Putting up the Tribe Signal...Universal Orlando tips...

[Nole Lou]

I know Tribe had a bunch of tips on here for Universal Orlando...I meant to bookmark them and didn't. But planned an impulse trip for two weeks from now.

Getting in the afternoon of 5/30, leaving the afternoon of 6/1. Two nights in the Portofino Bay. $229/night with the pass holder discount, so will be buying one annual pass (Power Pass from AAA) and 4 3-day park-hopper tickets (2 day plus 1 free from undercover tourist). Annual pass was only like $40 more than a ticket, so worth it to save a couple hundred on an on-site motel with the ride passes. At my age I've got very little patience for waiting in lines.

That's about all I've got though. Planning on having a late afternoon/evening at the parks on Monday, all day Tuesday, morning on Wednesday if there's anything we want to finish up or catch again.

One specific question...looks like I could save about $30 x 4 if instead of getting the 3 day park hopper, I got 4 day base tickets. Wondering given my schedule how big a drag it would be to be limited to one park per day, so like Universal Monday afternoon/evening, IOA Tuesday, Universal again Wednesday morning. $120 isn't a deal breaker, but it's worth saving/spending elsewhere if bouncing park to park isn't that big a deal. Kind of inclined just get the park hoppers just for ultimate flexibility.

Otherwise, what tips do you have...I remember stuff about the Harry Potter drinks and the Simpsons beer, etc. Anything to save a couple bucks here or there is good, but anything in general for max enjoyability. It's been maybe 8 years since I've been there.

Of course, open to suggestions other than from Tribe, but we all know they aren't as good...

 

[seminoledq]

You have to give him time to go to Google, TripAdvisor and Wikipedia so he can copy/paste info here.

 

[LesClaypool]

Portofino is nice. Stayed there like 10 years ago and loved it.

Have a blast!

 

[Nole Lou]

Portofino is nice. Stayed there like 10 years ago and loved it.

Have a blast!

Yeah, last time we went we stayed at the Royal Pacific because it was much cheaper, and my wife was a good sport but I know she really wished we were in the Portofino.

 

[FSUTribe76]

I know Tribe had a bunch of tips on here for Universal Orlando...I meant to bookmark them and didn't. But planned an impulse trip for two weeks from now.

Getting in the afternoon of 5/30, leaving the afternoon of 6/1. Two nights in the Portofino Bay. $229/night with the pass holder discount, so will be buying one annual pass (Power Pass from AAA) and 4 3-day park-hopper tickets (2 day plus 1 free from undercover tourist). Annual pass was only like $40 more than a ticket, so worth it to save a couple hundred on an on-site motel with the ride passes. At my age I've got very little patience for waiting in lines.

That's about all I've got though. Planning on having a late afternoon/evening at the parks on Monday, all day Tuesday, morning on Wednesday if there's anything we want to finish up or catch again.

One specific question...looks like I could save about $30 x 4 if instead of getting the 3 day park hopper, I got 4 day base tickets. Wondering given my schedule how big a drag it would be to be limited to one park per day, so like Universal Monday afternoon/evening, IOA Tuesday, Universal again Wednesday morning. $120 isn't a deal breaker, but it's worth saving/spending elsewhere if bouncing park to park isn't that big a deal. Kind of inclined just get the park hoppers just for ultimate flexibility.

Otherwise, what tips do you have...I remember stuff about the Harry Potter drinks and the Simpsons beer, etc. Anything to save a couple bucks here or there is good, but anything in general for max enjoyability. It's been maybe 8 years since I've been there.

Of course, open to suggestions other than from Tribe, but we all know they aren't as good...

Considering you're probably eating on spot, you might want to upgrade to a Preferred Pass the middle level pass. You get 10% off food and 15% off merchandise plus you'll save $20 a day in parking. For a family of four you'll probably sail WAY over the price difference for one ticket.

