Disney Family's First Universal Trip - We survived President's Week and Mardi Gras crowds! (Complete!)

[skuttle]

INTRODUCTION and OVERVIEW

I've never done a trip report before, but I couldn't read enough of them while planning our first Universal trip, so thought I'd make a contribution!

After going to WDW almost every year since our 2000 honeymoon, including a trip to Disneyland in California a few years ago, we decided to take a chance on a Universal trip. Our crew includes DH and I (mid-40s) and our 3 DS (19, 12, and 10). DH and I did one Universal day (both parks) 5 years ago before a cruise with friends, but mainly focused on Harry Potter. DS19 did one Universal day (both parks) on a band trip about 5 years ago as well, but with only one day and no EP, he didn't get much done. Younger two boys had never been. We all love thrill rides and ride everything at WDW and DL. DH is a bigger guy, so knew going in he wouldn't be able to ride several things, but he still had an enjoyable trip and would go back. I was afraid of getting motion sickness. Ratatouille made me queasy in January so I was worried I'd get sick, but never did. I did learn quickly that while my now 45yo self can still ride coasters, I cannot ride a coaster back to back. LOL!

Our trip took place February 19-23, 2023. We chose this week because our schools were off the week for Mardi Gras. DH is a teacher, DS19 in college, DS12 is in his first year of middle school, and DS10 struggles a bit, so I hated for any of them to miss school! We were expecting huge crowds due to the combined holidays of President's Week and Mardi Gras, but figured we'd make the best of it. We thought we'd have mild weather, but it was hot (upper 80s every day).

Originally we were only going to do 3 park days, but when the buy two get two free ticket deal came out, we decided to do that. It only saved me $50, but we got a whole extra park day for free. Our flight arrived at 9:30am so I figured this would give us some extra park time and hopefully make for a more relaxing trip. We skipped the water park because you never know what weather February will bring, and being from the South, it doesn't take much for us to be cold!

Traveling as a family of 5 can be tricky (and expensive!), especially as our boys get older. We decided to take a chance on the Hard Rock Hotel. We figured we'd only really be in the room to sleep/shower, so if we were a little cramped we could survive for 4 nights. The included unlimited Express Pass is what made us decide to do Hard Rock. Adding EP for five of us for 3-4 nights pretty much negated any added cost of a premier hotel. We also tend to stay deluxe at WDW, so we were leaning that way anyways.

We did little planning, which is something I ended up loving about Universal. It felt like a much more laid back trip than WDW because of that. I did book dinner for 3 of our 4 nights so we wouldn't be stuck with nothing, and also because we didn't have much knowledge of the restaurant offerings to just wing it. And, my younger two kids are annoyingly picky, but on vacation I try to keep everyone happy! We ended up spending about $400-500 per day on food, snacks, and souvenirs. Kids spent a bit more on souvenirs with their own money. We didn't do the refillable cups because we didn't want that much soda. I learned our last park day that the drink stations also include Powerade, so next time we'll probably get one or two as we did buy Powerade a few times. We carried around water bottles to refill with free water at the drink stations, which was super helpful!

I did the 5 day photo package. Although we only had 4 park days, the 5 day wasn't much more expensive than the 3 day and I didn't want to miss a day. knew for our first trip I would want several ride photos, so the package made sense. We didn't see too many photographers out and about, but I wasn't expecting many from my pre-trip research, so it wasn't a big deal. I did catch them at the entrance of both parks, which is really all I wanted. Adding our ride photos was super easy.

Express Pass is a game changer! It's 100x better than Disney's Genie+ and LL. We walked on almost everything. I couldn't imagine going to the parks and waiting in those lines...most were at least an hour, many 1.5 - 2 hours. I know some people say if you're going multiple days, you don't need EP because he can still ride everything. And while that may be true, I wouldn't want to wait in those lines to only ride a handful of rides each day for 5 days. Picking a hotel with unlimited EP included for all 5 of us was a no brainer. Several times we were able to get off a coaster and hop right back on with little to no wait. My boys rode several back to back. EP made the busy holiday week seem less busy and very manageable. It wasn't as bad as we were expecting, and maybe that's because I was expecting the worst after reading horror stories before we left. It was our first time so I don't have anything to really compare it to.

We had park to park tickets and did bounce between the two parks 3 of our 4 days. There were only so many motion simulator rides we could and/or wanted to do in a day, so it was nice to split that up and still have IOA as an option. And of course, we wanted to ride the Hogwarts Express!

We didn't do any of the Mardi Gras things or try any of the food booths. Being from Louisiana, we skipped all of that. We did stumble on the parade one evening, and what we saw of it looked nice. I think there was one concert while we were there, but we didn't bother with that either.

I'll do a report for each day and link them below.

DAY 1 (Sunday, Feb 19): Arrival, Hard Rock Hotel, IOA, and Toothsome
DAY 2 (Monday, Feb 20): IOA Early Entry, Universal, Mythos dinner, and more IOA
DAY 3 (Tuesday, Feb 21): Hard Rock Pool, Universal Studios, Antojitos dinner, IOA, and late night Voodoo Donuts
DAY 4 (Wednesday, Feb 22): IOA Early Entry, Hard Rock Pool, Universal Studios, and Back to IOA
DAY 5 (Thursday, Feb 23): The Kitchen Breakfast, Departure, and Final Thoughts

 

[wdwrule]

Wohooo! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures. It sounded already that you had an awesome time! Sounds silly but I love the women’s bathroom in the HRH lobby. It’s like a huge suite in there!

We stayed premiere for our first trip as well and that unlimited EP is amazing!! Well worth it, especially for a first trip if possible. Can’t wait to hear more

 

[skuttle]

DAY 1 (Sunday, Feb 19): Arrival, Hard Rock Hotel, IOA, and Toothsome

ARRIVAL

We had an early morning flight into Tampa. We chose Tampa because flights were significantly cheaper than flying into MCO, even with the added expense of a rental car. Our flight landed on time around 9:40am.

We rented a car through Avis since there is an Avis counter inside Hard Rock. It was probably a little more expensive than other rental companies, but for the convenience we couldn't beat it. We weren't going to use the car, so turned it in when we arrived at the hotel, and then rented another car when we left at the end of the trip. This way, we didn't have to pay for parking.

My original plan was to wait to eat lunch at the hotel, but it took longer than expected to finally leave the airport, traffic was heavy (as expected), the kids were getting hungry on the drive, and I wanted to avoid anyone getting HANGRY, so we stopped for lunch on the drive. From the time we landed to the time we arrived at the hotel after lunch was about 3.5 hours.



We arrived the Hard Rock around 1pm. Check in took less than 15 minutes. There were only 2 or 3 people in line ahead of us. Our room wasn’t ready at that time, but an hour later I received a text that our room was ready, so it was ready quicker than I expected (a little after 2pm). Since the room wasn’t ready when we arrived, we changed into cooler clothes, stored our luggage, picked up our tickets, and headed to the parks!

