Our completed trip report to Universal Studios Florida August 9th-13th

davidb69

Patiently waiting to see Mickey again
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
I just wanted to drop a trip report for our experiences at Universal Studios during August 9th-13th.

We stayed at Lowes Royal Pacific Resort. Very nice hotel and no issues with the hotel at all. They were completely helpful but not on the level of Disney world helpful but a lot of the issues were mainly because the hotel isn't directly linked to Universal but Universal has a lot of links inside the hotel but if you have some issues, you have to be patient because of the linkage issues. More below

Important things to note before reading
I'm 6'4" 320lb with a 52 inch waist.
My boys just as an FYI,
my 16yo is 6'5" 38 inch waist
My 14yo is 6'1" 40 inch waist.
My wife would kill me if I posted her details(she wears size 18 though and I think that is safe to post)

Not the interesting thing is because the park and hotel are not connected we got 3 items and we had to goto 3 places.
#1 Hotel key, which is wireless and if you use the key card and press against door you can open the door to your room without removing from neckless which we highly recommend buying before.
#2 Tickets to Universal, we did this using the kiosk and didn't talk to anyone and it was pretty quick.
#3 was the Universal Express, they take your picture with this kiosk and is honestly the best thing about our experience even though half our pictures came out black and unviewable.


Day 1 - We decided not to go early opening at Islands of adventure because the rides are area was very limited and it didn't make sense to go there early. I did a lot of research and thought I couldn't ride a lot of things which being 48, I was ok with not going on everything. We did no rides all week in the kiddie area. We immediately took the train to Hogwarts because we felt it was the best experience. We went right to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and sat outside and they couldn't get the belt down, I decided to try inside anyways because sometimes the seats outside dont give a proper judgement, Sadly that was an epic fail and I couldn't ride but I loved seeing everything in the castle and our wait was short with the express pass. :-( but please keep reading. Flight of the hippogriff and Dragon challenge were out of the running for me as well as I couldn't even fit in the seats. My wife and younger son road Ripsaw falls but said even for them the seats were extremly tight, so I never attempted. Doctor Doom's free fall was a barely fit and the ride wasn't exactly exciting to me. I loved Jurassic Park River Adventure and Bilge-Rat Barges(roaring rapids) ride was awesome and got soaked. Skull Island Reign of Kong was tight on legs but no issues. Amazing adventures of Spiderman was really good as well. No on had interest in Storm Force Acceleration so we didn't do it all week. Sadly, what I think the kids favorite coaster was the Hulk but I sadly couldn't fit in the seat even though they have wider seats but they were not wide enough. We headed back to Universal Studios with the train and happy it was a different experience the other way. We were so impressed when we got bag to find the wall to enter into Diagon Alley. the street was awesome with all the stores and Gringotts visually is as impressive looking as Hogwarts castle. Especially when you go into the line for the ride. Now, I have commented how much I love the Express pass, well it's useless here as the line is the same for both really and it's pointless how they have you go through the line and it was a disappointment on how they handle the lines here. No benefits for what we paid extra for and the staff didn't care to listen to our opinions on the subject. Now for the seating for that ride, We had to sit in the back row and I needed to suck my gut in so they can get that third click(also they don't really push hard like other parks do. I was able to ride though but that was tough all week. That night we road E.T. Adventure(they ask for our names but in the end it seemed pointless and saw nothing helpful from it). I was unable to fit on Rip Ride Rockit. With my belly, the belt never came close to closing. We did Race through NY days 1-4, days 1 and 2 got right on but days 3 and 4 we had a long wait, no reasons why. Minions was a lot of fun to go on as well.

Other days we did similar rides with no rush in waking up because of express passes. We rode on the Simpsons ride, every time we rode the back row on this ride until the last day when I had to request front row and we could finally see everything, it would be beneficial to raise the back row higher people can see better, just saying. We did Men in Black Alien attack was fun, got a score of 383,000 points on the last day and it's awesome getting the top score and it feels rewarding with a different video and characters show up. Terminator 2 show was really good, Most underestimated ride was Revenge of the Mummy, like escape to Gringotts, the seats were tight but had no serious issues and that ride was incredibly good. We also took breaks and got a lot of character interactions, best character had to be Spiderman, he was fun. Also loved chasing down Doc Brown. Shrek was funny but overall disappointing.

My wife and younger son decided to do Volcano bay for 2 days as well. My older son and I dont have much interest in water parks so we continued to do rides and had a lot of fun. The biggest thing I can report is the water park was opening at 7:30 in the morning and buses moved at 630. They give you a TapuTapu braclet with your next ride times and people lose them in the water on rides and my wife and son found an area to hang out and use them for more rides and the "lineless" park generally had 20-30 minute waits for the rides. They said that by the time it got to 11am-noon, the park was too crowded and they mainly hung out in other water areas and they said it overall was nice but they need to improve.

Some really cool experiences.

Day 2 my wife lost her neckless with the hotel key and tickets and express passes. She was able to get her hotel key quickly but had to wait till the next morning at 7am for the park ticket for herself. The staff also gave her another neckless to hold the key and tickets at no charge.

Day 4 my neckless got stuck while on minions and the metal bent and the ids were not really secure. I asked for a tool to fix it but the store just exchanged my neckless for a new one at no charge.

It felt nice that they did have a sense for some customer service.

Oh and the best for last. On day 4 I decided to retry the seat at Forbidden Journey. I tried the seat and they got 2 clicks and the guy asked if it was ok if he pushed. I said yes and he got the 3rd click and said I was good to go. So I got in line(again, express is so fast). I got to the part and sat down and they told me again I couldnt ride and then I argued that they tested me outside and it fit fine. So they had me goto a non moving platform so they had more time to load. They loaded me in and after telling them, they told me to relax my shoulders and the guy pushed in and I was good to go. Annoying second experience that we tried with the rest of my family and they had a girl working that had to be 70-80lbs and had no muscles. Shouldn't couldn't get me in and I told them that my son is able to push it for me and they said no they cant allow that. We then argued for someone else to come and that girl was 90 lbs and couldn't do it, then we asked them to release to seatbelts and I told my son to push on me to get the 3rd click and then we were like we are ready to go and she had the nerve to say, we have to undo it and redo it again because we didn't do it. I told them to let us go and they finally agreed and I sent a complaint to Universal after that and they said the employees were wrong and they would meet with them. In the end I was happy to see it with my whole family and we really had a great week. We were happy with temps in the low 90s instead of mid to upper 90s that it could have been. Food was good all week but a little high price wise.

Thanks,
Dave
 
I'll never tell your wife you listed her size... lol


Glad to read you did get to do some rides and enjoyed them
 
I am stoked to hear that you made it on Forbidden Journey in the end - I think I can cope with not fitting in the other stuff, but I am really hopeful to make it on that one somehow!
 
Does the 14 years old son made Forbidden without any problem, and I am similar to his size.
 



GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











Top