BobbyBond2
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2021
Just got back from a 10 day (9 night) WDW/USO/IoA trip. First and foremost, this is my first USF/IoA trip report, so hopefully, it is helpful for anyone that decides to read along! Just for background, I'm a single dad with 2 kids (DS - 7 and DD - 10), DVC members, and AP holders for both Disney and Universal for 2021; and like to consider myself a Disney Pro. We had park reservations for EP, HS, MK, AK, then 2 nights at Universal, MK, HS, and EP to close the trip out.
Usually, we do not stay for this long, but this trip was originally planned as part of our DVC stay in August 2020. Obviously, with the pandemic, things changed. We ended up making this a more extended trip to use points up. We stayed at BWV (Deluxe Studio) and USO Portifino (Standard Room) for one night during this trip. I hadn't been to USF/IoA since 1999, so my excitement for the new attractions was very high! I'll stick to Universal Studios' related experiences for this particular trip report to keep with the topic.
We left Disney's BWV around 6:55am on Friday (6/25) using Orlando Transfer for a one-way pickup. We opted for a one-way, so we didn't have to commit to a return time on Saturday (6/26). The driver was ready for us and brought us to Portifino for check-in. Since there was no traffic, the travel time was at most 15 minutes. Highly recommend Orlando Transfer or Tiffany Town Car if you are looking at private service.
Upon arrival at Portifino, we headed to the Universal Travel & Ticket desk to pick up our annual passes and then to check in to the hotel. To my surprise, the room was ready so that we could drop our bags off. We then received our Room Keys and Express Pass Unlimited, headed to our room. The room was on the first floor, east side of the resort. The size of the room was impressive and extremely comfortable. I wish we had stayed more than one night!
At this point, we headed towards the boat pickup area at the resort. The time was about 7:45am, and the line for the boat was remarkably long. There was no way we would make the next two boats with the number of people in line. Also, I felt the boat timing was long in comparison to Disney's "Friendship" boats. We opted to walk from Portifino to USF. Now, if you decide to do this, it is a little bit of a trek. Maybe close to 3/4 of a mile.
After a little bit of a security line at the entrance, we made our way in. Luckily with early entry, we were able to get in with not many crowds to deal with. We headed over to Diagon Alley and spent a reasonable amount of time there. Both my kids are big into Harry Potter, so Olivanders was up first. The wait was less than 5 minutes, and naturally, my wallet was used quicker than that!
Gringotts had a 20 minute posted wait, but with Express Passes, we could get on within 10 minutes. Excellent attraction and not what I was expecting in the beginning! We spent most of the time in Diagon Alley casting spells with wands and mousing through the shops.
We continued towards Men in Black and The Simpsons rides. Men in Black was a walk-on, and Simpsons had a posted 30-minute wait, but we could get on rather quickly. We made our way back to Diagon Alley to ride Gringotts again. The lines were building up now that the park had opened, and with Express, we were on within 15-20 minutes. At this point, Diagon Alley was becoming busy, so we headed to Mummy.
Mummy had a 50 minute posted wait time, but it took us about 20. This is where things become interesting with our express passes. When being "scanned" at Mummy, the passes were showing invalid. The attendant let us on with no issue but was perplexed by the error she was receiving. This error started happening at all the other attractions. Before trying to ride anything else, we joined the line for Leaky Cauldron. This line was about 60+ minutes to get a table (this was expected as it is a popular dining location). For those "Disney" Veterans like myself, the mobile ordering process is different. You place your order and don't hit "I'm here, prepare my order" until you have sat at a table.
This experience is where my frustration with Universal comes in. When we finally were assigned a table, I press "I'm here, prepare my order," but was never prompted for a table number. After watching tables seated well after us receive their food, I asked a team member for help. After she went back to find out what happened, she came back and "accused" me of not putting in the table number in a very confrontational manner. I informed her I was never prompted, and she continued to be accusatory that it was my wrongdoing. She was going to help get the order through. At this point, I have 2 extremely hungry kids waiting for inflated-priced Mac and Cheese. 30 minutes later, still no food. I asked another team member who went to look at what was wrong with our order. After inquiring with other tables, we weren't the only guests that had this issue occur.
Finally, after a total of 50 minutes of waiting for 2 mac and cheeses, 1 chicken sandwich, and 3 butter beers, we received our food. I did not expect to spend almost 2 and half hours for Quick Service dining (I'll give 1 hour back for the line). I felt the staff was quite rude and dismissive during this entire experience. I shared this with USF guest relations via Twitter, with the typical canned response. Unless you are a die-hard Harry Potter fan, I would skip this if the line is long.
