So… I’m a mostly a lurker. I get random spurts of energy and will comment/like etc… but overall, I mostly read! I’m definitely more active in the UOR forum than the WDW forum though.
Some backstory: my husband and I have been visiting WDW/UOR for years. My husband worked as a Studio Tour Guide at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2010 and that’s where the love for theme parks began for me. I could basically go to Universal whenever I wanted since he worked there and I had the time of my life! Our first time to visit the Florida parks together was in 2011 to see Hogsmeade for the first time and to sample some Disney parks. We’ve been addicted ever since! It’s been an adjustment adding our toddler to the mix, as we were used to adults-only trips.
Full disclosure: we typically stay at Disney. We do more Disney park days than Universal days when we travel to Orlando. It just takes more time at Disney to do it properly. I usually book 1 night at a UOR premiere hotel, we pack a bag and head over to UOR to do a day or two at the universal parks and then head back over to Disney. We have never stayed more than 2 nights at UOR (and most commonly, one night).
This is it! This is the trip! We are finally doing it and we are so excited!
Who: Me, DH, and DS (4)
Where/when: Cabana Bay Beach Resort, October 21-27; 1 night at Portofino Oct 22/23 for express pass (booked Portofino with the AP rate, but REALLY want Hard Rock… so I’m gonna be a nut checking rates the next 4 months)
Tickets: I had originally booked the 30% off room, 3-park, 5 day ticket package, but when they released the promo 15-month APs I called and upgraded hubby and I’s tickets to the Seasonal APs! We plan to go back to UOR next fall so this felt like a no-brainer.
Tentative Schedule:
Saturday: Arrive MCO at 4:10pm, booked Gear Fusion transportation to Cabana Bay. Dinner at Big Fire and then TBD. We are considering mini-golf but honestly we will just be taking cues from DS4 haha. If he’s not exhausted, we may hop into IOA and try to catch a night ride on Hagrids or Pteranodon Flyers (DH and I have never gotten to ride so we are PUMPED to try it this trip).
Sunday: Pack small bags, head over to Portofino (but hopefully HRH) and grab our EPs, head to parks! We have no plan… because we don’t need one with EP! The. Best. (and this is coming from someone that loves to obsessively plan the details of trips but I don’t have to explain that to you guys LOL). Dinner is booked at NBC Sports because DH wants to catch some of the Sunday night NFL game.
Monday: same plan. Parks with EPs. Re-ride our faves, hit anything we miss on Sunday. No Horror Nights closing Studios early, so will prob spend more time over there. Dinner at Toothsome (our first time)!!
Tuesday: Epcot day 
Also using Gear Fusion here for round-trip travel from UOR to Epcot. We have always loved Food & Wine fest and GoTG is the best ride on Disney property at the moment (IMO) so we can never miss Epcot if we are in Orlando! Plus DS4 is finally tall enough to ride Soarin’ and Test Track and that makes me so happy!
Wednesday: Volcano Bay day! We are pumped to finally try this park. We will attempt early admission, but will definitely be there by park open. The plan is to stay at VB until 3:30 or so, head back to our room at CB to rest/freshen up, and then DH and I are headed back to Studios for HHN! We booked a Kids Nite Out sitter so we will have an HHN date night! I splurged and bought express pass because we want to be able to hit everything without having to stay out until 1 or 2am.
Thursday: Hopefully sleeping in this morning, late arrival to the parks. Focus will be re-riding some faves and making sure we hit all any shows we may have missed. We won’t have express pass this day so will mostly just hit things with shorter wait times.Our main goals for this trip in general are slowing down, taking in the details, hitting shows we’ve never seen before, trying new foods! We really want to stop and smell the roses this time… we never give ourselves this opportunity at Universal and I truly can’t wait. We have been discussing the idea of going to the MK Halloween Party on Thursday night. DS4 would love it bc he’s obsessed with Halloween, but man, it’s pricey! So TBD on that.
Friday: Pack up and leave! Our flight isn’t until 2:55pm so we won’t be in a rush. Would love some good breakfast recommendations to finish out our trip!
While there, I’m going to attempt some live updates… but I imagine it will be a lot of nightly check-ins/updates since I’ll be wrangling a toddler during the day. We will see! I’m excited to finally try a trip report because I love reading everyone else’s and I think it will be really nice/helpful to look back on when I need help planning my next trip!
I love Disney so much, but it’s time to devote more time to UOR. Harry Potter is my number one IP of all time and will always trump my love of Disney. The fact that UOR is so much more affordable also doesn’t hurt. I just can’t believe how expensive Disney has gotten… it makes me sad.
This turned out much longer than I expected. Not sure what this means for my actual reporting when I’m there. LOL.
I’m going to get there myself sometime.
) I currently have a dinner res at NBC Sports so we can eat and watch some of the NFL game. We plan to pack an overnight bag and just stay at HRH Sunday night since we paid for it and it will be nice to have the short walk to the parks on Monday morning.