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This section covers various ways to make your trip better - from ways to save time and money to Early Park Admission and character meets.
Take food in with you
Universal allows you to bring your own food into the parks. Whether it is a bag of chocolates or a drink, you can purchase these items at a fraction of the price anywhere outside of Universal property.
For drinks, why not put them in a cooling bag (hard-sided coolers are not allowed in the parks), or freeze them to drink throughout the day. Food should be fine in a backpack throughout the day.
Glass containers and bottles are not permitted in the parks.
Bring rain gear
There is a high likelihood that at some point during your Universal Orlando theme park adventure you will get wet, whether it is on one of the water rides, or in one of the famous Floridian thunderstorms.
Either way, we recommend you bring rain protection from home - either a raincoat, a poncho, or even an umbrella (beware of lightning and umbrellas).
This saves you 1) from purchasing these items in the theme parks at inflated prices, and 2) wearing wet clothes when you get soaked.
Those human-sized dryers outside the water rides that you can pay $5 to go into are not very effective – don’t waste your money.
Buy tickets in advance
Do not buy tickets at the gate – you will waste time and pay more than you need to.
There is no excuse not to buy your tickets in advance.
You can do this over the phone, online at universalorlando.com, or through a third party. You will save at least $20 per multi-day ticket by pre-purchasing them.
Also, some countries can get exclusive deals, such as the UK, where there is a 14-day ticket for at a discount on the official UK Universal Orlando website.
You do not NEED Express Pass
By following our Touring Plans, you will be able to see the majority of the attractions at both Universal theme parks in two days. If you have two full days, an Express Pass is not a must: you can save up to $150 per person on Express Passes alone.
If you want to do everything in one day, Express Passes are a must-have.
If you want Express Passes, stay on-site
The on-site hotels are more expensive than those off-site, but staying at select on-site hotels gets you unlimited Express Passes for everyone in the room for the duration of your stay, including check-in and check-out days. To make the most of this, book a one-night stay at a Universal hotel.
On your check-in day, despite the fact your room may only be available from 3:00 pm onwards, you can check-in at any time, leave your bags and get your Express Passes. This means you can arrive at 7:00 am or 8:00 am, check-in, and head straight to the parks.
On your check-out day, your Express Passes are valid until theme park closing, even after you check out. Express Passes are included with rooms at the Hard Rock Hotel, Royal Pacific Resort, and Portofino Bay Resort.
Stay off-site
If you are on a budget, then stay off-site. There are many hotels just off Universal Orlando Resort property – a two to three-minute drive away or a 15-minute walk.
These rooms can cost a fraction of the price of the on-site hotels. Plus, for drivers, many do not have a nightly parking fee.
Loyalty cards
AAA members, American Express Cardholders, and UK-based AA members all receive discounts throughout the resort. The AAA/AA discount is usually around 10% at restaurants and shops - ask for it any time you pay.
Ride photos
Universal is pretty strict on you not taking photos of the monitors showing your on-ride pictures.
As such, we recommend purchasing a My Universal Photos – see the ‘Park Services’ chapter for more on this (page 58). It will pay for itself if you plan on buying just a few ride photos.
Stay at a partner hotel
Stay at one of Universal Orlando’s partner hotels to receive in-room coupons. You may get Early Park Admission too.
Free lockers
Universal charges for lockers on water rides but not on any other rides. Simply walk to a non-water ride and use those lockers.
If you are doing this, be prepared to do a lot of walking to save a few dollars. Also, be ready to look around for the ride with the longest wait times to store your belongings.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey often has lockers with long access times. Once Jurassic World: Velocicoaster opens, this will be much more convenient for Islands of Adventure’s water rides.
How to Spend Less Time Waiting in Line
Park opening
Make sure you get to the theme park well before it officially opens. Ideally, you should be at the gates 30 minutes or more before opening. Remember it will take some time to park if you driving to the resort.
Early morning is the least busy time, and in the first hour, you can usually ride 3 or 4 of the biggest attractions - something that takes several hours during the rest of the day.
The parks often open earlier than advertised, particularly during busy periods.
Use Single Rider lines
If you do not mind riding separately from the rest of your party, use the Single Rider queue lines. See our section on these. They reduce your wait time significantly so that you can experience more each day; these are available at a surprisingly large number of major attractions.
Touring Plans
We have created expertly designed Touring Plans that tell you what order to ride the attractions in; these have been crafted to let you see as much as possible.
Parades
Avoid attractions near the parade route immediately after the parade; they will be busier than usual.
