What are your best tips for visiting Universal?

Being a huge Disney fan, I can't believe I'm considering vacationing somewhere else. But with the kids getting older, having logged 12 trips in the past 13 years to WDW - and with all the closures and construction at DHS in the next couple of years - we thought we might give Universal a try next year. I'd like to do as much research as possible before we go - so I can feel prepared and make the best decisions in my planning.

First - a little about us. No one in our family is into Harry Potter - although we will probably want to see it since everyone raves about it so much. The kids are into roller coasters and the little one is into the Minions. The kids - not really so little -will be 14 and 10 by the time we go so I don't anticipate any issues with height restrictions.

Guess the things I'm curious about are: accommodations, dining and park tickets. On-site vs. off-site accommodations. Dining recommendations (we are usually a counter service family at WDW - how does Universal compare to WDW's options (price, selection, etc.). Park tickets - front of line pass necessary? We'd be looking at spring break - which is not near Easter next year, but I assume it will be busy at end of March anyway.

I'd really appreciate any and all thoughts on Universal. It's just going to be out of my "comfort zone" - which as you can tell by my 12 trips to WDW in 13 years - I like to be comfortable and know what to expect when possible. We usually stay at Coronado Springs at WDW and rely on bus transportation to parks. I assume the best way to do Universal is with a rental car. Is there any benefit to staying on-site with parking at the parks - like at Disney?

Thanks again for all comments/opinions/reviews of all aspects of Universal!

I'll let other folks chime in here but in a nutshell, here are my suggestions...

Assuming you have a family of 4 as we do:

1) Stay onsite and at a premium hotel. Hard Rock, Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific. Take advantage of early entry. You will absolutely LOVE being able to walk or take a short boat ride to your

2) Universal Express - you will love it. By staying at a premium resort - you get universal express included and don't have to buy it. Typically if you would stay and a value and buy universal express, it would cost MORE than staying at a deluxe.

3) Dining - plenty of choices in and out of the parks from table to quick service and prices/quality is all on par with anything Disney offers. Absolutely love the restaurants in CityWalk.

I really think you'll love it. So much more relaxed. If things are a little crowded, a short walk back to your resort to chill by the pool, grab a bite or nap works great.

Oh, and you don't have to love Harry Potter to enjoy the theming and attractions ;)

As a total Disney fan I agree with John, you don't have to know anything about HP to enjoy the area or US for that matter. We stayed Cabana Bay in family suite, three adults and one oteen. We got to the resort by taxi and it was about $50 each way. Food is comparable both quality and price wise. Definitely do dinner at City Walk. The only downside to staying at Cabana Bay was the walk to the bus after and exhausting day. We are planning our next Disney trip for this fall during the Food and Wine Festival.

We just returned from a 3 night stay at Hard Rock Hotel, with 4 day passes. Like John said, if you can swing the price, it really is worth staying at one of the three hotels with express pass. Generally, Royal Pacific is the less expensive of the three. For this trip, my kids really wanted to return to Hard Rock because they loved it so much. Our days were mid week and I think my rate was $260 a night at HRH. The rate went up significantly that weekend (it was also a holiday weekend), but if you add $50 per person for express pass each day, it makes the extra price for the deluxe worth it. And, these are Loew's hotels, so they are nice and worth the price. The pools and amenities are wonderful. I looked early at hotel rates and kept checking, they really did fluctuate on price and room availability and did increase significantly in price closer to our arrival date. One trick - We had a car so this works for us, but we made it to Orlando Monday evening and stayed at a less expensive hotel that night, we were up early and made it to the HRH by 8 a.m. We were able to check in and pick up our park tickets and express pass and were at the parks even before the non-hotel guests could gain entrance. We also did not begin traveling home until Saturday, but checked out of HRH on Friday. This allowed us a full 4 days in the parks with express pass, but only 3 nights of Hard Rock Hotel pricing. Keep in mind if you do have a car that parking at the Universal hotels (or at least the deluxe ones) is an extra $20 a night.

I cannot say enough about how easy a Universal vacation is and the convenience of staying at Royal Pacific and Hard Rock makes it even easier. There are boats to ride, but they are not necessary. The hotels are easy walking distance to both parks and City Walk. You really do not need to bring big back packs to the parks. Pack as light as possible because many of the rides require you to use lockers for any items that do not fit in your pockets. RipRideRockIt and Dueling Dragons require you to empty your pockets too in lockers. If you want a break, your hotel is 5-10 minutes away, not an hour bus ride. And, no planning required at all. If you want reservations, you can use open table or call the restaurants directly for reservations (even on the day of), but we did not need reservations all week and did not wait at all for any tables (it was a less busy week though).

The food is good, but it is pricey like you would expect at all tourist/resort/theme park areas. There are lots and lots of options. City Walk is full of interesting food options (CowFish was a lot of fun) and the parks have many different options. I really like Bumblebee's Taco Food Truck in the Simpsons area of Universal Studios.