One thing I disliked was having a ticket for park entry then a separate ticket for EP. I wish it could have been one ticket. I held on to everyone’s paper park entry tickets. Me and my younger two sons wore a lanyard, and I also had the photo card in my lanyard. This made things much easier than digging around those cards every ride. DS19 didn’t want a lanyard so he held on to his EP, as did DH.

As a family of 5, traveling can be hard. Trying to find a room to fit all five of us comfortably is a challenge, especially as the kids get older/bigger. And two rooms is often way too expensive. I was hesitate to book Hard Rock. I was afraid we’d feel cramped in one room, and two rooms was way too expensive. I also got quotes for Endless Summer and Cabana Bay, but we knew we’d want EP and buying EP for five made up the additional cost of staying at a premier resort. So I decided to a chance on Hard Rock since it would only be for 4 nights, and we’d be spending the majority of our time in the park. I’m SO glad we did.

The room was bigger than I was expecting. The rollaway fit next to the window, out of the way, with room to spare. DS10 slept on it and said it was much more comfortable than a pull out. Downside is it was almost $40 extra per night for the pull out.

There was a sink area outside the bathroom, and then the tub/shower, toilet, and another sink in a separate room, which was nice. All five of us never went back to the room all together at the same time, so that helped with only having one bathroom.

The hotel itself was nice. The lobby isn’t as impressive as many of the Disney deluxes, but the hotel was nice, clean, and quiet. The workers we encountered were attentive and helpful. The grounds were pretty and walking to the parks was a great perk. We never took the boat TO the parks since it puts you on the opposite side of the parks, but we did take the boat back a couple of times.

Our room, 5070, ended up being in the perfect location. We were a few doors down from the elevator, so we didn’t have elevator noise but also not super far away. The elevator down to the ground floor let us out right at the grab and go, pool, and boat walk way intersection. Perfect spot!

View from our room:



Islands of Adventure

We made the short walk from Hard Rock to the parks. I surprised and happy to see that the security checkpoint was before getting to the park area. We walked to the parks every day and this line was never longer. Most times it was just us, other times maybe 1-2 other families.





By 2pm we were walking through the gates of IOA. Made a quick stop to pick up the photo card (took maybe 5 min), and then we were off to ride Hulk!

We walked on Hulk with EP. Kids wanted to ride again, and I made the mistake of doing so back to back. Didn’t do that again! LOL! DH couldn’t ride this one. After Hulk kid did Doctor Doom’s Fear Fall twice in a row. It was a walk on with EP. Next we rode Spider Man, which I loved. I was expecting more screens, but it was. The perfect combination of screens and real things, and it didn’t make me sick. DH was able to ride this one so that was an added bonus. We looked around the stores in the area, then headed out for Toothsome.

Toothsome

I know Toothsome doesn’t get great reviews, but I felt like it was something we needed to experience for ourselves. And I knew the kids would be intrigued by the building. By the time I decided to book (about 2 weeks prior to our trip) the best I could do was 4:15pm. We weren’t really hungry for dinner at that time, so we got a couple of appetizers and dessert. We ordered the Philly Cheesesteak Rolls, which DH and DS19 said were really good, and the Crab & Artichoke Dip, which was just okay. DS10 wanted food, so he had the kids chicken tenders with fries.

For dessert, DS19 got the Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding. He said it was really tasty, but it was much smaller than the picture so that was disappointing. For shakes, DS12 got the Chocolate X5, DS10 got the That’s Mint, and DH and I split the Strawberry Cheesecake. These were fun as we’ve never gotten fancy milkshakes before. No one finished them, which wasn’t a surprise. They were good, but nothing too special.



I’m glad we went and experienced Toothsome, we were happy with what we ordered, but none of us feel like we need to go back.

Back to IOA

After Toothsome, we went back to explore IOA. Park was open until 10pm and we knew we wanted to try to wait for a ride on Hagrids since it was closing on Monday for refurb. We walked straight back to Hogsmeade. It was packed!



We rode Forbidden Journey first. Practically walked on with EP. DH couldn’t ride this one. This one made us all feel a little dizzy, but no one got sick.

DS12, DS10, and I got in line for Flight of the Hippogriff. DS19 and DH skipped this one. I told the younger two it was just like Barnstormer, but they wanted to be able to say they rode all the rides, so in line we went. This was one of the longer waits we had with EP. They said it was longer because only one train was running. Not sure how accurate that is, but it’s what we heard. We probably waited at least 30 min for this one with EP.

After that we hopped in line for Hagrids. DH couldn’t ride this one, so he went grab a beer at Hog’s Head. Wait said 90min but we were off in an hour. It was dark when we rode it, so we couldn’t see too much, but we all loved it and knew we were going to wait again the next day to ride during the day.

We were all hungry by this point since we didn’t really eat dinner at Toothsome. We decided to go to Three Broomsticks. There were two families in line outside ahead of us, but we were seated pretty quickly. We placed our order at the table at 8:30pm. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. A worker told us they were shorthanded, which is why it was taking so long. I wish someone would have told us from the start that it was going to take a while. We would have grabbed something somewhere else as kids were getting tired and grumpy. Food arrived 45-50 minutes later. It was really good, but just took too long. I had the Rotisserie chicken, which was excellent! I’d get this again and again. DH got the kids fish & chips because he wasn’t too hungry, and said it was good. Two DS got chicken tenders and the other Mac n cheese. These were standard kids meals.

We started making our way back to the room after this as we had a long day with such an early flight. But first, the 3 boys went on Hulk one more time so they could ride in the dark. Walked on again.

We didn’t bother trying to do VelociCoaster. When we checked in we were told it would be part of EP starting the next day, so we decided to wait for EP instead of waiting in the long line.

DH, DS19, and DS10 walked back to the room. DS12 and I did a little shopping before heading out at park close. We decided to take the boat back to Hard Rock.

We were surprised at how much we were able to get done with the EP in such a short amount of time. It was a great first day!

 

[skuttle]

Wohooo! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures. It sounded already that you had an awesome time! Sounds silly but I love the women’s bathroom in the HRH lobby. It’s like a huge suite in there!

We stayed premiere for our first trip as well and that unlimited EP is amazing!! Well worth it, especially for a first trip if possible. Can’t wait to hear more

That lobby bathroom is amazing! LOL! When I walked in to change into shorts i was shocked! Wasn’t expecting that!

 

[schumigirl]

Nice start skuttle!!

Glad you did so much with EP, it really is worth it`s weight in gold.

I`m with you on Toothsome, one and done and Mardi Gras is not our favourite time to visit, so I look forward to your report, it`s always nice to read about first time experiences for folks especially with an onsite stay.

Apart from Velocicoaster, can`t do back to back rollercoasters either anymore!!

Look forward to reading more of your report.......

