Hard Rock with a Tween & a Toddler

I agree with you about the photo service. I think I got a year for about $60 (which will cover two trips), but really the only waiting we did (with Express Pass) was quick service food, scanning our ride photos, and once when Gringott's had technical problems. We also didn't get the hang of the automatic photos (Jurassic Park and Back to the Future) and we didn't do the photos which at least some are included where they put you into a scene, we will try those this upcoming trip.
 
Glad you enjoyed Jake’s. It’s always a good choice for us.

Shame about Lombards......but glad they sorted out your ticket without having to go back to the hotel.

Nice pictures.

The customer service at Universal is absolutely on par with Disney. We've had a few off experiences there as well, but for the most part everyone is just great.

Your girls are cuties !

Thank you :lovestruc

I agree with you about the photo service. I think I got a year for about $60 (which will cover two trips), but really the only waiting we did (with Express Pass) was quick service food, scanning our ride photos, and once when Gringott's had technical problems. We also didn't get the hang of the automatic photos (Jurassic Park and Back to the Future) and we didn't do the photos which at least some are included where they put you into a scene, we will try those this upcoming trip.

We did get the Back to the Future photo, but the Jurassic Park Jeep always had a line. We saw the photo shops that put you in a scene, but never went inside. It really didn't appeal to us.

We looked at the quick service menus, but it didn't look much cheaper than a table service meal, so we only did quick service for breakfast a few times.

Express Passes are a necessity in our book!
 
Hi nice start to your report. I love to read trip reports from new people. It is one of my family's favoite vacation spots. I am so glad you were happy with Tony. He is amazing, we call him everytime we need service.

Glad that your daughter liked the flight, I have had bad situations on a plane with my daughter. We have stayed at the HRH many times and think it is a lot of fun.

Sorry about the meals. I hope after Jake's you continue good ones.

Look forward to more...
 
We got off to a rough start Monday morning. We had planned to start in Diagon Alley during Early Entry and concentrate on the Harry Potter themed parts of both parks. Since I lost my lanyard on Sunday, my husband told us to make sure we all had our tickets and express passes before we left the hotel room on Monday. When we got to the gate at Universal Studios, Madilyn had her room key, but not her ticket. She said Scarlett had been playing with her lanyard before we went to bed the night before. This is the part that made me mad, Maddy never wants to take responsibility for anything, she always tries to blame someone else :headache:

We walked back to our room and looked all over for her ticket. I decided to go down the the concierge desk and see if they could help us. Luckily someone had turned her ticket in there the night before, so obviously this wasn't Scarlett's fault. I went back up to the room and we headed back to City Walk. By now it was 10:00 AM so we decided to scrap our plans and start out in Island of Adventure instead.

We started out in Seuss Landing with "the fish ride" which Scarlett liked almost as much as Woody Woodpecker's roller coaster.

We continued on to The Cat in the Hat, which reminds me of Winnie the Pooh at Disney, they are both a strange trip! We also rode the Caroseussel and High in the Sky Trolley.

With everything in Seuss Landing under our belts, we headed over to Storm Force Accellatron. These saucers are much roomier than the teacups at Disney. I distinctly remember the three of us being crammed into those, but there was room left over even with Scarlett added in. This was a lot of fun!

Madilyn loved Rip Ride Rocket, but for some reason she was scared to get on The Hulk. My husband let me got first while he waited in rider swap with the girls. This might be my favorite ride at Universal 💕

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The man next to my husband obviously knew where the camera was!

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We decided to grab a late breakfast at Cinnabon. A four pack of huge cinnamon rolls (we mixed pecan rolls with the regular ones) was less than $20 and we had brought drinks from the hotel room. We enjoyed sitting down with our snack and watching the park.

We took turns riding Spiderman, but it broke down towards the end of my husband and Madilyn's ride. The sound went away and the car jerked them the rest of the way to the exit.

We traumatized Scarlett by taking her through the Kong ride. We couldn't even walk past the ride entrance for the rest of the trip without her saying "No! Scary!".

We pulled a return ticket for Pteranadon Fliers that started at 3:20. Madilyn was disappointed to learn that she was too tall to ride, but not old enough to supervise Scarlett.

We walked into the sea of people around the Hogwarts Castle. Even with Express Passes, we waited about fifteen minutes to ride Flight of the Hippogriff. The posted wait was 45 minutes. This is a fun roller coaster, but the ride is very short. Scarlett really enjoyed it.

