An (Essentially) First Time Trip: October 29-30, 2017

chescat

We're all mad here...
Joined
Nov 3, 2017
About Us
  • Two adults: I had been to Universal as a kid in the 90s, while my husband had never been.
  • We stayed offsite and had our own car for transport (drove down from Illinois).
  • Tickets: Two day, park-to-park (USF and IOA)
  • Other plans: One week at Disney prior to visiting Universal (also a first visit)
  • Reason for trip: My husband became a Harry Potter fan over the past year after hearing a friend and I talk about it. I'd read the books as they came out, but had only seen bits of movies 1-4 (nothing at all of 5-8). We watched the movies together and (re-)read the books, so decided to take a trip to visit Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in person.
Day One: USF and IOA (Sunday, October 29th)
  • Time in Park: 8am-1:30pm
  • Rides/Shows: Ollivanders wand show, Hogwarts Express (both ways), Forbidden Journey, Tales of Beedle the Bard, Seuss train
  • Food: Leaky Cauldron (hot butterbeer), Three Broomsticks (lunch)
What we liked:
  • Wizarding World: We both really enjoyed the immersive experience of the Wizarding World. We didn't purchase wands, but it was so much fun to just watch others doing the spells. We spent most of our time on the first day browsing the shops and taking it all in. We started in Diagon Alley, and the dragon breathed fire just as we were walking in, which was a great introduction to the world!

  • Hot butterbeer: The temperatures dropped our first day at Universal, so a delicious, hot butterbeer was the perfect way to get out of the chilly air and warm up a bit. It was also quieter in the Leaky Cauldron earlier in the day, which made for a more pleasant break.

  • Forbidden Journey: Despite my fears about motion sickness, I handled this ride totally fine. If I started to feel queasy on the screen parts, I just closed my eyes for a second or two, which was enough to recover. It also surprised me how much I enjoyed being “tossed around” on this ride, but it was so much fun.
What we didn't fall in love with:
  • Theming in general: Outside the Wizarding World, we didn't really care for the theming in the rest of the parks. It's not necessarily that the theming was bad, but that we perhaps just didn't emotionally connect with anything. We have no particular feelings about the cities themed in USF, and aren't fans of any of the series/franchises featured in IOA. We wanted to like it, but it just didn't do anything for us.

  • Needing park-to-park tickets for Hogwarts Express: I wish there was a way to try this ride without park hopping. We would have preferred to save a little money by purchasing base tickets and just experiencing one park per day. Now that we've experienced Hogwarts Express, that's likely what we would do on a future trip.
Day Two: USF (Monday, October 30th)
  • Time in Park: 11:30am-5pm
  • Rides/Shows: Horror Make-up Show, MIB, E.T., Transformers, Escape from Gringotts, Celestina Warbeck
  • Food: Richter Burger (lunch), Auntie Anne's (snack)
What we liked:
  • Horror Make-up Show: A big thank you to these boards for recommending this one. We didn't know going in that it was a comedy, and it had us in absolute stitches the whole way through. We loved the show, as well as the horror film museum-like area in the lobby.

  • Rides: I liked all the rides we went on this day. My husband was harder to please (didn't really care for E.T. or MIB), but I won him over with Transformers. We also both enjoyed Escape from Gringotts, and generally found the use of 4-D effects really cool (this trip was our first time experiencing rides like that). There were moments of queasiness on Transformers for me, but I briefly closed my eyes and it went away.

  • Hard close for HHN: I really appreciated that Universal does a hard close for this ticketed evening event, even though we weren't attending. That seemed fair to all guests and ensured everyone got the full value of what they paid for (and only what they paid for).
What we didn't fall in love with:
  • Richter Burger: This was probably the worst meal of our entire trip. We paid $30 for terrible burgers, which was such a disappointment for our final park meal. To be fair, though, eating here was our own fault. I had planned to eat lunch before going to the park, but my husband insisted he wanted to eat at the Leaky Cauldron. I told him there'd be lines that time of day and, sure enough, once we got there he didn't want to wait. So, we ended up at Richter Burger instead. Lesson learned.

  • Food prices: I found food prices especially high at Universal, even for a theme park. Not only were our burgers extremely overpriced, but so was the butterbeer and Three Broomsticks lunch (my cornish pasties were teeny tiny and most of the plate was lettuce). On a return trip, I think we'd stick to meals off-site, or maybe try our luck with CityWalk.
Summary
  • I didn't do quite as much research for the Universal portion of our trip, which I ended up regretting. I'd wanted to avoid ride spoilers, but that left me unsure of what I could “handle” (worries about motion sickness and drops/dark rides). After going on a number of rides, I realized I could handle a lot more than I thought, especially since I hadn't been to a park since I was a child. I had so much anxiety about the drop on Gringotts, for instance, and I ended up loving that ride. It was a big confidence booster for me, and, if we do another trip some day, I'd love to try more rides (though I think we'll still hold off on the coasters for now!)

  • Overall, we left Universal with mixed feelings. We enjoyed aspects of it, but aren't sure the value is there for the money. There was definitely more than one occasion where I felt nickel-and-dimed. My husband, despite loving the Wizarding World, has said he wouldn't be interested in going back, but I'm left wondering if we might have a more successful second trip if we improve upon our experiences from the first. I guess time will tell!
Happy to answer questions about our trip if there are any, so please feel free to ask away!
 
Thanks for the review.......glad you enjoyed most of it.

Richter Burger is one of the worst places to eat in the parks......shame you ended up there........hope you give Universal another try and enjoy it more.
 

  • Overall, we left Universal with mixed feelings. We enjoyed aspects of it, but aren't sure the value is there for the money. There was definitely more than one occasion where I felt nickel-and-dimed. My husband, despite loving the Wizarding World, has said he wouldn't be interested in going back, but I'm left wondering if we might have a more successful second trip if we improve upon our experiences from the first. I guess time will tell!
Happy to answer questions about our trip if there are any, so please feel free to ask away!

I think you and your SO would've enjoyed your trip more if you really budgeted for the food. There are several meal pass options where you can use them for specific restaurants in the parks and it would've given you more flexibility. (Plus refillable cups help.)

But yeah, the gift shop markups are HIGH.
 
I think you and your SO would've enjoyed your trip more if you really budgeted for the food. There are several meal pass options where you can use them for specific restaurants in the parks and it would've given you more flexibility. (Plus refillable cups help.)

But yeah, the gift shop markups are HIGH.

We actually budgeted more for food for the trip than we ended up spending, so we did definitely go in expecting higher than usual prices. I'm even OK paying markups for theming/convenience if the food I'm getting in exchange is decent. Unfortunately, though, our meals just weren't. Refillable mugs also wouldn't have done us any good as we just got free cups of water from all the restaurants (we're not soda drinkers), so no money lost there. I think my biggest sticker shock came from another guest in front of us in line for Gringotts, who paid $4.50 for a gillywater, which he said was just plain water. Yikes!
 


Ah, okay. So just screen the restaurant reviews for next time. I've heard GREAT things about Mythos.

I mostly carried around a water bottle around the park too. The only restaurants I ate on-site were Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville (one participating restaurant in the Dinner and a Movie package) and Burger King. I bought some food at Publix before going to my hotel, so I would have a frozen lunch or dinner to keep my budget intact.

As for the rides, if you and your SO didn't try the Spider-Man 3D ride while you were there recently -- I HIGHLY recommend it next time since you enjoyed the Transformers one. Similar concept and feel.
 

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