We're Going to Universal

 We’re going to Universal Studios Orlando in a couple of weeks, and we’re starting to prepare. What are we doing to get ready for our trip?

Back in June, as part of our week-long trip to Florida, we went to Universal Studios for part of our last full day in Orlando. Before moving to South Carolina, we purchased the Universal Freedom Pass (a military annual pass for Universal Studios Orlando), because none of us had ever been, and we wanted to check it out. We picked the Freedom Pass because it was almost the same in price as getting a one-day park-to-park ticket for the four of us.

Our experience on that June day was not a magical one, but it involved LOTS of waiting, and none of that waiting was even to get on a ride.

Now back to the present time, we’re planning our next short trip to Orlando, mostly to get the first use of our Disney World Annual Passes! But we’re also going to give Universal Studios another try. We’re optimistic for this trip.

What’s different from the last trip? When we were in Orlando in June it was, well, June. It was summer break, Universal seemed to be a 100% capacity, and we had never been to the Universal. Our next trip will be in September, school is firmly back in session. And, this time we’ve not only been to the park, albeit briefly, but we’re also doing a lot more to prepare.

We now know that we NEED to get to the parking garage EARLY! This was our first mistake on our last try at Universal. We’re planning to get to the parking garage well before park opening so that we can avoid sitting at the horrendously long red light, and it taking a total of an hour to fully exit I-4 and pull into a spot in the parking garage.

On our last trip we were not prepared for how security would work at Universal. There is one security location for both parks and CityWalk. Now we know, and we know how the security process works, so we will have pretty much everything in our bags before we make it to the metal detectors.

Our biggest issue last time was when it came to activating our tickets. Our Freedom Passes required activation at a ticket window, just like Disney’s Military Salute Tickets do. We stood in line for an exceptionally long time to get our tickets activated last time. This time, though, we don’t have to worry about that, and we can just walk right up to the park entrance.

Last time we did some planning, we knew what we wanted to ride, what we wanted to try to eat and drink, and we had watched some YouTube videos to see what to expect. The crowds in mid-June, though, were so massive that no amount of planning could have prepared us for what we found at the park. On this trip we’re hoping for less crowds and more fun.

We’ve been looking at menus, and we have at least an idea of what we want to get to eat and drink while we’re in the parks.

We know what rides we want to try to make it on, and we’ve been looking into height requirements to see what all Bella is tall enough to ride.

Overall, we’ve hoping to a fun, Harry Potter magic, delicious food filled trip to Universal in a couple of weeks. We’ll be sure to let you know about all of the fun after we get back!

 

What’s your favorite attraction at Universal Studios Orlando?

 

Are you ready to start planning your next magical vacation? I’m happy to help! Contact me at miriya@govacationguru.com to start planning. For more travel information, follow me on Facebook.