
We planned to be at the IOA gate at 7:30 to get in line for early entry. Took the boat over, (it starts at 7am every morning). Very easy and convenient. the only point I will make about the boat is that it drops you across from the NASCAR GRILLE which is down closer to Univ Studios in city walk. You have to walk back over to IOA past where the walking path comes out. We did both. The walk is not bad, but after all the speed walking we did to get to where we needed to be, the boat was a welcomed rest! Anyway, we arrived at 7:20am to about 40 people ahead of us. Lines were kind of long at ticket booths. We had tickets so just jumped in turnstile line. Make sure you get passes ahead of time, especially if you are going early. Doesn't pay to waste time in two lines! They opened gate at 7:50 and the speed walking began. We headed over through Seuss landing up the hill behind green eggs and ham and finally there it was! My DD (14) is the Harry Potter afficionado and was beyond excited. DH and DS(10) were not as thrilled until they realized roller coasters came with the package. We walked directly to Ollivander's and got in a line of about 20 people. I think we were in the second show of the day! Spent some time in the way-too-crowded wand shop that the show lets out into. Talked DD into waiting to buy wand until after we rode FJ and DD so we wouldn't have to use lockers. I read on this board that wand boxes didn't fit in lockers and didn't want to chance it. It was fine as we found out the shop has two doors in the rear of the building that brought you into the back of store that was far less congested. Then we headed up to FJ.
This ride is everything you've heard and more. The wait was short, about 10min at 8:40am so we rode all together. Bear in mind that when the line is outside the castle the wait is about 35-45 mins and when the line goes down the hill......that's when you use the single rider line. Thanks to all of you who pointed out there was a castle only tour for those who don't want to ride. My DD wanted to take photos so I told her about the tour so we didn't have to waste time when we were in the ride line. As we went up to the employee at the entrance I asked about the tour and she said to stay to the left (of the area where the lockers are just to the left of the regular line). When we went inside and asked for the tour, the guy inside said there was only a 5min wait for the single rider line, just keep left. There is no sign about this outside the castle (that I saw) so If I hadn't read about it on these boards, I would have never known! We used the single rider line to ride 3 times and most times 2 of us were on the same car. FJ is unlike any other ride you've ever been on. It does jerk you around a bit, but I didn't think it was too uncomfortable as some have indicated. Caution, if you don't like spiders you may want to think twice about this ride...enough said.
DS was a little light headed after ride so we sat out while DD and DH rode again. Then we skipped FOH and went to Dragon Challenge. Used Express line and walked right on. The Express pass proved to be invaluable during this trip. I had never rode this in past visits, but DH and DD love it. We all went on and It was extremely cool! DD and DH rode the other one and DS and I went to see if we could get into 3 broomstick for b'fast with no res. It was 9:20am. We couldv'e gotten in if we went right then, but since DH and DD were riding w/o cell phones, I couldn't contact them. By the time they got back 15mins later, we couldn't get in. The guy at the door did tell me that they don't take lunch reservations (or you didn't need one) and lunch starts at 10:30.
We opted to go over to Hulk and Spiderman and stopped for a quick bite on the way.
We returned to the park the following Monday without the benefit of early entry since we were no longer in RPR and at 9am when the park opened, they made us go all the way around the park and enter from Jurassic Park. This was full-on Vacation week and WWOHP was packed!! DD and I went to get souveneirs while men rested after Daytona so we just figured we'd do whatever we could. Line for FJ at 9am was down the hill past Ollivanders.
We hopped in single rider line (again, no one doing it) and got on with only about 6 people ahead of us. We rode on the same car again. People at this time were waiting up to an hour to get on!! Got our last Butterbeer from the Hog's Head Pub(adjacent to 3 broomsticks.) We did this twice and the line in there was about 5-6 people as opposed to 20 at the carts. Also, they give AAA discount on BB if you get collectors mug. Carts cannot give AAA discount and at $13 a pint every $ helps!! If you get it in a cup, the bar cannot give discount either. Not sure why. took photo in front of the Train. Never saw the frog chior or the Triwzard Spirit Rally.
This is getting long, so I'll stop for now. Next installment--Superhero Island and Express pass!
To get started, we left Rhode Island on Wed,Feb 16th (3 days before the President's week vaca started for schools up here) in hopes of avoiding the crowds at WWOHP. I have to say the Southwest nonstop out of Providence is the best! I will suggest to anyone who is not sure about purchasing the early bird boarding to do it, especially on a trip to Disney/Universal when you probably will be in a park the day before departure and not at a computer to print your boarding passes! Early Bird, for $10 per person, automatically checks you in 36 hours prior to your flight so you can get those coveted "A" boarding passes. No need to go on their website exactly 24 hrs prior to get "A's". Since they check you in, you can print passes whenever you want to up to an hour prior to boarding. Well worth the money to me to alleviate the stress on vacation!
