Universal Orlando but not Disney? Newbie advise pleas

[medianewbie]

Looking at last min breaks. 10 day trip to Florida: Universal Orlando came up. We're a Family of 3. Kids of 19 & 16. ASD. No interest in 'Disney' / 'theme parks' / rollercoasters. But LOTS of ASD interest in Space & Harry Potter. Never been abroad before. Would it be completely crazy? Once in a lifetime?
What do I need to know please?
Room only at the resort. But no idea re food costs / transport etc. I don't suppose you can do this on a budget!

I may need someone to talk me down!

If you want to do a budget and have 10 days there, then I'd suggest staying at a villa type place so that you can get to the main things that you want to do. With a relatively long time there, you could do 4/5 days at the park, some pool days to rest and stillnhave time for other attractions. Villa would also allow you to self cater some meals

Not crazy at all. Universal is fantastic and the Harry Potter theming is just incredible. There are a lot of rollercoasters though….. so they like any type of ride? If someone is interested in space then you could also do a day trip to the Kennedy space centre.

Do you mean room only at universal hotel or staying outside the resort? Resort buses are great, and if you’re offsite Ubers often work out cheaper than hiring a car. Eating out can still be done fairly cheaply if you leave the parks!! No it’s not really possible to have a budget Florida holiday but it’s certainly possible to make savings.

@KnickerlessFlannel @Tacocatgoatcheesepizza
It's a room at the endless summer hotel, at the resort (I don't drive) so I'd have to buy all food.
No idea what to budget / day for food?
No rollercoasters at all no (are there 'virtual' ones?). But obsessed with HP & Space. And interested in nature & history of Florida itself (absent here?)

Kennedy Space Centre would be a must. And maybe two days there. You can get transportation included in some tickets I think.

Harry Potter at Universal is amazing but a lot of it is within the coaster rides. The Hogsmead Village is great though as is the HP train ride between the parks.

You could do it on a budget but it depends on budget!

There was a virtual rollercoaster Simpsons ride at Universal when I was there about 10 years ago. It's the best ride I've ever been on, loved it.

We’ve stayed at that hotel - it’s fab! You can buy refillable cups for tea/coffee/soft drinks which are really good value. Pool towels are provided. We ate at the hotel quite a lot but there are other restaurants very close. The shuttle buses to the parks work really well. Volcano Bay water park is brilliant.

The Harry Potter rides are great and yes, there are virtual roller coasters (but they made me feel really carsick so I stuck with the proper roller coasters!). The ET ride has been there forever but it’s still fab.

Ahh we stayed at endless summer surfside a couple of years ago!! It’s a brilliant resort, I loved it. You can also walk from there to some cheap restaurants on international drive like ihop, kfc and I think there was a Wendy’s or similar as well which is great for making eating cheaper.

I would also recommend taking an Uber to the nearest Walmart when you first arrive and stock up on a few groceries so you can have breakfast or the odd dinner in your room. Or take a few bits with you, brioche rolls/boxes of cereal etc.

i would also still recommend the day trip to Kennedy - I think you can book on a coach trip to get there if you don’t drive.

If you go on their site you can usually see all the menus for the different restaurants with their prices. This may help see what costs are likely to be for meals

They might also enjoy Epcot at Disney - there is a space themed restaurant and a very gentle slow moving ride inside the thing that looks like a giant golf ball.

but the parks will be very busy and it will be very hot. Will they be able to cope with that? Have they done a long flight and coped with jet lag?

Food wise I’d estimate $10 per person for breakfast,$15 for a fast food type lunch and maybe $20 per person for dinner. You’ll know how much you can afford to budget for additional drinks and snacks as well as souvenirs etc.

endless summer is exactly the resort I would recommend for you.

instacart do grocery deliveries and I always take a suitcase of snacks (it is only fresh produce you can’t take) so we take cereal (buy milk there) crisps/popcorn etc. we then also share 2 refillable cups ($19 for drinks from the resort) and use them for any drinks we need and fill up the water into bottles so no need to buy anything rlse

We stayed at Cabana Bay and used the free shuttles to Universal. At Endless you’d do the same. We bought refillable drinks cups for al kids and the adults secretly shared them. I used Instacart to get deliveries to the room for snacks and drinks. Eating out can be pricey but portions are huge so share where possible. We also had Uber eats deliver us local pizza to the hotel which was affordable.

Think carefully about the time of year you want to go. Sometimes are insanely busy. We went the back end of August into September and queue times were fab! It’s very hot so you need to be prepared and utilise the air con in the ride queues and inside gift shops etc.

Hi again, this is all great thank you. Dates: 1st 10 days July (this July!)
Hol Co quoted me £995 for 3 Universal tickets. I didn't think we'd want anything Disney except Epcot so I didn't get a quote for that as well (can you just do that bit of Disney?). They said its all much more expensive to book onsite. I'm thinking 2 days Space centre, 1/ 2 day HP experience. Leaves 6/7 days. Travel Co suggested Gator land, Sugar factory, Clearwater beach & Waterparks (but are they all fast rides / flumes through water? Maybe a week would be enough but I thought if we're going all that way 10 days allows for jet lag etc. They also, quite bizarrely, suggested Hooters! (so I don't know how much they were messing with me as a Florida 'newbie').

Another thought - do you have to endlessly Tip 30% in the US ?

Hi, we went recently. Have ASD. Mad HP fan. Best holiday ever.

