My Orlando Universal & WDW Review

DH, DS 8yo our Nephew 11yo and I just got back from a great Orlando vacation. We drove down. Yes we Drove. We hit both Universal parks, EPCOT and Magic Kingdom.

The drive down was not bad all. We left at 2:30am and stopped in SC for the night, made it to our resort by 2:30 the next day. The drive home felt like it took forever. Would I do it again, If I had to yes but not if I could help it.

We have a RCI time share so we traded for a unit at Vacation Village at Parkway. We could see the MK fireworks from our balcony. Very nice resort: well run, six pools, BBQ areas, playgrounds, nature trails, more than we could use. We had a large one bedroom with a washer dryer and partial kitchen. It was great to be able to eat breakfast in our unit everyday; we also had about half our dinners in.

The parks were great we fit in just about everything we wanted to do here is a run down:
Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure Loved these parks - you definitely need a day for each one if you plan on doing most of the attractions during busy seasons. While there are sections for the little guys these parks are really for kids that are a little older; DS 8yo was able to ride just about everything and really enjoyed the thrill of the big attractions. Like Disney hitting rope drop was key as the lines moved up to 120+ minutes at peak times of the day. Universal has an express pass but you have to pay for it and it’s not cheep. I would have sprung for the express pass for Islands of Adventure to enable us to ride some things more than once. We got to see/do everything on our list in two very full days.

Universal Studios was great MIB, the Simpsons, Despicable Me, Shrek just to name a few all great attractions. We had lunch at the Monster Café, typical Nathans park food with a really fun atmosphere. We took a late afternoon break and went back into the park for the Cinematic Spectacular which wasn’t so spectacular. IMO it just doesn’t compare to the Disney shows.

Universals Islands of Adventure! They have a lot of great attractions packed into IA. Spiderman and the Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey attractions are truly state of the art. The wait for the HPFJ attraction was posted as 40 min but it was more like 20 to the “pre show” area. This was my favorite attraction by far. The entire Wizarding World is really fun. We had lunch at Blondies in the Toon Town area, again average theme park fare sandwiches and salads.

Universal City Walk blows Downtown Disney away we loved the atmosphere. There is a dance party in the square with a stilt walker and hula hoop competition, music all over, sort of a more playful times square atmosphere. We had dinner was at Jimmy Buffets Margaretaville and at Pastamore. Both had great atmospheres good service and good food. We would have loved to do Emerils for dinner but with the boys it wasn’t going to be the experience DH and wanted.

Of course we had to visit Mickey! We explored both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom. Just Missed rope drop at EPCOT but we were able to ride Soarin with a short wait and grabbed a fast pass for 4:00 on the way out. We moved over to Innovations to build and ride our own coasters, really cool attraction, visited Nemo and the seas, rode through the land and we were ready for the World Showcase as it opened. Disney has this Phineaus & Ferb, Agent P scavenger hunt where they give you a phone that receives text message clues that take you around a country. The boys loved it, let me caution you this may keep you in one country longer than you want to be there. We stopped for lunch in Mexico at La Hacienda de San Angel - good Mexican food on the patio overlooking the lake.

Magic Kingdom – I finally got to see the electric light parade! Loved it! We worked the fast passes and got to see/do almost everything on our list. Lunch was at Pecos Bills and was superisingly really good. I used the lines app and a touring plan from undercover tourist. I found the lines app to be right on track and very helpful. There is a new interactive game in MK called Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom that was a lot of fun but did take some time running around casting spells. The boys loved it so we played through a few adventures. DS was thrilled that you get to keep the cards you use in the game. We took a late day break and came back for the ELP and Wishes both were awesome. I forgot how much there is to do/see in MK we didn’t leave the park until after 11:00 with It’s a Small World as our last ride.

That’s about it – if anyone has any questions ask away.

Re: My Orlando Universal & WDW Review

Sounds like you had a GREAT trip!

Both of the interactive games can really side-track your from your touring plan, but they are SO much fun! I LOVE all of the clever ways that you can interact with artifacts in World Showcase in the Phineas and Ferb Adventure (We did it when it was KimPossible).


Did you explore any of Storybook Circus and the new Dumbo?

My Orlando Universal & WDW Review

Sadly the boys looked at me like I had 2 heads when I mentioned Dumbo. I was lucky to get them on Its a Small World! They did enjoy Mickeys Philharmonic and I saw them sneaking a look at a character or two but they had no interest in pictures or autographs. DS was barely 4 the last we were in WDW. He loved the character pictures and autographs. It goes by way too fast.