I Have A Lot Of Questions && Any Help Would Be WONDERFUL!! About This Page:

[joelsmom]

We've been to Universal Orlando several times. I'll say this. For me, it can't hold a candle to WDW, but you can enjoy your stay there, especially if you are staying on property, as you are.

The lockers...they are everywhere. If you prepare ahead of time that you have to use them, it'll help avoid frustration. As mentioned before, you HAVE to use them.

The food...in the parks...mostly typical fast food. Be aware, some restaurants are not open all day. I found this strange but true when we tried the Monster Cafe on the Universal side about 5 pm one day. They closed at 4 pm the day we were there, in the middle of June! Based on my experience with Universal's meal deal, I wouldn't recommend it. It's only valid at a couple of locations in each park...in City Walk...more food options and they are generally nicer restaurants. I highly recommend Margaritaville.

If you want character greetings, most of the good ones are on the Universal side. Definitely check out Donkey from Shrek. He's very funny and interactive. On the IOA side, the major character spot is on Marvel Superhero Island, and you can find some on Suess Landing too.

Definitely do Harry Potter immediately after your Three Broomsticks breakfast. That area is heavily congested all day, and I've seen the Forbidden Journey ride wait more than 2 hours.

The Spider-Man ride is also extremely popular and very good. It's available with your Universal Express perk, so it shouldn't be too much of a wait, but Harry Potter isn't covered with the Express system, or at least it wasn't last time we were there.

My best advice is to plan to the best of your ability and then go with the flow, because no matter how much you plan, things will go astray sometimes.

Best wishes. I hope you have an awesome time.

[ferrazalves]

Originally Posted by KHale0910

We are staying on site at the Lowes Royal Pacific! We plan on being up early!!!! We are leaving on Sept 18th an we have 4 full days to use for the parks! We get the early entry for WWoHP that was one of many reasons we wanted to stay on site. Thanks for your help! Anything is helpful! I'm the one planning it all lol. We'll both be 25 so we can take advantage of City Walk as well. I see a lot of tips for traveling with kids, but this is a trip for just my cousin an I.

One advantage of staying onsite is that the room key works similar as a fast pass for several rides.
We stayed there and it was great!
As many rides need to go inside without a bag we left everything at the hotel, and took a small wrist wallet (that fits in the pocket) with room key (one for each), park tickets, credit card for snacks. Also we had comfortable clothes/shoes that don't have problems on being wet (like sandals, crocs...).
As both parks were not huge we left souvenirs to be bought before leaving.
Have a great time!!!

[disneyparis]

Has anyone been there in mid-December? We're planning on being there on 12/13, just taking one day from our WDW trip. How early should we get there to be able to do everything in the Harry Potter area? When we finish, we'll have lunch and try to see some of IOA, but it's mainly about Harry!!

[ferrazalves]

Originally Posted by disneyparis

Has anyone been there in mid-December? We're planning on being there on 12/13, just taking one day from our WDW trip. How early should we get there to be able to do everything in the Harry Potter area? When we finish, we'll have lunch and try to see some of IOA, but it's mainly about Harry!!

I'd check the opening hours and be there as soon as possible. When we were there everyone was going direct to Harry Potter area... so it get crowded very early.

[Wanetta Wilde]

