An Orlando Universal Vacation Odyssey: 4 Trips. 9 Weeks. 15 months

[Mad Dog]

News came down yesterday that Universal is ending Express on Hagrids beginning 7/1/26. Lucky that we will be at Portofino for the first phase of our June vacation, so I'll make sure to get a ton of rides in before Express ends. Some speculation that there was guest dissatisfaction from both stand by and express guests. I fully understand the stand by issues, times did jump a lot. But I monitor these times daily and the only times I saw long express times was Saturday afternoons after 4:00 PM when the Premier AP's flood the parks and Hagrids especially. Saturdays are always crowded with AP's so that's to be expected. Even when I have hotel express, I don't spend a lot of time in IOA and USF on Saturdays because I know that the express lines get longer than normal after 4:00 PM.

 

[Mad Dog]

Getting packed and ready to leave tomorrow. The grandkids finished school yesterday and they'll stay overnight so we can get out of here early tomorrow morning. After a night in Brunswick Georgia for a stayover, we'll drive to Orlando. The girls think we're just going to Cabana Bay for the entire vacation, but we're surprising them with the first part of the vacation at Portofino. They will be so amazed. They are always appreciative and never demanding. Their parents are poor, so the only time they're able to experience what the world has is when we take them somewhere. We try to broaden their experiences all year round, and occasionally with a special vacation like this. When we took them to WDW two summers ago for a long vacation, the oldest one exclaimed "When I'm older and make lots of money, I'm coming back here".

Universal will be just right for them now. At 13 and 12 the park is a perfect fit. After the start at Portofino, we'll move to Cabana Bay for eight more nights. I'm sure they'll love Cabana too. It has a lot to offer for teens. They want to go to Epic too. They're both big fans of Nintendo and HTTYD so those will be the first two lands we visit. Hopefully Mario Kart will be running more reliable. Lately it seems that MK and Ministry take turns being inoperative during the early part of the day.

They'll love those Hotel Express Passes at IOA and USF. They experienced a lot of long lines at WDW (which has gotten better since their trip since Disney cracked down on the widespread Disability fraud), so those short lines when they're at Portofino will be a nice surprise. So we'll be riding the Universal D/E ticket attractions mostly during the first part of the trip and we'll leave the shows & short line attractions for the Cabana Bay portion of the trip. This is a nice long vacation, so we'll slow it down for them. No ride commando stuff. Lots of pool and other fun stuff. This will be a very different feel for them compared to WDW. I've told them there will be no hectic and a lot of lovely relaxation.

See you all in a few weeks. I always go dark while on vacation. No overt high tech distractions allowed.

 

[Skold]

Getting packed and ready to leave tomorrow....

See you all in a few weeks. I always go dark while on vacation. No overt high tech distractions allowed.

Sounds awesome!

CBBR used to be our "homebase" but we haven't been there for a few years due to the pool to room ratio.

If you haven't been, the new(ish) milk shake shack in Bayliner Diner is awesome. Get some shakes at the end of the day, grab a round booth, and melt into those 1950's commercials...

Have fun!

 

[Mad Dog]

Leaving in 20 minutes. Weather looks good for the 960 mile drive from Elizabeth Twp., Pa.

 

[Jake S]

Leaving in 20 minutes. Weather looks good for the 960 mile drive from Elizabeth Twp., Pa.

have a safe drive and a great trip!

 

[Mad Dog]

Back from our two week Universal vacation with the granddaughters. We took them to WDW two years ago for a shorter ten day vacation. Vacation with kids is certainly a different perspective than our usual adult vacations of just me and Alene.

A Tale of Two Girls........... Scarlett is 13 and the more daring of the two . Her sister Layla is 12 and doesn't care much for coasters, though she'll give some of them a try, but only once, never twice. The only exception is Slinky at DHS, which she loved, and forced us to wait in line three times, each well over an hour, at DHS in the hot hot hot Toy Story Land sun and concrete.

The girls are a lesson for theme park management. Namely, you need a diversified attraction line up to satisfy your guests, especially families. Layla loved USF, especially all the simulators, but didn't care for Epic because, short of Monsters which she loved, there wasn't any other rides she liked or wanted to ride. Scarlett 'loved' IOA and USF, and liked Epic. Both of them liked Universal better than Disney, especially the Hotel Express passes, hotels, boat transportation, and pools. Even concerning attractions/rides they liked Universal better, especially Scarlett just loving the indoor and outdoor coasters, as much as Layla hated the coasters she tried.

Next: Portofino Bay Surprise