Universal Orlando Trip Report 9/16-9/19

[BroadwayHermione5]

INTRODUCTION

*PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN UPDATED AND REVISED REPOST! My apologies to the mods. Thank you again for all your hard work!*

Hi all!

Finally getting around to typing out my trip reports for my parents and I split stay at UOR and WDW! For reference, 2019 was supposed to be our last Orlando trip until 2023, but the pandemic had other plans. What was supposed to be a 2020 London trip got pushed back until 2022, and we naively booked a Disney land and sea for August 2020. When that didn’t happen, it was pushed to August 2021. While all of us are fully vaccinated, we decided against cruising and decided on a split stay at UOR and WDW for September 2021! Yes will still be back with the whole family for a hopeful land and sea in spring 2023!

I’m BroadwayHermione5. I tend to be very vague about what I do in order to keep myself as private as possible on here, but I am one of those childless millennials that was complained about in that one Facebook post a few years back. When not planning vacations, I am an ever creative and multi faceted human who wears many hats. First trip to Disney World was in 1996 right after their 25th birthday! Hard to believe most of my life has taken place between the two big birthdays! My parents have been visiting since their honeymoon in 1983! We have also been visiting Busch Gardens Williamsburg since 1999 and have been visiting Universal Orlando since 2012! We are definitely major east coast theme park fans haha.
I would also like to say two things about both resorts. The first is both had big celebrations that were ongoing or upcoming and I truly think if the last 18 months hadn’t happened they would’ve been different and I do not fault them for that. Also almost every single TM and CM were incredible and helpful and did their best to keep every safe while having fun.
Anyhoo, let’s get on with the trip report.
Now as an FYI, I will be breaking down this trip report into the proper two sections of the boards (hopefully-I am one of those millennials that still has issues when using technology). So for the Universal one, I will try to link to the Disney portion once I end, and for the Disney one I shall try to link the Universal portion prior in accordance with the rules of the boards.

Now let’s begin shall we?

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

QUICK RECAP OF WHY WE WILL NOT STAY AT RPR AGAIN
A recap for those who did not see the thread, there was general uncleanliness of the hallways, a mild issue at Jake’s, a LOT of miscommunication and wrong info (which I do not blame the TMs for as most seemed to be new), and a horrible, extraordinary charge that we should not have received and are currently in the process of fighting it with the credit card company, we have decided that we would rather pay the money to add express to our tickets and stay elsewhere. While I may eventually go back to stay at Hard Rock or Portofino, my parents are incredibly done. And as for me, I definitely will not stay on property again for a while. We love the parks, we love City Walk and we fell in love with Volcano Bay on this trip. As someone mentioned to me, it seems like a perfect storm of events and miscommunication caused a lot of issues. Again we are working on it, and once it is finished I will give an update. Thanks.

 

[macraven]

It is all personal preference on which hotel to book

I am not one to trash talk a hotel because I had incidents with staff or physical conditions not up to my standards
I move on and put it behind me

For every 10 families that adore one hotel, there will be one that blasts it.
If I am done with a hotel due to reasons, I discuss it privately away from the open boards
What one person loves is not always the same for the readers here

With many choices of which hotel suits you best, you have have options.

Food is what draws me to specific hotels

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

It is all personal preference on which hotel to book

I am not one to trash talk a hotel because I had incidents with staff or physical conditions not up to my standards
I move on and put it behind me

For every 10 families that adore one hotel, there will be one that blasts it.
If I am done with a hotel due to reasons, I discuss it privately away from the open boards
What one person loves is not always the same for the readers here

With many choices of which hotel suits you best, you have have options.

