Universal/Disney recap

[stephm0188]

My husband's company sends us to Orlando for their annual meeting/ company Christmas party. We had stayed at Loews Royal Pacific a few times in the past but skipped the Universal parks because of the kiddo's age. He's 9 this year and has finally finished reading Harry Potter, so we decided to try the parks this time. 

The kid and husband left Wednesday night. I had to work Thursday, so I flew out after school and met them Thursday night. We stayed at Loews Portofino Bay this time.

Thursday: The kid and husband started by going to Islands of Adventure to take advantage of being able to get into the park an hour early to visit Hogsmeade. The kid had planned to pick out Harry Potter's wand for himself, but his plans changed when he was chosed for the wand choosing ceremony at Ollivander's. He decided to get the wand that had chosen him and proudly told everyone it was made of holly with a phoenix feather inside.  They spent the morning visiting Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, then headed back to the hotel to swim. They went to The Last Jedi opening at Citywalk that evening. 

Friday: My husband was in a meeting all day, so the kid and I headed to Islands of Adventure to start our day. We spent the first hour in Hogsmeade. We rode Forbidden Journey twice and Flight of the Hippogriff twice. Once the park opened, we took Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley and rode Escape from Gringott's. The ride malfunctioned when we were on it, but they were awesome about it. They immediately loaded us up again and sent us back through. We spent the day riding a few more rides, then headed back to the hotel around 4 so I could get ready for the company party.

The party was at BiCE at the hotel, and the food was delicious. 

Saturday: All three of us headed back to Universal to experience it as a family. We grabbed breakfast at The Three Broomsticks (I think) and I was a bit caught offguard by the prices. We visit Disney often and I don't even bat an eye at paying for food there. I know it's going to be expensive but it is what it is. I was kind of stunned to pay more than $30 for an adult breakfast platter and a kids pancake platter. Universal's food prices make Disney look like a bargain I felt like the portions were smaller, too. 

We wound up having lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. A friend of ours works there and asked us what time we wanted to go and he'd make sure a table was ready for us. He wound up having our entire meal comped, which was a really nice surprise. 

We stayed to watch the projection show at Hogsmeade, then headed back to the hotel for the evening. We needed to pack our suitcases and get ready to leave

[stephm0188]

Sunday: We had tickets for another day at Universal, but made a last minute choice to change things up. I took the kid to Magic Kingdom for 8am rope drop. Our plan was to hit Space-BigThunder-Splash Mountain in the first hour, but alas, not today. Space Mountain was closed, so we headed across the hub and rope dropped Big Thunder instead. We were on the first train, so after we hopped off, we headed over to Splash. We wound up in the back seat, so we made plans to hurry off to ride again and try to get the front. As we were passing through the gift shop, a cast member asked if we were in a hurry. We were, but I have learned one thing at Disney- if a cast member asks you a question, be available! So I stopped, and she said we were the first people off the ride that morning and printed a free copy of our ride photo. So sweet!

We rode Splash again, then hit up Pirates of the Caribbean. By that time, it was 9:30, so we headed back over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Range Spin. Drats! Not galactic heroes this trip. We trekked over to Gaston's Tavern and waited 30 minutes for a cinnamon roll then hurried on out of MK for the day.

Next stop: Epcot. Security was insane. It took 20 minutes to get through. By the time we stepped into the park, it was just after 11. The wait times were absurd and the kid decided against waiting 40minutes for Figment, so we headed to World Showcase for snacks. He chose Frozen mini cupcakes from Norway, and I had my favorite nudel gratin in Germany. We headed out the World Showcase exit. The boat wasn't at the dock, so we took the walking path to Hollywood Studios. (Walking is faster!)

Security at HS was even more insane than Epcot. We made it through the gates at 12:15 and headed straight for Star Tours. It was a 40 minute wait, so we decided we had enough time and got in line. The kid cheered through all the new scenes from The Last Jedi. We were off the ride at 12:50, which left us just enough time to pick up baked treated for the plane ride and our Christmas passholder magnets from the giftshop. Our Lyft ride picked us up just before 1:30 to take us to the airport.

Surprisingly, MCO was NOT a hot mess and we were through security in under 10 minutes. Shocker!

Final impressions: I'm super impressed with Universal. Our room was beautiful and huge and spotless. It made Beach Club feel meh. The resort was really well done.

I liked how easy it was to get to the parks. We never waited for a boat. They came frequently. I loathe Disney transportation and kept thinking that if it were like Universal's, I might not mind it.

Everything was spotless and clean and looked fresh. The employees were amazing. I really felt like our experience there rivaled or surpassed our experiences at Disney.

Express Pass Unlimited was an amazing perk. The 4D rides were a bit tiring after awhile, but overall, I really enjoyed both parks. They never felt crowded, even though the wait times suggested otherwise. It was tough to go from that to a sea of people at Disney. We're passholders at Disney and LOVE it, but Universal really surprised us (in a good way!)

[minionkevin]

Interesting about Universal. My CW did Universal and Disney ~2 weeks ago, paid for the unlimited pass and didn’t feel it was worth the extra she paid.

[stephm0188]

We didn't pay for the pass, so I might feel differently if we had. We didn't wait in lines at all, so I did find it pretty useful.