Heres a bunch of tips,

Starting at the new Diagon Alley as that's probably what most of the draw is, first of all they don't say it on the map but there's TWO different puppet shows. One is about the fountain of fair fortune and it's decent but the best is about the Tale of Three Brothers/Deathly Hallows is significantly better. They alternate the two shows with the signing and dancing show every half hour so if you catch it and it's the Fair fortune show back up exactly one hour from the start of the puppet show you saw. It sounds corny, but pretty much everyone loves it. The fire whiskey is fantastic, it's a cinnamon flavored moonshine that goes well as a boosting shot in the cider or in the hot butterbeer (which is amazing by itself, imagine a hot butterscotch rather than a hot chocolate). The proprietary Harry Potter beers are good (2 in Diagon alley and a third at Hogsmeade) but the best by far is the Duff Dry at Springfield, it's a great stout despite the name (and it's a semi secret as they do not advertise it just the regular Duff and Duff Lite). If you want a great photo of the dragon in Diagon Alley, you get it standing just behind the entrance of the Florian Forescue and waiting until you hear the quarterly per hour (approximately it doesn't seem to be on a tight clock) growl and the hiss of the gas being released then start taking photo bursts and you'll catch the perfect flame illuminating the buildings (it's best at dusk or night than during the day). So don't stand at the entrance with the ten thousand tourons getting a straight head on shot, the second best shot is almost directly underneath shooting up btw. Speaking of Florian Fortescue it is well worth getting in line for their ice cream, my favorite is the clotted cream hard ice cream and the butterbeer icecream BUT if you're running low on time and don't have time to get the full ice cream experience, right beside it near one of the entrances to Nocturne Alley is the Fountain of Fair Fortune which only has the butter beer ice cream, the frozen butterbeer (regular with the foam is much better) and the regular butter beer with foam. If you want to do something that 99% of tourons don't get to try, order a butterbeer ice cream and a regular butter beer and ask for an extra cup (if you get a nube employee tell them what you want it for) and turn it into two butter beer floats. Trust me, it's amazing.

It's 1 so I need to turn in for the night, but I'll come back with a lot of additional tips.

 

[Nole Lou]

Considering you're probably eating on spot, you might want to upgrade to a Preferred Pass the middle level pass. You get 10% off food and 15% off merchandise plus you'll save $20 a day in parking. For a family of four you'll probably sail WAY over the price difference for one ticket.

Would do this if we weren't staying at an onsite hotel. Without the parking savings, it won't end up being worth it.

 

[FSUTribe76]

So here's some other tips

Starting with Islands of Adventure and food, the best place to eat by far in Islands of Adventure is Mythos but be aware it's only open for lunch. It actually won best restaurant in a theme park six or seven years running before being replaced by the French place at Epcot (although I've had better at Knoebels and Dollywood and I'd say my favorite is probably Aunt Granny's at Dollywood as it's got amazing old school southern food). You should definitely book a lunch while you're there. The harissa fried shrimp and chimichurri beef medallions are two stars although their daily special risotto is usually good and for the less adventurous their hamburger is usually exceptional. Plus their mixed drinks are usually decent although on the sweet touristy side. Confisco Grill is the second best option at Islands of Adventure with the butternut rigatoni and pad Thai being their best menu items. If I were planning meals, I'd eat lunch at Mythos and then grab dinner at CityWalk or one of the hotel restaurants.

The best places to grab drinks (and part of my "Around the Universe" list which I won't bother to list all of since you're probably not looking to get wasted with family in tow) are the Backwater Bar connected to Confisco Grill as they have a nice, full service bar with full cocktail lists and the Watering Hole in Jurassic Park that has the best bartenders (one guy from Wales is actually famous on the Universal forums as he's ridiculously cheerful with a thick Welsh accent and is renowned for his heavy pours) which has what I would call a half bar (ie just the usual suspects booze wise and maybe 20-40 types) but has some really nice proprietary daiquiris. I usually go for sophisticated cocktails ie not sweet but on Bourbon Street, the drivethru places in Louisiana, Savannah's River Street and at super touristy places in Florida I'll go for the sickeningly sweet touron daiquiri and the Watering Hole has some of the best especially the Predator on the Rocks which is pineapple juice, Midori, Curaçao, Malibu and sour mix.