Khale, let me tell you what WE did. We both wear Cargo shorts to the parks. The kind that have the leg pockets with fold over tops to keep your stuff from falling out. We had our pressed penny/quarter collection in my son's pockets and the coins went flying out on the HP FJ ride and we both giggled so hard it was terrible. I took my Blackberry along in my cargo shorts pockets and my son took the tickets and room keys in his. Be sure you either wear your tickets in the lanyard or bring a snack sized ziploc baggie to put them in if you plan on doing any water rides, too. We were thinking about buying the lanyards for ours (because we kept having issues with our keycards dying at the parks and the hotel accused us over and over of having put them against my Blackberry when MY SON WAS CARRYING THEM) and one woman in line at HP FJ in front of us told us to not bother because they were scratchy on her neck. I think she was obsessive, but it was a valid point for me to consider with my 13 year old son. We ended up getting this little bitty backpack that was like a fanny pack (he would shoot me if he heard me call it a fanny pack) but it hooked onto the waist of your shorts with a caribiner clip. It would have fit a cell phone as big as my Blackberry Torch, and I just tried an iPhone 4 in it with an Otterbox Defender case on it and it fit, too. We used it to also take our ziploc with tickets, credit cards etc. and all of our coins nicely because it had a zipper on it. We are using it again in two weeks for Disney actually! ha! NICE! I highly recommend that because we were able to stuff it inside the pockets of my son's cargo shorts, too by leaving it attached at the waist and then sliding it down inside the pocket of the short. I have seen this thing since we got back and can't remember where. It is a name brand item, but the Royal Pacific Hotel sells them for $17 which is the same as what we paid at the park for the thing. If you are staying at the hotel though, you won't have any lines at all. We never waited more than 15 minutes for anything but the HPFJ ride. And even that, we never waited more than 30 minutes. Well, there was that time that we were 50 riders back from the front of the ride and the ride broke down and people were stuck on it for over 30 minutes...then the next group went as "test subjects" and they were stuck, too. That time, we waited for 2 hours, but the last hour and 20 minutes was spent 50 people from the front. ha! Then we got on it and it broke on us, too. Word of advice...go to the bathroom JUST IN CASE before you ride HPFJ. You never know how long you will be in line OR stuck on the ride! ha! ha! It wasn't that bad though because the employees (are they cast members there?) kept walking the line in their HP robes and making jokes and announcing stuff over the PA to let us know we were about to move (which we didn't) so it wasn't too bad. The room key in September though, you ought not be waiting much AT ALL. We were there the last week in May and we had what I would chalk up to a zero wait time. The parks were pretty full, too with school groups and such. There is a great site, UnderCoverTourist.com that has the projected crowd levels for when you will be there, too. You can give it a look see.
On the size matter, there are seats at the opening of most of the rides where it would come into question and they allow you to "sample" the seat. Then you can see if the restraint bar goes over your head/lap/whatever.
As for the lockers, they are free for one hour. If your ride breaks down, don't worry, the attendants will open the locker for you for free. A word of advice on the lockers. It isn't as important that you remember your locker number as it is you remember your locker screen you rent it from. We found that out. Then also choose one finger and use it the rest of the trip. We kept switching because it wouldn't read with the dirty screen (the locker attendant told us to use your finger nail the flat broad bed portion, not the tip and it worked like a charm!) so we would forget our locker number AND our finger used (one time we couldnt' remember whose finger we used!) so don't worry about the lockers so much. HP seems to have a great deal of leniency as it is because the wait times are long with it. But while we were there was much busier than when you will be there and we never waited long at all to get on HP. If anything, I felt it moved too fast the first time through because I didn't get to look at or hear a lot of the things going on in the castle!!!

When we had our HP souvenir mug and our popcorn buckets though, we did have to get lockers to check those.

If you are staying 4 days, pace yourself. My son and I did it all in 3 days and the only things we didn't do (I have a horrible back) is the Rip Ride Rocket, The Simpson's ride, all of the water rides BUT jurassic park (we did it) and then the HUlk. We did everything else, including the Seuss rides! I am telling you, that roomkey is better than a FastPass. We would get off of MIB and ride it over and over. One time, we left our things in the locker and rode it 3 times before we had to check our stuff out and STILL had time to spare on it! You will have no problems with lines/time when you are there in September if we didn't at the end of May! It is better to get there early though. Beat the heat and the crowds, but again, I doubt you will have crowds at all in Sept! I think you will have fun because I think where US and IOA has Disney beat is the special effects on the rides. They really were great. Where Disney beats US and IOA is the characters (costumes were a bit substandard compared to Disney ones and a lot of times they weren't fitted to the person) and the cleanliness and upkeep on the parks. But both have their strong points and I have had a blast now at both! ha!

