In a little over 100 days Grandma and I will be going to Universal Orlando parks. This will be our first trip back to Universal in over 20 years. Why are we doing this? What has changed? And are we approaching this trip differently than a WDW vacation? Read on to find out.

Why Now?

Obvious answer is Epic Universe. But that is only part of the answer. In the past, like many people, we would take a day trip to the Universal parks. It was small enough that we would do both parks in a day. It was a nice change of pace to the crowds at WDW. Universal seemed a little more laid back with many more thrill rides. Lines did not seem that long and the parks are compact. We never felt the need to make a full multi-day vacation trip just for Universal. Epic Universe has changed that. Now with 3 parks plus a water park, one day did not seem enough.

Thrill Rides

Why did we go to Universal in the first place? Easy, a change of pace. Disney is geared towards families. I know, there are some thrill rides. However, for the most part, the rides and attractions are geared more towards including the entire family. Disney rides are also ultra-themed and tell a story. The ride system is a mechanism that supports that story. The entire experience is immersive.

Universal followed suite to some extent. Many of the rides are superbly themed. However, I never felt that the story was the point. The story supported the thrill not the other way round. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Spiderman and Jurassic Park rides. But come on, the Hulk coaster, is just a green Roller Coaster. A great ride, but without a story. The point of Universal for us was to get our adrenaline fix.

Epic Universe

Enter Epic Universe. Even by Disney standards, this place looks amazing. The park is small, with only 11 total rides. Epic is organized into 4 different lands, each accessible via “portals”. I’m sure everyone has seen the commercials by now, so I won’t dwell on it. All the attractions in the various lands are heavily themed towards that land. That’s a pretty familiar formula for us Disney Fans! We decided that Epic Universe is a must do on our next Orlando vacation. There are many reviews, videos, and discussions on the web that completely cover Epic Universe. I will not rehash that here. Instead I will outline our approach to a Universal vacation and in a trip report, report back how it worked out.

Planning

Our fall trip with the grandkids is coming in November. We will be staying for 15 days at 3 different DVC resorts. This trip is all planned and booked. However, Grandma and I decided we needed a little us time before hosting very excited young ones. Tacking on a few days in the beginning of the trip seemed like the perfect way to do Universal. We also wanted to stay on property in one of their premium hotels. Unlike Disney, when you stay at one of the premium properties, you get a length of stay Express Pass Unlimited! This perk is available at the original Loews hotels, Portofino Bay, Royal Pacific, and Hard Rock. The Express Pass Unlimited allows you to skip the line on almost every ride. You get to ride as often as you want and there is no scheduling required. Hear that Disney, NO SCHEDULING REQUIRED. Unfortunately, Epic Universe is not included on the pass.

Express Pass

Now most of you know by now that Grandma and I never buy Disney Lighting Lane passes of any sort. Disney passes requires a lot of planning and scheduling. You end up spending a lot of time looking at your phone and stressing over the next time slot. We prefer to look at the sights and take in the vibe. Not worrying about the next reservation or open time slot. We do things on our own schedule at our own pace. That is the very essence of our Crushing It! park strategy.

The Universal Express Pass allows us to do things on our own schedule. There are no reservations required. You simply get in the Express Pass Line. That’s It! With the unlimited pass, you get into any line as much as you want! What could be easier! We can employ the Crushing It! strategy AND skip the lines. Best of both worlds. The Epic pass, however only allows you to ride once. With 11 attractions and 1 day, I do not think this is a real limitation.

Dining

We are reviewing all the Dining options. Like Disney, you can make dining reservations at full service eateries. They also have mobile order available at quick service restaurants. It also appears that you can make reservations pretty far in advance. Universal could take a lesson from Disney. Making Dining reservations can only be done via their phone app. It is cumbersome and not as intuitive as it could be. I would like to use a desktop or laptop computer. However, the Universal web site does not support it. While we are on the subject of Universals web site, it really needs some help. I’m used to using Disney web sites. And this is just not it.

At this point, I think we will be just using quick service eateries. I really don’s see us making reservations at full service establishments. We will be spending a lot of time with the Grandkids the following weeks. Their parents have plans on various character meals. So we are going to save our dining dollars for them. This could change, however.

Waiting

So the hard part has started. We are in the middle of summer with a little over 100 days until take off. This is the time where plans are made, remade, and refined. We have our reservations, hotel and rental car. We have our park tickets and Epic Express Pass. Now what!

We are taking this time to read reviews for all the rides and attractions at Universal. Grandma and I are not as spry as we used to be. Many of the more intense rides now cause us a bit of motion sickness. Age will do that to you. In our heyday, we wanted Faster, Higher, More G’s Please. Now, not so much. For Epic Universe, we will not be doing Dragon Racers. It looks amazing, but unfortunately, it is also pretty intense.

EPIC Here We Come

We are so very excited about rekindling our Universal Orlando trips. We have many fond family memories. We know that things have changed a lot in the decades since we have been there. Our only expectation is that the trip will be much different than a Disney stay. How much different we are excited to find out.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures! Until next time