Just got back from several days at Universal last Friday evening (May 21), and thought I would do a quick trip report in case it is helpful to folks. I found reading reports immensely helpful before we left, so thank you to all of you who've done them (and much more detailed and better ones than this one!)
We arrived on Monday, May 17. We live out of state, but had been on the east coast of Florida for several days over the weekend seeing family. DH had to go back to work, so DD20 and I dropped him at the airport at about 9:40 or so on Monday. We had booked four nights at PBH, along with a 4 day ticket, through Costco. We arrived at the hotel shortly after 10, and went straight to check in, where there was no wait. Our room wasn't ready, of course (we fully expected this), but we were able to pick up our express passes without issue. We then went to the vacation center, where they immediately printed out our tickets once I gave them the confirmation number. Everything went very smoothly for this part.
After walking around the hotel a bit, we decided to head out to the parks. DD loves to take pictures, so we were moving pretty slowly, which was okay. I figured with Express Pass and up to four days in the parks, we didn't need to rush, which was nice. We waited a bit for the boat -- maybe 20 minutes. This was the longest we waited all week, though, so overall I felt like the transportation worked really well. I let DD pick which park to go to first, so we ended up at IOA. Someone (who might be the 50+ year old mom) loves Spiderman, so we headed that way after wandering through the Port of Entry and virtually all of the shops. We don't do upside down, so Hulk was out, and I am not fond of long drops, so no Dr. Doom. But Spiderman is a must do. From there, we wandered slowly around the park. The Potter area was mobbed, which I expected, so we really just walked through (though DD took a ton of pictures). We eventually made our way around to Doc Sugrue's Kabob place, and by this point we were pretty hungry. There were limited places in the parks that I thought DD would eat; she is a vegetarian, and doesn't love plain cheese pizza or things like that. I thought she might like a vegetable kabob from this place, but she decided just to get a pretzel, and I had a beef kabob, which I thought was pretty good. We then made our way to Seuss Landing (another favorite of mine), and rode Cat in the Hat and the trolley ride. DD got a gigantic rice krispy treat here as well. And took another 400 pictures.
At this point our room wasn't ready, but it was also still reasonably early, so we decided to walk over to the Studios. DD was really enjoying seeing everything and taking pictures. We went to Minions when we entered the park, which was cute. The Potter area was also mobbed here, so we didn't take very long there, figuring we would come back another day. We were going to ride MIB, but it was down, so we headed over and rode the Simpsons, which was one and done for us. By then we had walked all the way around both parks, and I'd gotten a text that our room was ready, so we decided to head back to the hotel and get our stuff from the car, etc. As I texted DH, 12,000 steps, 5 rides, and 48,000 photos.
We were booked into a standard 2 queen room. Ours did not have a tub. I don't know if some do or not; we probably would have preferred one, but I didn't think to ask at check in, and it wasn't a big deal. We were in the Villa area on the third floor, which was the same floor as the lobby. It was a good location for us. We rested for a bit, and then got ready to head back to City Walk, where I had a 7 pm reservation for Cowfish. DD loves vegetarian sushi, so I thought this would be perfect. We were really hungry when we got to City Walk, but were still really early for our reservation, so we looked around the shops a bit and then checked in at around 6:30. They ended up taking us at 6:40, so pretty early. We both really enjoyed the food here -- easily our best on-site meal of the trip. My burger was excellent, and she loved the sushi. We then went to get some Voodoo Doughnuts, which I had had in Portland a few years ago and remembered fondly.
The Voodoo Doughnut system needs some work. The line was enormous (we ended up waiting close to 90 minutes). One person with an iPad going through the line and taking orders would really speed things up, I think. I would have used mobile ordering, but strangely the apple fritters -- which are absolutely my favorite thing -- were not available through mobile order. I don't understand why they don't make all the selections available that way, but in any event we waited. I must say that the fritters were worth it! But we were really exhausted by the time we got done waiting and then made it back to the room. We did get enough doughnuts for several breakfasts so that we wouldn't have to go back. (Ironically to me, though, the lines in the morning were MUCH shorter).