We used Rider Swap for Forbidden Journey, which was pretty cool!

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We wanted to walk around Hogsmeade, but it was so crowded, we decided to head back towards the Jurassic Park play area and kill some time before our return time to Pteranadon Fliers. Maddy and Scarlett ran around for a little while and then I sent my husband onto the ride with Scarlett.

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They both really liked this ride, but my husband said he wished it was longer.

We spent a little time climbing on Me Ship the Olive before Madilyn and I decided to ride the Popeye Barges. What an awesome view!

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We got really lucky and didn't get wet except from the people shooting us with water cannons from Me Ship the Olive. I wish we had gotten on Ripsaw Falls, as the temperature plummeted the next day, but we were hungry and I hated to tempt fate by going on another water ride after we got off the first one so relatively dry!
 

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We decided to see if Toothsome would be busy earlier in the evening (around 5:30 by this point) and were advised that it would be a ten minute wait for a table.

Our waitress was Faith and she was definitely one of the good ones! Scarlett slept in her stroller, which was parked by our table throughout this meal. She ended up eating peanut butter crackers in the hotel room later on.

I ordered the kettlechip nachos, which are smothered in pulled pork, sausage, and cheese sauce, from the appetizer menu as my entree. These were amazing! My husband had a steak and scalloped potatoes. The steak was juicy and tender, but the potatoes tasted burnt. Madilyn had shrimp alfredo which she also said was really good.

We saw Penelope and her robot walking around when we came in, but only Penelope came by our table. Madilyn is fascinated by cosplay so she loved this interaction. Penelope was very sweet.

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We split an ice cream sundae with brownies covered in chocolate ice-cream, chocolate whipped cream (where has this been all my life?) and chocolate sprinkles.

Even with dessert, this meal was only $85 plus tip, which we felt was a pretty good deal.

We went back to our room and settled in early for the night with baths, homework, and cartoons.
 


Hi nice start to your report. I love to read trip reports from new people. It is one of my family's favoite vacation spots. I am so glad you were happy with Tony. He is amazing, we call him everytime we need service.

Glad that your daughter liked the flight, I have had bad situations on a plane with my daughter. We have stayed at the HRH many times and think it is a lot of fun.

Sorry about the meals. I hope after Jake's you continue good ones.

Look forward to more...

:wave2: Hi! Thank you for reading along!

We really liked Jake's, Toothsome, and Bubba Gump Shrimp. There were a few other places I wanted to try that we never got around to or that were really busy.

We REALLY liked HRH.
 
Tuesday was so cold! My husband got a laugh out of a British lady who walked outside the hotel barely dressed and proclaimed "Sunshine State my ***!" :rotfl2:

Since our Harry Potter plans didn't work out on Monday, we decided to try again on Tuesday. We walked into Universal Studios just after 8:00AM for Early Entry. This was the first day of our trip that was a non-holiday week day. We could immediately see a difference in the crowd levels.

We utilized Rider Swap to take turns on Escape from Gringotts. While we liked this ride, we all agreed that we preferred Forbidden Journey. Scarlett was actually in our picture, but she is so short she was cut out.

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We went into Ollivanders next. We were hoping that Madilyn might get picked for the wand choosing ceremony, but a younger girl in Griffindor robes was chosen. We still enjoyed the experience. Madilyn purchased an Ivy wand in the shop, which was actually the first one she picked up, but we did open several other boxes and look at them.

We spent a good bit of time exploring the shops and letting Madilyn try her hand at spell casting. I got the hang of it a bit quicker than she did by making small, slow motions, but she was able to complete every spell she came to after a few tries and occasionally some advice from a roaming witch or wizard.

We boarded the Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure. Our stroller was taken to the back of the train, but waiting for us when we got off the train.

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Hogsmeade was much more crowded than Diagon Alley. Hagrid's Magical Adventure was delayed due to weather. When it opened around 1:30 PM, the wait time instantly sky-rocketed to more than three hours :scared1:

Scarlett hadn't really gotten to do much by this point, so we headed over to Seuss Landing where we proceeded to ride all four rides in that area.

