Holiday Planning Help

Hello! We will be at UOR on Christmas Day & Boxing Day, and hoping to get some advice/tips and tricks for the peak holiday season.

Dining:

  1. There are a few quick service places in the parks I’d love to eat at (specifically Minions Cafe and Leaky Cauldron), but I was wondering, since we have limited park time (two partial days - aiming to be in the park by early afternoon on Dec 25 and likely leaving early afternoon Dec 26 to transition over to WDW) if it’s worth attempting to wait for QS, or if making reservations for table service restaurants would be the wiser choice?
  2. How does mobile ordering work during peak season? I know at places like Minions Cafe for example they don’t let you in unless you’ve mobile ordered; does this mean that you can order well in advance and show up to a short/reasonable wait?
  3. We’re looking at Toothsome for the vibes and Mythos since it’s in the parks and the food seems to be generally well-reviewed, but I’ve also seen a lot of reviews of both places mentioning slow service-- should we be looking at alternative options, particularly with our limited park time?

Nighttime Shows:

  1. Ideally we would want to catch both the Hogwarts light show as well as Cinesational on the night of Dec 25, since I doubt we’ll be able to stay in the parks until dark on the 26th given that we have to haul all our luggage over to Disney and check in at our second hotel. What would be the optimal way of ordering the parks to try to see both? I’ve seen a lot of advice to see Cinesational at USF first, then bolt over to IOA to catch the last Hogwarts show, but since we’ll be going in winter when presumably it gets dark out faster and they’ll start the light shows earlier, do you think it’d be possible to see Hogwarts first, then go over to see Cinesational?

Express Pass:

  1. Luckily, we are staying one night at Royal Pacific and will have Express Pass Unlimited for both days. What are the Express wait times like for peak seasons-- should we be expecting to stand in line for 30-60 min per ride? (I’ve made a touring plan for our UOR days but the wait times seem a lil too short to be accurate, e.g. mostly in the ~5 min range.)
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Hello!

Welcome! Ask anything and as often as needed! I love talking about UOR and go as often as I can!

It will be the busiest time of the year. If you go during when it’s not peak meal times your waits will be much easier! 11am - 11:45am / 2pm - 4pm

There are only a few places inside the parks that take reservations - Finnegan’s / Mythos / Lombard’s/ Confisco. Everything else is QS.

Personally, I like most of the QS places better than the TS. The benefit is that you’ll have a guaranteed time to be seated with TS.

This procedure has happened in the past on the busiest of days when there may be a queue just to enter. However, I haven’t seen it used in over a year. UOR stopped doing this because too many people don’t know how to use the app and wanted to pay at the counters.

The policy was to keep people from just coming in and taking up a table without ordering anything. If they are being strict you can do the order right at the door and then be admitted.

No. If this procedure is in place, they won’t start prepping your meals until you sit at a table and scan a QRC to tell them what table the meal goes to.

Both places will be packed. You’ll definitely need reservations. I’d go ahead and make them now, if you can. Ther’s no deposit required or penalty if you cancel / no-show. I’d expect to spend about 60 minutes for a meal at either place. That’s being seated - all the way to paying the check.

If all you want is the Toothsome’s milkshakes you don’t have to sit down. They have a walk-up counter in the lobby that only sells those.

The reason people say to do Hogwarts first is that it happens every 20 minutes from dark until park close.

You only get one showing of CineSational per night that you need to “camp out” to get a good viewing spot.

IME - It’s going to be too busy on this night to even try to do this, but I’d go to USF then IOA as recommended if I was going to attempt it.

FYI - There is no announcement, yet, if there will be a Hogwarts Castle show and/or if it will be holiday themed or Hogwarts Always. There hasn’t been a light show at Hogwarts for the last two years during the holidays. (However, there wasn’t ANY show for the last couple of years until Hogwarts Always premiered this year)

You should expect to wait about 50% of the posted wait. It could be a little more, but during busy times 50% is usually accurate…

When it’s not busy UXP will get you through the queue in only about 33% or less of the posted wait.

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Thank you so much for this super thorough and helpful reply!

  • Really appreciate the explanation of how the mobile ordering protocol works, since there doesn’t seem to be too much info on it out there.
  • Based on what you’ve said I think I’ll try to make sit-down reservations for lunch on Day 1 (since our flights get in in the morning and we’ll be hangry by the time we get to the parks!!) and dinner, then try to squeeze a quick service in for lunch on Day 2 since we have some more flexibility. Honestly, 60 min for a sit down meal is still way less time than I thought it would eat up!
  • Is it crazy to go to Toothsome for the actual food??? Hahaha. We’re actually not big sweets people (I’ll be going with my parents, who really tend not to like traditional Western-style cakes, etc. – they LOVE Japanese sweets, which usually lean more fruity or even bitter). So we definitely won’t be getting the milkshakes at all, although the Sib and I will probably want to get dessert.
  • I honestly find it super hard to tell if Mythos is overrated or actually good. I do think the vagely Mediterranean-inspired food would be a hit with my family. The other option would be Finnegan’s, although since we’re likely to do Rose&Crown when we hit Epcot, that might be too much overlap. (Realistically we’d all just be getting the fish and chips every time haha.)
  • Super helpful to know that the holiday light show might not run! When you say “camp out” for Cinesational, how early should we be finding a spot? We’ve done Disney a few times during the same week and I know things can get pretty hairy, but tbh we often tend to splurge for the dining packages so haven’t had the experience of needing to stake out a fireworks spot in advance for a long time now. If it’s probably going to be too busy to park hop, we’ll probably just stick to Cinesational since it gets such great reviews.
  • Again, not a lot of info on UXP wait times out there so really helpful to know & will set expectations accordingly. I think we probably had unrealistic expectations for how much we’d be able to accomplish in such a short visit with Express Pass, but if the waits at UOR are anything like Disney’s, then 50% of the posted standby time is still going to be a decently long wait for most attractions.
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IME - You either love Toothsome’s or hate it. I hate it. I gave it three chances on different visits. It was always “meh” food and service. Some people here love it though! I can’t recommend it.

Overrated. It’s better than your average theme park burger and chicken tenders. However, it’s not amazing like many vloggers want you to believe. The Spanakopita dip is amazing though. When I’m there with people that want a sit down meal in the park I always have that.

IMHO - Almost all the QS at USF/IOA is better than the TS options and all the TS options in CityWalk are better then the TS inside USF/IOA… :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:. (It’s all subjective though and this is a bit of an oversimplification :rofl: :rofl:)

At least 30 - 40 minutes - maybe more since it’s a holiday. It’s a TINY viewing area for a direct view. There are places along the sides - near Transformers the Ride where you can still see it. It’s not going to be perfect at an angle because of how the water screen projectors work.

It’s going to be the busies day of the year. I’d expect 30 - 60 minute waits. Unlike WDW though, the UXP really is the “express” queue and not just a paid standby line!

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