First off, we are a Disney loyal family (close to 20 trips). After 16 years of not visiting Universal, I decided to cross back over to the dark side. (Mostly because of more relaxed covid policies at the time I booked, universal express on July 4th weekend, and finally visiting Harry Potter world). I am usually pretty meticulous in planning our Orlando trips, but this time I was out of my element, since Universal had been a very distant memory and so much has changed. My original goal was to just “go with the flow”, but of course, that is not in my nature. So, after catching up on a few threads, there was one common theme: make food reservations. And after our visit, I concur: make food reservations. I made one per day. I figured we would have one good meal and then snacks and/or the typical burger/chicken tender counter service.
My family consists of Mom (me), Dad, and 2 always hungry “boys” (20 & 21 year olds who still like traveling with us, because basically all expenses are paid, duh!). These were our restaurant reservations:
Toothsome - city walk- fun ambience, good food, but $15 shakes-“ouch”
Mythos- islands- pleasantly surprised- we are PICKY eaters, but all loved it. I don’t know about small kids. (Grilled cheese version was yummy)
NBC SportsGrill- city walk- great service and food
Margaritaville- city walk- Giant Nachos were giantly delicious and waiter was awesome
*3 broomsticks was very confusing for me. On the app it says counter service, but when we tried to go for breakfast we encountered the only moody employee of our trip. He stood outside and kind of rudely asked me where my tickets were. What are these tickets you speak of???? Basically, you have to prepurchase tickets at the hotel the day (or days) before you plan on going. So, I ended up buying tickets later in that afternoon for the following morning. Breakfast at 3 broomsticks was kind of blah for me. My kids liked it, but said they would have preferred the dinner feast (a big tray of food was on display and of course they wanted chicken, ribs, corn, etc at 9 am).
My big takeaways from this trip:
velocicoaster is the BEST!!! Hagrids was a close second. Sorry, Disney.
*get there as early as you can
*universal express was essential for my sanity on holiday weekend
*workers are doing the best they can
*universal needs more staff, but I did see a lot of training while we were there
*food options were limited - many food carts were still closed and the ones open were super packed. ( I still owe my son a turkey leg
)
*royal pacific resort was awesome. Their lobby smells delicious and tuk tuk market has Starbucks.
*take ponchos- we got rained on every single day, multiple times a day. My kids are too cool for ponchos, so we looked like crazy drenched people in most of our pictures
*very few masks- if that makes you uncomfortable, beware. We are vaccinated so I was not bothered.
*Harry Potter world was amazing. It felt true to the story and very detailed.
So happy we crossed over to the dark side. Besides the crowds and rain, we had a wonderful time.
My family consists of Mom (me), Dad, and 2 always hungry “boys” (20 & 21 year olds who still like traveling with us, because basically all expenses are paid, duh!). These were our restaurant reservations:
Toothsome - city walk- fun ambience, good food, but $15 shakes-“ouch”
Mythos- islands- pleasantly surprised- we are PICKY eaters, but all loved it. I don’t know about small kids. (Grilled cheese version was yummy)
NBC SportsGrill- city walk- great service and food
Margaritaville- city walk- Giant Nachos were giantly delicious and waiter was awesome
*3 broomsticks was very confusing for me. On the app it says counter service, but when we tried to go for breakfast we encountered the only moody employee of our trip. He stood outside and kind of rudely asked me where my tickets were. What are these tickets you speak of???? Basically, you have to prepurchase tickets at the hotel the day (or days) before you plan on going. So, I ended up buying tickets later in that afternoon for the following morning. Breakfast at 3 broomsticks was kind of blah for me. My kids liked it, but said they would have preferred the dinner feast (a big tray of food was on display and of course they wanted chicken, ribs, corn, etc at 9 am).
My big takeaways from this trip:
velocicoaster is the BEST!!! Hagrids was a close second. Sorry, Disney.
*get there as early as you can
*universal express was essential for my sanity on holiday weekend
*workers are doing the best they can
*universal needs more staff, but I did see a lot of training while we were there
*food options were limited - many food carts were still closed and the ones open were super packed. ( I still owe my son a turkey leg
)*royal pacific resort was awesome. Their lobby smells delicious and tuk tuk market has Starbucks.
*take ponchos- we got rained on every single day, multiple times a day. My kids are too cool for ponchos, so we looked like crazy drenched people in most of our pictures
*very few masks- if that makes you uncomfortable, beware. We are vaccinated so I was not bothered.
*Harry Potter world was amazing. It felt true to the story and very detailed.
So happy we crossed over to the dark side. Besides the crowds and rain, we had a wonderful time.
Good to hear that you enjoyed Royal Pacific, we are staying there in early Dec. Also, have stayed at the Portifino resort (which is excellent too). Yeah the Leaky Cauldron and Mythos are great for food and several other options at the parks are really good. And yes velocicoaster is incredible....along with Incredible Hulk, Hagrid's motorbike rides. The fast pass is the way to go too. Love the Harry Potter areas...so well done 