As for other proprietary foods and drinks, Islands of Adventure is still relatively poorly themed like most Disney places and not carefully crafted like the main Studios is now although the Harry Potter stuff is legit and they're planning some interesting stuff at the new Kong section which unfortunately you'll probably miss out on by just a little bit. Obviously you can get the Regular (don't blow off the foam like I see a lot of tourons do, that's the best part) and frozen butterbeer at Hogsmeade and the proprietary Hogs Head Brew beer is pretty good. As I mentioned it's no Duff Dry, but it's a nice Scottish red ale/Amber style. A little plain but definitely worth trying, I definitely like it better than the other Potter brews at the Studios but I like Duff Dry and regular Duff better. They do now carry the Fire Whiskey at Hogs Head Pub so you could do a shot of that in the cider like I mentioned before. DONT bother with green eggs and ham, you'll just want a regular egg McMuffin and DONT get the pumpkin juice it's awful. The best quick service food is Three Broomsticks for the Limey food if adventurous or Thunder Falls for ordinary pizza/burgers/BBQ. But again, I'd make time for Mythos or Confisco Grill.

Unfortunately you're too early for the newly refurbished Hulk and the brand new Kong most likely. So the best rides are the older water rides (Dudley Do Right which always wins the Golden Ticket Award for best water ride in the world and I agree, Popeye and Jurassic Park). So bring water appropriate clothes for Islands of Adventure, the Studios has no ride. The best nonwater ride now that Hulks down and Kong isn't ready is the Forbidden Journey and Spiderman (which was recently revamped with new clearer HD projectors) but those have much shorter lines the last two hours or so the park is open so you might want to save them until last.

 

[ericram]

So here's some other tips

Starting with Islands of Adventure and food, the best place to eat by far in Islands of Adventure is Mythos but be aware it's only open for lunch. It actually won best restaurant in a theme park six or seven years running before being replaced by the French place at Epcot (although I've had better at Knoebels and Dollywood and I'd say my favorite is probably Aunt Granny's at Dollywood as it's got amazing old school southern food). You should definitely book a lunch while you're there. The harissa fried shrimp and chimichurri beef medallions are two stars although their daily special risotto is usually good and for the less adventurous their hamburger is usually exceptional. Plus their mixed drinks are usually decent although on the sweet touristy side. Confisco Grill is the second best option at Islands of Adventure with the butternut rigatoni and pad Thai being their best menu items. If I were planning meals, I'd eat lunch at Mythos and then grab dinner at CityWalk or one of the hotel restaurants.

The best places to grab drinks (and part of my "Around the Universe" list which I won't bother to list all of since you're probably not looking to get wasted with family in tow) are the Backwater Bar connected to Confisco Grill as they have a nice, full service bar with full cocktail lists and the Watering Hole in Jurassic Park that has the best bartenders (one guy from Wales is actually famous on the Universal forums as he's ridiculously cheerful with a thick Welsh accent and is renowned for his heavy pours) which has what I would call a half bar (ie just the usual suspects booze wise and maybe 20-40 types) but has some really nice proprietary daiquiris. I usually go for sophisticated cocktails ie not sweet but on Bourbon Street, the drivethru places in Louisiana, Savannah's River Street and at super touristy places in Florida I'll go for the sickeningly sweet touron daiquiri and the Watering Hole has some of the best especially the Predator on the Rocks which is pineapple juice, Midori, Curaçao, Malibu and sour mix.

