I LOVE vacation planning (as if the blog isn’t evidenced enough). As your resident theme park expert, I can’t wait to help you make your vacation at Universal Orlando the best.
Visiting Universal Orlando is always amazing, but you should know key things before visiting to make your experience smooth.
For the best visit, you need to know how to find the right accommodations for you, how you will choose to store any items you bring to the park, and how to schedule your visit.
When planning your trip, remember these three essential elements:
- Accommodations
- Park day storage
- Scheduling
Universal Orlando is waiting for you for all the Potterheads at heart, Jurassic Park superfans, and attraction lovers of all kinds! Let’s go over everything you must know before you visit Universal Orlando.
Universal Orlando Must-Knows
1. Accommodations
The accommodations you choose for your trip to Universal Orlando will impact your experience wherever you end up resting your head. With hotels onsite and off, parkgoers have a wide range of choices regarding where they stay.
The most common dilemma when choosing your hotel is whether to stay onsite at a Universal hotel or find accommodations offsite.
Here are the pros and cons of on and offsite arrangements:
Offsite Hotels
Pros
- Offsite hotels can have lower rates per night.
Cons
- You will have to consider transportation to and from the park. Public transport is an option, as well as Uber and taxi services. Some even opt to rent a car for their trip. If you head the rental route, remember that you will need to consider daily parking. This can start to add up when considering your expenses. Transport from offsite locations will also tack on extra time you could spend at the park attractions!
- You miss out on the perks that onsite guests receive included in their stay. The Universal Express Unlimited pass that onsite guests get included in their stay is worth a hefty sum, $109.99. If the Universal Express Unlimited pass is something you hope to utilize at the parks (I highly recommend it), choosing an onsite hotel is the best option for your wallet.
Onsite Hotels
Pros
- Onsite hotels often offer special deals that can include some cool perks.
- Those staying at the Universal hotels get Early Park Admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ and Universal’s Volcano Bay up to one hour before the theme park opens! Staying onsite is the easiest way to get early park admission, and it will allow you to ride more attractions and see the park less crowded before the masses arrive.
- Staying at Universal means your hotel is a walkable distance from the park! Plus, if extra walking on top of your park day steps isn’t your thing, you can ride the free water taxis or shuttles to and from the park.
- Included with your stay is a free Universal Express Unlimited pass! This is an extremely good deal, with prices starting at $109.99 for those who are not guests at the Universal hotels.
Cons
- The price tag on these rooms can seem pricier than the offsite hotels. However, when you consider the Universal Express Unlimited pass included in your stay and the free transportation to and from the park, the per-night room price tag becomes quickly worth it.
2. Park Day Storage
If you plan on spending your whole day at Universal Orlando (which I HIGHLY recommend), you will want to pack some items with you for the day.
Wallets, sunscreen, sunglasses, and more all count as “loose items,” which are not allowed on Universal rides.
Thus, I recommend you invest in a fanny pack! Fanny packs are allowed on rides, so you don’t need to worry about attraction storage for your valuables and knick-knacks. I am in LOVE with this retro Universal Studios fanny pack.
However, if you need to bring more items than will fit in a handy dandy fanny pack, backpacks are allowed in the parks, and all rides have free lockers for your belongings!
Keep in mind that the lockers don’t have unlimited space (unlike Hermione’s handbag with its Undetectable Extension Charm), so try to keep your bag size to a minimum.
If your bag is too large for the free lockers, you can also pay for locker storage for the whole day.
3. Scheduling
Map out the attractions you absolutely must see, and take into account line wait times. To get the most out of your stay (especially if traveling from out of state or even out of the country), visit the park for a few days!
Feeling rushed is no fun, especially on vacation, and you don’t want to be so stressed about time that you forget to enjoy the attractions. Although you don’t love planning your day down to the minute, loosely outlining your stay is smart.
Your scheduling best friend? The Universal Orlando app! You can make a ticket, pass purchases through the app, and place mobile food orders.
Additionally, the app shows frequently updated wait times for the park attractions! This is AMAZING for planning your day and which rides to hit next.
If you bring your car, you can enter where you park in the app, so you don’t forget it. And one of my favorite parts of the app, along with maps to help you find your way around the park, is how the app will help you locate the nearest restroom.
The Universal Orlando app is a MUST when planning your trip and using it in the park!
Takeaway
These tips for accommodations, park storage, and scheduling for Universal Orlando are all you must know before you walk, ride, drive, fly, or swim to the park!
Book your tickets, find your hotel, buy that fanny pack, download the app, and be on your merry way, amusement park fans.