After Cauldron, we went back to ride some attractions, but when trying to get on Transformers, we were now denied Express and instructed to go to guest services. At this point, the park was bustling, and we waited almost 45 minutes to speak with a Guest Services host at Kings Cross. For some reason, our passes became invalid. Hot, tired, bothered by the Leaky Cauldron experience, I was pretty dragged out waiting another hour to resolve this issue. The helpful team member verified our stay at Portifino and issued us temporary passes until we returned to the hotel.
We made our way over to IoA using Hogwarts Express and were amazed at how busy Hogsmeade was. It was "shoulder to shoulder" packed with people. Hagrid's had a 90-minute wait, so we opted not to do it. Instead, we rode Forbidden Journey and made our way over to Jurassic Park and Spiderman. We had dinner at Cafe 4, the wait for a table was minimal, and it only took about 15 minutes for food. I felt the value and quality of the food at this location were much better than Leaky Cauldron. We finished up a few rides at IoA and headed back to USF to finish out the night.
After returning to Portifino, we informed the front desk of the issue with the passes since our room keys were attached. The team member felt terrible and gave us a complimentary breakfast at Trattoria Del Porto, I didn't think it was necessary, but it was a nice gesture. By the way, the breakfast buffet at Trattoria is great! Finally, after some much-needed rest, we started day two. This experience was a much better day, but the park was overcrowded.
Some observations
Crowded - The parks were overcrowded and understaffed. In comparison to Disney's capacity, it's almost if Universal "ripped the bandaid" off. I saw wait times over 60 minutes for some of the minor attractions. Luckily with Express Passes, this minimizes that hit.
Food Service is terrible - Besides the Leaky Cauldron issue, we waited almost 45 minutes for 3 slices of pizza at Pizza Predattoria. Universal has to do something to mitigate this wait in the future.
Team Member Experience - Guest Services, Attractions, and Hotel Staff were great. The Leaky Cauldron did not live up to a positive experience, for that, I won't return.
Transportation to/from Portifino - The boats don't hold many people and it seems like the boats take forever to get there. Be ready to wait if you decide to use the boat.
We plan to return in August to hope that things are somewhat better, especially the foodservice. The attractions and related experiences were great, but the food service and transportation were very subpar. I hope a lot of this results from not having enough staff to handle the number of people starting to travel again. Either way, fingers crossed it gets better soon!
Take Care!
Usually, we do not stay for this long, but this trip was originally planned as part of our DVC stay in August 2020. Obviously, with the pandemic, things changed. We ended up making this a more extended trip to use points up. We stayed at BWV (Deluxe Studio) and USO Portifino (Standard Room) for one night during this trip. I hadn't been to USF/IoA since 1999, so my excitement for the new attractions was very high! I'll stick to Universal Studios' related experiences for this particular trip report to keep with the topic.
We left Disney's BWV around 6:55am on Friday (6/25) using Orlando Transfer for a one-way pickup. We opted for a one-way, so we didn't have to commit to a return time on Saturday (6/26). The driver was ready for us and brought us to Portifino for check-in. Since there was no traffic, the travel time was at most 15 minutes. Highly recommend Orlando Transfer or Tiffany Town Car if you are looking at private service.
Upon arrival at Portifino, we headed to the Universal Travel & Ticket desk to pick up our annual passes and then to check in to the hotel. To my surprise, the room was ready so that we could drop our bags off. We then received our Room Keys and Express Pass Unlimited, headed to our room. The room was on the first floor, east side of the resort. The size of the room was impressive and extremely comfortable. I wish we had stayed more than one night!
At this point, we headed towards the boat pickup area at the resort. The time was about 7:45am, and the line for the boat was remarkably long. There was no way we would make the next two boats with the number of people in line. Also, I felt the boat timing was long in comparison to Disney's "Friendship" boats. We opted to walk from Portifino to USF. Now, if you decide to do this, it is a little bit of a trek. Maybe close to 3/4 of a mile.
After a little bit of a security line at the entrance, we made our way in. Luckily with early entry, we were able to get in with not many crowds to deal with. We headed over to Diagon Alley and spent a reasonable amount of time there. Both my kids are big into Harry Potter, so Olivanders was up first. The wait was less than 5 minutes, and naturally, my wallet was used quicker than that!