Hope all of that helps! We had a blast and couldn't believe how long people had to stand in line that DIDN'T have the roomkeys to get ahead of the lines! WE would get off and on and off and on some rides more than twice in a row and see the same people in line. Unlike Disney, they take the FastPass type riders first OR they have a totally separate lane/ride for us altogether. That was awesome. Good luck and be sure to let us know how much fun you had! Here's a magical "pixie dust" sprinkle, just to ensure a good time will be had by all:


DH and DS laugh because I always say I have to get Tink Sprinks at the Magic Castle Fireworks show one night before we leave for home otherwise I won't be able to return! ha! Have fun!

[KHale0910]

Thanks everyone for your input!!! My trip is getting so much closer!! I can't wait!!! EEEPPP!!! This all has been a lot of help! Wanetta, Thank you for the info! I will look into that bag! I've looked at some sites for wait times and everything seems to say Sept is a slow time. The only thing is, that Friday is the 1st night of Halloween Horror Nights. Which we plan on going to as well. So we will see!! I've heard about the test seats, everyone I've talked to that's been to Disney seems to think I'll be fine. But I know USF isn't the same as WDW. So, Hopefully I'll be okay. I'm not as stressed about it as I was. Everyone on here has been such great help. Even though I'm planning I know sometimes plans don't go the way we well, plan :] It's more of just a game plan tho. To have an idea seeing that neither one of us have been here before. The only other question I have would be whats a good amount of spending money and food money to have for the 5 days? And has anyone seen the blue man group? I'm thinking that show would be awesome on our free day! Thanks again! I'll be sure to let everyone know how my 1st trip is!!

[Wanetta Wilde]

As for meals, I would totally get a AAA card. I used ours and it was taken throughout the park, even in the gift shops AND at Hard Rock cafe for a 10% off. Also, if you are going to eat, I would plan on eating at the City Walk places because most of the food inside is pretty, well, how do you say this, "off"? It is pretty much like carnival food/theme park food, Disney World Excluded. Believe it or not, we found the best deal ON SITE was for us to eat at the HP tavern (whose name escapes me at the moment). We could each get a huge meal there at around 2 pm or so after the lunch crowds were gone and that tied us over to the point that we just needed some sort of snack for supper. The meals there are ranging from $8.99-$13.99 and when you pay the $11.99, you actually get a half of a rotisserie chicken, about 2 cups of potato wedges and a roasted ear of corn. And that food in there was really tasty. They also have fish and ribs and a turkey leg. We did the turkey leg our last day and shared it. I am talking, sharing with a 13 year old boy who eats first and asks what it was he just ate later! The food in there is actually good and we ended up eating there daily. From what my guide book for US/IOA detailed, you can eat there for a little less than $10 per meal, but I am sure you can do even better than that. We only ate at the Three Broomsticks (that's what it is called) and snacks around the park (we used the popcorn bucket for 89 cent refills daily and the HP themed ButterBeer mug for 89 cent refills, too) and we ate at City Walk the rest of the time. IT really depends on what you like to eat.

I am sure others here have scoped out the other places there. I heard that the Mythos restaurant was good, but there were people leaving it while we were standing in line that said, "That was really not worth it. It was more like frozen tv dinner food!" so we cancelled our reservation and headed to Harry Potter to eat..how sad are we? We did try the different foods at Three Broomsticks on different days! ha! ha! But I found that to be the best deal by far was the meals there in Hogsmeade at the pub. It was really good food and we enjoyed it and I am kind of picky about food. Also, I will be better able to tell you if other stuff is as good after this week. DH and I are heading out tomorrow morning bright and early for 3 days at US/IOA so I can let you know then what we will eat. DH is a bit on the cheaper side than I am and if he sees the cost of food at Three Broomsticks, he will step back and say, "NO WAY!" ha! So I will be sampling the theme park chow at the various carts and on site restaurants there. Heh...heh...heh...
Let me know if you have any other questions and I will try to remember to check this while I am there!
Also, if you are staying at the RPH, you won't have ANY trouble with lines at all. You will find you are having to do things over and over because that pass is REALLY better than the one at Disney called Fast Pass, I think! It is super fast and we never stood in line for anything other than HP longer than a few minutes...as in less than 15 minutes and that was only when the ride was broken or someone was having issues and slowing down the line.
Planning can't be helped though. We are females...that is kind of in our nature.

