It’s 2026, so I’m officially starting to plan for our June/July trip to Florida, including for a specific set of dates for our family’s first trip to Universal Orlando Resort (yay!)
Who: me (47), DH (44), DD (11) and DD (9) When: 30 June - 4 July Why: we’ll be visiting my mom in Florida and now that the kids are getting older and taller (and with everyone raving about Epic) we decided that this would be the year where we do Universal instead of WDW Where: I’ve booked 4 nights at Cabana Bay, and 1 overlapping night at Royal Pacific Resort on 1 July for the 2-day UXP that comes with it
We’re planning to spend 2 days in IOA/USF, and 1 day at Epic, with the possibility of another half park day on arrival or departure day (I still need to see how flights will work out for that).
We’d like to do a bit of everything, though all things Wizarding World will be the top priority (all four of us are big fans of the HP books and movies). My youngest is also obsessed with Minions. The kids like thrill rides, while I am there for theming and magic rather than thrills and I occasionally get motion sick on coaster/drops. I’m hoping with a bit of Meclizine I can survive at least one ride on Velocicoaster before I start sitting things out? I will also definitely skip the Doomfall thing, I already struggle with TOT, so this one definitely does not look like fun to me.
We live abroad and will spend around three weeks in the US before coming to Universal - two weeks visiting National Parks (Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Arches plus maybe Rocky Mountain or Canyonlands depending on flight connections), and one week with my mom in central Florida (she lives near Vero Beach).
I decided to take advantage of the recent Black Friday deals on Attraction Tickets to purchase:
14-day UOR tickets (way more than we need, but with the 20% Black Friday deal it came out to about the same as buying 4-day/4-park hopper tickets from Universal, and I wanted the option of free changes/full refund in case our plans change).
1-day Express Pass for Epic Universe
Everything I’ve booked to date is refundable in case our dates end up changing a little.
I’m eagerly reading UOR trip reports and have added UOR to my TP subscriptions. I hope to start making some detailed trip plans soon to share for feedback. But for now I’m just excited to have the first set of bookings in hand and a trip countdown!
Ugh, I tried to get ejected from this ride before it started. I refused to put my phone up- pretended like I didn’t hear them. Finally on of the kids TOOK. IT. and they started the ride. So much for getting bounced.
All of this makes me excited! I have a trip booked for April but I feel like a newbie! It’s been a very long time since we went to USO. I’m trying to soak up all the info when I can.
The minions ride has one of my favorite queue decorations. It starts like a mounted animal head. But the biggest animal has a smaller animal dangling from its mouth and so on. I think at the end is a cat holding a mouse holding cheese. Maybe it fits me.
No. I did price out a few 2+2 night split stays, but we will have lots of luggage and limited time so the idea of leaving the parks to ride share around with our luggage felt tiring. Then a Liner on another thread pointed out that if we want Express Pass it would still be more cost efficient for 4 people to just get a night at a Signature Hotel, even if we wouldn’t use it. They were right: RPR is $460 for the night I need, so that’s $57.50 per person per day for unlimited Express Pass (since it’s valid both check in and check out days).
Since we need to stop by RPR in the morning before park open to pick up our room key/UXP anyway, I’m toying with the idea of bringing a small backpack to leave with bell services in the morning and then actually using the room for one night for a quick taste of RPR and easy IOA rope drop the next morning. But we’ll keep the Cabana Bay room with all of our stuff and head back there for the final two nights.
lol!
Yay for the April trip! I guess with Epic opening, everyone is going back to newbie status - which I think is really fun. A whole new PARK (or in my case three!) to discover from scratch!
YAY! Epic is wonderful. We are big HP fans too and all 3 of the HP themed areas are so immersive and wonderful. You do need a park to park ticket to do the Hogwars Express, so hopefully those attraction tickets are (I think they are reading your post, but not 100% sure).
If you have any Mario fans that land is like literally stepping into the game too. And Berk for How to Train Your Dragon is incredible. Universal is knocking it out of the park with it all!
I would definitely take a look at interactive wands for the HP areas. You can share one wand if you’d like (each of our kids has a wand, but on this last trip we didn’t want to pack all of them because we wanted to conserve space and we wanted to try the newest version of it, so we bought one for everyone to share - and it’s technically DH’s wand because he got the Wand of Power wand years and years and years ago before they were interactive, but we lost it somewhere when we moved and it hasn’t surfaced in any boxes in the basement or garage that we’ve checked, so this was our excuse to get him this new interactive one).
All this to say, a wand can be shared and passed between everyone to try out the spells, if you’re wanting to dedicate time to them. They are so fun! And you can use early entry time to do them with much less crowds/waits. You can also use time after the park closes and before the lands are swept. That isn’t as quiet of a time, so you may have to wait in short lines for popular spells/effects, but at least it’s outside of park time when you can’t be lining up for anything else otherwise.
And for Minions, we thought Villain Con was a blast! Just make sure to get everyone setup on the app and sync the gun to the app to get your scores. And be sure to plan at least one snack or meal at the Minion Cafe. It was easy to eat at, so fun and the food was very decent (and you can get Minion tater tots!!!). And the decor everywhere was so fun.
Anyway, any other questions you have, ask away! Our family has always loved Disney but this last trip to Universal we realized we may be favoring Universal, at least for Orlando trips. They’ve really matched Disney level immersion, and this was the first time I was there that I didn’t once think about how it wasn’t quite up to par with Disney.
It’s been three months since I’ve started planning. Prices for tickets and Express Passes have only gone up since then, so I’m happy that I had decided to go for the Attraction Tickets Black Friday deal. Meanwhile, prices for UOR resorts started dropping over the past month (from around 4 months out), so I’ve rebooked about half a dozen times already for better savings and/or upgrades to our original plan. I find it a bit annoying that you have to cancel and rebook hotel rooms every time the prices changes (which means re-entering all guest and payment info every time…I much prefer Disney’s system which allows you to modify your existing reservation) - I don’t suppose anyone has found a way around the rebooking?