Food is what draws me to specific hotels

Oh absolutely! We actually had this conversation with my neighbors recently about a restaurant in Disney! It’s all preference!
and who doesn’t love good food!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

DAY 1 (9/16/21)

The day has come! We are up bright and early to head to the airport for a 7 am flight! We did have to turn around as one of my parents forgot their phone, but luckily we fly out of a local airport and not a giant one so it was very easy to turn around and head back home without consequence.
We always try to get an early flight out, and due to amazing tail winds, what should’ve taken 2 hours and 20 minutes took us 1 hour and 57 minutes. JetBlue as always was amazing, and we had a couple of dogs on our flight which was awesome.
We arrived at MCO just before 9 am. And we headed to the tram. We only checked one bag and put everything else in carryons so it was very easy. We then start the very long walk to the superstar shuttle! Thankfully, Universal knows this is long and emailed AND texted us a map of the airport and where to go prior to arrival. Note it is next to the Hertz rental car counter, which can be a very, very, very long walk. We check in, are assigned our number, and lo and behold the bus is there! We get in with I would say about 7-8 other families so maybe 2 dozen people total are on our bus. The driver tells us the route, and we discover we are second! (For reference it went: Cabana Bay, Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, Portofino). The ride was smooth and not long.

We get to the Royal Pacific and check in and have our room available (and this is where the uncleanliness starts. I am going to try and remain neutral on this but I also want to remain honest so this is where it started.) We check the room, drop our belongings, freshen up and head out to pick up my moms scooter from scooter bug. We then head to the boats and begin our journey. The boat ride takes 4 and a half minutes according to a time stamp on a video I took. Pretty efficient!
Now thanks to my parents not eating anything before we left, I had two very hangry humans. However I had to stop by guest services to get our photo package pick up. Well, the hangry humans won, and after waiting and talking to a TM for a half hour, I was forced to wait until the next day, and we journeyed on. We headed towards Simpsons Fast Food Boulevard, and while the food was good as always (actually my chicken and waffle sandwich was better than it was in 2019-perfectly crisp chicken and waffles, fresh lettuce and tomato. great now I’m hungry haha), my parents not eating prior to a close to 1 pm lunch caused them to not feel the greatest after eating. Heat and not eating is not good my friends. Also shout out to the team members there: it was chaotic and it was all hands on deck, with some very rude customers around us.
This was also when everyone realized we shouldn’t have gone straight to the parks (we never go straight to the parks, but figured since we had express we might as well go and use it). We rode some rides and had fun, but decided to head back to the hotel and to find out some more info before heading to the pool.
I head down to the vacation planning desk to try and see if they could work on the photo package there. No luck, but the TM did tell me where to go the next day in the parks, printed out our cabana confirmation for Volcano Bay, and also informed me of the reservation system for Leaky Cauldron now. I paid ahead for breakfast, grabbed all the confirmations, and headed upstairs. In the meantime my moms scooter had died (like not even charging died. So something was up with the mechanical system) and scooter bug was sending another one, so my mom ended up meeting me down at the lobby. We head back up, and we all head down to the pool. Which is so much fun-definitely the best part of this hotel (besides the express pass)! However, after merely walking around the perimeter and barely getting wet, we hear a whistle and are notified of lightning in the area, meaning the pool had to be cleared but Bula Bula remained open. I had some type of colada, my mom had a rum drink and my dad had a sangria and they were all excellent. After accepting defeat even though we were in the pool for five minutes, the rain was starting to fall, and we should head back up, shower, and relax before venturing out to find food.
(Also if anyone knows how to rotate the pictures through mobile I would greatly appreciate the help. If not I shall do so from my computer. Anyways there is my colada drink. ‘Twas excellent).

We decided to stay at the hotel because we were exhausted, and headed down to Jake’s. We decided to just split a bunch of stuff, and my dad also got the crawfish soup. Again, I’m trying to be honest so I’ll start with the pros. They had one of the best cooked burgers we have ever eaten. The charcuterie and ceaser salad were also good, and when we order wings we ask for them well done as we have been burned one too many times before. They came out perfect, and we loved that the sauce was on the side! The pretzels were ok, but the cheese sauce that came with them were excellent. The cons: the cheese pizza. It was undercooked, and the one area that was mostly cooked was lukewarm. They did take it off the check for us, which we didn’t ask for, but they insisted. Our service was also so so. We don’t blame the waiter however, as it turns out he was one of the few staff not in training. So the poor guy was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. All in all, I’d still recommend Jakes, but wait until they are back up and running. We went to explore a little of the resort, and because it was pouring, we headed back and went to bed.
I just realized I have no picture of the food at Jake’s-my apologies as I thought I did. Anyhoo this concludes Day 1 of the trip! I did get a picture of one of the model planes at the hostess stand area so I will leave you with that