[MsPeggySue911]

I am 160 pounds and wear a size 12. I fit in all the rides at IOA and US, however, I do fill up the whole seat at Forbidden Journey. I can see it being very tight for someone 200 pounds or more.

The last time we were there they pulled a man out of the line and made him go sit in the test seat to see if it fit him and obviously it didn't fit him right because they had that couple leave the line. He couldn't have weighed more than 200 pounds but he wasn't real tall. Maybe 5 foot 9 or so. He didn't look very heavy compared to some ppl I see in the parks.

But US/IOA rides are tighter than Disney rides. Not all ppl will fit in all the rides there, especially if you are bigger than I would say a size 18/20 in plus size women's.

Someone bigger than that may be able to correct me and say they fit in the rides but I am just basing this on my own size and how I know I fit in the ride and the size of the ppl I have seen turned away.

They have a test seat right at the entrance to the castle. Try THAT ONE. Don't wait until you get all the way in there and are about to board and have them pull you off to the side in front of everybody.

I always carry a backpack that has a cooler pouch built in so I can keep water and bottles of tea cold and we usually carry some snacks with us like Beef Jerky or Chips, so we have to use the lockers at all the major rides. I am really bad at trying to remember our locker number then 30 seconds later forgetting the locker number so I jot it down in my IPhone memo pad and save it as a little note so when I get off the ride and I can pull it up and see what the locker number is. Sometimes I will do the locker and sometimes my husband does it but we always use the same index finger so we never forget what finger we used.

Those little locker rooms can get very crowded even during slow times when the park is not very busy and wait times are low so if you are claustrophobic send someone else in there to do it for you.

I have never eaten at any of the sit down table service restaurants there so I can't give any info about how good they are or what they cost. We have only ever eaten counter service or quick service meals and that runs $8 to $10 per person with a drink.

Next trip I do think we might try to get a reservation for 3 Broomsticks if they even take reservations. I also want to try Bubba Gump's on City Walk.

And speaking of Blue Man Group...my DD12 has asked if on our next trip we can go see them but I don't think we will. You can see parts of their show on You Tube to see if you are going to like it. I think the tickets are less than $40 per person.

We have only ever been during low crowd times and have never needed the express pass. Even when FJ had a 30 minute posted wait time we walked right on. It takes you about 7 minutes to walk all the way through the castle and the queue to actually get into the ride area but once we got back there we were immediately put on the ride, no wait at all. SO don't be too intimidated by posted wait times.

[DisneyDaddy]

Last time at US I was 220 at 5'10
It was a very tight fit when I had to pull in the safety bar
And a huge exhale. 2 years and 20 pounds heavier, I don't think I would fit now.


Btw, three broomsticks gave DW a bad case of food poisoning!

[KHale0910]

Thanks for your help everyone! :]

[Wanetta Wilde]

You are welcome! I hope that the help is, well, HELPFUL! ha!

I didn't eat Three Broomsticks this past week while DH and I were there, but we tried the rotisserie chicken at both Monsters Cafe (which was a total rip off compartively speaking and taste-wise) and also at the one at Jurassic Park whose name escapes me. The one at JP was the exact same meal but did not taste as freshly prepared (say'Heat Lamped and dried out' here) as the ones we had at Three Broomsticks. I am sorry someone got food poisoning there! I am glad we didn't! Ours was literally coming fresh off the pit each time. You stand there and they pull it off the spit and cut the bird in half them plate it. I hate that someone got sick off of it! That is sad! NOW as for the ones we had at Monsters Cafe and also at JP, I wouldn't put it past someone to get sick off that food. I opted for the large slice of pizza which wasn't at all good and ended up sharing it with DH anyway because what DH had at Monster's Cafe was not a half a chicken, but a SMALL quarter and the leg was so over done that the knuckle/bone was protruding near the end of the drumstick as there wasn't much meat on the thing at all. It also came with mashed potatoes with gravy and three (literally) small, steamed broccoli crowns. It was more of a kid's meal than an adult meal and certainly wasn't worth the $10 we paid for the thing! Both places it was overcooked/over heat lamped and poorly done. The HP Three Broomsticks was the way to go, but both times we ate, we were either on the other side of the park and too hot and tired to walk back to HP (the crowds this time were insane) or in the other park and too hot and too tired to walk back to HP. DH also was not an HP fan to begin with, unimpressed by any of the HP rides and just flat out refuses to do crowds WITH CAMERAS who stop in the middle of walkways and expect others to wait while they take their pics when it is as crowded as it was...insane.


