So many places that are not great, but here are a few good ones:
Today Cafe or Bumblebee Man Taco Truck in USF or
Thunder Falls Terrace or Wimpy’s (best QS burgers in parks) in IOA
Both good, I would just compare the menus and decide.
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Definitely do dinner at Cowfish! It was fantastic. If you like Mexican food, I would also suggest Antojitos.
I would pick Leaky Cauldron over Three Broomsticks. We thought both the food and atmosphere were better at LC. And it’s great for breakfast if that is an option for you.
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Trip is in less than 4 weeks, and I haven’t done that much planning. But I guess that’s kinda the point and benefit of UOR with EP’s vs all the prep involved with WDW. But I feel like I need to be doing something. So this is a rough outline of the plan at this point:
Day 1
- Arrive mid-day, check into Portofino
- Get a snack or light QS somewhere (maybe on CW), IOA until about 8:30pm
- Toothsome reservation 9pm
Day 2
- Either Early Hour at IOA (mainly for VC) and go to Diagon Alley when it opens or just skip that hour and go straight to DA.
- Explore DA and LC breakfast
- Play it by ear whether family wants to continue on all HP-themed adventure and take HE back to HM or start going around USF (probably the former based on what’s to come)
- Light lunch or snack (Tots at GE&H?) at some point
- JPRA, Ripsaw Falls, Popeye all in a row
- To Portofino for a couple hours for pool break and change clothes
- Back to parks, open schedule
- Dinner TBD
- In parks til close or as late as we feel, pick up VD donuts for next morning breakfast
Day 3
- Donuts, pack up, check out, move bags to car and drive over to Cabana Bay to park
- Go to parks (will play by ear whether the early hour is needed for this day), do everything we haven’t gotten to yet in either park (probably more USF), and repeat favorites, with the last day of EP.
- Lunch or snack TBD, probably Three Broomsticks dinner (either before or after peak time)
- Find @Jeff_AZ whenever it makes sense
- More attractions
Day 4
- Lazy morning, breakfast at Cabana Bay
- Cabana Bay pool and lazy river in the morning
- Back to parks, possible snack or lunch in CW on the way
- No longer have EP, so Hagrid’s, VC, any shows not yet seen, shops, streetmosphere, Mardi Gras stuff, etc.
- Dinner reservation at Mythos
- Last call for anything to repeat in either park
- Back to Cabana Bay
Note: Booked CB with the potential to go to VB on this day. It’s still a possibility as I haven’t purchased park tickets yet for everyone, but leaning towards no. I know it’s as good a waterpark as there is, and not that much more cost, but we live close to Wisconsin Dells and go to multiple water parks there every year, so despite the amazing level of theming and some of the extra cool things that you don’t get in Wisconsin, the attractions/slides themselves fall among the variety of what we can do close to home, and we just don’t have that many days in Orlando. But I haven’t ruled it out yet, like I have forever with TL and BB.
Day 5
- Breakfast at resort, pack up, check out, bags to car
- Disney Springs until mid-afternoon, open after that (have thought about possibility of convention tickets basically just for Rat, walking around WS, and Harmonious but that’s still a lot for just a few hours with 5 tickets, we’ll see, the trip was intentionally supposed to be UOR only and kept to a reasonable budget, WDW will still be there next time)
- Either have to start driving home late that night or very early next morning, staying offsite for that night either way. Hard for us to take longer trips because of the pets, and I lost 2+ days by cheaping out and driving instead of flying because I didn’t find rates I liked. But having said that, I’m looking forward to a road trip even though every other family member is mad at me for not flying. Thinking of Universal-based soundtracks playing on the way there and have 18 hours to fill, and there are 4 drivers in the family now to rotate so I can actually relax (maybe not fully if DD16 is allowed to drive).
Overall note: Will be monitoring VC and Hagrid’s wait times regularly in the background, with more attention given later in the days and right before park close, and hit those as many times as possible when it makes the most sense with wait times and our location.
So any critiques or comments to fine tune this better are welcome, and a lot will intentionally be wide open with touring and food, because it can be. I’m familiar enough with UOR but far from an expert so I’m probably overlooking some things or unaware of some ways to do it better or things to make sure not to miss. It helps at this point for me to just get a framework down in writing and work out any potential issues before the trip and not during.
