Florida – Universal Orlando Vacation

If you are going for the first time to Florida with children, it’s a no-brainer that theme parks factor heavily in your vacation planning. For our family, Universal was the first choice since the kids had already had a flavor of Disneyland in California. We had five days total with three dedicated days for the three parks. If you are planning a Universal vacation, hopefully this blog will help you with some of our experiences.

Lodging:

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Orlando, being a tourist haven, offers tons of lodging options. We chose to stay at one of the Universal resorts for ease of access to the parks daily. If you are getting a multi-day ticket, this makes sense. Also, you can forgo the hassle of a car rental for the days that you are doing the theme parks. The resorts do charge extra for overnight parking. Cabana Bay was our choice mainly because it was the only one offering a two-room suite with a kitchenette at the time of booking. It also gave an early access pass to the parks (I hour ahead of usual park times) This is huge given the volume of tourists that come. The lines start forming early, and that extra hour gives you enough time to get the popular rides done before the hordes begin. Buses start running from Cabana Bay (and the other Universal resorts) starting at 7 am. They take you right to the City Walk entrance from where you have access to all three parks.

Cabana Bay also offers lots of entertainment for kids (a bowling alley, an arcade, and two pool areas). There are dining options available inside the resort. There is even a Starbucks inside, as well as a food court area where you can grab pizza or sandwiches. We did not avail any of these amenities since most of our time was spent in the parks. The hot tub did prove useful to soak in after a long day of thrill rides!
We also made full use of our kitchenette by stocking up on breakfast supplies and some lunches from the closest Walmart. I packed tea bags, and the double dispenser coffee machines proved useful both for coffee and tea brewing!

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There are other more upscale lodging available on resorts. Even if you are not staying at one of them, do check them out. My favorite was Royal Pacific with its Indonesian themed architecture. There are also water taxis available from these resorts that you can take to City walk. We used buses to reach the parks, and water taxis to come back to one of these resorts and then do a short walk to Cabana Bay. The water taxis run all the way till 2 in the morning, and I would highly recommend sitting at least once in them.

The Parks and City Walk:

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If you are confused on the physical logistics of Universal, I’m here to help. The resort hotels are on the periphery – more or less clustered together. If you take the shuttle buses, you land at the base of escalators that take you through security to the entrance of City Walk. If you drive, then you will park and go through security. City Walk is a free entrance – you do not need to have a park ticket to enjoy City Walk. There are fine dining and casual, fast-food restaurants here. You can also walk along the lake and take in the scenery and the party vibe. Make sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. Water taxis also run from one end of City Walk.

There are two theme parks located on City Walk: Universal and Islands of Adventure. The third Universal theme park is Volcano Bay which can be accessed directly from Cabana Bay, or through shuttle buses. There is a separate entrance for guests of Cabana Bay. You will go through security at each of the parks where you will show your tickets and scan your index fingers. They reserve the right to check your belongings, although ours never got checked.

Tips:

1. Price shop. Sometimes packages are more cost effective. However, in our case, buying the airline, hotel and the park tickets separately made more sense. Definitely buy tickets directly from Universal and not third-party sources that offer discounts. Sometimes those are fake, and you’ll regret it once you reach the park entrance.
2. Carry a small backpack. Too big and you’ll end up paying additional for bigger lockers. Each ticket gets you a free small locker. There is an additional charge for lockers if it goes beyond an hour or beyond the wait time for the ride. Hence, you must make sure to get your belongings out before you get charged extra. I did see park employees opening and emptying certain lockers, so don’t abuse this privilege. Also, if you can find a long wait time ride, use those lockers and then you can cover a few rides before retrieving your things.
3. Wear clothing with zipper pockets to safely keep your cell phone, in case you don’t want to use the lockers at all.
4. Pack water, snacks and even lunches in your small backpack. It will end up saving you some money.
5. If you are staying at one of the resorts, start the day early with park opening at 8am for resort guests (9 am for regular times). Use this to get the most popular rides (described below) done early. If you wait for later, they will have 2-4 hr wait times.
6. For Islands of Adventure, keep a change of clothes if you do the water rides (Ripsaw Falls and Popeye barges). They will SOAK you! For the barge, put your shoes and belongings in the center of the barge which has waterproof protection. I didn’t put my shoes in, and they were wet for two days after! We had to go back to the room to change but wished we had kept a change of clothes handy to avoid wasting time.
7. Use single-rider lanes (described below) to minimize wait times)
8. Plan out your rides. Our strategy – Start from the back and work your way up front. For the amount you are paying in tickets, you want to experience it to the fullest. Get Thrill rides out of the way, then start on the 3D-4D rides. Keep a look-out for Characters photo-ops and shows/parades.
9. Download the Universal Resort App. You can track wait times and plan your rides accordingly. It will also allow you to have a virtual wallet and have scanned tickets on the app so there is no risk of losing your paper tickets. This is particularly useful at Volcano Bay where you can link your locker to the waterproof Taputapu watch they give you at the entrance. All you do is use that waterproof watch to make payments or put yourself virtually in line if there are long wait times. You can keep your phones and wallets in a small locker ($8/day) and not worry about getting them wet.
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Express Pass: Is it worth it?

