Universal Florida Trip Report 3/30-4/3

[was5]

Hi - I wanted to share my experience at Universal FL. This was our first time there. The trip included me, DH, DD (14), DS1 (8) and DS2 (also 8). DS's are just a couple months shy of turning 9 and they are in 3rd grade. DS2 is has Anxiety, ADHD and Autism and we did get the disability assistance pass. I won't go into detail but feel free to ask questions if you have any.



Hotel: Cabana Bay Beach Resort, Tower Family Suite, Continental wing. Booked through Expedia.

Flight: Spirit, Detroit to Orlando MCO. Our flight home was cancelled so we ended up renting a minivan and driving home.

Park Tickets - 3 days plus 2 free, park to park, 3 parks. I had planned on buying 3 day tickets so I figured we might as well get some extra time for free. It allowed us to do a short visit on our day of arrival to get a couple rides out of the way. I waivered on including all 3 parks. DSs wanted to go to Volcano Bay (the water park) so I got the ticket that included that. However, we ended up never going to VB for 2 reasons - 1) 2 of our nights Universal Studios (US) and Islands of Adventure (IOS) closed at 6pm for grad bash so we had trouble fitting in everything we wanted to do, then 2) rain hit around 2pm on Saturday, our last full day there.



Day 1 (Wednesday) - Flight from Detroit to Orlando was perfect. Our flight was at 12:45 pm. Our plan landed 15 minutes early. We got our checked luggage and we were in a Lyft by 4pm and at the hotel by 4:30. Check in at the hotel went smoothly. There were only a few people ahead of us. I think checking in on Wednesday definitely helped. I read many horror stories about hours-long waits. We were not offered online check-in, probably because we booked through Expedia. The front desk staff were very helpful and informative, the lobby was bright and cheerful and we were greeted by early 60's music. DH and kids sat in the lobby while I completed check-in, then we went to our room. We were in a tower family suite. It is closer to the lazy river pool and in theory closer to the food court than the other section (not towers) but we were at the end of the hallway. So, even though the elevators that serviced are section were convenient we had a kind of long walk to get to the elevators from our room.

The room met my expectation from what I saw online. The bedroom area had 2 queen sized beds and a closet area. The bathroom had one room with the tub/shower and a sink with its own door. There was a separate water closet with its own door. Another sink/vanity was open to the room without a door (so someone could be taking a shower, someone could be using the toilet and someone else could be brushing teeth all at the same time). The living area had a sleeper sofa (bigger than a twin so I guess full size but it looked small) and 2 chairs, plus 2 bar stools for the counter in the kitchen. DS's changed into swim suits and we went to the cafeteria (Bayliner Diner) for an early dinner. This is very similar to Disney's Art of Animation restaurant. I liked the AOA food in the restaurant better - they seemed to have more choices, but I liked the layout of the seating area at Cabana Bay better. After eating, DH and DSs went to the pool and I waited in the lobby for our Walmart grocery delivery. After we got the groceries put away we took the shuttle to the park area.

For those of you not familiar with Universal Studios, the shuttles drop off is outside of the security checkpoint. Once you go through security, you walk a little ways before you get to an area called “City Walk” which is mostly restaurants and shops. You don’t need your ticket to get through security or go to City Walk. We walked through City Walk to the Islands of Adventure entrance. It was about 7:30 by the time we got there and it was starting to get dark. DS1 wanted to ride the Hulk roller coaster first. He rode with DH (I was going to ride with DS2 but he got nervous in the end and didn’t want to ride). DS1 and DH both loved it. DS2 was upset about changing his mind at the last minute and felt bad that I wasn’t able to ride it because I had to walk out with him. After some time spent consoling DS2, we split up.

DD and DS1 both wanted to check out the Harry Potter area so I went with them. DH and DS2 checked out the Dr. Seuss Landing which is closer to the front of the park. We got to Hogsmead as the light show was beginning. It was a bit disconcerting because they shut down a lot of the lights so it was hard to see where we were going – but we found our way to Forbidden Journey. I didn’t fit in the test seat so DD and DS1 rode – unfortunately DS has a fear of spiders and the ride freaked him out. But DD loved it so she went alone for a second ride while DS and I checked out the gift shop. This was around 9pm and there was absolutely no wait. When that was over, the 3 of us rode Flight of the Hippogriff. The posted wait time was 40 minutes but it only took about 20. We also watched another viewing of the castle light show which was very cool. We met up with DH and DS2 by the Cat in the Hat ride. H and DS2 rode Cat in the Hat and the One Fish, Two Fish ride. DS2 really liked both of them. It was getting close to 10 – park closing time. I had heard that there was a lot of walking at Universal but the map didn’t look like it would be any worse than WDW. What I found challenging with a child who does not like to walk long distances and complains a lot – is that the walk out of the entrance, then through City Walk, out through security and to the buss pick-up is quite a long distance. Once you are actually inside the gates of either park, the walks aren’t that long - it's the long walks at the start and and of the day that are a pain. We made several stops to rest along the way. The line for the shuttle was of course long but there were a lot of shuttles and the wait didn’t seem as bad as WDW at closing. I would say in the end we waited about 30 minutes for the shuttle at the busiest time of night. 

