My Top / Sneakers / John’s Shirt / Shorts / Sneakers
Good morning!!! Oh my goodness how on Earth is February almost over? I was putting in the publish date for this post and couldn’t believe we are in the 20’s already. January took 128 days and February feels like we are maybe 7 days in! This also means that we are days away from John’s big 4-4 birthday!!! That number is creeping crazy close to 5-0. Just thankful I am a couple of years behind that 😉
Today I am sharing some tips and “tricks” for your next Universal and/or Disney world vacation! Having had two back to back Orlando trips… by “accident” (John and I planned one and then found out our exchange student had it on her bucket list)… I’ve learned a thing or two and wanted to share. Universal/Disney trips are not cheap to say the least so getting the most out of your stay is rather important!
For our first trip back in January, I handled all of the bookings myself but for this second one, since it came up rather quickly and work was so crazy busy, I turned to a travel agent for the first time ever in my life to help me with our tickets and accommodations. I used my friend Michele Bowen with Magic Expeditions (LINKED HERE) and she was FABULOUS! Although I love planning and booking travel, it was so nice to have it all taken care of down to the very last detail! So first… let’s chat UNIVERSAL!
Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure…
My Tank / Pants / Flats / John’s Tee / Shorts / Sneakers
Starting things off with our personal FAVES when it comes to Orlando parks… Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure! Yep, I love Disney and all but Universal and Islands have THE BEST RIDES in my opinion for teens and adults. The girls much much prefer it over Disney these days. John and I did one full day at each park back in January but then did a hopper pass last weekend for a half day at each park. This hopper pass also allows you to ride the Hogwarts Express which is fun too! Trying to get it all in with a half day at each park is a bit tricky but we did pretty well with the express passes. We also stayed from open to close which helped of course too! Oh and make sure to download the “Universal Orlando Resort” app before you go. It has a park map and will continuously update wait times which is super helpful!
TICKETS… Just a quick note to say that if you are going during a busy time of year, you might want to purchase tickets ahead of time. I feel like this is more of a recent thing but park days can completely sell out! It would be a super bummer to travel all the way to Orlando and then not be able to get into the parks! Same with Disney so I will be repeating this below as well.
EXPRESS PASS… If you can, GET IT! Worth every penny. It truly helped our wait times A LOT! Especially over President’ Day weekend when the crowds were fairly heavy. It isn’t cheap to say the least which makes an already expensive day that much more expensive BUT I’d say it probably doubled if not tripled the number of rides we were able to ride each day.
WHERE TO STAY… We LOVE the Hard Rock Hotel! It is definitely a pricier option but we only stayed a couple of nights in January and if you stay at The Hard Rock Hotel, the Express Passes come with your stay! Although the hotel is also a bit pricey, that at least knocks off about $80-110 per person per day. Plus, you can literally WALK to the entrance of BOTH PARKS and City Walk!
QUICK RIDE TIP… The VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure are new and do not take Express Passes so do those FIRST if you get there early!!! I found that most people ran to Hagrid’s Motorbike first so the VelociCoaster wait stayed super short for at least an hour! If you book your stay through a Disney/Universal (maybe through select agents? not sure!) you can access Islands of Adventure thirty minutes early so we arrived before the park actually opened and went straight to Hagrid’s! And PS… Hagrid’s is WORTH THE WAIT!
MEALS... I would DEFINITELY suggest making reservations in advance. I am usually more of a “wing it” kind of person when it comes to things like that because I never know when and where we’ll want to eat but things were so busy and booked! Our very very very favorite restaurant in Universal/Islands is Mythos at Islands of Adventure. It is sooooo good!!!!!
FIREWORKS… Another quick tip I will share for Disney as well… the fireworks shows are fabulous and all BUT they’re also an opportunity to get on rides quicker! As we watched the fireworks show I checked the app and wait times went WAY DOWN for most rides.
FAVORITE RIDES… Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, The Mummy and Harry Potter & the Escape from Gringotts (the girls also LOVE all the coasters!)
Disney World Parks…
My Top / Sneakers
Disney World! We’ve been many many times over the years and definitely have our favorites. Overall I’d say that Epcot is definitely the family FAVE. It has several of our favorite rides plus the World Showcase is a MUST SEE! The World Showcase section has food and drinks from around the world which for us “foodies” is so fun in itself! I have lots to share about these parks so LET’S GO!!! Oh and make sure download the “My Disney Experience” app. It is a MUST before you even get there if you are planning to use the Genie+ pass plus it has a park map and will continuously update wait times which is super helpful!