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

DAY 2(9/17):
Sorry for the delay-had a busy weekend! Anyway back to the trip report-I might even post the rest of it throughout the day!
After a good nights sleep, we woke up and assessed what happened the day prior. As I mention in my post about never staying here again, we genuinely thought it was us. That we didn’t fit the vibe and that we should’ve gone to Hard Rock or Portofino. Anyway, we get ready and head on out to the boats for early entry. We head straight to my photo package (which we did enjoy having by the way-not a bad deal and we had some fun TMs who took our photos).
We head straight for Gringotts.

Now we are not ashamed to say we are three plus sized humans. My dad is also physically big (as in 6’1” played every sport in high school big) and my mom is also rather tall (5’8”). Me: I’m 5’4”. The recessive genes clearly won on that end with me. So we are bracing ourselves for two things: 1) that one of us might not get on and 2) since I am the smaller human, my feet will dangle (I have a prior ankle injury and just get very protective of it). Well, my mom could not unfortunately ride, so she waited for us. I know safety wise it needs to happen, and we have all been losing weight. It’s just very frustrating and embarrassing in the moment. It’s always good to remind people of this, especially since safety is a huge priority. Hopefully on our next trip she will have lost enough weight to ride!
We head to Leaky Cauldron and submit our vouchers and pay for the extra drinks and it was business as usual after that point. We always love the food there, and breakfast was excellent. I had the pancake breakfast, my dad and the traditional English a bd my mom had the traditional American. It was nice and hot, the fruit was all fresh, and they weren’t rushing you out! We thought they would with the specific time for vouchers but it’s their way of just maintaining safe distances.

This was my breakfast btw.

I also for the first time saw this sign on the way out and I’m kind of obsessed haha.

After doing some spells with my wand that I bought with me, we headed out towards Mummy and into the HHN tribute store! Such an excellent store-we made a lot of purchases. We also stopped in the Irish store on our way there, and got some nice stuff as well. We went on a few more rides, met Donkey and Fiona, and decided we were hungry but not too hungry. We got some popcorn and water by Central Park and went to sit there for about 20 minutes.

While there, we witnessed a beautiful character interaction. SIDE STORY: in 2017, while I was on line waiting to meet Peter Pan in Fantasyland, I was two people away from meeting him when the CM came up to us and explained a Make a Wish family was here. We said no problem, and I proceeded to witness two of the greatest character interactions ever. The first was Peter telling the kids of the family in front of me that he would be right back after he met with his special new friend and to be on the lookout for Pirates. The Peter then interacted with the Make and Wish family, and as he went into give one final hug, he whispered something in the young girls ear, and she instantly burst into happy tears and profusely thanked him. Needless to say, the entire line was in tears and I will never forget that beautiful interaction. BACK TO CURRENT STORY: Well on this day, I could add Doc Brown alongside Peter Pan as giving a beautiful moment. He was up by his train, and a young man with disabilities came up to say hi and take a picture from a distance. The Doc noticed he was wearing all back to the future merchandise and was clutching his book. Doc Brown asked all about it, and the young mans family explained that Doc was his favorite character. We actually heard Doc Brown say “I am not supposed to do this, but stay right there”. He came down from the train, put on a mask, and signed the young mans book and took multiple pictures from a safe but closer distance with him. It was another beautiful character moment we all witnessed, and the look of joy on that young mans face will forever be worth it.

We headed back on to some rides (which included what would be our last ride on Shrek 4D!) and realized it was around 12:30. I told my parents I wanted to head into Ollivanders to purchase Fred and George’s wands (they make a broom when put together incase you don’t know-it’s pretty cool actually), and then we’d get some Florean Fortescues before taking the train over to Islands. Well, I got to Ollivanders and the line was short so I asked if this was the line in there. Turns out it was the line for the wand choosing experience! I didn’t even have my camera out because there was no way I was going to be chosen. And it turns out, I was the only one chosen. I felt horrible, but upon exiting I realized it was a lot of younger kids and their grandparents who might not understand, and that the TM most likely wanted to make it worth everyone’s while. While feeling embarrassed, shocked, elated and every emotion at once, I continued into the store, purchased all three wands and headed out. We headed to Florean (got to get my Granny Smith ice cream!), headed out and into the train.