 

[Skywalker3]

What a wonderful TR. I love reading about folks' fabulous first times at Universal, and all the experiences. I love staying at Hard Rock. We've not done a rollaway bed in a room, but thought we might need it a couple times, glad to know it fits well.
ha, about trying Hulk twice, no more of that back to back stuff for me either.
Where are y'all from in Louisiana? I'm from Houma originally. our first Disney/universal trip in 2000 was over our Mardi Gras break too, haha. I used to love Mardi Gras, but once my older son started getting most of or all week off, we often went to Orlando. Universal has really upped their Mardi Gras game too. all the extra decorations, characters, etc.
Thanks for sharing all the fun!!! Great pictures! Looking forward to more!

 

[skuttle]

DAY 2 (Monday, Feb 20): IOA Early Entry, Universal, Mythos dinner, and more IOA

IOA Early Entry

Me and the boys decided to take advantage of early entry so that we could get in line to ride Hagrid’s during the day. Today was the last day Hagrid’s would be open during our trip before it went down for refurb. Since DH couldn’t ride Hagrid’s, he enjoyed a slow morning and met us in the park later in the afternoon.

We set the alarm for 6:30am. We brought some Pop Tarts for the kids in case they couldn’t wait for breakfast. DS19 and I were going to wait it out to see what we would find in the park later. We went down to the grab and go place in Hard Rock, Emack & Bolio’s, to get some coffee. They served Starbucks coffee, but it wasn’t an actual Starbucks. We were pleasantly surprised to find hot breakfast sandwiches. We were expecting prepackaged pastry type things. We both enjoyed the bacon, egg, and cheese croissant multiple times during the trip. DS10 got an over-priced cereal cup (hey, it’s vacation so I’m pretty easy going, even if it made me cringe to pay that much for a cup of cereal). DS12 grabbed a couple of donuts. We timed this really well. It was pretty empty when we arrived. When we left, it was packed with a super long line.

We sat outside on a bench to eat our breakfast, then walked over to IOA. We were in line by 7:30am (for 8am early entry) in the area right near the ticket booths. The line grew behind us fast! They started letting people in early, but I don’t remember how early.

We walked straight to Hagrid’s. DS19 is 2 months post ACL repair so we walked as fast he as he could go. We got in the very long line, which never stopped moving. We even bypassed the video room. We were off Hagrid’s by 8:45am so we were happy with that! DS19 rode in the motorcycle the first time, and his knee was fine; he road in the side car this morning and said it hurt his knee. We all agreed that we preferred daytime Hagrid’s over nighttime.

We tried to sneak in VelociCoaster before getting on the Hogwarts Express, but the EP wait was 1.5 hours per the TMs. This was the first day with EP. We decided to try again later in the day.

We walked on the Hogwart’s Express to head to Diagon Alley.

Universal Studios

DH met us in Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley wasn't too crowded yet, so we were able to walk around a bit. I wish I would have been videoing DS12 and DS10 when they first saw the dragon breathe fire. We were super close, so it was loud and hot, and they probably jumped 10 feet! LOL!



We went to Ollivanders to get DS12 and DS10 wands. The wait was maybe 15-20 min. But my goodness, they need to organize this place better. We couldn’t move once we got into the actual shop. There were people coming in and trying to go out the same door, so we were all stuck. There has to be a better way.



We walked around the shops and then grabbed Butterbear. Frozen is still my favorite! We also grabbed Strawberry Peanutbutter ice cream from a cart. We watched The Tale of the Three Brothers, which we all enjoyed while finishing up our snacks. We practically walked onto Gringotts after that. Walked around more stores, let the boys try out their wands, then it was getting close to lunch time. I knew our picky younger two boys wouldn’t eat anything in Diagon Alley, so we headed out.

We walked across to the Simpsons area. Our three boys rode this one, but I skipped it. I had read that it wasn’t that great and also made a lot of people sick, so I didn’t want to risk it. They walked on with EP.

After that we needed to eat, so we just went to Fast Food Boulevard. We mobile ordered, but we showed up before our food was actually ready, so it felt like it took longer than it actually did. This place was packed. There was a line to get in for non-mobile orders. DS19 had a burger and was disappointed with it. I just had a hot dog and it was a hot dog. DH, DS12, and DS10 all got the chicken and waffle sandwich. They were the winners here. Everything was fresh and they all said it was tasty. After lunch, DH went grab a Duff beer and said it was surprisingly really good.

After lunch we walked over to Transformers, which was close to a walk on with EP. I didn’t care for this one. It was too screen heavy for me. It didn’t make me sick, but I thought it was kind of boring. I preferred Spiderman. DS19, on the other hand, liked Transformers better.

After Transformers we went on Rip Ride Rocket. This was a walk-on with EP. That long ride straight up was just as scary as I remembered! And I took too long to pick a song. Boys loved it. They went on it again as soon as we got off, but it was too bumpy for me to do twice in a row. Here we had to get a code to add our pictures to the photo card. Not the most convenient, but also not terribly inconvenient. We did have a good laugh watching our videos!

Next we hit the Mummy. With EP we waited maybe 10-15 min. DH couldn’t ride this one either. We all enjoyed this one, but thought it was too short.

We had dinner reservations at Mythos, and boys wanted to try to squeeze in VelociCoaster before, so we hopped on the Hogwarts Express to head back to IOA.

Back to IOA

With Mythos reservations at 5:15pm, we took our chances and got in the EP line for VelociCoaster around 4:30 and made it to Mythos just in time for our reservation. While in line for VelociCoaster, I started to panic that I’d have to skip the ride. We realized as we were walking over that we forgot to leave our sunglasses with DH. While we had our lanyards with EP, the actual park entry tickets were in my fanny pack with DH. I was worried I wouldn’t have a way to get a locker. And I worried for nothing. They have “locker tickets”, but you can also get a locker using your express pass. The first time through we didn’t know this. The video instructions don’t mention this, and no one told us this. When I told the TM I didn’t have my park ticket, even though she had just scanned my EP, she gave me a separate locker ticket. The locker set up here is genius!

I was nervous about VelociCoaster. I had read that it was super intense, people passing out, etc. I also wasn’t a fan of just having the lap bar. This is now my new favorite! It was so smooth. I didn’t feel queasy nor did I have a headache afterwards. First ride I missed all the raptors, though! LOL! DS10 kept his hands up the entire time, which made me more nervous! I was most worried about that long upside down stretch, but that wasn’t too bad. It’s the corkscrew/barrel roll over the water. O.M.G. That was super scary and the only time I felt like I would fall out!

Mythos

Mythos is a place that was suggested as a “must do” so we figured why not. I booked an early dinner so we’d still have a decent amount of park time afterwards, even if dinner took a while. Park was closing at 10pm; we had dinner at 5:15pm. We were seated right away. We passed on appetizers. DH ordered some sort of beer and I had the Potion of the Gods, which was quit good. For entrees, DH had the lamb burger and DS19 the regular burger, which they both enjoyed. DS12 had the kids grilled cheese and DS10 the kids chicken tenders. Both were standard kids meals. I had the scallops and barley risotto which I really enjoyed.

Overall, we were glad we ate here to “check the box.” The atmosphere is neat and the food was good, and it was nice not having to leave the park for this type of meal, but I don’t feel like this is an “every trip” type of place.

