skuttle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2000
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- 7,411
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
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
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