Also, if you stay at one of the more expensive resorts, you get the Express Pass included in your hotel accommodation (including the day you check out). The Express Passes are expensive, so this would be a good deal to shorten your wait times. Bear in mind that during high volume times, even with an Express Pass, sometimes the wait times are ridiculously long! Alternately, if you luck out, you might not even need an Express Pass at all. For example, the day we went to Volcano Bay (the water park), there was practically no wait times at all on any of the rides, so an Express Pass would have proved useless. Also, on certain rides like Hagrid’s, they didn’t even give the option of an Express Pass. Before investing hundreds of dollars extra in an Express Pass, really think about its utility. We were able to maximize the utility of just an early park entrance at Universal and got done with 80 percent of the rides by 10 am! That gave ample time to go back for seconds. At Islands of Adventure, I decided to stay in line for Hagrid (6.5 hr wait!!) while the rest of the family did all the other rides. However, I was able to catch up and do all the rides before the park closed. We even had time to go back to our hotel to change clothes and rest up before heading back! In my opinion, the Express Pass is not worth the investment. Instead, use the Single rider lines. You will be split up from your family, but the lines are quicker. In high volume times, the single rider lines get closed, so timing I everything!

Food:

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I was pleasantly surprised that meals at the parks were fairly well-priced and hearty. For example, in Universal, do check out the Leaky Cauldron. Sit in a Hogwarts themed hall with a community dining experience. Enjoy a hot meat stew in a bread bowl with salad, or fish and chips. Prices are around $12-18 per entrée. The Butterbeers are expensive ($8.50 a cup), but worth it for a delicious experience. Consider it as cream soda with butterscotch froth. Their toffee bread pudding was also worth a try. In Island of Adventure, we chose to eat at Thunder. Again, a hearty meal of turkey legs, rotisserie chicken and fries. It was enough to fill up a family of four easily! Also, pack snacks and water in small backpacks to avoid unnecessary expense at the park. There are packages available for park tickets with food coupons and beverage options, but honestly, I don’t feel they are worth it.

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You should also consider some of the restaurants at City walk. We tried out Bob Marley’s Jamaican cuisine. They had a fun vibe with live reggae music. The restaurant is themed on the version of Bob Marley’s actual house. The courtyard offers a cozy setting. I tried some new food – it was cod saltfish and rice hash with Ackee fruit and fried plantains and spinach-like greens, callaloo. Azfar tried some vegetable patties with yucca fries. If you are feeling more adventurous, try the Oxtail Stew!

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City walk also has Voodoo Doughnuts. As with all their locations, expect to wait in long lines. We timed it in the evening while most people were still at the park and there was a shorter line. The box of Voodoo came back all the way on the plane to Denver with us, with people eyeing it jealously 😊

Rides:

Some rides are totally worth it, while others are a disappointment. At Universal, avoid Men in Black and Fast and Furious entirely. It is not worth waiting in line. Instead focus on the Mummy, Harry Potter ride and the Rip Ride Rockit. The Rip Ride takes you up at 90-degree angle and then does freefalls, loops and wild turns. Both Haaris and I had to mentally overcome our fear. He chose to sit with Taimoor and held on to Taimoor’s jacket for the whole ride. I caught glimpses of that in the parts I dared to keep my eyes open!! The Jimmy Fallon, Simpsons and Transformers ride were also really entertaining 3d rides. The Macy’s holiday parade was entertaining but not as good as Disney’s. We lucked out because we did Universal on New Year’s Eve and the park stayed open till 1 am. There was a spectacular fountain and fireworks show on the lagoon. After the fireworks show at midnight when a majority were exiting the park, we made our way to the ET ride with hardly any wait times. While you are in Hogwarts, do check out the wand store. You can also buy interactive wands for $55 that will unlock magic spells inside the park.

