On the subject of hotels, we are planning at staying at portifino bay for 1 night. It’s £500 a night which is expensive. But it gives you unlimited fast pass at the 2 universal parks next to it for the day before and after you stay which for us would be that much if not slightly more. So it’s a no brainer if you want the fast passes that is. I’ll get £200 off it with a free room upgrade, £100 dining credit and free breakfast with my Amex card which helps too though.
We did that last year, stayed at the Loews Royal Pacific - only the top tier hotels got the max fast pass thingy.
Like you say, cost a bomb, and it was actually a pretty terrible experience.
The check in feels like you're burning time - you've rushed to get there from the other side of Orlando, then you're sat waiting in line to check in for ages, then another line to drop bags etc. Then another line to get a shuttle boat to the parks.
Then walked up to the main entrance and despite there being early access for us, there's not a different queue - so half the world was at the gates waiting to get in, even though they were not allowed past a certain point. So we stupidly had to wait with them all to get in which burned into almost all of our early access hour.
Then you get in, and your fancy-dan passes get you right on everything right? Also no. You do join the short queue, but its still 30mins or so for the bigger rides. 45mins for Gringotts IIRC. I was pretty pissed off at this as in my head I'd paid a small fortune for a magic pass that I'd just waft directly onto rides with.
However, on thinking later, it did mean we got on everything in a day, which absolutely would not have happened without those passes - I'd barely have been on anything as the queues were horrible.
But it was the week directly after Easter, which is one of the busiest in the year - so that's partially on me.
Then we had our full day at Universal, and headed back - no plans for food = no food. Ended up grabbing some sweet snacks and then going into yet another line to get the boat back to the hotel - which was a 45mins job. By now its pretty late with 2 5 year olds and an 10yo. Thankfully there was a shop thingy in the hotel, so grabbed a couple of boxed salads, sandwiches and drinks and headed to the room - then realised they hadn't put the wheel-in bed in the room and as it was already about 11pm we really didn't need that hassle, so all 3 kids slept in a queen bed (no massive deal tbh). I had a shower, and glass of wine, then crashed. The shower was class, tbf.
Then up at the crack of dawn to get to Islands for ropedrop. Another packed day there and then home that night.
This is where Orlando can become a tick box holiday: Did we do almost everything we wanted to - Yes. Was it an enjoyable experience - not entirely, but that's not to say we didn't do some great things, but damn 2 full Universal days in a row is not optimal!
we have been watching Mammoth Club on youtube, so were aware the fast passes were not straight to the front, they are designed to roughly cut the queue time in half. Our daughter will be 6 when we go so we will be going in with that expectation. We are going over our May half term which isn't quite as quiet as earlier in May but it isn't as peak as you went. We could save some money and not stay there and get passes that allow one queue jump per ride, but can you imagine trying to explain to a 6 year old that if they want to go back on a ride they have just enjoyed they will be now be waiting over an hour? No thanks.
