Good morning my gurus of Gringotts, my masters of Marvel! I have downloaded the Touring plans Universal Orlando 2 day/ 2 park/ HE connected plans as a template to guide us as you suggested.
Here’s a few more questions:
1.) As the 3 kids are in their early 20’s and wife and I are in our 50’s, what rides/attractions do you suggest we edit out of the plans that are perhaps too childish? (My wife wonders why I care since I’m perpetually childish!)
2.) I doubt we will want to do any spinning “tea-cup” like rides in Universal Orlando or WDW given our groups hi barf quotient. Which rides should we delete from the plans?
3.)Is there a way to test our vestibular/ocular dysynchrony sickness (motion sickness from watching stationary screens while seats move causing disagreement between the 2 senses…aka green as a toad) BEFORE arriving in Orlando?
4.) As we are staying at Royal Pacific, I like the idea of taking a break from the parks at the end of the afternoon for a meal at City Walk (I’m thinking the Mexican Restaurant there), retiring to the room for a refresher, and going back to Harry Potter World Saturday evening between the 2 park days, using HE perhaps both ways and just absorbing ambiance and riding Gringotts and Forbidden Journey (maybe a 2nd time). That would give us only 1 park to cover on Sunday. Then we could exit mid to end of Sunday afternoon to move to our Sunday night hotel outside of west gate of WDW where we will base camp for 1 night before starting our 4 days at WDW at the Contemporary. With all that in mind… if you think that is a good idea… how should I alter the template for the 2 day/ 2 park/ Early access/ Express Pass plan as outlined by Touring Plans?
If you search on Google for Universal and motion sickness, you can find articles listing which ones are bad and why. I like this article: Managing Motion Sickness at Universal Orlando Resort . Maybe send your sturdiest folk first to test them? We’re 60+, I can handle anything, but DH can’t do much, so someday we’ll go to Universal and he’ll have to miss most rides.
Does the Express Pass we get with our room key provide Express pass access to Escape from Gringott’s and Forbidden Journey or are they non-express pass rides regardless of whether Express Pass purchased or was part of resort room key?
We are essentially doing the same thing in May. (Staying at the Royal Pacific, touring UO with adult children.) I actually used the one-day, two park Harry Potter plan for one day so that we could immerse ourselves in HP. I figured we would all be together for that day. Then did the 1 day both park tour for the second day (I left the HP in as I assumed we would want to do them again.) My thought is that we may split up a bit on this day as many of the rides will have more appeal for my kids than for me.
I left a third day unplanned so that people can do whatever they want.
I found the attractions link on my dashboard very useful. It has links to all the attractions plus says whether you have them in a plan or not. I had two windows up-- one with the list of attractions, one with the plan. So I could add attractions to the plan if they sounded good, remove them if they didn’t, or make notes if there was some info to capture.
I realise none of this gives you the exact answer but perhaps it will have useful ideas. Best of luck!
Childish attractions that should in my opinion be skipped:
—Woody Woodpecker coaster
—Barney show
—Pteranodon Flyers ride (you can’t ride without kids anyway)
—Flight of the Hippogriff
—One Fish Two Fish ride (like Dumbo)
—Dr. Seuss carrousel (if you’ve been on one, it’s pretty much the same thing, but suess characters)
Childish attractions that in my opinion shouldn’t be skipped, or experienced at least once:
—ET (classic)
—The Cat in the Hat (fun and cute)
—Minion Mayhem (fun)
—Shrek 4D (funny)
—High in the Sky Suess Train ride (good views of Suess area of the park from above)
Some rides that are very dizzying like teacups:
—Kang and Kodos Hurl and Twirl
—Storm Force Acceleration
—One Fish Two Fish ride
I get motion sickness easily, so there are rides that I personally get sick on. If you want me to tell you ones I avoid all together (medicine or not), or ones I’m okay with as long as I have medicine, let me know.
Robin, that’s a capital idea. Padfoot, I’d love your up-chuck avoidance advice details. I’m not real tenuous but the rides with stationary screens with moving seats do potentiially make me queasy. That said, I’m doing most of those rides by Jove.
A return time ticket is for when you go for the Jimmy Fallon ride. Since there is no “line”, you get a card that tells you when to return for your ride. My mind is a little fuzzy on this. If I remember correctly, when we arrived in the morning, we had different times to choose from for a return time. However, when we returned later in the afternoon for a second ride, they just gave us a return time.
I will do my write up on my avoidance rides really soon!
To add to the return ticket time: Fast & Furious will have that system too. Express pass bypasses this system. You can also book these attractions in the app.
So, regardless of where I go on vacation, I always need to take some sort of motion sickness prevention (we talked about different kinds in the thread I started a few days ago if you want to check it out). However, there are rides I avoid at Universal regardless of the fact that I took precautions because they still make me sick when I ride them. Mind you, I’ve gone on all of these rides over the years, and the ones I’ve had multiple problems on are the ones I’ve added to the list.
—Rip, Ride, Rocket
—The Hulk
—Storm Accelatron
—Hurl and Twirl ride in the Simpsons area
—One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish
—The Suess Carousel
—The Simpsons Ride
—Forbidden Journey (I still ride it, but I HAVE to close my eyes at parts, or I will get sick. After riding once on every trip, I know for a fact this one will make me sick. It’s too jerky and bumpy. ) Gringotts is much, much smoother. I’ve gone on multiple times in a row with no problems at all.
The rest of them are rides I still go on, but make me sick if I don’t close my eyes at a few parts (not the whole time), but are still fun to ride.
—Transformers (but not Spider-Man for some reason)
—Men in Black (if I ride more than once)
—Jimmy Fallon Race Through New York
—Shrek 4d and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (I sit in the stable seats, and just watch the movie with the glasses, lol. If I get dizzy, I close my eyes).
Also, off topic, but I highly recommend the Make Ip and Horror Show, I see it every time we have a trip, it’s really good! Entertaining, and you get out of the sun in cushioned seats and an air conditioned theater
Historically I do not get motion sick, but to survive Forbidden Journey I need to be careful that I haven’t eaten for a while prior, and that I am not wearing too many layers (getting too hot is a bad thing), and I have to close my eyes for all of the screen portions of the ride.
I haven’t had a problem with other rides. I do enjoy the minions show more if I sit in the non-moving seats. They might have these for other shows - it’s worth asking about.
I think this is so funny, because I need to eat shortly before going on the ride. If I go on an empty stomach, I get way sicker than if I go on with a full stomach! I wish I could figure out the physiology behind this.
Exactly what I came to write—Horror and Make Up is awesome, Sinbad isn’t so great. You guys should see some of the Harry Potter stories and shows, they aren’t that long, but good to see!
As said before Horror Make Up is a must do. Underrated in every way. Skip all the Hogsmeade shows but see all the Diagon Alley shows. Sinbad puts the bad in Sindbad and avoid Fear Factor Live. If you see any street shows in USF check them out, they’re all pretty good to ok. If you are ok with an uncharge Blue Man Group is worth the price.
