Universal Orlando Trip June 2013 Trip Report W / Photos

[chrisfahey]

Hey everyone! Wanted to share my trip report with everyone here. I am going to break it up in to multiple parts to make reading it easier. Thanks ahead of time for reading it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. I realize it's a bit extensive. It's filled with a little bit of everything, with some Clark Griswold moments thrown in here and there.

Let me say first apologize for all the food you are going to hear about. I work out 5 times a week and eat extremely clean. Needless to say, there's still a guy inside of me that loves burgers, pizza, ect. So it being vacation, I indulged......a lot

Trip Date: June 21st 2013 - June 26th
Where: Universal Orlando
Who: My wife, myself, and our seven year old.
Place of Stay: Holiday Inn Across from Universal

June 21st - This was our low key day. We left our home around 2 PM for the drive from Tarpon Springs to Orlando. We had a brief stop in Spring Hill to drop off the dog and then took the dreaded state road 50 drive. Anyone who has come this route knows it's not the funnest ride in the world. We arrived for dinner at my mother-in-laws around 5 PM ( Orlando Resident ) and then headed to Extended Stay Deluxe across from the park. I had booked us there for Friday night as we went a day early and the Holiday Inn said they were full up that evening.

Here's the Clark Griswold moment: I somehow booked us for Thursday night :bang: Don't ask me how, it just happened. The counter girl informed me they were all full up that evening as well. We decided to get in the car and give the Holiday Inn a try just in case. We were in luck, they had something for us. I grabbed this picture when we walked in...

Thoughts on the hotel : I thoroughly enjoyed my stay and would stay here during peak season again. The service was good, room was clean, and the hotel had added benefits. A TGI Fridays in the hotel, nice ambiance, and walking distance to Universal. If you did not want to walk, you could get a shuttle for about $5. There was also a Walgreens and plenty of places to eat within a minute drive. We had a nice view of the park and I-drive from our window to boot. I did not request this but I am sure you can. I snapped these pictures below from the balcony out front. I just wanted to share them as they're a view many might not have seen before:

June 22nd - Our day started out at 7 AM for the buffet breakfast at TGI Fridays. $8 per person, and our daughter ate for free. A very nice selection of items for everyone. Everything was also fresh as we were the first ones there. Two plates later, we were off to Universal.

We booked our stay through the Universal website. It's important to note, that if you book a Florida Resident package you can not get your tickets from any of the Kiosks. You must line up in order to show your ID's. This cost us a bit of time. We got our tickets ( Package included a 3 day / 1 Park Pass for everyone ) and headed to the gate. They opened a bit early and it was a mad dash to Transformers. We practically walked on which was obviously great given the afternoon wait reached 2 hours the last time I checked. I thought it was extremely well done and we enjoyed it very much. I am not sure I would have wanted to wait anymore than 30-45 minutes for it though.

From there we hit Despicable me ( 5 Minute Wait ). This was my family's first time on this as well. Pretty good for the kids but I wouldn't be going back to wait any length of time to do it again. I think my wife would though, she has some odd fascination with the Minions. lol

Next stop was the Mummy, which my daughter loved. Things seemed to be running fine as usual and again our wait was only 5 Minutes. We walked by Phase 2 and I can't say I saw or heard any work going on. I probably could have clicked a pic or two as it was early and no one was around but I decided not to chance drawing attention to myself. We hit the Simpsons followed by MIB. And you can probably guess me wait times at this point.......5 minutes.

We hit our first snag as ET was not operating. So we decided to let my daughter play in the kidzone. My daughter then insisted I ride the kids coaster with her. Bad idea for anyone of my height ( 6'2" ). Nevertheless, I am glad I did it as it's a part of the park I have never been in. After, we were able to get right on ET as they had things working again. Next stop, Springfield........

My wife and daughter split a wrap and pizza. I chose......

I got too excited over this one. The waffles were lack luster so it kind of ruined it for me. Would definately try a :krusty: Burger next time. Good news, I enjoyed a couple Duff lights. They made up for the chicken and waffles problem.

Poor Parenting

We stopped by Shrek and Twister before coming up with the best idea ever: Mid day break. It was just after 1:30 and we were all a bit tired. Lines were growing and we did not purchase express tickets. We used the time to nap and hit the pool. We chose dinner at Fridays for convenience. I had the craft beer burger. The food was good but the service was lack luster. The server must have been new as she tried to tell me that Cigar City was a beer. Correction, It's the brewery.......

Back at the park we got around to T2, the Mummy again, and had our longest wait at the Rock It. It was down when we first got back ( Around 7 PM ) so we returned at 7:30 to an advertised wait of 20 minutes. It broke down again so the wait stretched to an hour. At which point my wife made an observation. By the time we hit the stairs and the ride started again, the ratio of express to regular let ons seemed a bit off. I understand the express is the priority but it seemed extremely one sided while we waited.

Stay tuned for the rest of the report including IOA, Mythos, Wonder Works, and much more. Thanks again for reading!

 

[hildyp0824]

Great start!!

 

[duckpcola]

Enjoyed the first part Chris, and look forward to reading the rest. I can't wait till I get back to Universal next summer with my wife and son. Will definitely keep the Holiday Inn as an option if we decide not to stay onsite at Royal Pacific. It will really comes down to what type of deal the hotel has for Florida residents when we go.

 

[chrisfahey]

June 23rd - This day was full of it's ups, and it;s downs. It was that part of the trip for my wife and I to have some alone time. My wife's mother graciously made plans to keep our daughter from Sunday to Tuesday night. I did a quick check to see what the best place for breakfast may be that morning before the drop off. I come across a place on yelp called the ' Hash House .' It had good reviews and the food porn from the patrons drew me in.

We arrived at the Hash House around 10:30 and we were seated within 10 minutes or so. It is the newest location of the ones they have across the country. The walls were lined with pictures and signed menus of celebrities. Most notably Adam from Man vs Food. To say that this is excited me, would be a huge under statement. He has an item on the menu and I believe he did a challenge at one of the Vegas locations. My choice that morning was the chorizo hash. It came with eggs, hasbrowns, a biscuit, and fruit. The picture below does not do it justice. I would recommend this stop to everyone as they had something for each member of my family.

We dropped off our daughter and decided to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. I can say that if you get the chance, it's something you can pass up. I went looking to get some shorts and hats but didn't see anything that I found to be a deal. Before going back to the room, we made a stop at one of the souvenir stores to get a change bag for my daughter. To my surprise, I came across this for only $10. Kind of upset I didn't get one given the vintage nature.

Thanks to many helpful users, I had a reservation set that evening for my wife and I at Mama Della's at Portofino Bay. Except, my wife tells me just hours before that she is not in the mood for Italian. Where there went the romantic evening I had planned..........We ended up at the Royal Pacific to eat at the Orchid Court lounge and Sushi bar. I read some good reviews and looked forward to this as we are both avid Sushi lovers. Four rolls and drinks came to a bill with tip of around $100. For the price, I was not at all impressed. The Sushi to us was bland and the atmosphere was much different than what we expected. That coupled with the $21 I was charged to park for an hour in their lot made this a place I can pass on in the future.

Like the exciting married couple we are.........we found ourselves back at the TGI Fridays in our hotel for some nightcaps. Service again was just ok but that is outweighed by the fact that it's in our hotel. We could safely 'stumble' back to our room without a worry. I don't remember how many more drinks we had or the exact amount of the check, but I do remember thinking it was extremely reasonable.

More to come........