How we rocked Universal Studios!

***Disclaimer: This post is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Universal Studios, any of Universal Studios’ properties, or affiliates. Thank you.-A.G.

If I have no other words for our Universal Studios vacation, I can surely come up with WOW! Earlier this month, my husband and I vacationed at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. I had to work in Florida the week before, so it was very cost-effective to tie our vacation into my business trip. We have actually planned previous vacations in this manner and it always works well for us. We had an absolute blast! Below, I am going to share with you a few highlights from our trip. These are things that I think made all the difference in our vacation.

1. We had a great travel agent. I have planned vacations on my own in the past. I thought I did a pretty good job. I found some great deals, or so I thought. Turns out, I was only finding some of the deals. If you aren’t going for specifics, and you don’t have many requests, you may do well planning your own get-away. However, if there are specific things you want, get a travel agent. Trust me, you will spend less money and experience less stress. Our travel agent is so awesome! I never had to worry about anything or drive a distance to visit her office. She took care of everything! If you are looking for a great travel agent, let me recommend Air & Sea Travel.
2.  We stayed at an on-site resort.  The Royal Pacific Resort will make you feel you’ve been transported to a tropical island paradise! It was so beautiful….and CONVENIENT! We had multiple transportation (complimentary) options, even walking! The entrance to City Walk, Islands of Adventure, and Universal Studios is just a short walk from the resort. However, our favorite mode of transportation was the water taxi! So relaxing! We chose to stay on-site because they offer many complimentary promotional features to your package. For example, we really wanted the Express Pass option everyday that we had tickets. The Express Pass allows you to skip the regular lines at many attractions throughout the park. This can get expensive, because these passes are about $89 per person per day. We got this option FREE just by staying at an on-site resort! Also, we had early access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter daily, and City Walk Party Passes included as a perk of our package!
3. We got the Meal Plan (but next time, we will just get the Quick Service option meal plan!) Well, you’ve gotta eat, right!? Right! And food at theme parks can be outrageously expensive! There are a TON of food options at Universal Orlando! Our meal plan option allowed us to have 1 Quick Service meal a day (includes entrée with side(s) and beverage,) 1 snack per day, 1 table service meal (sit down restaurant style that includes entrée with side(s), beverage, and dessert,) and 1 additional beverage per day. And of course, this is per person. This is a LOT of food! Don’t take quick service to mean “fast food.” There are some really GOOD options for quick service. On two occasions, we ate at the same quick service spot for lunch. I had so much food, I couldn’t finish all of it! We actually enjoyed our quick service lunches better than our table service dinners. We found that the dining plan was very limiting for dinner options. We would have rather just paid to eat wherever we wanted for dinner (and order whatever we wanted as well!) It’s not the food that is crazy expensive, in my opinion. It’s the snacks! Luckily, we each had a snack per day included in our plan. When you weigh it out, it’s a good deal. One Butterbeer(you HAVE to try it frozen) in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade can cost you around 7 bucks!
4. We ditched our water bottles and opted for the free cups of ice water. Just like Disney, cups of ice water are complimentary! Just stop at any cart that has a water tap or quick service stop and ask for a cup of ice water. Totally free and very convenient! Perfectly chilled water just when you need it. Instead of carrying around a water bottle all day, that will eventually turn lukewarm or even hot, just opt for the nicely, chilled cup of ice water instead!
5. We stayed longer than average. Most blogs and Universal enthusiasts say that you can fully do everything in 2 days. This is true. You can. But, you will probably be rushing and slightly stressed. This also depends on the time of year you plan on vacationing. If you go in the off-season, 2 days may be enough to complete your tour of Universal at a rather relaxed pace. However, if you go during the 4th of July holiday season, like we did, you may find that 2 days would be pushing it! We had 4 day tickets and I am so glad we did! This allowed us to take our time and really experience everything we wanted to in the parks. Longer wait times for rides that don’t utilize Express Pass? No problem! We just used the great Universal app, checked the wait times, and came back later when the wait time was reasonable for us! No stress, no worries. We also didn’t feel bad about leaving the parks early and going back to the hotel to rest. It was scorching hot, so resting was a great idea. We took a good break, and hit the parks hard again in the late afternoon! So much more stress free!

We had such a blast on our vacation! If you have ever been to Universal, we would love to know what made your vacation outstanding!! Let us know here, or email us at ag@nursingforall.com!

Here’s to awesome vacations,

A.G.