More IOA

After dinner, we decided to try to ride Hagrid’s one more time since it was going to be shutdown the next day. We were hoping to get on before the sun went down since we all preferred riding during the daytime, but it was dark before we got on. We were off in about 90min although the posted time was longer (I think it said 120min).

After Hagrid’s we let the kids do some spells and we also caught the Castle show.



Kids were dying to ride VelociCoaster again, this time in the dark, so we did. We had a shorter wait this time. When we got off, kids wanted to go again. I sat out the back-to-back ride, but the boys went again. This wouldn’t have been possible without the EP!

One the way out, boys decided to do one last ride on Hulk (walk-on with EP). DS12 and DS10 wanted to buy a few comic books, and I’ll never say no to a souvenir you can read, so we did that before walking back to the room.

Day 2 was a full but fun day!

 

[skuttle]

What a wonderful TR. I love reading about folks' fabulous first times at Universal, and all the experiences. I love staying at Hard Rock. We've not done a rollaway bed in a room, but thought we might need it a couple times, glad to know it fits well.
ha, about trying Hulk twice, no more of that back to back stuff for me either.
Where are y'all from in Louisiana? I'm from Houma originally. our first Disney/universal trip in 2000 was over our Mardi Gras break too, haha. I used to love Mardi Gras, but once my older son started getting most of or all week off, we often went to Orlando. Universal has really upped their Mardi Gras game too. all the extra decorations, characters, etc.
Thanks for sharing all the fun!!! Great pictures! Looking forward to more!

We're originally from Thibodaux, but now live in the Baton Rouge area.

 

[wdwrule]

Amazing pics!!

 

[Skywalker3]

We're originally from Thibodaux, but now live in the Baton Rouge area.

Cool, what a small world!! We lived in Baton Rouge 15 years, before moving to TN!
Loved day 2 of the TR. Great pictures!!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Great trip report so far - sounds like you really had full, fun days!

 

[skuttle]

DAY 3 (Tuesday, Feb 21): Hard Rock Pool, Universal Studios, Antojitos dinner, IOA, and late night Voodoo Donuts


Hard Rock Pool


After two full days, we decided to take it easy on our 3rd day. We slept in a bit, which was much needed. We grabbed breakfast at Emack & Bolio’s again — Coffee, hot breakfast sandwiches, donuts, and muffins. After grabbing breakfast, we headed to the pool.




It was a quiet morning, not many people at the pool at 9:00am opening. The pool area is gorgeous with lots of seating. I’m sure it fills up fast later in the day. They were changing out old, faded lounge chairs with brand new ones. Kinda ruined the quiet, peaceful morning, but I can appreciate them changing them out.

My younger two boys enjoyed the pool for a couple of hours. They came down the slide pretty fast and they said it was fun. They went down it several times since there weren’t many people there. TMs threw several floats into the pool for anyone to use, so they played around with those too. We tried to avoid the area with sand, but I thought it was neat that they have that area.

There were cabanas available in both the sand area and non-sand areas. If we ever go back to Hard Rock over the summer, and plan a pool day, I’d definitely look into renting a cabana to have a shady space all day. When we first sat down we were in the shade, but the shade quickly disappeared as the sun moved.

After a couple of hours, we headed back up to the room so the boys could shower and get ready for the rest of the day.

We decided to grab lunch before heading out to the park. We went back to Emack & Bolio’s to try lunch since it was a convenient and quick option. Boys didn't want to waste a lot of time on lunch! Although their menu was small, it had a variety of options and something that everyone would eat! I had the buffalo chicken wrap, which was made with grilled chicken. It was really good and lighter since the chicken was grilled and not fried. I wasn’t expecting the chicken to be cold, but it was still good. DH had an Italian sandwich which he really enjoyed. DS10 and DS12 split a half cheese half pepperoni pizza. And DS19 had chicken tenders with a side of buffalo sauce and fries. All food was made to order so it came out hot and fresh. It wasn’t too crowded so the food came out quickly. It was surprisingly good! The portions were HUGE! We could have easily split every single thing between two people. The pizza could have been split between 3. When our food was ready we took it upstairs to the lobby and ate at one of the tables there. Brought the leftover pizza back to the room to save for a late night snack (which we never ended up eating, but that's ok...we tried not to be wasteful! LOL!).

Universal Studios

After lunch, we walked over to Universal Studios. Again, no wait at security. We walked through the gates around 12:30. I told my family that I had to enter through the Studios at least once! We took a few pics at the entrance with the park photographer and walked through the big store at the entrance.

We went to the Minions ride first since it was the first one we came across. DH was able to ride, but it was tight. This line felt slow, even with EP. I think it’s because of the way it loads a large group of people at one time, then you have a wait a while before moving again. Now that I know how it works, it probably wouldn’t feel as long next time. I think we waited here at least 30min with EP. My favorite part was the waiting area inside with the fun movie references. The ride (actually more of a show than a “ride”) itself was okay. This probably made me the most queasy feeling out of everything we rode. I was close to having to close my eyes. It was cute, and we love the Minions, but I don’t think it's something I need to do every time.

There was a lot of construction in this entrance area and around the Minions, including lots of construction walls.

No way were the boys going to walk by Rip Ride Rocket without riding it. We walked on again with EP. This was my second ride of the trip, and I decided it would also be my last! This once is bumpy and gave me a headache this time around. I’ll always ride it at least once a trip, but it’s definitely my least favorite of the big coasters. Boys rode twice in a row while I sat out the second ride. Again, they walked right on with EP.

Next we walked over to ET, but first we stopped in the Sponge Bob store. Took a few pics in the pineapple with the Gary statue and in the chair, and also waited about 5 min to take pics with Squidward, which was fun.

When we arrived at ET, they were just letting in a large group of people, so we had to wait a little while even with EP. Not too long though. I had no idea what to expect and didn’t realize this wasn’t a “screen” ride. DH thought it was more of a classic dark ride, and he was right. DH was able to ride this one. We all enjoyed this one. Reminded us of Peter Pan at WDW. We all thought the storyline with the other aliens was kinda weird. LOL! DH and I also laughed at the video they showed at the beginning…so old! The card with your name seems to slow things down unnecessarily. I think this is one I’d ride every time because it’s different and who doesn’t love ET!?! We took advantage of the photo card and took pics in ET’s closet and also DS12 and DS10 took pics on the bike as well. Those were fun!

This area felt really crowed and cramped due to all of the construction walls from the closure of the surrounding area.

We grabbed some snacks after this, just your standard popcorn and churros. We didn't take advantage of any of the Mardi Gras food booths. Being from south Louisiana, we're always hesitate to try "cajun" food away from home.

After this we walked back to hang out in Diagon Alley. DS10 wanted to do more spells, so we spent some time finding those. We also rode Gringott’s again. The wait this time was a little longer than the first, but not more than 15min with EP. It was super crowded mid-day back here. DS had to wait at least 2 or 3 people before he could do spells, and certain ones, like the dancing bones and umbrella, had more in line.