The main change I’ve made to our original plans is to stay at Saphire Falls instead of Cabana Bay Beach Resort (the SF room is now the same price as the CB room was when I originally booked). I loved the feel and amenities of Cabana Bay, but this will be a park-heavy trip - so proximity took precedence over the lazy river. I’m also sticking with the plan of getting one night at RPR for the two-day unlimited Express Pass that comes with it. The RPR room price has already dropped several times since I first booked, from $460 originally to $414 in the latest drop. This brings the UXP benefit down to just over $50 per person per day (not even counting the actual hotel room)!
I’ve played around a bit with possible touring plans, and would love to get thoughts from those with UOR experience on the following rough plan (keeping in mind we are first-timers for whom HP is a priority, but who also want to experience other park highlights and have one child that’s obsessed with Minions) We have the 14-day tickets, so can visit any park any day.
Arrival Day: we’ll likely be driving in from central Florida (around 2hrs drive) and get in around 3/4pm. My original plan was to relax at the resort but I suspect the kids will be itching to get into a park - so perhaps this is a good time to go for a first look at USF (to get ourselves oriented), ride both Minions rides and have dinner at Minions Cafe, and then see Cinesensational?
Day 1: we’ll walk from Saphire Falls to pick up our RPR room key/UXPs (and probably coffee/pastries to snack) and then head to USF to rope drop Diagon Alley. Morning: Our first priority stop will be Ollivander’s for the wand show/to buy wands for the kids, then just explore the land and do spells (1hr?), and ride Gringott’s (likely without UXP so that we can admire the queue). I like the idea of a late breakfast/early lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and then take the Hogwart’s Express over to IOA. Afternoon: ride the HP three rides in Hogsmeade with UXP, see the Triwizard Tournament, do spells, and snack at Fortescue’s/Honeydukes. Once we’ve had our fill of HP, ride a few other IOA highlights with UXP (likely Velocicoaster, Kong and Spiderman).
Then take the Hogwart’s Express back to USF (re-ride Gringott’s and see Tales of Beedle the Bard and/or Celestina Warbeck in Carkitt Market if not done in the morning).
Finish the day with a mix of USF shows (Animals, Bourne, Horror Make-Up) and/or rides (Mummy, MIB, Transformers) using UXP.
Day 2: we’ll likely spend the night at RPR to make use of the room and check out that resort, then split the day between IOA and Epic.**
Morning:** rope drop IOA, use UXP to re-ride any favorites from previous day (especially Hagrid’s), explore Seuss Land and ride any other ride not yet done that looks appealing. Late breakfast/early lunch at Three Broomsticks. Ride water rides and consider heading back to SF for a resort break/change of clothes and lunch. Afternoon: head to Epic and HP/Paris area, see Cirque Arcanus, do spells, and have dinner at Gobelet Noir. Ride BatM if line is not too long (we don’t have EP for this day). Once dark, head into Dark Universe (ride rides if SB times not too long, otherwise just soak in atmosphere).
Day 3: we have Epic Express Pass so will spend the whole day there
I was going to wait to read more reviews of the new EPA approach in Epic before determining our touring plan, but will most likely rope drop the Toothless M&G, and do the lands in this order:
Berk (all rides plus the show, play area and late breakfast/early lunch at one of the restaurants there). We like the movies and this land is our priority after HP.
Nintendo (do all rides with UXP and admire the craziness of the land, but not attached to this IP/will not buy a Power Up band)
More Harry Potter (and snack or early dinner Cafe L’Air de la Sirene), including ride or re-ride BatM
Celestial Park in the evening, and ride anything that was down before/re-ride things we liked if standby waits are not too long.
Finish the night at Bar Helios to watch the fountain show.
Departure Day: haven’t booked flights yet, so we are not certain we’ll have time to do anything - but am really hoping to find evening flights and have half a day or so to explore Volcano Bay (I took the girls to Typhoon Lagoon last summer and they loved it)
Any suggestions for dinner in USF or day 1? We will already have done Minions Cafe and Leaky Cauldron at this point, so am looking for an additional place inside USF.
Suggestions for late breakfast/early lunch in Berk on day 3 (or suggestion to move this to another land)? The dining is Epic all looks so great, but between the two Harry Potter locations and Bar Helios, it seems we really only have one other full meal stop. Maybe I need to plan more snack stops?
We’ve started rewatching Harry Potter films (and also let the kids watch Bourne for the first time), and getting really excited - just a little more than 100 days to go!
Thanks for this post. We are making our first trip June 1 and I will be making ideas from these.
I think I am more worried about timing and trying to squeeze as much as possible into our 3 days. We will have ExpressPass from Portofino for the two parks and we did buy the ExpressPass for Epic. Just not knowing is the stressful part for me.
For what it’s worth, Express Pass should help a lot based on what I have learned from other Liners - for USF/IOA, it sounds like we can take a pretty leisurely approach to our Touring Plan and still easily hit anything we want.
Epic does sound trickier especially if rides have down times - which is why I’m thinking that an extra evening is there before our Express Pass Day might help.
The good thing with a first trip is that if something goes wrong, at least no one really knows what we’re missing
Right?! This is something I need to remember going into our trip! I’m sure we will have fun, we all love thrill rides! I’ll try to remember to make a thread when we get back.
We have the 14-day tickets, so can visit any park any day.
This is something I need to remember going into our trip! I’m sure we will have fun, we all love thrill rides! I’ll try to remember to make a thread when we get back.