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At Volcano Bay, the roller coaster was amazing! Because there was no wait time, I think we did that 4 -5 times! Also, the river rapids was a totally fun swimming experience. They make you wear life vests and you float really fast in simulated white-water rapids. I had a hard time getting out of the continuous loop, and Azfar had to pull me out of the current but it was really fun one! The boys did the body plunge – 125 feet bulleting through a trap door at a 70-degree angle to the pool below (the tallest body plunge in America!). You have to climb 200 steps for that. My thrill-seeking side has its limits, so I decided to stay at the Ocean wave and enjoy the clean beach and simulated beach waves, instead! Every twenty minutes or so, you would hear the beating of the drums, and it signaled the onset of the waves. The walk behind the waterfall is really cool too, and if you get lucky there is an AI simulation inside the cave with which you can have a full-blown conversation ( kind of like SIRI, only more intelligent…I think there was a human on the other end based on the answers it was giving to Azfar’s silly comments!The tube rides are also super fun for the whole family to do together.

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At Islands of Adventure, the most popular ride is Hagrid’s. The line starts forming at 8 AM, and they close the ride early during peak season to accommodate for the wait times. It is a super fun ride with speed bursts, dips and even a backwards motion. You have to pass through 8 rooms before you experience the actual ride. I waited 5 hrs total – 6.5 hrs for those that got in line after regular park opening. They have snack vendors and water fountains along the way to keep you hydrated. If you are waiting in line while your family covers the rest of the park, ask them to take a pic and text you their exact location and a park employee will escort them exactly to your location. There is no point in the entire family wasting precious time waiting for a single ride

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The Harry Potter ride at Islands of Adventure is also fun. The part that simulated the Quidditch scene was my favorite. The Hulk is a major thrill ride. Spiderman and Kong were also fun. Even the small rollercoaster across from Harry Potter was fun. We did that multiple times at night when the wait times were short. The Jurassic experience was a bit of a disappointment for me, but my family enjoyed it. Both water rides (Rip Saw Falls and Popeye’s Barge) were tremendously fun, water-soaking adventures! The Terror of Doom ride was a major disappointment – don’t waste time on it! The best part is at night when the Harry Potter world lights up and there is a projected light show every 20 minutes. That is truly spectacular! Azfar and Taimoor also enjoyed the Poseidon show which had interactive elements in it.

What else? The beach, of course!

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You can’t have a Florida vacation without touching the beach! We timed our flights that we got in early on Monday morning and left late on Friday. This gave us practically two full days to do other things. Azfar rented a car for both those days. One the first, we explored Coco Beach. None of the locals will speak highly of it, since the better beaches are in Tampa. But those are farther away. Coco Beach is about an hour away from the airport. We stopped for breakfast at the IHOP in Titusville. On the approach to Coco Beach, you’ll see the Atlantic on one side and a lagoon on the other. The highway goes over. The Atlantic side has all the giant cruise liners.

My boys enjoyed the beach and being in the water. The waves were a bit rough, and the water was cold. But that never stopped the boys. It reminded me of the cold Oregon beaches in summer. We stopped at the hotel asking for early check in and grabbed some towels from there. Those came in handy at the beach. There was a nice pier with a restaurant where you can soak in the full beach experience. Even though the locals would not recommend Coco Beach, it was still a fun experience for us. I think next time, we will plan on just a Tampa or Miami beach vacation to maximize on white sands and blue waters! On our way back (Cabana Bay graciously gave us an early check-in) we stopped outside the Kennedy Space Center. Everyone was too wiped out for the flight and the beach to even consider going in.

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The day we were returning to Denver, Cabana Bay again gave a late checkout so we could take our time in getting up and packing everything. We met up with some old friends and together went to the Disney Springs area. Another fun place with lots of shopping and activities. The Ghirardelli ice-cream was rich and scrumptious! Just like City Walk, there is an area for live performances. A high school team was doing tap dancing. We also check out a giant hot air balloon and a car that literally converts into a boat in water! How fun! To wrap it up, I have to say that Orlando was hectic but enjoyable. Organized chaos 🙂

To check out another fun trip, see my New Orleans blog!