We chose RPR for the first 2 nights of our week since I wanted to take advantage of Early entry and Express pass. Paid $186 AAA rate for park view room in bldg 1. The hotel was fantastic! Valet parked our rental car ($22/day), but they allow you to leave the car on day of departure also. Valet told me they do not charge accounts until midnight for next day so as long as you leave before then, you're ok, even on check out day. They hold your bags after you check out so you can go to parks all day. Self parking was $15 I believe. We were going to Daytona 500 on Sunday so we needed rental car.
I purchased the Flex Pass which gave us unlimited entry to IOA, US, Seaworld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens for $245 per person through undercover tourist. I have to say their service is incredible. I bought online and had the tkts in 4 days! Since it would cost $135 for just two days, two parks at Univ and another $80 per person for Seaworld, the extra $30 was worth it to us to have unlimited entry to Univ parks (for up to 2 weeks), in case it was warm enough to do Aquatica (great water park, by the way) or do a third day at Univ because of crowds. I would not hesitate to buy from them again.
We planned to be at the IOA gate at 7:30 to get in line for early entry. Took the boat over, (it starts at 7am every morning). Very easy and convenient. the only point I will make about the boat is that it drops you across from the NASCAR GRILLE which is down closer to Univ Studios in city walk. You have to walk back over to IOA past where the walking path comes out. We did both. The walk is not bad, but after all the speed walking we did to get to where we needed to be, the boat was a welcomed rest! Anyway, we arrived at 7:20am to about 40 people ahead of us. Lines were kind of long at ticket booths. We had tickets so just jumped in turnstile line. Make sure you get passes ahead of time, especially if you are going early. Doesn't pay to waste time in two lines! They opened gate at 7:50 and the speed walking began. We headed over through Seuss landing up the hill behind green eggs and ham and finally there it was! My DD (14) is the Harry Potter afficionado and was beyond excited. DH and DS(10) were not as thrilled until they realized roller coasters came with the package. We walked directly to Ollivander's and got in a line of about 20 people. I think we were in the second show of the day! Spent some time in the way-too-crowded wand shop that the show lets out into. Talked DD into waiting to buy wand until after we rode FJ and DD so we wouldn't have to use lockers. I read on this board that wand boxes didn't fit in lockers and didn't want to chance it. It was fine as we found out the shop has two doors in the rear of the building that brought you into the back of store that was far less congested. Then we headed up to FJ.
This ride is everything you've heard and more. The wait was short, about 10min at 8:40am so we rode all together. Bear in mind that when the line is outside the castle the wait is about 35-45 mins and when the line goes down the hill......that's when you use the single rider line. Thanks to all of you who pointed out there was a castle only tour for those who don't want to ride. My DD wanted to take photos so I told her about the tour so we didn't have to waste time when we were in the ride line. As we went up to the employee at the entrance I asked about the tour and she said to stay to the left (of the area where the lockers are just to the left of the regular line). When we went inside and asked for the tour, the guy inside said there was only a 5min wait for the single rider line, just keep left. There is no sign about this outside the castle (that I saw) so If I hadn't read about it on these boards, I would have never known! We used the single rider line to ride 3 times and most times 2 of us were on the same car. FJ is unlike any other ride you've ever been on. It does jerk you around a bit, but I didn't think it was too uncomfortable as some have indicated. Caution, if you don't like spiders you may want to think twice about this ride...enough said.
DS was a little light headed after ride so we sat out while DD and DH rode again. Then we skipped FOH and went to Dragon Challenge. Used Express line and walked right on. The Express pass proved to be invaluable during this trip. I had never rode this in past visits, but DH and DD love it. We all went on and It was extremely cool! DD and DH rode the other one and DS and I went to see if we could get into 3 broomstick for b'fast with no res. It was 9:20am. We couldv'e gotten in if we went right then, but since DH and DD were riding w/o cell phones, I couldn't contact them. By the time they got back 15mins later, we couldn't get in. The guy at the door did tell me that they don't take lunch reservations (or you didn't need one) and lunch starts at 10:30.
We opted to go over to Hulk and Spiderman and stopped for a quick bite on the way.
We returned to the park the following Monday without the benefit of early entry since we were no longer in RPR and at 9am when the park opened, they made us go all the way around the park and enter from Jurassic Park. This was full-on Vacation week and WWOHP was packed!! DD and I went to get souveneirs while men rested after Daytona so we just figured we'd do whatever we could. Line for FJ at 9am was down the hill past Ollivanders.
We hopped in single rider line (again, no one doing it) and got on with only about 6 people ahead of us. We rode on the same car again. People at this time were waiting up to an hour to get on!! Got our last Butterbeer from the Hog's Head Pub(adjacent to 3 broomsticks.) We did this twice and the line in there was about 5-6 people as opposed to 20 at the carts. Also, they give AAA discount on BB if you get collectors mug. Carts cannot give AAA discount and at $13 a pint every $ helps!! If you get it in a cup, the bar cannot give discount either. Not sure why. took photo in front of the Train. Never saw the frog chior or the Triwzard Spirit Rally.
This is getting long, so I'll stop for now. Next installment--Superhero Island and Express pass!