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We were starting to get hungry so we headed over to Confisco Grille at the recommendation of @schumigirl . We were not disappointed here! I had the ribs, which were tender and very well flavored. My husband had the quesadilla from the appetizer menu, which he said was very good. Madilyn had a hamburger and fries from the children's menu. Scarlett had a grilled cheese and fries from the childrens menu. Scarlett is not a great eater, but she ate more than half of her sandwich and several fries.
 
After lunch, we went into the Christmas shop and picked out the girls' ornaments for this year. Scarlett got a medal Hello Kitty ornament and Madilyn got a medal Slytherin ornament. I should have picked up a Griffindor ornament for myself, but I didn't.

We walked back over to the Studios and had our only successful(ish) character meet of the trip.

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Jimmy Fallon's Race Through New York had a five minute wait, so we decided to check that out. The panda bear was out in the waiting room and he quickly realized that Scarlett was afraid of him. He seemed to delight in sitting down far away from her and scooting closer and closer until she would get up and move. He did this a couple of times in the main waiting room and again in the rider swap waiting room. I should have taken a picture!

This ride was fun, but would be so much better with the seats from Soarin'.

We walked around for a bit and saw Kreacher peak his head out at #12 Grimmauld Place. We ended up back in Springfield. Jamie skipped the Simpsons ride on Sunday so he and Madilyn rode it while Scarlett and I rode Kang & Kongo's Twirl & Hurl at least six times.

We picked up a big pink doughnut and found a spot to sit down outside the Curious George play area. This was a nice snack to share. The girls spent a good bit of time playing in the ball factory. This is such a uniquely brilliant play area!

We walked back through Springfield and took turns shooting aliens on Men in Black. This ride had no line, whatsoever and was another favorite.

We walked back into Diagon Alley, which was nearly empty. Madilyn enjoyed practicing with her new wand. I was hoping to see the dragon breathe fire, but I never did. Do they stop this on windy days or did we just have bad timing?

I ordered a cold butter beer for her and a hot one for me. My husband burnt his tongue rather badly when tasting mine. I don't know what part of hot he didn't understand? These two drinks were $17, which is just insane to me. I'm also not a huge fan of either one. We finished them, but they weren't really anything special.

We had hoped to hop back to IoA and get in line for Hagrid's, but the app said the ride was down again so we headed back to the room. It's really a shame that they can't do better about keeping this popular ride open.

We walked around The Rock Shop back at our hotel. Jamie and I both picked up a t-shirt and I also got a magnet for our fridge. They had a backpack for $14 with any $30 purchase so my husband got that too.
 

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Confisco really is good, it’s nice to hear the kids enjoyed theirs also, that’s a homerun when you find the places they enjoy also!
 
Confisco really is good, it’s nice to hear the kids enjoyed theirs also, that’s a homerun when you find the places they enjoy also!

Maddy is not a very picky eater at all, but she does prefer fruits and veggies over meat. Scarlett would still rather drink milk than eat. She either picks at her food or devours it, there is no in between.
 
Enjoying reading along.

Not a fan of butterbeer either. But, I`m glad to read you enjoyed Confisco Grille......

Nice pictures...….
 
I was feeling icky when we woke up Wednesday morning, likely from all the sugary snacks and drinks we had the day before. I told my husband that I wanted a real breakfast, so we headed down to the The Kitchen. For what is on this buffet, we felt that it was extremely over priced. The food was good, but there just wasn't enough to justify a $65 bill (and that was after I pointed out that Scarlett was only two).

My husband was also running low on cigarettes. He didn't want to pay $16 for a pack, that wasn't even his brand, at The Rock Shop. I had read that we could walk from Portofino Bay to a Walgreens so we started walking in the direction of Portofino. This is another gorgeous resort, but I think that the distance away from the parks makes it a little less desirable (at least for us) than HRH or RPR. We walked around to the far side of the resort and found the service entrance. From there, it was a short walk to a 7-11. I saw a McDonalds close by and wished I'd waited to get breakfast there. We also saw the Walgreens I had read about.

We headed back to City Walk and started the day in Islands of Adventure. This was our coldest day yet and all of the big rides were closed in the morning due to the weather. Rip Ride Rocket never did open.

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We rerode Spiderman since it had broken down with my husband and Maddy earlier in the week. This time, it broke down with me and Maddy, but they did get a good ride. What is with this one?

We revisited Seuss Landing and rode everything there again.

