A little background first. Long time pass holder. First time poster. Our family has been a fan of Universal for many years and we go regularly. Though Mr & Mrs Taylor are in our 50's we ride everything our kids do and have been known to wear out our two heathens who are 21 and 16. Truth be told, i sometimes have to find a seat for "patrons of certain dimensions" but hey, I own a couple of pizzerias and I like to eat.
It's a short hop from Tampa and even though we could go for a day, we choose to stay at any of the onsite hotels for convenience and fastpass. We as a family are passionate about Universal because it is ours. Universal gives us a means to bridge the gap as a family. We know every shortcut there is and pride ourselves in helping others who have no clue how to get to what. As an aside, our kids never liked Disney and only wanted to experience bigger kids rides so Universal fit the bill. Sometimes my youngest didn't quite meet the height requirement but she vowed to grow taller by the next visit or cheat by wearing thicker soled shoes in order to "fool" the team member enforcing the height restriction. Disney is for young families and they do that better than anyone in the world. But we would pay to never hear It's a small, small world ever again. Don't care what else they add the park(s) simply aren't for us. Kind of feel like we're cheating when we go to another park like Busch Gardens. It just doesn't have the feel of Universal.
Which brings me to why I joined OU. I made a vow to my kids and She Who Must Be Obeyed, that we will hit Transformers as soon as is practical. This site has the best intel on the net and am now informed. Thanks for the opportunity to share.