Gringotts had a 20 minute posted wait, but with Express Passes, we could get on within 10 minutes. Excellent attraction and not what I was expecting in the beginning! We spent most of the time in Diagon Alley casting spells with wands and mousing through the shops.We continued towards Men in Black and The Simpsons rides. Men in Black was a walk-on, and Simpsons had a posted 30-minute wait, but we could get on rather quickly. We made our way back to Diagon Alley to ride Gringotts again. The lines were building up now that the park had opened, and with Express, we were on within 15-20 minutes. At this point, Diagon Alley was becoming busy, so we headed to Mummy.
Mummy had a 50 minute posted wait time, but it took us about 20. This is where things become interesting with our express passes. When being "scanned" at Mummy, the passes were showing invalid. The attendant let us on with no issue but was perplexed by the error she was receiving. This error started happening at all the other attractions. Before trying to ride anything else, we joined the line for Leaky Cauldron. This line was about 60+ minutes to get a table (this was expected as it is a popular dining location). For those "Disney" Veterans like myself, the mobile ordering process is different. You place your order and don't hit "I'm here, prepare my order" until you have sat at a table.
This experience is where my frustration with Universal comes in. When we finally were assigned a table, I press "I'm here, prepare my order," but was never prompted for a table number. After watching tables seated well after us receive their food, I asked a team member for help. After she went back to find out what happened, she came back and "accused" me of not putting in the table number in a very confrontational manner. I informed her I was never prompted, and she continued to be accusatory that it was my wrongdoing. She was going to help get the order through. At this point, I have 2 extremely hungry kids waiting for inflated-priced Mac and Cheese. 30 minutes later, still no food. I asked another team member who went to look at what was wrong with our order. After inquiring with other tables, we weren't the only guests that had this issue occur.
Finally, after a total of 50 minutes of waiting for 2 mac and cheeses, 1 chicken sandwich, and 3 butter beers, we received our food. I did not expect to spend almost 2 and half hours for Quick Service dining (I'll give 1 hour back for the line). I felt the staff was quite rude and dismissive during this entire experience. I shared this with USF guest relations via Twitter, with the typical canned response. Unless you are a die-hard Harry Potter fan, I would skip this if the line is long.
After Cauldron, we went back to ride some attractions, but when trying to get on Transformers, we were now denied Express and instructed to go to guest services. At this point, the park was bustling, and we waited almost 45 minutes to speak with a Guest Services host at Kings Cross. For some reason, our passes became invalid. Hot, tired, bothered by the Leaky Cauldron experience, I was pretty dragged out waiting another hour to resolve this issue. The helpful team member verified our stay at Portifino and issued us temporary passes until we returned to the hotel.
We made our way over to IoA using Hogwarts Express and were amazed at how busy Hogsmeade was. It was "shoulder to shoulder" packed with people. Hagrid's had a 90-minute wait, so we opted not to do it. Instead, we rode Forbidden Journey and made our way over to Jurassic Park and Spiderman. We had dinner at Cafe 4, the wait for a table was minimal, and it only took about 15 minutes for food. I felt the value and quality of the food at this location were much better than Leaky Cauldron. We finished up a few rides at IoA and headed back to USF to finish out the night.
After returning to Portifino, we informed the front desk of the issue with the passes since our room keys were attached. The team member felt terrible and gave us a complimentary breakfast at Trattoria Del Porto, I didn't think it was necessary, but it was a nice gesture. By the way, the breakfast buffet at Trattoria is great! Finally, after some much-needed rest, we started day two. This experience was a much better day, but the park was overcrowded.
Some observations
Crowded - The parks were overcrowded and understaffed. In comparison to Disney's capacity, it's almost if Universal "ripped the bandaid" off. I saw wait times over 60 minutes for some of the minor attractions. Luckily with Express Passes, this minimizes that hit.
Food Service is terrible - Besides the Leaky Cauldron issue, we waited almost 45 minutes for 3 slices of pizza at Pizza Predattoria. Universal has to do something to mitigate this wait in the future.
Team Member Experience - Guest Services, Attractions, and Hotel Staff were great. The Leaky Cauldron did not live up to a positive experience, for that, I won't return.
Transportation to/from Portifino - The boats don't hold many people and it seems like the boats take forever to get there. Be ready to wait if you decide to use the boat.
We plan to return in August to hope that things are somewhat better, especially the foodservice. The attractions and related experiences were great, but the food service and transportation were very subpar. I hope a lot of this results from not having enough staff to handle the number of people starting to travel again. Either way, fingers crossed it gets better soon!
Take Care!