TICKETS… Just a quick note to say that if you are going during a busy time of year, you might want to purchase tickets ahead of time. I feel like this is more of a recent thing but park days can completely sell out! It would be a super bummer to travel all the way to Orlando and then not be able to get into the parks!
GENIE+ PASS… In my opinion, this new “fast pass” method is annoying as heck… but definitely worth it. Although it’s more expensive, the Universal/Islands Express Pass is nice because you just purchase it, use it whenever and wherever for the most part and that’s it… whereas the Genie+ pass is more of a song and dance and takes continuous work and planning throughout your park day. So here’s how it works…
First, if you are interested in the Genie+ pass which gets you into the “fast lane” during a pre-booked time at rides, you will want to purchase tickets to the park in advance and then purchase your Genie+ pass the morning of your park day before 7am. I set my alarm for 6:45am to make sure and get all four Genie+ passes purchased before the system opens at 7am. I think the pass prices vary based on how busy the parks are each day but ours were $30 each which I think is the highest rate. I think.
Once you have purchased your Genie+ passes on the app, you’re going to want to log in at exactly 7am, go to your Genie “Tip Board” and book your first ride. You can only book one ride at a time so you are going to want to either book the earliest possible ride OR one of the most popular rides first. Let me explain… as I mentioned, you can only book one ride at a time. You can then book your next ride either after they scan your pass for the ride you booked OR once two hours has passed. So if you can book and ride something quickly, you can book your next one before two hours has passed. The tricky part though is that the more popular rides will be completely booked for the entire day by maybe lunchtime or early afternoon. I suggest making a ride priority list and planning from there! Oh and stay on top of it as far as booking your next ride RIGHT AT the point where either your Genie+ pass is scanned OR the two hour mark has passed. The app will tell you when you can book your next one.
LIGHTENING LANE… As if this new system could not get any more confusing, you can also pay extra to access the Lightening Lane for up to two rides each day. For Magic Kingdom, we paid $12 per person for the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride and I think $11 for Guardians of the Galaxy at Epcot. This can be booked and paid for IN ADDITION to the one ride at a time I chatted about above on your Genie+ app. So for example, at 7am the morning of our day at Magic Kingdom, I paid for and booked the Lightening Lane for the Mine Train ride and then immediately used the Genie+ to book Space Mountain which was included in the initial $30 Genie+ purchase.
WHERE TO STAY… I can honestly say that I don’t have a huge preference for where to stay at Disney. Staying on property is nice and I’ve really liked everywhere we’ve stayed over the years. The Contemporary is awesome because the monorail goes right through it but that’s “only” helpful for Magic Kingdom and Epcot and to me it’s a bit more of a “little kid” hotel. Last weekend we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and it was nice as well. They had a boat we could take to Disney Springs which we did one day. Overall though I think staying at the Hard Rock at Universal beats staying at any Disney Hotel. Just my very personal opinion.
MEALS... I would DEFINITELY suggest making reservations in advance. I am usually more of a “wing it” kind of person when it comes to things like that because I never know when and where we’ll want to eat but things were so busy and booked! Once again, I know… I know… but I prefer Universal/Islands restaurants over Disney ones BUT we did really really enjoy Skipper Canteen at Magic Kingdom and Asia Morimoto at Disney Springs!
FIREWORKS… Another quick tip I will share for Disney as well… the fireworks shows are fabulous and all BUT they’re also an opportunity to get on rides quicker! As we watched the fireworks show I checked the app and wait times went WAY DOWN for most rides.
FAVORITE RIDES… Guardians of the Galaxy, Ratatouille and Soaring all at Epcot!
TRANSPORTATION… Oh and one last thing! We did not rent a car either trip and it was just fine! We taxi’d to our hotel and honestly didn’t even need an Uber much our first trip since we stayed at the Hard Rock and could walk to Islands/Universal. Last weekend our Uber fares were about $50 to Universal/Islands and $16 to Disney World plus we just took the boat to Disney Springs. Honestly kind of nice not worrying about a car!
XOXO, Brittany Palazzo
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