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[quote=Anonymous]Hi!  I always get great advice on this board so I am trying to pay it forward if anyone else has an interest in visiting Universal.  This year Passover started on the Wed evening during FCPS spring break, so I was looking for something not too far but warm that we could do for half the week and return home in time for Passover with family.  I had never been to Universal and had heard you didn't need the full week there - so decided this would be a good half week trip for us.  2 adults - 3 kids ages 13, 11, and 8.  We flew SWA out of DCA - Sat. to Wed.  I still like SWA and I will still fly SWA but FYI - I paid for early bird check in and our boarding number was still deep in the B's on the Saturday flight to MCO (somehow I must have gotten put in the last early bird spot), and there was about a bazillion families doing family boarding.  We ended up getting seats together in the last two rows available on the flight, and my older two were able to sit with their neighborhood friend whose family we ran into at the gate.  One baby or another cried the entire flight but it was all good - I didn't really mind - just know that's what you're getting into on a spring break flight to MCO :)

I knew we were going at a really crowded time, so I wanted to stay at a hotel with the express passes.  I have a friend IRL who is a Disney travel agent & can also book Universal - you don't have to use a travel agent but I was just as glad that I did.  She priced out the various options for me - and I ended up picking Hard Rock as not too much more expensive than the other 2 options and it was the closest walking distance to the parks which I decided I wanted.  Our room had two queens and a rollaway bed.  I originally bought 3 day park hopper tickets with Volcano Bay add on.  I was planning to have 3 full park days - Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  BUT there ended up being a deal of buy 3 days, get 2 free, so we were given tickets to use on our arrival and departure days as well.

TLDR: Here are few tips I think that were good:
*I think it is worth it to ride Hogwarts Express in both directions.  The ride and station is slightly different each way.
*They don't tell you how long the express line waits are, but my friend told me, that if the Express line for Gringott's is all the way back to the bank lobby - that is too long (in her opinion) to wait - so just go back at another time when it's shorter.  My boys tried to ride Gringott's one day and saw the express line was all the back in lobby so left and then we all went back in & rode it at night, and the line was much shorter (not in the lobby, when we walked in).
*One thing to know is that unlike Disney, at the big roller coaster lines you need to check your bags in lockers.  The small lockers are free but you absolutely cannot shove a regular sized backpack in there.  I ended up carrying a draw string bag with our stuff in it.  
*you can wear your tickets on a lanyard and put the lanyard under your shirt on the rides.  The lanyards there cost $15 - so I brought our own lanyards from home.  I bought the plastic card holders for them for $5 on amazon before we left
*I ended up buying these silicone cups on Amazon and we've already used them again at home once.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TRCRX67?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1.  That way I could carry one large water bottle and pour everyone cups as we walked around. 
*I do get motion sick and I was worried about the amount of virtual reality rides at Universal.  The first day there I took dramamine but I felt like I was still motion sick and then also drowsy, so I didn't take it any more.  There were plenty of non-virtual reality rides to ride, and I did shut my eyes in some parts of the others and did mostly fine.
*we did park hop every day so I was glad we had the park hopper tickets  
*i personally think the best time to see the Harry Potter areas with lower crowds is the early entry hour.  It gets really crowded after that.

Here is the full blow by blow LOL for those who want it:
So, we arrived on Sat., checked in to Hard Rock and went to the pool for about an hour before our dinner reservations at Toothsome that I made in advance.  Even though we had reservations, it was still a long wait.  The regular food was ok - and we thought the milkshakes were great.  I would go there again - but not sure if I would sit down for a meal or just stand in the milkshake takeout line.  Then, since we had the free ticket - we decided to go into the park after dinner.  We walked into IoA since it was close to Toothsome, and walked back to the Harry Potter area and got on Hogwarts Express to Universal.  I had heard Ollivander's was better on the Universal side (no idea if that's true - we didn't go there on the IoA side).  I wanted to try to go to Ollivander's at night to get a wand to start the morning.  There was no line at all for the wand show which was cute and I was glad we did - and then my husband couldn't believe the $60 wand price LOL.  My 8 year wanted a wand so we just got one that mostly she used - but we all took a few turns with it - and my older two boys said they didn't want their own wands (and they were really fine not having one).  We did a little wand magic, and liked seeing the Gringott dragon blow fire at night, then my husband and 8 y/o went back to the room, while the boys and I did rip roaring rocket which they had seen and wanted to do on the way out.  Of course with all that - we ended up late in the parks until close at 10pm.

Then, the next morning the kids said they wanted to wake up with me to do Hagrid's - and my husband said it's not a vacation if he has to wake up early so he slept in.  Everyone has to go through security to enter the parks - and when you walk from Hard Rock there is a security gate on the walking path that opens one hour before the early admission hour.  The regular park hours while we were there were 9am-10pm, with early hour at 8am.  So, my friend told me to be at the Hard Rock path security gate when it opens at 7am, and then from there we were second in line at the IoA gates.  The park gates really opened every day at 7:45am.  Anyway - we speed walked straight to Hagrids and we just zipped through the line - the only thing holding us up was how quickly we could walk and we walked right on to the ride.  My 8 year old didn't know what she was getting into - and she was sorry she went on the ride LOL but the rest of us liked it.  Then my friend had also told us that it's cool to walk through the castle for the forbidden journey ride during the early morning hour because you get to see the whole castle through the line.  If you do it on express pass later in the day - the express pass line skips some of the castle.  Anyway - my 8 y/o went through the whole castle with us and decided she wanted to sit at child swap and not ride - which was fine.  I get motion sick - and I had taken dramamine but I still felt sick on this ride.   Again we just walked on - no wait at all.  Then we decided to do 3 broomsticks for breakfast which included butterbeer (we got frozen and liked it a lot).  I heard the breakfast was the cheapest way to do butter beer (I don't know whether that is true - not sure the pricing otherwise).