It was getting close enough to dinner time so we started walking towards the front of the park. We passed by King Julian from Madagascar, but didn’t stop to wait in line to meet him (which I kinda regret). We also saw 3 of the Trolls walking out to meet guests.

On our way out we decided to check out the Bourne stunt show since I had read it pretty good. None of us have ever watched any of the Bourne movies, and this didn’t take away from our enjoyment. The video/set up in the beginning was a bit much and I don’t think it was necessarily needed. The show itself was fun to watch. It was neat to see how they did certain stunts. We all agreed the fake fighting wasn’t that great, LOL, but the other things they did and how they integrated the video screen with things actually there was entertaining to watch. I’d watch it again, especially if you need a break from the heat and want to sit for a little while.

After this, we headed out to City Walk for dinner.

Antojito’s Dinner

I booked this place after reading tons of good reviews, also because my kids actually all eat Mexican food, and who can’t use a margarita?!?

I booked an earlier dinner (5:15pm) to make sure we’d have a few hours in the park after dinner (IOA closed at 10pm again; Studios 9pm). We were a little early, so we killed some time walking through a few stores. About 5-10 min before our actual reservation time I “checked in” via text. We were asked if we wanted inside, outside, or first available. Since the sun was going down, we picked first available. We were seated outside by 5:30pm.

It took a while before our server came to our table after we were seated, and it felt like it took a while for our drinks and chips and salsa to arrive, but maybe we were just hungry!

DH and I both got margaritas. They were fine, nothing special. We also ordered queso as an appetizer. This queso was just ok. We’ve had much better other places and probably wouldn’t order this again. We also thought the salsa could have been spicier.

The start of the meal had me a little worried, but our entrees were amazing and made up for the lackluster salsa and queso. DS19 ordered a chicken chimichanga, DS12 the kid's beef tacos (which came with two; he asked for one soft and one hard), and DS10 ordered the kid’s cheese quesadilla. They all enjoyed their food. DS12 said next time he’d just get two soft tacos because his hard taco wasn’t too crunchy by the time we received our food. DS19 said the chimichanga was mainly just chicken and cheese on the inside and could have used more onions or other seasonings inside.

I ordered the Al Pastor tacos. These were supposed to come with pork, pineapple salsa, pineapple, onion, and cilantro. I asked for no onions, however, when it arrived it also didn’t have salsa or cilantro. It was still very good and I enjoyed it a lot. Since I did have pineapple on it, I didn’t bother asking for a remake. I used the salsa that was on the table. Tacos came with rice and beans.

DH was the winner of dinner. He ordered the Guisado, which included sautéed shrimp, chorizo, steak, and ranchera sauce with cilantro rice and flour tortillas. This was a lot of food. I tried a piece of the steak and it was so flavorful. I’d go back just to get this dish for myself!

Overall we enjoyed this meal and would go back. Although it was a slow start, the rest of our food came out quickly and dinner didn’t take away too much park time. It was a nice break from the parks.

Back to IOA

After dinner we headed back to IOA. We took some pics at the entrance with the park photographer, but those didn’t come out too great since it was dark.

Boys wanted to ride Hulk, but there was no way I was riding so soon after dinner! They walked on Hulk with EP.

My younger two convinced me to ride Dr. Doom since I skipped it when they rode it the first day. They wanted to ride at least once in the dark. When they shot us up, it hurt my neck a bit, but the "dropping" part was really cool. We were facing the park, and by this time it was dark so everything was lit up and it was really neat to see everything. It's no Tower of Terror, but still fun, especially facing the park at night!

After that we walked through the Toon Lagoon area, which I had no idea existed! LOL! Younger two boys wanted to ride the water rides, but I convinced them to wait until the next day when the sun would be out (and when I had my poncho!). DH and I enjoyed looking at all the old comic references, which of course our kids didn’t recognize at all.

We walked through the Jurassic Park area to head to VelociCoaster again. We stopped on the way and did the raptor meet since the line was pretty short. There were maybe 3 or 4 families in front of us. Right before our turn, Blue had to take a break. We had to wait about 5 min before they brought out another raptor (and I can’t remember which one we actually met). This is a well oiled machine. They move people in and out quickly. There was a TM there to take video and pics with your phone, so that was nice. The TM actually doing the talking was pretty funny as well. I’m glad we stopped to do this.

I also made them stop to do the auto-picture with the jeep and dino, but it was too dark to see anything. We did it during the day time the next day, but the border they add hid the Dino! So we have two pics of us making silly, scared faces in front of a jeep but no dino. LOL!

We were going to ride the Jurassic Park river adventure (which had just reopened the day before I believe), but decided to wait until the next day when it wasn't dark. (Sadly, the next day, it was shutdown again so we never got to ride).

We rode VelociCoaster again. Boys convinced me to ride immediately after we got off. Their argument was that it takes a little while to get through the line even with EP so it wasn’t actually back to back. I caved and did ride a second time. This coaster is so smooth, I think I could have ridden this one back to back with no problem. We all agreed that we prefer riding during the day than at night. EP made the line probably about 30 min or less.

After this we were done for the night since it was about 9:00pm (with park closing at 10pm) but not before placing a mobile order for some Voodoo Donuts!

Voodoo Donuts

DH and DS10, who was exhausted, walked back to the room while me, DS19 and DS12 walked over to City Walk to pick up Voodoo Donuts for a late night snack. Even with mobile order pick up we had to wait a little while for our order once we arrived. I heard the guys working the pick up area tell someone that mobile order was paused while they caught up on orders, so we must have just missed the cut off. DS19 couldn’t believe how long the line was outside the store that late at night!

Once the donuts were delivered to the pick up area, which is across from the store near the water, we still had to go inside the store to pick up the milk we also ordered. We were able to bypass the line, though, and walk straight in to pick up the milks. I’m assuming we had to do this because the pick up area didn’t seem to have a way to keep the milk cold (at least that’s my guess). We each picked two. Not a cheap snack at $45 for 10 donuts and 4 milks, but we all enjoyed them that night and the following morning/evening. I know we could have gotten a dozen for cheaper, but we wanted to pick our own. And it was fun and yummy way to end our day!

Once we picked up the donuts, we rode the boat back to Hard Rock since the boat dock was right by the donut pickup. I think we waited longer than it probably would have taken to just walk back, though!

Day 3 was a nice, relaxed day. The slow morning was much needed by all!

 

[skuttle]

Thanks everyone reading along! It's been fun to write and makes me wish I would have done this for all of my prior trips. It's fun to reflect on the trip and to have it written down for later.

 

[skuttle]

DAY 4 (Wednesday, Feb 22): IOA Early Entry, Hard Rock Pool, Universal Studios, and Back to IOA

The night before our last day, we discussed how we wanted to attack our final day and what were our “must do’s.” We all agreed that we wanted to wake up early, but not necessarily “rope drop” early entry. The boys also wanted to ride Rip Ride Rocket at night, so we had to plan that accordingly since the Studios were closing early (8pm) for a private event. I also purposely did not book a dinner for this day so that we could really make the most out of our last full day in the parks. Since it was our first trip, I wasn’t sure how things would go and I knew we were going during a super busy time, so I wanted to keep the last day as open as possible to catch anything we may have missed.