Day 2 (Thursday) – our family is not made of early risers/rope droppers. By the time everyone was up, dressed and had breakfast in the hotel room (PBJ, yogurt, etc.) it was about 9:30am. The shuttle was fairly full but everyone had a place to sit. When we arrived, the security line looked long but went quickly. We bought 3 refillable mugs at City Walk to use at freestyle machines throughout the park (you have to pay to activate them each day). DH, DD and DS1 went ahead to Harry Potter/Diagon Alley. They got wands and did spells - DD just wanted to explore. DS2 and I used the disability assistance pass to get a return time to the Despicable Me ride. Return time was 45 minutes later (11:30) so we looked in some shops, sat on a bench for a while in the shade, got a souvenir penny, then rode Despicable Me, which he loved. Met up with the others and we rode the Simpsons’ ride. We went to Krustyburger for lunch. It’s actually multiple QS windows in once place – so the options included burgers, pizza, fish and chicken. We used mobile ordering which worked really well. Our food was ready in less than 10 minutes and we didn’t have to wait in line. After lunch we rode the Simpson’s ride again. After the second time riding the Simpson’s H and the kids played games in the carnival area by the Simpsons. We checked into the train station and as soon as we got into line, DS2 was not happy. He said he didn’t want to do it (we could never quite figure out what it was about the train that made him nervous). When we got to the front of the line, DS2 and I left and didn’t ride the train. I didn’t realize it at the time, but DS1’s wand fell out of my bag while we were walking out of the station. DS2 and I walked up to the front of the park. We stopped at the arcade on the way out and wasted about $25 on claw machines. We left the park around 4. H and the other kids were just behind us. They were not impressed with the Hogwarts Express – even DD who is a huge HP fan. We had dinner at the Bayliner Diner at the hotel again. After dinner H and DSs went to the arcade at the hotel – it started raining right after we ate dinner, so no pool time.


Day 3 (Friday) – started at US again. Everyone went on the Despicable Me ride together. We were going to use the disability pass, but ended up just getting in the regular line so we didn’t have to get a return time (mostly due to a meltdown from DS2). The wait was only about 30 minutes even though the sign said 45. The team member gave us 5 Express passes because we didn’t end up using the disability pass. It was very nice of him and something I didn’t expect. After Despicable Me, DS1 got his picture with a Minion in the gift shop. We weren’t sure if there would be character meet and greets, but we were able to do a few. We got slushies in the refillable mug and relaxed in Central Park. DD, DS1 and I rode Jimmy Fallon. We were going to get lunch at the Monster Café, but it was mostly barbeque which the kids weren’t interested in, so we went to Mel’s Diner. Ate lunch (it was fine – not great) then went on the Transformers ride. Bumblebee came out for a meet and greet and DS1 had his picture taken. Went to the Monster Makeup show but DS2 said he was afraid and didn’t want to do it. He and I sat in the lobby for a while, then we went outside to see the parade (Despicable Me, Spongebob, Dora, Secret Life of Pets). Once the others were out of the makeup show, we decided to split up again – H, DD and DS1 took the Express passes we got from the Despicable Me team member to ride Gringotts. DS2 and I looked for Pokemon (on Pokemon Go) and rested at the Monster Café (cool, quiet, had Coke Freestyle Machines to use with refillable cups) then we went to the kids area. We rode Woody Woodpecker coaster twice then DS2 rode a kids’ water ride and his shorts got soaked. I set my phone down to help him and forgot it when we went looking for a bathroom. When I went to look for it (less than 5 minutes later), it was gone. Thankfully someone turned it into Guest Services but it messed up our plan for the last hour in the park. We didn’t have time to do the Men in Black ride because we had dinner reservations at 5:30 at Toothsome. Also US and IOA closed at 6 for Grad Bash so we weren't able to go back after dinner. On our way out, we passed by another Transformers meet and greet with Optimus Prime, so we stopped there for DS1. Dinner at Toothsome was good. We should have saved more room for dessert. DSs got milkshakes (which are big and come with lots of toppings), DD and I shared a sundae and H got his own sundae. They were all huge. By the time we got to the hotel shuttles it was around 8 and the parks had been closed about 2 hours. There was no line for the shuttle and we got to sit down. We tried to get to bed as early as possible (about 10 pm) since Saturday was our last day at the parks and we wanted to get an early a start as possible.