As for other proprietary foods and drinks, Islands of Adventure is still relatively poorly themed like most Disney places and not carefully crafted like the main Studios is now although the Harry Potter stuff is legit and they're planning some interesting stuff at the new Kong section which unfortunately you'll probably miss out on by just a little bit. Obviously you can get the Regular (don't blow off the foam like I see a lot of tourons do, that's the best part) and frozen butterbeer at Hogsmeade and the proprietary Hogs Head Brew beer is pretty good. As I mentioned it's no Duff Dry, but it's a nice Scottish red ale/Amber style. A little plain but definitely worth trying, I definitely like it better than the other Potter brews at the Studios but I like Duff Dry and regular Duff better. They do now carry the Fire Whiskey at Hogs Head Pub so you could do a shot of that in the cider like I mentioned before. DONT bother with green eggs and ham, you'll just want a regular egg McMuffin and DONT get the pumpkin juice it's awful. The best quick service food is Three Broomsticks for the Limey food if adventurous or Thunder Falls for ordinary pizza/burgers/BBQ. But again, I'd make time for Mythos or Confisco Grill.

Unfortunately you're too early for the newly refurbished Hulk and the brand new Kong most likely. So the best rides are the older water rides (Dudley Do Right which always wins the Golden Ticket Award for best water ride in the world and I agree, Popeye and Jurassic Park). So bring water appropriate clothes for Islands of Adventure, the Studios has no ride. The best nonwater ride now that Hulks down and Kong isn't ready is the Forbidden Journey and Spiderman (which was recently revamped with new clearer HD projectors) but those have much shorter lines the last two hours or so the park is open so you might want to save them until last.

Mythos is open for dinner. Really good dinner. Recommend reservations. They are usually top or top 2 restaurant in all the theme parks. In the list I have seen 5 of top 10 restaurants are at Universal or CityWalk. We ate at Cow Fish and it was excellent. They don't take reservations but get there at 6 and you can eat there with little or no wait. At 6:30 it starts to fill up. They have sushi and grass fed burgers and really good Shakes. Remember to use your preferred pass for food and merchandise discounts. We always forget to pull ours out.

Start in the back of the parks and work forward. If you have kids 7-12 take them to the wand place in Diagon Alley and get them a special wand with sensor. Lifetime warranty in them if they stop working and lots of marked areas where they can do spells. Really fun.

 

[Nole Lou]

I'm glad you mentioned the Hulk ride being down. That's very unfortunate. I'm going to have run that by the kids, that, along with Kong not open yet, might be enough for them to want to reschedule.

 

[ericram]

if this is your big vacation and the only time you will visit Universal for a while, you should reschedule. Kong is supposed to open in July and no word on Hulk but expecting the same. We are going in August to ride them both but we are annual pass holders so we can go anytime we want.

 

[Noles229]

I'm glad you mentioned the Hulk ride being down. That's very unfortunate. I'm going to have run that by the kids, that, along with Kong not open yet, might be enough for them to want to reschedule.

Wasn't aware they were building a Kong ride, this excites me.

 

[ericram]

Wasn't aware they were building a Kong ride, this excites me.

Oh yea, it is huge. Skull Island. They are testing it now.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Mythos is open for dinner. Really good dinner. Recommend reservations. They are usually top or top 2 restaurant in all the theme parks. In the list I have seen 5 of top 10 restaurants are at Universal or CityWalk. We ate at Cow Fish and it was excellent. They don't take reservations but get there at 6 and you can eat there with little or no wait. At 6:30 it starts to fill up. They have sushi and grass fed burgers and really good Shakes. Remember to use your preferred pass for food and merchandise discounts. We always forget to pull ours out.

Start in the back of the parks and work forward. If you have kids 7-12 take them to the wand place in Diagon Alley and get them a special wand with sensor. Lifetime warranty in them if they stop working and lots of marked areas where they can do spells. Really fun.

Mythos is not usually open for dinner, only on the highest peak days. It usually closes at 'late lunch" aka 4 and even when it's open for "dinner" it's only open until 7 and as a nightowl I don't usually eat until 8 or later.