IOA EARLY ENTRY

Without Hagrids and with EP, we didn’t feel the need to rope drop IOA early entry, but we did want to have a chance to walk through the entire Hogwarts queue for Forbidden Journey, so we still set the alarm.

Once again we grabbed breakfast and coffee at Emack & Bolio’s. This place was really great the entire trip. Maybe we used it so much because it was right off the elevators we used every day. The location of our room made it super convenient. And even when the line was long, it moved pretty quickly. Finding a place where all five of us find something we actually like, not just tolerate, is like finding a unicorn at times! LOL!

We walked to the parks again. Such a pretty walk. Loved this perk!! Security leaving Hard Rock was a breeze again as well.



Early Entry was at 8am and we were walking through the gates by 8:30am. By that time, the long lines had already cleared out, which is what we were hoping for so that worked out well.

We took a few pics with the photographer at the entrance. DS19 had spotted the Cinnabon place a day or two earlier, so we stopped there for him to grab some mini cinnamon rolls. Perfect for eating and walking. Line was short since most people were trying to take advantage of early entry.

We walked straight over to Hogsmeade to jump in the line for Forbidden Journey so we could walk through the rest of Hogwarts. Our first ride was with EP so we missed a few things. However, this morning even the standby line was almost going too fast for us to enjoy the walk through Hogwarts!



DH had stayed back for a slower morning since he can’t ride Forbidden Journey, so I took the backpack with our water bottles. I used a locker here for the first time, and these are so inconvenient. Maybe when the lines are longer the standby line actually passes near the lockers? This morning the lockers seemed really out of the way from the line entrance. Not the end of the world, of course, but something I did notice.

The first time we rode Forbidden Journey they said the pictures weren’t available, which was disappointing. This time we were able to get our pictures, but there was only one line and it took a while. Also, we never figured out where they take the pic on the ride. We all saw different flashes so weren’t sure. Our pic looks like we’re bored to death though! We did a little shopping in the store, but wow that place was crowded. We could have waited to buy everything at the front of the park, but sometimes its fun to buy the things in the area they actually come from.

After this we, of course, headed over to ride VelociCoaster since we all agreed we prefer riding in the daytime. We jumped in the EP line and it was probably the shortest wait we had for this one. I suppose because it was so early in the morning. It was barely 9am by this time so the park had just officially opened. I made an effort to see the raptors during the ride and finally saw all of them!

We walked through the rest of the Jurassic Park area and noticed the river ride was “delayed.” This was a ride DH could ride, so we were going to wait to ride it until he joined us in the parks.

We started walking towards the Toon Lagoon area (yes, I had to look that up!) because I promised the boys we’d ride the water rides today and they were not going to let me forget it. We were also on the search for popcorn, which we didn’t find until we got to Toon Lagoon. DH was making his way to the parks by this time, but I knew he wouldn’t be able to ride Ripsaw Falls, so me, DS12, and DS10 went to ride it. DS19 was waiting to see how wet we got before riding, but good thing he didn’t try to ride because I’m not sure with his knee he would have been able to get in/out of the flume (remember, he’s 2 months post ACL repair). They tell you to “slide” into the ride and not bend your knees because you’ll get stuck. This is a tiny log flume!

Before getting on the ride, I put on a $1 poncho and made sure to tuck it in around and under my shorts. Boys decided to take their chances. We got more wet during the small drops with the water coming in from the sides than we did for the last, big drop. I had a puddle in my lap on my poncho, so I’m glad I wore it. Kept me pretty dry. The ride itself is “eh.” You’re on it for the drops, not the theming. And some of the areas could really use some freshening up. Boys loved it. But it took what seemed like forever to get off the darn thing. Loading went pretty quickly (we had a maybe 5min wait with EP), but gosh unloading took forever. To make it worse we were sitting in direct sun the entire time. Grabbed the picture from this one afterwards with our photo card; super easy to do here. DS10 wanted to ride again, so he actually went back on by himself because none of us wanted to ride again.

We knew the Popeye ride was going to close during our trip, but we got confused with the actual day and missed it by a day. Next time!

After this we decided to grab some lunch. We all wanted different things, and no one place worked, so we split up. DS10 wanted a hotdog, so DH went with him to Blondie’s to pick up a hot dog to go and they met me later at Captain America Diner. DS10 said he wanted a foot long, and he ate that entire thing, half of it on the walk from Blondies to Captain America!

I mobil ordered for DS19 and DS12 at Cafe 4 and for me and DH at Captain America Diner. Both of these you can’t ask them to prepare the food until you’re in the restaurant and scan a table. So I walked over with DS19 and DS12 to get their order started, then to Captain American Cafe to wait for me and DH’s food. Both places were super fast and practically empty. Maybe these two places have bad reputations? Or everyone was further back into the park by that time? I’m not complaining because our food came out hot, fresh, and fast!

At Cafe 4, DS12 got the jumbo pepperoni pizza slice, which he said was huge. DS19 got the Chicken Parmesan. Both enjoyed their meals. At Captain America Diner, DH and I both got the Hot Honey Chicken Sandwhich, which we enjoyed.

We normally don’t split up like this, but it kept everyone happy and the places weren’t far apart so it worked out. We'd go to both of these again.

After lunch we decided to walk back to the Jurassic Park area to catch Kong and the Jurassic river ride. We stopped at Kong first. Not much of a wait with EP. We weren’t expecting much from this one based on what we heard beforehand and it involved more screens than I was hoping for. But wow, seeing Kong at the end in “real life” was pretty cool. And they let you sit there for so long to check him out. That was really neat and worth he ride. I’d ride it every trip at least once just to see him. We all agreed he was impressive.

Unfortunately we never got to ride the Jurassic river ride. Although it had only opened a day or so earlier from a refurb, it went from “delayed” to “closed” on the day we were going to ride. We were bummed because we looked forward to riding it. Next time I suppose! We didn’t go through Camp Jurassic either. Not sure if my younger two would have enjoyed; they were focused more on VelociCoaster.

Of course the kids wanted to ride VelociCoaster since we were right there. It was too soon after lunch for me so I skipped it, and the long park days were catching up with DS10 so he skipped it too. He just wanted to sit a while. We grabbed some popcorn and a shady spot to wait for them. And boy did we wait! It went down while they were in line, but after they had already passed the lockers so we had no way to communicate with them. We thought maybe they had ridden twice in a row, but nope. The delay just took that long. I'd say it took at least an hour, probably more.

DS10 wanted to swim again, and DH was willing to bring him to the pool, but I was adamant about getting a family pic on the bridge in front of Hogwarts so DH and DS10 waited (albeit a little impatiently) for the other two boys to get off the coaster. And I got a great pic of us, too!