Also, a head's up. When we were there the last week of May (as in a few weeks ago) they were using the room keys for the EXPRESS PASS. This weekend, they were doing a paper card with your photo on it as your EP for rides. Now you not only have to take your room key (for charging priveleges), AND your gate ticket but now ALSO you will have to bring this third card into thte parks for you to use as EP. Wow...they ought to learn how to trim the things down a bit. ha! When you check in, you take your gate tickets to a machine over by the travel desk in the corner (at RPH) and you scan your ticket first then it lets you center your face and you press a button to take the shot. Be sure you edit out your shoulders and arm...DH didn't, just left the camera the way it was and his shoulder/arm came out reaching for the button which looked odd, but really, who looks at the stupid pic anyway? Not one "cast member" or whatever they are called at US/IOA looked at our pics. Half of them didn't even scan the barcode on the EP to get us in the line. Most just asked us for it, then told us to keep it out so someone else could scan it and then no one ever scanned it or mentioned it again in that ride. No matter. It is just something extra to keep up with. Not bulk, just "extra" and for us planners, we need to know about all things beforehand. You also get one of these for the duration of your ticket. I don't know what happens if you lose it. we didn't and I was going to ask and forgot.

The Minions Ride /Despicable Me was up and running when we got there on Wednesday and was cute. They said it was a re-do of the old Jimmy Neutron, but I had never ridden that one so I can't say. I was even able to ride it with my junky back, but GET THIS! They got rid of Donkey, Shrek and Fiona outside of the Shrek 4D! Wah! They think they will be back at the end of Sept or maybe sooner if they bring them back, the cast member inside the Shrek store offered. Wah. If you don't know what I am talking about, Google on YouTube a video of Talking Donkey at US. Worth a great laugh. DS and I talked about how funny it was to the point that it was the entire reason DH wanted to go. ha!
If you are a constant snacker like I am, I highly recommend the refillable popcorn bucket. DH and DS and I considered it a great lifesaver every afternoon when you start running down and need a bit of a pick me up. The popcorn is just enough to get you revved up again. We would refill our bucket for 89 cents (minus our AAA discount) then get a soda at sit inside in the a/c for a few minutes to cool down (or get them to give us a scoop of ice in our HP souvenir mug and pour bottled water over the ice) and it really helps you keep going. I hope WDW has something similar/as cheap. I will do that one, too. Never had in the past.
I am sure you won't have the "traffic" like we did this past week. They said that this was the fullest the parks had been all summer and it was only at 90% capacity the hotel said while we were there? What?!?!? That is insane. We vowed to never go back in the summer. All of the buildings keep it from getting any breeze and the sun reflects off everything and just seems to make it hotter. Maybe WDW has some magical pixie dust to keep me cool when I am there and that is why I don't notice it? I will let you know after next week...I will be at WDW next week with DS for his 14th b'day.
Have fun and you won't have crowds OR heat in September...I envy you!
Here is more magical "pixie" dust, just in case, to make sure you have a magical time!

L8R T8R!
Wanetta

[KHale0910]

Okay, I went to six flags over GA yesterday!!! And good news, i rode so many coasters!!! It was alot of fun!! I think I'm gonna be perfectly fine at universal & IOA! Six flags in ga doesn't have modified seating at all. It's kinda crazy!! They think everyone is a size 2! But all in all I had alot of fun! I can't even talk today! again thank you for all for your help and advice!! I'm so excited for September to get here!

Wanetta, you've been a great help!! Thanks for the extra pixie dust!! Hope y'all have fun at Disney!!