And I do really like it for a theme park restaurant although the praise it gets is for before they transitioned from a full foodie restaurant to a more scaled down bistro. It's still better than 99% of theme park restaurants but not on par with elite restaurants. So I like to temper expectations by saying it's one of the best restaurant in Florida theme parks imo but it's still not as good as quite a few of the Citywalk and on-site hotel restaurants. I'd still heartily recommend going to Mythos for lunch while in IOA and then eat dinner at Citywalk or the hotels.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Wasn't aware they were building a Kong ride, this excites me.

It's going to be AMAZING. They have a three story robotic Kong and free ranging trucks carrying the passengers with actors as "guides". They're spending more money on this one ride than Disney is spending on its entire Avatar area (which is just going to have another SOARin clone and a boat ride). I'm fairly certain I remember it having three times the budget of the Gringotts ride.

 

[FSUTribe76]

So since I/m on an actual computer for once and had my Facebook up, here's examples of what I meant about my advice for grabbing the right dragon photo.

Here it is almost underneath it and about 45 degrees to the right.

That's actually only my second favorite angle, but for some reason my internet keeps crashing so I can't scroll down to pics from my favorite angle, I'll have to post more later.

Edit - Internet back up and acting normal

Here's the angle most tourons get, notice the hordes of tourons

 

[FSUTribe76]

So now I'm finally getting around to CityWalk. There is quite a few high caliber restaurants and it's NOT the ones the tourons usually go to (ie Margaritaville, Emeril's, and Bubba Gump's). My favorites are a four way tie between Vivo, Antojitos, Bob Marley's and Cowfish although Red Oven is a close fifth. The hotel based Bice, Mama Della's and Tchoup Chop are excellent as well but I tend to eat at CityWalk as I seldom stay on premises (just when we decide to do an Around the Universe drinking tour or sometimes for Horror Nights).

One thing that should not be overlooked IMO is the Wantilan Luau. My wife and I just went for the first time and it was surprisingly good buffet food (a 60-40 mix of authentic..ish Hawaiian and standard American dishes with some of the best whole roast pig I've had including East Carolina BBQ and real New Zealand hangis) and laid back but fun (and funny) entertainment as they had a full band to go with their Polynesian dances from various cultures and light comedy. After a long day in the park it might be nice to relax although little kids may not appreciate it.

As far as the CityWalk Restaurants, the already mentioned Cowfish is an import from Charlotte where it's always listed as one of the top restaurants there as its a unique blend of sushi, burgers and American pub food not just as an entire menu but within certain dishes like their famous burgushi. Antojitos is a higher end, relatively authentic Mexican place I actually liked better than Red O in LA (the Rick Bayless fronted authentic and fusion Mexican place) with five star cocktails AND live Mariachi bands that play covers of American pop music redone in Mexican styling. I've eaten there probably most of all of the restaurants since it moved in about three years ago and I've never had a bad dish or cocktail. Vivo is a surprisingly good higher end but still moderately priced Italian place with an open kitchen. I HIGHLY rec the squid ink and seafood pasta. Bob Marleys food is probably the least high quality of all of the restaurants I recommended at CityWalk and the hotels but it is EXPERTLY themed (it's Bob Marleys childhood home and outdoor courtyard redone INSIDE with frequent live reggae bands, as far as thening goes it's only behind the Leaky Cauldron and Mythos), has decent cocktails (more sugary daiquiri style than sophisticated cocktails but good) and it's Jamaican style food is something most people don't get on a regular basis and it is good just not mindblowing (other than the fried yucca which IS).

Other than those four CityWalk restaurants, I'd also recommend Red Oven as a decent place especially with kids. It has five star pizza miles better than ANY I've had at any theme park and on par with some of the better high end/famous places around the country. When I think about the subpar Pizza Hut personal pan pizza rippoff I got at Disney for five dollars more versus the high end pizza at Red Oven I get ticked. You can find normal decent theme park/giant chain style pizza scattered around both Uni parks and Disney, but Red Oven is the only one worth mentioning. So why don't I Rec it as much as the other four? Ambience (it's typical quick service versus full sit down themed restaurant) and because I can get decent pizza in Tally but not really any of the other options. But Universal scoured the country to find a mom and pop pizza place they could turn into a chain eventually settling on a neopolitan style place from...I think San Diego actually. So it's not a Universal original but like Cowfish is a tiny chain famous in its area.