By this point, we had ridden everything we wanted to ride multiple times (thanks, EP!) and it was hot and we were tired as it was Day 4. Normally at WDW, we don’t do more than two park days in a row without some down time. We had a little down time a day earlier with the slow morning start at the pool, but we were still beat. DS10 wanted to swim again, so DH went back to the Hard Rock with him. DS19 decided he wanted to swim too, but he had to stop at City Walk first to find a swimsuit because he didn’t bring one. I knew I wanted to check out Seuss Landing during the day, before our trip ended, and figured it was now or never. I didn't want to get caught saying "oh I'll do it when we come back later today" and then it never happens. DS12 stayed with me to explore.

Seuss Landing is small, but adorable! We hopped on the train ride first, which was fun and little wait with EP. There are two different tracks and I thought about trying to ride again on the other track, but figured we could save that for next time. While we were on the train, we noticed a bunch of characters performing some sort of show, and we caught the very end of it when we got off the train.



DS12 and I decided to wait to meet them after the show was over. We had our choice of either the Grinch, Sam-I-Am, and the Lorax OR Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2. They were only out there for maybe 5 min after the show, so we wouldn’t have had a chance to do both. DS12 chose the Cat in the Hat group. The TM that took my phone did a great job taking photos. She got us walking up, hugging, hi-fiving, and then the posed pic. Wasn’t her first time for sure!

Next we did the carousel because I had to! LOL! And it was a walk-on so why not! We skipped the Fish ride but we did ride Cat in the Hat (another walk on with EP). This was cute, but man the animatronic Thing 1 and 2 are what nightmares are made of!

I told DS12 I just HAD to try the green eggs and ham tots. It was like 3pm by this point, so there was no line.



This looks disgusting, but it was really good! DS12 didn’t care for it. The green comes from seasonings/herbs, not food coloring. It’s a strong flavor, which I liked, but DS12 was a no. I normally don't take food pics, but it was so gross looking yet so tasty, I had to show DH! LOL!

After this we left the park to meet the family at the pool, but not before picking up a few boxes of wizard candy for our dog sitters!

HARD ROCK POOL

The pool was a lot more crowded mid-afternoon. It was hard to find a shady spot. Luckily we were at the pool around the time people started leaving to get ready for dinner, so it was clearing out a bit. If I was here during the summer, I'd make sure to have a day at the pool where we rent a cabana and chill all day for sure! It reminded me a bit of our stay at the Disneyland Hotel because you could order food and drinks from your chair during the day.

We probably could have done the parks over 3 days like we originally planned. We only did the four day ticket because of the buy 2-get 2 special. However, having the extra day did allow us more down time at the pool, which was much needed. You never know what weather you’ll get in Orlando in February, so I didn't really plan for pool time. We were lucky to get warm weather so we were able to enjoy the pool a bit. We were told the pool is heated at the Hard Rock, except for the water slide.

After some pool time, we knew we needed to figure out dinner and then make sure we made it back to Studios before its early closing time of 8pm. We decided, once again, to just grab dinner at Emack & Bolio’s for the convenience. The lobby of the Hard Rock was set up for a private event, so we ate dinner at some nearby outside tables by the pool area. With the sun going down, it wasn’t too bad outside. DS19 and DS12 split a pizza (bringing about 1/4 of it back to the room) and DS10 got the chicken tenders and fries, but it’s such a huge portion he could only eat about half, if that. I should have just split with the kids since they had so much food leftover, but didn’t really feel like anything that heavy. So against my better judgment I ordered the buffalo chicken wrap I had earlier in the trip. It was just as tasty as the first time, but again, it’s big! Next time I’ll plan this better because we wasted a lot of food here since the portions were so big. DH decided not to go back to the parks with us that evening since the main goal was Rip Ride Rocket at night and probably VelociCoaster one last time, things he unfortunately couldn’t ride. He had dinner at the pool bar on his own and enjoyed it. He thought we were going to eat at the park, and originally that was our plan, but then we changed our minds at the last minute and DH had already ordered at the pool bar.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

After dinner we headed to the Studios. This was our first time in the park at night!



The main goal was to ride Rip Ride Rocket at night. When we entered the park, the Mardi Gras parade was rolling, so we were detoured down the side by the Minion ride and then ended up walking under Rip Ride Rocket. Was perfect because it put us right by the ride. The 3 boys rode it a couple of times with little wait thanks to EP. I passed because the last time I rode it, it gave me a bit of a headache and that’s not how I wanted to end our last night! My plan was to wait for the boys in the “grassy” area, but it was all roped off for a private event, so I just sat next to that area and watched the end of the Mardi Gras parade. Coming from south Louisiana, we didn’t make an effort to watch the parade, but from what I saw while waiting for the boys, it was really well done! People were walking around with lots of beads.

After the boys rode RRR a couple of times, we decided we wanted to check out Diagon Alley at night. Of course, the parade had just ended by this time so we had to fight a bit of traffic from all the people leaving the park while we were going upstream. We passed by the Jimmy Fallon ride and Fast and Furious, both of which we hadn’t ridden yet. I didn’t mention them, and neither did the boys. I think by this time we had had our fill of simulator rides. Those definitely are not our favorite, but we didn't mind one here and there. This is the main reason I don't think I'd go to Universal without park to park. My family would not enjoy spending an entire day at Studios with so many simulator rides; we need to spread those out!

Diagon Alley at night is different, especially when the dragon does its thing! I wish I would have videoed it to show how much his fire lights up Diagon Alley! Definitely worth a visit at night. It was close to park closing by this time, so it was also fairly empty. DH regretted not coming back to the park with us to see Diagon Alley at night. We were going to wait in line for ice cream, but the line was pretty long (and slow) and I could tell the boys were getting tired.

We got in line for the Hogwarts Express. With EP we waited a while for this one, probably 30-45 min. Probably could have walked faster, but we were already in line so we waited it out. I assume this was long due to the Studios closing soon.

Back to IOA

By the time we finally made it to Hogsmeade, DS19 and DS10 decided they were done and just wanted to go back to the room. DS12 and I were going to try to ride VelociCoaster one last time, but the EP line was out the building, which we knew meant it would take a while, so we decided to skip it as well. We all walked to the front of he park together.

DS12 wanted to ride Hulk one last time, and I wanted to as well since I hadn’t ridden it since our first day, and never at night. This was the longest wait we had for Hulk with EP, I assume because Studios closed so early. With EP we waited not more than 15min, but all the other times we walked right on.

DS12 and I stopped at the store on the way out to grab a box of Fizzing Wizzbees for us to try. When I bought a few different boxes of wizard candy for our dog sitter, the TM checking us out commented on how good the Fizzing Wizzbees were, so we wanted to get our own box to check them out. These were fun! Not the best chocolate, but they were good and something I’d probably get again. The kids actually ate these, unlike the chocolate frogs that sit there uneaten after the legs are broken off since they’re so thick. I wish they would make those frogs hollow like easter bunnies!

After we were done we walked back to the Hard Rock, and finished off the last of our VooDoo Donut leftovers. It was a good last park day!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Fun detailed trip report!

