Jess_S
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 14, 2015
My mother is looking ahead to next summer and offered to take my family to Universal. My husband and I have been wanting to go since the Harry Potter areas were added, but have never gotten around to it, so we said, "Absolutely." There will be 5 of us -- my parents (late 60s), my husband and I (late 30s/early 40s), and our son (8).
We have previously taken a trip together to WDW and my mom really liked the 2 bed suites at the DVC resorts there. (We rented points). I researched, and it looks like Hard Rock, Portofino and Royal Pacific all have 2 bedroom suites. I would love to hear thoughts about those resorts and the suites in particular. I was leaning towards either Hard Rock or Portofino because it seemed like my son would like the pools at those resorts.
We are thinking of a 1 week trip. Based upon posts here, it sounds like that may be a little too long to do exclusively Universal. With a week's time, would you recommend staying on the Universal property the whole time and taking some trips to see some sights around Orlando? The other option that I thought of was to hit a different area of Florida within driving distance of Orlando for a few days of the trip. For example, we were at the Space Coast last year to catch a cruise and enjoyed the area.
Finally, how do kids who are not big roller coaster fans enjoy Universal. My son hated Test Track, Big Thunder Mountain, Seven Dwarves Mine Train and even the Barnstormer at Disney. He said they were all too scary. He did enjoy water based rides like Splash Mountain even though there were drops and rides where the "scare" was the content (e.g. Dinosaur). Will there be enough for him to do at Universal? Will he spend a lot of time waiting for us if the adults want to try the Potter rides. (I am fine with skipping the thrill coasters).
Thanks everyone!
We have previously taken a trip together to WDW and my mom really liked the 2 bed suites at the DVC resorts there. (We rented points). I researched, and it looks like Hard Rock, Portofino and Royal Pacific all have 2 bedroom suites. I would love to hear thoughts about those resorts and the suites in particular. I was leaning towards either Hard Rock or Portofino because it seemed like my son would like the pools at those resorts.
We are thinking of a 1 week trip. Based upon posts here, it sounds like that may be a little too long to do exclusively Universal. With a week's time, would you recommend staying on the Universal property the whole time and taking some trips to see some sights around Orlando? The other option that I thought of was to hit a different area of Florida within driving distance of Orlando for a few days of the trip. For example, we were at the Space Coast last year to catch a cruise and enjoyed the area.
Finally, how do kids who are not big roller coaster fans enjoy Universal. My son hated Test Track, Big Thunder Mountain, Seven Dwarves Mine Train and even the Barnstormer at Disney. He said they were all too scary. He did enjoy water based rides like Splash Mountain even though there were drops and rides where the "scare" was the content (e.g. Dinosaur). Will there be enough for him to do at Universal? Will he spend a lot of time waiting for us if the adults want to try the Potter rides. (I am fine with skipping the thrill coasters).
Thanks everyone!