The 59-minute rule
If Universal closes its parks at 9:00pm, that is when the queue lines (not the rides) close. Anyone in the queue line at park closing time is allowed to ride, no matter how long the wait is. If you have one final ride to do and it is getting to park closing time, get into the queue line before the park closes, and you will still be able to ride.
This rule may not apply if an attraction has an exceptionally long wait time that would cause it to keep running for hours after the park closing time.
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How about getting into the theme parks before other guests? Benefit from much shorter queue lines at select attractions, and an emptier park, with Universal’s Early Park Admission (EPA).
During most of the year, Universal Orlando Resort offers one hour’s early entry to one of the two theme parks, plus Volcano Bay.
This benefit is available to on-site hotel guests and guests who have booked a Universal Vacation Package. It is available daily, including check-in and check-out days.
At Islands of Adventure, you will be able to access The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade, including all attractions (except Hogwarts Express, which opens when Universal Studios Florida starts its operating day). Caro-Seuss-el in Seuss Landing is also usually available to ride.
At Universal Studios Florida, you can access The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley and its attractions, minus the Hogwarts Express, which opens at the same time as Universal’s Islands of Adventure. Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem is also available for Early Park Admission.
Early entry is offered daily for on-site hotel guests. Early Park Admission is also offered with vacation packages booked through Universal whether staying on-site or not, as long as you have booked through Universal and purchased accommodation and park tickets together.
The park open for Early Park Admission is usually announced in advance on the Universal Orlando website. The web page may change or update as your trip approaches. During busier periods, both parks may be open early - during less busy periods, one of the two theme parks is open.
In all cases, Volcano Bay is open for early admission in addition to the theme park(s) - here seven of the top attractions are open.
Guests staying at Universal on-site hotels show their room key to gain early admission to the parks.
If this is on your arrival date, make sure you check in before Early Admission starts and go over to the parks; your room will not be ready, but you will have Early Admission to one or both parks.
You may be sent a text message with your room number later on. If you do not receive it, stop by the front desk to get your room number.
Guests with a Universal Vacation Package staying off-site do not need to check in to their hotel room. Simply go straight to the Will Call kiosks located by the entrance to each park.
Here you can enter your confirmation number given to you when booking to redeem your tickets with Early Park Admission.
We advise you to bring your travel confirmation sent to you when you booked the package. This proves that you are entitled to this benefit in case there are any problems at the turnstiles.
Early entry is one hour before regular park opening – that is 8:00 am most of the year (with the theme parks opening for regular guests at 9:00 am), and 7:00 am during peak seasons. Volcano Bay’s Early Park Admission is usually 8:00am or 9:00am.
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Meeting characters can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the day in a theme park. At Universal Orlando, there are many characters to meet, and they usually have little-to-no queues.
At Marvel Superhero Island, you will usually find Captain America, Dr. Doom, The Green Goblin, Spider-Man, Storm, and Wolverine.
They even make their appearances (and disappearances) on cool quad bikes a lot of the time.
You can also meet the Seuss characters at Seuss Landing, including Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, and Thing 1 and 2!
At Universal Studios Florida, you will find the characters from The Simpsons including Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, Krusty the Clown, and Sideshow Bob.
You will also find the Blues Brothers, the Men in Black, Shrek, Fiona and Donkey, Barney, SpongeBob, the Minions and Gru, and the Transformers characters regularly in areas outside their respective attractions.
Other characters also make appearances such as Scooby
Doo and Shaggy, Lucy Ball, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, and Marilyn Monroe.
Character schedules are on your park map. Some are not listed there but make appearances in the parks’ Character Zones, located near the park entrance at Universal Studios Florida, and in Toon Lagoon at Islands of Adventure.
The Universal Orlando Resort is open 365 days a year and park operating hours vary according to demand.
On days when more visitors are expected, the parks are open longer; when there aren’t so many visitors, the parks close earlier. The parks always operate for their advertised operating hours.
We strongly advise that you check opening hours in advance of your visit. Hours may change closer to the date of your visit, so do re-check again.
Park operating hours can be verified up to two months in advance at www.bit.ly/unihours.
Ride refurbishments also happen throughout the year to keep rides operating safely and efficiently, and rides and attractions close throughout the year to be renewed.
Generally speaking, refurbishments tend to avoid the busier times of the year.
Ride closures are only published a month or so in advance on the same page as the opening hours.
Remember that rides may close for technical issues or weather reasons. There is no reason to be angry at the ride attendants, as they do not control whether the ride runs or not.
Chapter 14