It was during this time my mom realized she missed a call, and the voicemail was a nasty TM yelling at us because they were trying to contact us about our cabana the next day. It was the only time we had a really big issue with a TM or CM the whole trip. And I know I’m not trying to be negative, but I figured I would share my experience so that you who have cabanas know to have your phone not on silent! And again it was our only bad TM/CM interaction the whole trip, so I’d say we may have hit them on an off day. We decide after being on a hold for a while when she called back to figure it out the next day and move on.

We pulled into Hogsmeade and into a ton of humans. My dad and I decided we would try to get on Hagrids. However it was a 60 minute wait, it was very hot and very crowded. And we are very shocked there was no virtual queue that day (the sign said there would be no virtual queue today) and that it hasn’t gotten express yet. Another trip and still no Hagrids. One day we shall experience it. Until then, Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg will have to do(love Verbolten btw).

We head towards Velocicaoster and while the wait wasn’t horrible (35 min), they shut down express for the day, and single rider was getting long. We knew it might not happen, so we again cut our loses and headed towards Jurassic Park, where 4 rows back we got the most soaked we’ve ever gotten. We decide to head to Toon Lagoon and finally experience Dudley Do Right (what a great flume ride!). We walk it off, change our masks, and head towards Marvel. We decide to make Spider-Man our last ride so we can do some shopping and head back to the pool! After walking right on to Spider-Man, we did some shopping in Port of Entry and headed back.


We get changed and head down to the pool. Once again, Mother Nature, forever a chaotic being, reared her ugly head and once again after barely 5-10 minutes in the pool, we evacuate. We order more drinks, and head up to change and head on over to City Walk.
As we are showering and changing, it is pouring. This was when I went to the concierge and asked a plethora of questions (which she answered exceptionally well and I don’t blame her one bit. I truly think it boils down to miscommunication), one of which being is there another option besides boats or walking to city walk due to the storm, and we were told no you’d have to wait it out. We again do not blame the concierge at all for this, but you will find out in the next part why we ended up being confused and angered by this.

We wait it out, and just as yours truly is about to call a Mears (I will admit I was getting hangry and slightly stir crazy), the rain slows down and the boats reopen. We head to CityWalk. Antojitos was packed so we head right into Big Fire. We had little to no wait. And this meal was SUPERB. We ordered the bread and mussels for an appetizer, and then my parents each had a steak (one a ribeye and one a filet) and I got the chicken and we all ended up taking some of each other’s. This is an excellent restaurant and one you don’t want to miss.


Those are the mussels. Highly recommend.

We do some window shopping, head to voodoo doughnuts, pick up half a dozen and head back on the boats to the hotel. We get back, get some milk from tuk tuk, eat our first doughnut (The Oreo and peanut butter was excellent I think it’s called OBD) and go to sleep.

Be sure to check back for more!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

DAY 3 (9/18):

Today starts our last full day!

We get up, have our second doughnuts (these doughnuts stay insanely fresh for a long time-no wonder they are well known!) and head to the bus to get to Volcano Bay to get our cabana. It is here we find out from another family that there were indeed buses running to City Walk last night. Again we do not blame the concierge, but we were very angered and confused by that. Honestly more confused than anything. We did ask the bus driver, and she did say that we should have been told they are running and that the concierge was most likely a new hire. Which confirmed even more to not blame the concierge. Miscommunication is clearly an issue here at Royal Pacific. Again, I do try to be more neutral or positive, but this is something that shouldn’t be happening. I actually feel horrible that the concierge was told incorrect information, because who knows how many people were told that wrong info, and how much trouble she could’ve gotten in because of it.