While we were there - it was 90s all week.  So what we did every day was go to the parks in the AM, then when it gets hot and crowded - we would go back to the hotel pool in the afternoon, and then after dinner go back to the parks when it was cooler and less crowded.  Sunday evening we had dinner at Mythos inside IoA which was ok - none of the food at universal is great IMO - I would say except the toothsome milkshakes and the butterbeer.  Just don't have high expectations.

The next morning the kids all wanted to sleep in since I tired them out the day before with staying out late and getting up early.  I still woke up and did the 8-9am early morning hour all alone LOL!  I did the Universal side which was less crowded in the morning hour than IoA - and went straight back to Harry Potter.  I did the Gringott's bank ride and then my friend had told me not to miss Knockturn Alley (dark magic) so I went back there and I was literally the only one in there so I did the few wand magic spots by myself LOL just so I could see what they did.  Then I just walked around Diagon Alley looking at things. In the mornings I saw there were always lines for the Ollivander's wand show - so I was just as glad that we had free tix to be able to knock that out the evening before our first full day.  Then I got breakfast with butterbeer at Leaky Cauldron and left by 9am and my family was still asleep when I got back!  I would say 3 broomsticks v leaky cauldron is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other, though I suppose  I am glad I tried both.  I liked eating there at the very end of the early morning entry hour because it was not crowded at all then.  Anyway - then everyone woke up and we went back in to the parks a bit before coming back for afternoon pool again.  That night we had dinner at Cowfish which was fine / interesting - then went back into the parks again.

Then the last day my 13 year old woke up with me and we rode Hagrid's again.  That time, we only arrived at the IoA gates at 7:30am and there were people ahead of us in line at the gates.  We still fast walked back to Hagrids and we did mostly move the whole time but we didn't walk right on again.  The gates opened at 7:45am again - and I know that we entered the line for Velocicoaster (after having ridden Hagrids) at 8:43am.  Then we went back to the room, everyone else was getting ready - and we went to Volcano Bay - arriving at about 10am.  Volcano Bay also had an early entry hour from 9-10am, which we didn't do.  We had no trouble getting in at 10am and I knew it was crowded - but I didn't know until we got home that it had reached capacity at Volcano Bay that day and the rest of the week.  Anyway- we ended up liking Volcano Bay but we didn't have the best (or any) strategy.  Next time I would research it a little more.  My boys did a big ride with low line when we first walked in - and then my oldest ran into a summer camp friend and they did some rides together.  Anyway the big slides ended up with some long lines and we could have had some kind of better strategy if I had researched it all.  They probably should have gotten on a virtual line, ridden some more bigger slides with low lines when we first got in and then got on the virtual line for some others then do other stuff like wave pool and lazy river while waiting or some of the gentler raft rides that had shorter lines.  You do get a bracelet for a virtual line which is pretty good but you can only be on ONE line at a time.  You can't be on one virtual with a long line and then get on any others with virtual lines while waiting for your turn in the longer one.  Anyway - since we had never been before - we had more than enough to do with no lines.  There was a lazy river and an active / fearless river - with a fast current and waves - and everyone had to wear a life jacket in that one.  My kids ended up really loving the active river and we spent a lot of time in there.  We were at Volcano Bay 10-5, then went back to parks for our last night. We did have a good day / liked it there.

Other notes: I watched the Harry Potter castle light show - it was fine - it repeats every 15 mins at night.  We watched the Mardi Gras parade one night.  One tip I have about that is to get there for the parade a bit early, get ice cream at Schwab's pharmacy, then sit on the curb to save your spot for the parade, and eat your ice cream while waiting for the parade to start.  They even have dole whip there (but it was out when we were there).

My boys ate 2x at Krusty Burger in the Simpson's area - I didn't eat there at all LOL.

Overall we had a great trip and I didn't run everyone ragged as I do in Disney.  My husband and the boys said they liked Universal more than Disney (due to the bigger roller coasters).  I think for my husband, older two boys, and me - our fave ride was Velocicoaster.  My two boys rode that ride about 10x.  It now takes express pass which was great.  The only ride that didn't take express pass was Hagrids.  My daughter didn't love the big rides but there was still enough for her to do on smaller rides (ET / bilge rat barge/ and all of Dr. Seussland were some of her favorites and she liked doing wand magic).  And to her dismay, she rode Hagrids, Gringotts, and Simpsons :)  I do like Disney (and also Universal) but I felt like Universal involved less advanced planning which I liked.  I really liked the walking distance from Hard Rock to the parks - I would be hard pressed to stay anywhere else even though the others seem nice too.

For comparison, this is me at 6:59am at Disney LOL (not safe for work or kids):
https://www.tiktok.com/@bey_our_guest/video/7209368786242211114

Anyway - re: the length of time of our trip - people acted like 3 days was going to be too many days at Universal - it wasn't for us.  It was a good amount of time for us and I could have even used another day.  Due to the high temps we spent a lot of time at the hotel pool and Volcano bay and were totally happy with that - but I didn't feel like it was too much time to be there at all.  It could be different if it was 60 degrees and we spent all day in the parks, I think.  I messed up on timing Voodoo doughnuts on our last morning on the way out to the airport and didn't get there - so I will have to go back some time :)

And I don't know if my husband liked universal so much as he liked being on a kid-centric vacation with kids ages 8, 11, and 13 now where we could sit in chairs while they swam in the pool and we could even let the older two go off on rides in the parks alone.  On the Wed. flight home our early bird check in number was back to normal in the As.

I am happy to answer any questions if I can!

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