Express Pass gives you the options of riding the rides over and over again. My kids are thrill ride junkies and when they decided to ride Mummy, they would ride 3-5 times back to back. (Mummy is still my favorite ride.) And, they were the same with all of their favorite rides. Also, you do not need to be a Harry Potter fan to enjoy the areas at all. The theming is just incredible. However, by design, they are smaller tight areas (to mimic an English village - Hogsmeade - or London - Diagon Alley). I would suggest being at the parks for rope drop to enjoy these areas before they get crazy crowded. My kids had been to Universal twice before and bought wands both of those times. We did not buy wands this trip, but this is probably the time to buy wands! There are a lot of interactive areas where you can use the wands to activate lots of displays (there's an interactive skeleton in Knockturn Alley - don't miss Knockturn Alley). We watched others doing it and it looked pretty neat. You will need park-to-park tickets to ride the Hogwarts Express between the two parks. There are a lot of things going on and new stuff popping up at Universal all the time. The new King Kong ride looks amazing.

It was cooler this trip, but on our previous trips, we would hit the parks early morning, then have lunch in the parks or City Walk or hotel pool bar. We either spent pool time in the early afternoon or we put on bathing suit type of clothes and hit the water rides. We would ride Jurassic Park, Dudley Do Right, and Bluto's Barges over and over then head back to the hotel to change. Walking in wet clothes for 5-10 minutes through the park and back to the hotel is not bad at all. There is also a wet area and ball play area in Curious George playground in Universal Studios that I guess is designed for younger kids, but my teenagers still had a lot of fun playing there ... and there are shady benches for parents in the area too.

For your park tickets - I would suggest buying them on-line because they are usually cheaper and have different discount offers - but select "will call" instead of print at home. For will call, there is a kiosk at the hotel or right outside the park that you only need the credit card you bought them with and confirmation number. It prints out credit card sized tickets. Otherwise, you have to carry around your full letter-sized multiple page printed tickets from home (and you use park tickets a lot, especially if you have park hoppers) all week. If you have express pass, I would also highly recommend having a lanyard where you can keep park tickets, express pass, and room keys (you can charge most if not all items at the parks to your room keys) all together around your neck - you need to show express pass a lot also. And, even on the rides where you have to use a locker for all loose items, you can still keep the lanyard around your neck.

One thing I really enjoyed this trip was watching a lot of characters out. The characters are very interactive and they are actors. They play their roles to the hilt. I forced my kids to take a picture with "Doc" from Back to the Future. He engaged them for 5 minutes in a conversation and he was in character the entire time, very ad lib and fun. I watched Beetlejuice interacting with people and he was so funny and a bit creepy too. Lucille Ball was walking down the street joking and laughing with people. We enjoyed watching the Blues Brothers show in the alley next to Mummy. The Hollywood Horror Makeup show is great.


My last advice (for now - sorry, I can't help myself) is to just enjoy it. Don't look for Disney and nitpick. There are rides that are similar type rides to Disney, but I find the Universal rides take it up one more notch thrill-wise. The lands are immersive. Other than looking across the lake in Universal Studios, you really do not see the next land until you turn a corner. They are separated. There are lots of details (notice the manhole covers change from Hollywood, to NY, to San Francisco, to London in Universal Studios). It really is a lot of fun. But, for some reason, some true Disney people carry a chip on their shoulder and don't allow themselves to truly enjoy Universal. I have no idea why. I love both, but right now, I have no desire to return to Disney because it's too complicated. Universal is easy. Much more relaxed. And it's fun.

The premium resorts are way too expensive for us. We were there in October and stayed at the Best Western Plus across the street and walked to the resort everyday. It was a 15-20 minute walk and it saved us so much money.

You will enjoy the Harry Potter rides and areas even if you haven't read it seen the books. We bought the park hopper but if we go back we won't be we wanted to ride the hogwarts express be were disappointed with it.

Universal is a fun time with more intense rides. I thought the shows were a level under Disney though.

Have fun!

We stayed at Royal Pacific for the first time last summer and are headed back again. We LOVED the unlimited Express Passes. We were able to ride most things as much as we wanted. My daughter said it perfectly, "Here, on property, REALLY feels like you're on property." We were only a short boat ride or a 15 minute walk to the parks. We found the rides at Universal to be more intense than WDW. They seem to be louder and there are a lot more with water features where you get wet. Like previous people have posted, don't compare it to Disney. Honestly, we were very impressed with the innovative rides and the total immersion of Diagon Alley. You're kids may surprise you and prefer Universal to WDW. (My older kids do.) I really liked not having to plan the whole FP+ in advance. It was a much more relaxing trip.

We have stayed on property at both The Royal Pacific and The Hard Rock and I wouldn't hesitate to stay on site again, they are nice, clean, and modern rooms. I loved our Universal Trips, you can definitely just go with the flow there. Major bonus is the Unlimited Express Pass for resort guests. There are lots of Dining options in and out of the parks, dining outside of the parks over at City Walk tends to be much better quality.