Anyway we head to VB, get our cabana (which we highly recommend. We recommend cabanas or priory seating at any water park we go to, and this was no exception).
Here was the view from said cabana:

Incase you don’t know, the cabana gives you a fruit and pastry basket, which was delicious. You also get towels, a fridge, a locker, water, you’re own Tapu Tapu kiosk and a server for food. You put the flag up if you want food and it works beautifully.
We had a wonderful time. Krakatoa is amazing, the food is delicious, and the fast lazy River is insane! We had such a relaxing day and Brenda, our server/attendant, was amazing. I will say do be careful with Oh yea and Oh no slides-those drops are even deeper in person than watching them on YouTube videos. Tapu Tapu took a lot of getting used to, but it was ok once we got the hang of it and once we realized to use our Clorox wipes on our Tapu Tapu kiosk in our cabana (so that is my one tip-sunscreen, water and humidity do not mix well when trying to get the Tapu Tapu screen to work. We had some Clorox and purel wipes and would wipe those before touching the screen and it worked perfectly every time). I’m a neutral person when it comes to virtual queues, but this wasn’t as bad as I expected.

We head out and get ready for HHN 30. As I mentioned in my intro, if the last 18 months hadn’t happened, this event a)would’ve been last year and this year would’ve been 31 and b) would’ve been even bigger and better. In an ever changing world, they have to go with what is safe for all, and I commend the HHN team for their hard work and dedication this year.


(And if anyone does know how to rotate these photos on mobile, I would greatly appreciate it)
We headed through Lights, Camera, Hacktion, which was super fun and on through Gorewood Forest in Central Park, as I wanted to get to Beetlejuice. Well the line was already at 75 minutes, so my parents and I decided upon a plan. Let’s separate and meet up at Mels Die In for 8/8:15 and take it from there. Turns out they went and rode MIB a couple times, went through some scare zones and had a drink in Duff gardens. Meanwhile, I went to Puppet Theatre (posted 25 min, maybe waited 15). It’s a creepy house, and also funny when theatre is a huge part of your life. I exited out into a downpour and immediately went to the MIB store and got two ponchos. Luckily a time board was near Fear factor and showed icons at 45. It was 7:10 so I booked it. Sadly, due to the downpour they must’ve called a lot if not all the scare zone scareactors inside, leaving Seek and Destroy scare zone practically empty but that also meant I had no issue getting to the house. I maybe waited 35 of the posted 45 minutes. About 10 minutes before I entered, Jack came out and greeted us. I knew immediately I wasn’t going to have him on the throne, but I was more excited he greeted us. I entered and this house was incredible. The cast was on top of their game, the storyteller scared the ever living daylights out of me, and the director was living his best life on the throne. I exited right around 8:05, and headed to Mels Die In.

On the way I saw a Christmas facade and found it hilarious. Why I have no idea-maybe because the holidays clashed? But I snapped this picture to remember it

So then I find my parents and we decide to split up again. I was going to head to Beetlejuice, do the 30 years scarezone, walk through the stores one last time and maybe one more house and meet up with my parents in City Walk. (I should note even at BG Howl O Scream we don’t do a lot of houses. We are more into the decor and food and drink than anything haha). I make it to Beetlejuice just as it’s going down from a 75 to 70 minute wait. About 20 minutes into my what turned out to be 50 minute wait (inflated times were something we saw across the board), my dad texts me and says they are at the bar at Antojitos and they have a 9:30 reservation for a table. Excellent-it’s around 8:45 at that point and the line is moving so I knew I could make it there by 9:45. Perfect!

Beetlejuice turns out to be a fun house. I know it’s just the movie, but I love the movie, I got jump scared by the football player, the cast was incredible and who can resist dancing to Jump in the Line! I exit and it’s just about 10 after 9. I devise a game plan to head back through the Gorewood Forest/Central Park area, go down by Transformers, head into 30 years, into the store and out by 9:30. Yes I’m crazy but I’m a fast walker I can do this. Well turns out the water show was going on. I had to strategize a bit more and book it, but I start walking faster. It was at this point I regret getting rid of my poncho before entering beetlejuice (it cleared up and got HUMID) because as I walked by Mels, someone who wasn’t paying attention and had one too many dumped their beer all down my right side. I actually thought they tripped and I went to turn to see if they were ok and they were down the street running around and laughing with friends. I must say: there were some very rude attendees. Even those not under the influence. I have never felt so nervous and scared and mortified for TMs and scareactors ever. Please be careful if you go. And also please be respectful -especially to the TMs and scareactors. They are doing their job. Let them do their job.