The first time we rode Forbidden Journey they said the pictures weren’t available, which was disappointing. This time we were able to get our pictures, but there was only one line and it took a while. Also, we never figured out where they take the pic on the ride. We all saw different flashes so weren’t sure.

The pic is amongst the spiders, it's the flash at one of the smaller ones.

 

[ambula603]

I am loving your report! We are headed to Universal for spring break and now I am glad we are staying at HRH with the EP. We are used to Disney so this is going to be new for us, but I am looking forward to less planning and more flexibility!

 

[skuttle]

DAY 5 (Thursday, Feb 23): The Kitchen Breakfast, Departure, and Final Thoughts

The Kitchen

My original plan for check out day was to sleep in a bit, grab lunch at Hard Rock or City Walk, and then head to the airport. However, we decided we wanted a good breakfast instead, so I made a reservation for 9am breakfast at the Kitchen in the Hard Rock.

The Kitchen is located in Hard Rock near the pool area. At 9am the restaurant was busy but not crazy crowded. They offer both a buffet and regular breakfast dishes. We all decided to get the buffet since it was the quickest and easiest. And for some of the dishes, the buffet wasn’t that much more. My only hesitation ordering “buffet for all” was my entire crew would be considered adults. Kids 3-9 were $17 and 10 and up were adults at $29. No way would my 10 and 12 year old eat $30 worth of breakfast, but its vacation so I just went with it. We were VERY lucky and thankful that our server charged all 3 of our kids (even my 19yo!) the kids price!

We normally don’t do buffets except for the occasional breakfast buffet on vacation. This buffet was great! The food was hot, fresh, and plentiful, and the buffet offered a large variety of items. In addition to the buffet, there was an omelet station as well as a griddle station for made to order waffles and French toast. At the griddle station we ordered chocolate chip waffles and also the Elvis French toast. Everything we had was delicious.

Service was a little slow, but not terrible. They cleared our plates quickly, but it took a while to get our check and pay. We actually left to go back up to the room and DH stayed to pay since it was taking so long and the kids were getting restless. I didn’t complain, though, since he charged the 3 kids as kids instead of adults like they should have been charged!

Overall we really enjoyed this meal. But it was pricey for breakfast. However, we all ate enough that we didn’t eat again until we had an early dinner at the airport so I guess that was a plus!

Departure

After breakfast, we went back up to the room until check out time, which was 11am. I texted the front desk when we left the room and that’s how we checked out. No stopping at the front desk. They emailed a final bill.

Originally, my plan was to eat lunch and then head to the airport, so I booked the rental care for pick up at 1:30pm. I booked through Avis again since they are located at Hard Rock. After we left the room at 11am, I went to the Avis desk in the lobby to see if we could pick up the car early, but was told that because I pre-booked and prepaid, if I took the car early (even just a couple of hours) they’d have to charge me an entire extra day.

We thought about going to walk to City Walk just to walk around, or try mini-golf, but none of us wanted to get all hot and sweaty (it was hot while we were there) before having to get on the plane. So instead we just hung out in the lobby. About an hour in we went grab coffee and/or ice cream from Emack & Bolio’s downstairs.

Around 1pm I noticed a new worker at the Avis counter, so I went see if we could pick up the car half an hour early. He checked us in to get the car, no questions asked!

The drive to Tampa wasn’t too bad. Our flight was at 6pm so we had plenty of time to get to the airport, drop off the rental car, and then grab a quick dinner at the airport before getting on the plane. The drive to/from Tampa isn’t terrible, and it was certainly worth the money saved. Even with the rental car expense and added time, for our family of 5, flying into Tampa was worth it.

Final Thoughts

This Disney-loving family wasn’t sure what to expect from our first Universal trip and we ended up loving every minute of it! We were impressed with how nice the parks were, and not just the Harry Potter sections. There was more theming throughout than I was expecting.

One thing we really liked was how much more laid back the trip felt. It involved a lot less planning. Not having to pick where you want to go and/or what you want to eat 6 months out is the best. Universal is perfect for a long weekend and/or shorter trip. For shorter Disney trips, we always feel like we’re missing out on something because you can’t do/see it all in a week much less 3-4 days. But at Universal, we felt like we had a complete trip. We did 4 days because of the buy 2 get 2 ticket offer, but I think we could have gotten everything done in 3.

Everything being so close and compact was also great (and was also something loved about going to Disneyland). Walking to/from Hard Rock everyday (and knowing there was a boat option as well) was a very useful perk!

I can’t say enough positive things about EP. It’s 100x better than Genie+ and LL. Way more expensive, too, especially as a family of 5. But as long as its included, we’ll always stay at a premier resort to get them for free. They made the trip so much more enjoyable. I know we probably could have gotten everything done in 4 days without them, but it helped make our trip much more relaxing by giving us to to sleep in, or leave early, or go to the pool, without thinking we were “wasting” time and not getting things done. We were able to ride our favs multiple times, and not having to wait in line kept us all happy!

I don’t think I could go and NOT get park to park either. For my family, I don’t think we could spend an entire day just at Universal Studios. The simulator rides were not our favorite, so we liked being able to spread those out. There were 3 that we didn’t even do because we were tired of the screens, not because we didn’t have time for them.

DH had an enjoyable time even though he couldn’t ride any of the bigger thrill rides. Another plus to the EP is that DH didn’t have to wait around for us for hours at time.

Lanyards with EP is a must, IMO. So easy to use this way. I still carried a fanny pack, and was able to take it on almost everything. I couldn’t on the rides with the metal detectors, that’s it. Next time we’ll probably do one or two refillable cups now that we have a better idea of how it works. We’ll still carry at least one bottle for water, may try one of those collapsable cups for water.

I thought the photo package was worth it to get all the ride photos since it was our first trip, but I’m not sure I’d feel the need to get it again. Guess it depends how long it’s been between trips.

Overall, we enjoyed this trip more than we thought we would. We knew we’d like the rollercoasters and other rides, but I don’t think we realized how much we’d just enjoy the parks themselves. It also made me realize how much I miss laid back, wing-it kind of trips. And actually having perks for staying on site is huge, especially free EP for staying premier. Everyone said this week (President's week and Mardi Gras) would be crazy crowded, but we never found it bad at all. Perhaps we didn't have high expectations from reading so many warnings about going this week. LOL! We found everything to be manageable and as expected. We look forward to seeing the new things in store for Universal and can’t wait to plan our next trip!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

I loved your trip report. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure with us. Always great to see a Disney family enjoy US/IOA!

 

[Skywatcher1206]

Great trip report!

 

[mrs. magoo]

My DH is big guy as well 6'10 and over 300 pounds. My youngest son is 6'7" and weighs 300 pounds and my oldest son is 6'4" but a skinny 170 pounds. Is the issue with not being able to ride because of height or weight??? - I have kicked around a universal trip for a couple of years but if my guys can't ride a ton of stuff I am not going to bring them there. At Disney my husband can not do Flight of Passage or Space Mountain - he is able to do everything else. My youngest son was at Disney in January and was able to squeeze on both of these rides but said no more space mountain. Thank you for your report.