We'd had a great first day, but we were really tired. Fortunately the beds were comfortable! I will do the rest in the next post.
We arrived on Monday, May 17. We live out of state, but had been on the east coast of Florida for several days over the weekend seeing family. DH had to go back to work, so DD20 and I dropped him at the airport at about 9:40 or so on Monday. We had booked four nights at PBH, along with a 4 day ticket, through Costco. We arrived at the hotel shortly after 10, and went straight to check in, where there was no wait. Our room wasn't ready, of course (we fully expected this), but we were able to pick up our express passes without issue. We then went to the vacation center, where they immediately printed out our tickets once I gave them the confirmation number. Everything went very smoothly for this part.
After walking around the hotel a bit, we decided to head out to the parks. DD loves to take pictures, so we were moving pretty slowly, which was okay. I figured with Express Pass and up to four days in the parks, we didn't need to rush, which was nice. We waited a bit for the boat -- maybe 20 minutes. This was the longest we waited all week, though, so overall I felt like the transportation worked really well. I let DD pick which park to go to first, so we ended up at IOA. Someone (who might be the 50+ year old mom) loves Spiderman, so we headed that way after wandering through the Port of Entry and virtually all of the shops. We don't do upside down, so Hulk was out, and I am not fond of long drops, so no Dr. Doom. But Spiderman is a must do. From there, we wandered slowly around the park. The Potter area was mobbed, which I expected, so we really just walked through (though DD took a ton of pictures). We eventually made our way around to Doc Sugrue's Kabob place, and by this point we were pretty hungry. There were limited places in the parks that I thought DD would eat; she is a vegetarian, and doesn't love plain cheese pizza or things like that. I thought she might like a vegetable kabob from this place, but she decided just to get a pretzel, and I had a beef kabob, which I thought was pretty good. We then made our way to Seuss Landing (another favorite of mine), and rode Cat in the Hat and the trolley ride. DD got a gigantic rice krispy treat here as well. And took another 400 pictures.
At this point our room wasn't ready, but it was also still reasonably early, so we decided to walk over to the Studios. DD was really enjoying seeing everything and taking pictures. We went to Minions when we entered the park, which was cute. The Potter area was also mobbed here, so we didn't take very long there, figuring we would come back another day. We were going to ride MIB, but it was down, so we headed over and rode the Simpsons, which was one and done for us. By then we had walked all the way around both parks, and I'd gotten a text that our room was ready, so we decided to head back to the hotel and get our stuff from the car, etc. As I texted DH, 12,000 steps, 5 rides, and 48,000 photos.
We were booked into a standard 2 queen room. Ours did not have a tub. I don't know if some do or not; we probably would have preferred one, but I didn't think to ask at check in, and it wasn't a big deal. We were in the Villa area on the third floor, which was the same floor as the lobby. It was a good location for us. We rested for a bit, and then got ready to head back to City Walk, where I had a 7 pm reservation for Cowfish. DD loves vegetarian sushi, so I thought this would be perfect. We were really hungry when we got to City Walk, but were still really early for our reservation, so we looked around the shops a bit and then checked in at around 6:30. They ended up taking us at 6:40, so pretty early. We both really enjoyed the food here -- easily our best on-site meal of the trip. My burger was excellent, and she loved the sushi. We then went to get some Voodoo Doughnuts, which I had had in Portland a few years ago and remembered fondly.
The Voodoo Doughnut system needs some work. The line was enormous (we ended up waiting close to 90 minutes). One person with an iPad going through the line and taking orders would really speed things up, I think. I would have used mobile ordering, but strangely the apple fritters -- which are absolutely my favorite thing -- were not available through mobile order. I don't understand why they don't make all the selections available that way, but in any event we waited. I must say that the fritters were worth it! But we were really exhausted by the time we got done waiting and then made it back to the room. We did get enough doughnuts for several breakfasts so that we wouldn't have to go back. (Ironically to me, though, the lines in the morning were MUCH shorter).
We'd had a great first day, but we were really tired. Fortunately the beds were comfortable! I will do the rest in the next post.