Anyway, after that I bee line about 100 feet to the transformers bathroom and proceed to scrub my arm and leg clean and dry off my shirt. In that moment I made a decision to not continue my original plan and just head to Antojitos. As sad as I was to make that decision, for my physical health I made the decision to leave. Who knows what else could happen. It might seem crazy to overreact this much to a spilled beer, but as I said, who knows what could happen next. Shame as it was fairly not crowded for a Saturday and I am sure my plan would’ve worked perfectly. Once again, please be careful if you go.
I head to Antojitos and my parents are just being seated. I ask for anything with rum in it (figured might as well!) and the bar delivered-I didn’t get a picture because I was devouring the chips and salsa, but I want to say it was their version of a rum runner and it was excellent! Due to acid reflux issues and it being late, I decide to order the flauta appetizers-chicken and cheese. I am from and live in a town rich with many cultures and restaurants, and is predominantly Hispanic. I know Hispanic food. Antojitos did not disappoint. The meal was excellent as was the service. We head out into the legacy and main stores, buy some last minute souvenirs and head out to the boats. I take a Pepcid to play it safe. We were unaware of what was going to happen there next morning, but we were excited to move on to Disney, sad to leave the Universal parks and City Walk.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

DAY 4 PART 1(9/19):
Well here it is, the end of the Universal portion of our trip.
Now I am going to tell what happened while trying to be as neutral as possible, especially since we don’t want anyone else going through this. But I’m sorry that this is how this trip report ends.

We wake up this morning to an email of an astronomical bill. Minus the Bula Bula tab, we had no car and had paid for our trip in full prior to arrival. We bought every piece of paperwork with us including a piece of paper we had signed acknowledging our reservation. When my parents went to inquire and eventually fight this, they were met with more miscommunication, no management and even more frustration. Basically it boiled down to them saying we needed to pay for everything, when in fact we already had minus a bar tab. They kept arguing we owed money, and in speaking to others we knew staying on UOR property that weekend, we would not have been able to check in had we not even paid the initial deposit, which we did.
We have never wanted to leave a place so fast. It wasn’t even 8 am, we were frustrated, upset and mentally drained. We are currently in the process of going through the credit card company, and I would urge all of you to make sure you have everything in order. It’s not that we didn’t-we actually bring copies of everything and save every email- but make sure as it will save you a lot of headaches.
While I will be back probably down the road, it will be at Hard Rock or Portofino. My parents never want to stay on property again. We are all in agreement we would rather pay for express and stay on Disney property or off property. While not every hotel is perfect, and we’ve had issues at Disney and in really nice places in Williamsburg and elsewhere, this just left a sour taste in our mouth. We were so looking forward to liking the UOR hotels too, and it just was a complete miss. Literally everything minus the pool and TMs was a complete miss. Miscommunication, uncleanliness, uncooked food. And now this bill. We left angry. Granted, some of this was a perfect storm of events, but the rest was just miscommunication and frustration.


I called a Mears to bring us to Boardwalk and we rather impatiently waited.

And this concludes the end of the Universal portion of this trip report. A sad end to an otherwise great time!

I want to make it clear we love these parks. We fell in love with Volcano Bay and City Walk on this trip. We love HHN. But Royal Pacific officially lost customers. We were not the only ones having issues that weekend at UOR after speaking about it to others I knew were there, but it was just so draining that we are done (and for me, down for the time being).
Thanks to all the TMs who made this portion of the trip enjoyable. We are forever grateful. I don’t know when we will be back to Universal Parks, Volcano Bay and City Walk, but for now I shall miss them dearly. As the exit to Islands of Adventure says “Adventure Lives On.”

If you wish to follow along with the rest of the trip, hop on over to the Disney trip reports!

BroadwayHermione5