You definitely need to stay at a park resort for early entry to avoid too many people. There is background music everywhere but the HP music is the theme tune music so I found it fine (classical). Some places (Marvel area) it's too loud.

Download uber eats before you leave and you can get food delivery to the hotel. You can take food into the park. There are free lockers for small rucksacks whilst on rides you can't take bags on, free tap water everywhere. So we split the food etc between 2 small bags and it was fine.

The cheapest place to get universal park tickets was a site called Orlando attractions. I used the site Orlando informer for planning. The universal official app is essential for planning and checking live queuing times. It can be cheaper if less than 3 days to buy individual park tickets- have a look at cheapholidayexpert on Instagram as she went there recently and has some good budget tips. Also has videos of the endless summer rooms I think.

I used the single rider queues a lot (by myself) to avoid queuing for too long but there were small groups using them too. If you can't do coasters they will let you queue to experience eg walking through Hogwarts then exit before the ride. You can also use the single rider option for one person to test a ride to see if the others would like it. The Hogwarts and Gringotts ride are a mix of virtual and real. They are amazing. Lots of other things to do if no coasters eg ollivander wand experience, hogwarts train, celestina warbeck performances, etc.

There is so much HP stuff to see that I honestly think you could fill 3 or 4 days with that alone. We spent 7 days there, just in the park. It absolutely blew my mind. Also because of ASD we couldn't do a full day in the park so we needed rest breaks etc.

We tipped 20%, which is what my US friend said to tip. $1 per day per person to the housekeeping team.

I would download any app you want to use in the UK and set up here first. I tried to download one and it wouldn't work without a US phone number.

We went to Florida last July/august just did Disney though not universal as our 2 are young
Kennedy space center is amazing. Get there for opening one day and you can get the simulators done in a morning I there are 3 or 4
you can buy day tickets for single Disney parks, just check the dates for the food festival for Epcot as they sometimes sell out for those days

We went in 2018 and are planning to go back next year. We also hate rollercoasters (and teens most likely have Asd) but there are more than enough family rides and loads of 3D and 4D rides. We did Disney as well but that does add £s. We loved Epcot and Hollywood Studios at Disney.

There is lots of queuing and lots of people but it’s so much fun - absolutely our best holiday ever. We are planning 4 days at the 2 universal parks - there is more than enough to keep you occupied for that long. 2 days at Kennedy space centre would be greaT too.
We didn’t really tip much- although it is expected in restaurants- we stuck to 10%.

Tipping in the US is practically mandatory. When we went in 2016 all the restaurant bills had tip suggestions ranging between 18 and 23%.

The best places to eat to avoid tipping are places that have self service rather than waiter service. At the Universal resort there you walk through City Walk to get to the theme parks, City Walk has loads of eating places and a cinema.

I'll be honest and say that we found eating out in Orlando pretty expensive. You also need to remember that they add tax on to everything, so nothing is the price it is displayed at.

The Harry Potter stuff at Universal and Islands of Adventure is abolutely brilliant, and you need tickets for both parks, not just Universal as the HP stuff is in both parks. I hope your ASD DC is OK with queuing and crowds as you won't be able to avoid them in July.

To visit the Kennedy Space Centre you would have to find out if there is a trip there. I think most people hire a car and drive there themselves.

Be warned - this is not a holiday you can do on a budget

Food at Hooters is actually really nice 😋

You will be able to apply for the Universal assistance pass which will help you avoid queues for anything you do want to go on.
https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/gb/plan-your-visit/accessibility-information

Just because your focus is HP do not rule out the rest of the park! For example the Bourne Stuntacular show is amazing!! And we all love the minions 3d ride, Spider-Man, transformers, simpsons, Men In Black…. They are all rides that are not roller coasters. And if you can persuade them onto Hagrids well what can I say, it’s an incredible ride! I appreciate that may be a no go though. You can watch the ride on YouTube to see if might appeal.

Also, yes you must tip in restaurants but it’s usually about 18% not 30%.

We did a week at Universal last year. That was plenty. The HP stuff is so well done. And the rest of the parks are good too. Lots of 3d virtual coasters and rides, as well as some big rollercoasters.

It is tricky to do on a budget. Food had gone up a lot since we did Disney pre covid.

So, we've been looking on YouTube.
We like the look of the Epcot centre = no idea of tkt price here.
We like the look of the Kennedy Space Centre (2 days tkts £250)
re the HP stuff - we've been to Warner Bros in London & Alnwick.
dont like rollercoasters so I don't know how much more we'd like HP to warrant tickets for Universal studios (can you buy just day passes anyway)?
No point going for 10 days if we struggled to fill time?
Dont mean to be a negative nelly btw, just wondering if it is 'for us' after all?

The HP stuff at Universal and Islands of Adventure is nothing like the Warner Bros studio tour. I don't like roller coasters either, and managed to avoid them. Are there any YouTube videos that you could watch to see what is actually in Orlando that you would enjoy? It would be a very expensive holiday if there isn't much that you would like to do.

Not being able to drive while you are there can be limiting as well. Did the Kennedy Space Centre tickets include the price of getting there?

@RampantIvy thanks that’s helpful.
Looked at YouTube again. We like: Kennedy Space centre, HPotter world, Volcano bay/ water park place. Epcot.
But I'm thinking 1/2 days on each might need 10 not 7 days (+ a bit of jet lag / heat induced rest needed!). Also might need 3 lots of expensive tickets.