As a long-time Disney fan that got converted to Universal by HP, I think a lot of the bases have been covered here. Universal can definitely be a little less upfront planning, but a few additional notes...
- As others mentioned, lanyards and lockers are a THING at Universal. Lots of rides require storing your stuff in lockers, a lanyard to keep your ticket front and center is really helpful. Fanny pack/belt bag/bum bag or whatever you call it can minimize the rides you have to use the lockers for, but not eliminate them (see earlier poster on the metal detector rides). Mini backpacks or loungeflys are still totally workable in the free locker, much bigger than that and you have to squish or pay for a locker.
- If you're coming from off-site or take the buses, yes you will walk through City Walk to get to the parks. If you're coming from PBH or Royal Pacific as someone else suggested, the water taxis drop off on the park side of City Walk. It's also not a bad walk from those hotels. Think Poly to MK or the Crescent Lake hotels to HS or Epcot.
- Consider getting at least one person in your party an annual pass.. stick with me.
Without specifically knowing your dates, a 2 day park hopper in January is going to run you about $270-$280. The price difference to the seasonal pass ($425) is about $155. However, any of the annual passes get you access to annual passholder discounts on hotels. APH discounts get released anywhere from 3-6 months out from your dates, they just came out for my upcoming November trip this weekend. The passholder discount on my November dates for PBH is $230/night. So after the first night, the pass has paid for itself. Unlike Disney, you can check the APH rates & book without being a passholder yet, you just have to activate your pass before checking out:
APH Hotel Rates
- Early Entry: Changes monthly... sometimes it's Islands, sometimes Studios. You'll need to check back closer to your dates to know which one will be offered.
- Restaurants/Club level: Since you mentioned not being used to eating all the meals in park, you can definitely leverage the resorts and CityWalk to expand your dining options. There's some resort specific threads in this forum that will likely have more details on the club level offerings. Another plug for the passholder option, with the discount a club level room during my dates is still saving $175/night off the standard room rack rate.