The Hot Dog Hall of Fame I would steer you away from. It's a FANTASTIC idea and one I wholeheartedly supported until trying, basically take all of the best hot dog styles from the various baseball parks (Dodger dogs, Chicago style etc) and put them in one place in an open amphitheatre with real baseball stadium seats taken from several of the major parks. But...it ends up being really overpriced mediocre hot dogs. And trust me I'm a hot dog fan (I'd make a special trip for Papaya King dogs in NYC or Pinks in LA for example) but these are just...ok. Better than gas station dogs but no better than typical theme park dogs unfortunately.

Also, if you and the Missus can get away from the kids I highly recommend grabbing a hurricane or three and catching the Dueling pianos late night at Pat O'Briens. It's a slightly smaller but almost exact copy of the original in NOLA and shares the same lineup of performers. If you've never been to a Dueling pianos performance at Patty Os or their ripoffs before, imagine hilarious drunk individual audience karaoke mixed with full audience participation pub style "standards" singing and light off the cuffs comedy. Speaking of Patty Os after 4 I believe they open up a window for hurricanes opening up to the main walking streets of CityWalk and it along with similar windows at Antojitos, Margaritaville and Bob Marleys are a good way to grab booze without waiting in super long line. Switching to Margaritaville, if you want to grab one of their famous margaritas (I think they're ok but nothing to get excited over other than the parrothead tie in) I'd say skip the restaurant and just grab one at the window OR even better sit down at the Lone Palm outside pub across from Margaritaville on the lake and walkway to Islands of Adventure and get the exact same margarita.

Finally, the putt putt courses at CityWalk are amazing and worth doing. I prefer the alien 18 hole course to the monster 18 hole course, but both are excellent and make for great family fun and pictures.

 

[FSUTribe76]

So since I had to work on my comp and had access to my Facebook feed for posting, here's some pics from some of the restaurants I mentioned.

Here's the pizza at Red Oven

Some food and drinks at Antojitos

Some food and drinks from Cowfish

At Mythos

And some random pics I took at Universal to get you jazzed for the trip

And a pic from the Bimonthly Rocky Horror Show presentation at the AMC at Citywalk.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Here's some pics I took at Vivo

Here's some pics from my trip about a couple of months or so ago to the Wantilan Luau.

Unfortunately I can't quickly find pics I took at Bob Marley's as I must not have tagged the restaurant when I took pics there, but it's worth investigating as another option.

 

[ericram]

Good stuff Tribe.

We wanted to try Vivo last time we were there, but decided we wanted sushi so Cowfish was the right choice. Definitely will check it out our next trip as the menu looked good and the reviews were excellent.

I would like to add that despite its brand, and that you would think the food would suck NBC Sports Grill is actually really good. Lots of great beer choices, you can play shuffle board if you get a table that includes it, and large variety good solid food choices.

 

[Nole Lou]

Thanks Tribe and others.

Also, if you and the Missus can get away from the kids I highly recommend grabbing a hurricane or three and catching the Dueling pianos late night at Pat O'Briens. It's a slightly smaller but almost exact copy of the original in NOLA and shares the same lineup of performers. If you've never been to a Dueling pianos performance at Patty Os or their ripoffs before, imagine hilarious drunk individual audience karaoke mixed with full audience participation pub style "standards" singing and light off the cuffs comedy.

This is actually something we've taken in every time we've been there (all of three times LOL), and I do love it. Last time we had the kids, and they had it going on at dinner time and it was quite fun even without the drunken atmosphere of it.

 

[sunset30a]

This thread is making me hungry