Universal Florida

Where did we stay?

Universals Dockside Inn and Suites

It’s the most economical “on-site” Universal hotel but for us was perfect - affordable and very doable without car hire.  The extra hour in the parks in the morning meant we could do the busier rides first thing and the free shuttles (running every ten minutes or so) made it all run very smoothly. It’s also at the north of I-Drive which gave us much more flexibility with restaurants and shops! If the high-end Universal hotels are out of budget, this is a great alternative and I would definitely stay there again!

The weather in Florida at the end of August?!

A bit of a mix – a few torrential downpours (a plastic poncho is not going to keep you dry!), lots of sunshine but mostly slightly overcast but warm/hot days.

Over the 12 nights we had four days where the rain did affect our day but we were able to adapt and generally still make the most of it. It did wipe out most of a day at the waterpark though so worth bearing in mind! Mostly though the rain is short-lived but torrential and it changes very quickly! The rest of the time it was sunny or overcast and hot! The evenings were warm too so I didn’t need a jumper (and those who know me know I get cold easily).

Would I go again then? Yes 100%. In school holidays, for me it’s a good time to get slightly better value and less busy parks!

We definitely made the most out of the 14 day Universal tickets over the 12 nights and visited at least one park most days. The beauty of not maxing out on all the other park tickets meant we could have the odd day relaxing (or shopping) for part of it and then visit a park for a few hours for the other part. Universal Studios was the only park which didn’t give the extra hour first thing for hotel guests but it didn’t impact much at all and most queues were under an hour, one of the mid-week days we were going round and round with almost no queuing!

Islands of Adventure

This has changed quite a lot since I last visited so we enjoyed exploring. On one of the days here we embraced the wet rides and really did get soaked through which was great fun and ok in the sunshine. On the other days we enjoyed the Velocicoaster and Hulk, I enjoyed the Minion shooting game until the kids found a trick that I never mastered and kept beating me, and not forgetting some of the rides, and we might have been glad that one of the rides had permanently closed a few days before we arrived!

EPIC UNIVERSE

As it only opened earlier this year and it was the first full theme park to open in Florida in over 20 years, the 14 day Universal tickets only included one day at Epic for this year. So, we made the most of the extra hour and arrived for opening, and we stayed until it closed with the fabulous fountain show at 10pm. We loved it, our favourite ride was easily Stardust Racers, our favourite land was Super Mario World (they’ve done it so well on two levels) but the whole park was brilliant and worth the long day to make the most of it!

We did also have one day at Discovery Cove as swimming with dolphins has been on my bucket list to do with the kids for a while and I felt Orlando was a good place to do it and they’re a good age to enjoy and hopefully remember it. It was a brilliant day and the food inclusions were a nice break from fast food! We loved the “lazy” river and the flamingo parade but of course the highlight was being in the water with a dolphin

Volcano Bay

It was my first visit to this waterpark and the first time I’d experienced the virtual queuing which made a big difference especially with the aqua-coaster.

We visited on four occasions but often for an afternoon or morning. Bear in mind they shut all the rides and pools if there is lightning close by so one of our days was wiped out a little by this and we ended up abandoning it and trying one of the theme parks to salvage some of the afternoon and evening! The kids loved it though and it was the only place I got told off for not keeping up (those stairs!!).

If you didn’t know, I like to run and so yes, I did set the alarm for 5.45am both Saturdays to make the closest parkrun (40 ish minutes Uber ride) and the earlier 7.30am start, much to the kids delight.  Another course to add to my foreign total.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our Florida holiday and seeing what we were up to and that I haven’t bored you too much!

If you have any questions or would like help planning your Florida trip do get in touch! I’ve stayed at Universal, Disney and off-site now so happy to advise on the pros and cons to all.