Also, what’s with the nighttime Cinematic Celebration show? I have searched hard to figure out the schedule for it, the app/site says no times available, some reviews say it has run once or twice a week lately. No one seems to know what’s going on with that, and I’d love to see it and be able to plan for it.
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Sounds perfect to me, I love the easy flow of it all.
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I was thinking of doing Three Broomsticks for dinner, maybe that would be a good time to say hi if the timing aligns. 
The best part is I can charge my meals back to my company!
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Can’t wait to hear about your trip!! We are staying 1 night at CB (and doing VB) before moving over to Portofino Bay this coming September. Previously we stayed 2 nights at RP and did a marathon one-day park-a-thon. Looking forward to more time and a slower pace. Our good friends from CT are now going to be joining us, so splurging on a 2 bedroom suite - which I’m super excited about. They’ve never been, so this will be their first time. Thanks for sharing your plans!
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It is annoying that they have no schedule. But looking back at late March 2021, it was every day M-F at 9:00 (USF park close). Weekends it was at 9:45 with a 10:00 close time. So I would be hopeful that it is at least most nights. It’s mainly January and February when it doesn’t happen a lot of nights.
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Hello. I do not see what days of the week you will be in Universal, but see you have an AP. (based on your getting AP hotel rate ) Universal has Mardi Gras going on through April and has concerts Fri, Sat, and Sunday at the end of March. Depending on what type of AP you have, you may be blocked out of Universal Studios for those days or nights (depending on what AP). I have not seen anyone mention this and just wanted to make you aware in case you will be there on the weekend.
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Yes, that’s a good point. I didn’t realize that until recently but lucked out that only the first day (which will just be a half day) is affected, so we’ll be fine with IOA the first night and not worry about upgrading AP.
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How much are world events going to raise gas prices over the next month and eat into the savings of driving vs flying?
At $3/gal (what I used for calculations several weeks ago), gas for the trip would total about $382, the current average of the 7 states I’ll drive through is now $3.40, making the total $434, and if it gets to $4 by my trip, it will be about $510. When flights were their cheapest, could have flown for about $900-1000 (if bought now, would be $1400+). The extra hotel/food cost with driving is mostly cancelled by need for rental car or rideshare for 5 to both UOR and DS with flying. I hope the gap doesn’t close much more or I will kick myself that I traded a lot of time for not much financial benefit and gave myself another uncertainty to worry about before the trip. There is a reason almost everyone flies there. 
(ETA: Just want to be totally clear that by bringing up anything in the news right now, I’m not implying that all that matters is its effect on my trip, but just keeping it in strict context with the thread as a random thought I had this morning.)
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Gas is 3.70 in my state. We could see 4.50 here this year if things continue 
I’d expect airlines to already have figured in the higher cost of jet fuel, but I’d say higher rates could be in order too.
Question about AP perks.
So I’m thinking of upgrading to Power to avoid being locked out of USF on concert night when we arrive. But if I did that, thinking of just going to Preferred for 10% discounts. Just $500 of total food/merch would pay for that additional $50. But my question is with parking for Preferred. Says free self-park after first visit. How is first visit defined? I have a split stay, so once I change resorts am I on the second visit and get free parking there, or do so many days have to go by in between? Couldn’t find this anywhere, and that would save another $36 if allowed.
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Free parking is for the theme park parking garage. You’ll still be paying for parking at your resort(s.)
The first visit refers to the fact that you’ll pay for parking at the theme park parking garage the first time you park there. You can avoid this by using the resort transportation during your onsite stays.
After your first paid parking, just show your AP and you won’t be charged for parking at the parking garage.
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Okay, late to the thread here, but for a second I thought you were talking about your wife! 
We very much enjoyed Antojitos in December. Margaritaville was just so-so.
We definitely need a Liner Bros meet-up! I can’t wait and there better be pictures!
We were about $3.70 prior to recent world events here in WA.
@Tall_Paul1 Sounds like a great trip! How did I miss the thread earlier?
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Thanks. Had no idea that only referred to the park parking and not resorts. So no way around those fees then.
Maybe if I were British. 
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Universal is fast. This showed up just a couple days later. We went furthur than just voting on which character’s to get, but deliberated like a jury until unanimous. Super critical decision. 
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DD19 chose this wand last April! The other wand she has (not interactive) is Fred Weaselly and I don’t think you can even get his any more.
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