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We started walking towards Hogsmeade, but decided to heck out Poseidon's Fury. A nice park guest took our picture.

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We didn't quite make last call so we ended up waiting a full twenty minutes in a dark hall. This attraction is severely dated and some parts of it scared Scarlett, but the rest of us actually liked it. Walking trough the water tunnel is the coolest part.

We found a smoking area kind of behind Poseidon's fury. This was a strange area, I don't know if the building here is vacant or if it is part of Poseidon's fury, but it was all roped off. I pulled up the app and discovered that The Hulk was running again so we crossed back through Seuss Landing to get back to it.

Madilyn walked through the line with me this time, but she freaked out at the last possible moment. The ride attendant let her walk across the ride vehicle to wait in rider swap. Jamie had another turn after me and said he liked it better knowing what to expect.

I rode Dr. Doom by myself because no one else wanted to get on it. I didn't realize that it goes up hard and drops you more softly instead of the other way around. This makes it tamer than I originally thought.

We walked around by Reign of Kong to get to Hogsmeade. The bridge was less crowded today, but the area in front of the castle was packed.

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As you can see, Scarlett was out cold by this point. Hagrid's ride was actually up and running, but we hated to get her out of the stroller to go through the line. Jamie did manage to take her out without waking her while we rode the Hogwarts Express back to the Studios. I actually bought three park hoppers in part so we could ride this, but on a budget trip I would be perfectly okay with missing it. I am glad we got to do it, though. With so many days, I think we would have been okay being stuck in just one park for the day.

We took turns riding Transformers, with one adult staying outside with Scarlet in her stroller.

We headed out of the park and into City Walk, taking a few pictures as we went.

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Somebody finally woke up.

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It was starting to sprinkle, but not very hard. We went into the Universal Store at City Walk where Madilyn picked out a Slytherin shirt. You will see her wear it on our last day.

We walked over to Bubba Gump Shrimp to ask about their wait times. They were able to seat us right away.
 

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Madilyn had eaten at the Bubba Gump Shrimp in Gatlinburg, TN when my parents took her to the Smoky Mountain National Park back in 2016. My husband and I had never been, but we all really enjoyed this one. Our waiter was really energetic and engaged us in a round of movie trivia.

My husband ordered the calamari and the larger portion of the shrimper's catch, both from the appetizer menu. I tried both of these and they were both very good. The calamari had pieces of fried tomato and peppers mixed in. I ordered the I'm Stuffed, Shrimp which was served with white rice and very yummy and filling. Madilyn got the macaroni and cheese with shrimp, from the appetizer menu. I don't think this was quite enough to fill her up, but she did help her dad finish his shrimp. Scarlett got a grilled cheese and french fries from the children's menu. This was served with blue jello, which she is now obsessed with.

When we left the restaurant, it was still drizzling rain, so we headed back to our room. Jamie took a nap. Scarlett watched cartoons. Maddy and I both worked on homework. I finished with mine around 6:20 and woke Jamie up to ask if he wanted to go back to one of the parks to catch a light show. He didn't so Maddy and I took off on our own. We chose the light show over Hogwarts instead of the one at Universal. I do wish we had made more of an effort to see the other one, too.

The light show at the castle was surprisingly not crowded, but it was about fifteen minutes until park close by the time we made it there and I believe it had been running continuously for at least an hour. Both Harry Potter areas seem to be much less crowded late in the evening. The light show was basically the sorting hat highlighting each of the four Hogwarts houses. It probably wasn't worth our mad dash back to the park, but still pretty cool.

I called my husband when we saw that Hagrids was running with a 90 minute posted wait. I told him I was stashing my bag (and phone) in a locker and we were getting in line. We actually waited about 70 minutes, although the queue tricks you several times, making you think you're getting close when you really aren't. Madilyn made friends while we were in line with a young lady from Russia. She and her boyfriend were so excited to be there and so sweet!

This ride was so much more intense than I expected! We loved it, but I hate that my husband didn't get to experience it with us.

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Time to wrap up this trip report!

We made it back to our room just before 9 PM Wednesday night and we started packing up to get ready to check out Thursday morning. We didn't set an alarm, but we still woke up around 8:00 AM. We took our time getting ready and made sure we had everything from our room and carried our bags to bell services to store them while we spent the day in the parks.