Day 4 (Saturday) – DD really wanted to ride Hagrid’s Motorbike so I told her that she needed to be dressed and ready to go by 7 (early park entrance was at 7am and I knew there was no way that would happen). H, DD and DS1 got breakfast at the hotel and were on a park shuttle around 8. They immediately went to IOA and got in line for Hagrids. They finished the ride just before 10am. DS2 and I got to IOA around 10am and rode the One Fish, Two Fish Ride. Then the others found us and we all rode the Seuss Train Trolley and the Cat in the Hat ride. DD and DS2 stayed in the Seuss area and rode Cat in the Hat a few more times and watched a performance/reading with Seuss characters. H, DS1 and I rode the King Kong ride. I thought it was pretty amazing. Then, we all met up to ride Spiderman – this might have been my favorite ride. It was starting to drizzle off and on and we were still hoping to get in a few hours at Volcano Bay, so we headed out toward City Walk. We ordered a shirt for DS2 from an airbrush stand. The wait for that was 20 minutes. H went to VooDoo donuts to pick up our mobile order and we brought those back to the hotel. We were on the shuttle to the hotel around 2:30. Since VB was open until 7 and it’s right next to Cabana Bay, I was hoping that we could go for a couple hours. Unfortunately it started to rain pretty hard and got really windy, so we just hung out at the hotel. We ordered pizza from the place in the hotel and brought it up to our room. H and I packed and got everything set for our flight that was supposed to be at 7am on Sunday.


Day 5 (Sunday) – H and I woke up at 3 am to get ready to go to the airport and we woke the kids up around 3:30. I had received a text that our flight was delayed an hour (from 7am to 8am) but we decided to keep our scheduled Lyft time the same. I had reserved a ride the night before to show up between 4-4:15 am. We were out of our room a few minutes after 4 and got the text from the Lyft driver that she was there. So far, everything was going well. Unfortunately, our flight was cancelled and the soonest flight they could rebook us on was Thursday. We had actually checked our bags and made it through security before I saw the email about the cancelled flight. Because of that, we were behind a lot of other people trying to rebook and they were out of options for us. They did offer a refund and we took it. We rented a car, but nothing was available until Monday. We found a room at a Holiday Inn Express and Suites in the Lake Nona area about 15 minutes from the airport. The room worked well for us since it has a sleeper sofa and sleeps 5 people easily. It was within walking distance of restaurants so we had lunch and killed time before our room was ready. The kids went swimming – weather was perfect – then we got Door Dash for dinner and watched the Grammy’s. Our rental car reservation was for 10am Monday so we were able to take our time in the morning. We had the free hotel breakfast and got to the airport around 9:45. We were loaded in the car and on the road around 10:30 am. It’s an 18 hour drive straight through, so we stopped on Monday night around midnight to get some sleep. We got home finally on Tuesday afternoon.



Overall thoughts – everyone like Universal. I feel like we didn’t ride as many rides as I expected for the amount of time we were there, but maybe that’s because I didn’t ride most of the Harry Potter things. Also, being there at the same time as Grad Bash with early park closures and losing my phone on top of that really took a chunk out of our time to do things. I think even having a couple more hours to do a few more rides (like Men In Black and ET) would have made the trip feel more complete for me. But, my family is also not the type to rush on vacation and all the kids and H seemed satisfied with what we were able to do. I liked Cabana Bay but as we didn’t get to use the hotel amenities as much as I would have wanted. Due to weather the kids used the pool once. We never used the bowling alley. The food was ok but I’ve heard the snack bar by one of the pools is really good, we just never had a chance to try it. There is a Starbucks on site which was convenient. The rooms fit our needs for a family of 5 really well and the transportation was quite good. If we go again, I’d probably do a couple days at a premier resort that comes with Express Passes, then move to Cabana Bay for a few days where we could spread out and relax a bit more. My kids are convinced that our family is cursed when it comes to FL vacations and something bad always happens (this time it was the flight but we've had completely different issues when we went to WDW), so they want to go to Universal Hollywood and Disney Land for our next big vacation. 

[ssmjlm]

Thanks for the report! We head there in June and I'm trying to figure out breakfast. I think we'll have some easy stuff in the room and then maybe grab a second breakfast later in the morning wherever we are.

[was5]

Apr 18, 2022 12:24:23 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Thanks for the report! We head there in June and I'm trying to figure out breakfast. I think we'll have some easy stuff in the room and then maybe grab a second breakfast later in the morning wherever we are.

If you are a Harry Potter fan, the 2 restaurants each have breakfast. I've heard mixed reviews about the quality, but people really like the ambiance. There is one in US and one in IOA.  They are quick service so you stand in line and take your food to your own table. Some people who book a HP package through a travel agent pre-pay for it, but it's not really a reservation so anyone can go and stand in line. 

Have fun!