My husband had been eyeing Voodoo Doughnuts all week so we stopped in there for two glazed and two chocolate doughnuts. I'm not crazy about doughnuts in general and I had already eaten a granola bar in our room so my husband ate the two glazed ones and the girls each had a chocolate one.

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I didn't make good notes for our last day as my notebook was in our luggage. We did a lot of aimless wondering around, hopping in line for whatever caught our eye. I know Madilyn and I went on Rip Ride Rocket one more time, we all rode The Mummy again :lovestruc, and we rode Woody Woodpecker's roller coaster several times.

Maddy and I got a picture with the Delorean in our new shirts.

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We walked around Islands of Adventure, but didn't actually ride anything. We did check on Hagrid's ride around 2:00 PM, but it still hadn't opened. We would have ridden Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff again, but that area was still really crowded and we didn't feel like fighting our way through.

We walked back to City Walk. My husband poked his head into Hart and Huntington. We decided to go back to Bubba Gump Shrimp because my husband had seen a dessert on the menu that he really wanted to try. We were seated in the same booth as the night before, but we had a different server. This waitress was every bit as good as our waiter was.

I had the appetizer sampler with a couple of different types of shrimp, one of which was wrapped in bacon, some spicy chicken bites, and spinach artichoke dip served with tortilla chips. This wasn't as good a choice as the stuffed shrimp I ordered the night before. My husband had a fish and chips entree. Madilyn had a shrimp po-boy with fries. Scarlett had corn dog nuggets, fries, and blue jello. We also split a chocolate chip sundae, which was actually better than the brownie sundae we had at Toothsome.

After our meal, we had about an hour and a half to kill before Tony was scheduled to pick us up to take us to the airport. We went back into Diagon Alley so Maddy could cast a few last spells. In hindsight, I wish we had ridden Escape from Gringotts again, but we didn't. We eventually headed out of the parks and City Walk for the last time this trip.

We found a spot to sit in the Hard Rock lobby until 4:50 PM. We collected our luggage and went outside to wait for Tony. He pulled up right at 5:00 PM. We encountered a bit of traffic, but our flight wasn't leaving until 8:00 PM so we had plenty of time. We checked two of our bags and went through security fairly quickly. I was nervous about this because it took nearly three hours back in 2016 when Maddy and I joined my cousin Marie for a girls trip.

Maddy and I got mocha frappes from Mcdonalds and Scarlett got a Happy Meal. Our flight was exactly on time and we were easily able to find seats together. We made it back to our car at the airport parking lot in Birmingham and got all our luggage loaded into the truck just before it started raining. It rained until we got to the Mississippi state line and then stopped. We made it home just after midnight.
 

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Final Thoughts (and yes, lots of comparing to Disney):

I would never visit without Express Passes because I'm now spoiled for life! I would, however, be perfectly happy in any of the top three hotels. For a future trip, I would just book the cheapest one.

It's really a short walk from Portofino Bay to several stores/gas stations/restaurants.

I wish we had been able to visit Volcano Bay, but it was only open on our arrival and departure days. Paying for three park tickets ahead of time turned out to be a bit of a waste. I should have bought two park tickets and upgraded if the weather had been nicer.

Every single employee we encountered at Universal was just as pleasant and helpful as their counterparts at Disney.

Disney has the edge on food for us. It's all expensive, but we have had some truly phenomenal meals at Disney and the portions are more generous. The best two places we tried at Universal were Toothsome and Bubba Gump Shrimp.

Disney's photography service is also much better, although much more expensive, unless you are participating in a photo share group.

Universal has plenty of rides for small children. Scarlett loved all four rides at Seuss Landing, Woody Woodpecker's Coaster, E.T., Flight of the Hippogriff, Pteranadon Fliers, and Storm Force Accellatron. We shouldn't have taken her on Reign of Kong because it really scared her. She was also able to ride Fast & Furious simply because no one checked her height. She didn't mind it. She also enjoyed the ball factory and the play area in Jurassic Park.

Universal's child swap is superior to Disney's, although most queues will not allow a stroller even if you are going into child swap.

We had a really great time, but I'm not just itching to go back the way I am after leaving Disney. My husband would like to return to Universal once Nintendo World is open. This trip was much more laid back and required much less planning than any of our Disney trips.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading along! At this point we are hoping to return to Disney in fall of 2023.
 

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