Orlando recommendations

It’ll be longer before a return for us. Going to leave it a few years til Star Wars land is fully up and running and until our youngest is tall enough for every ride.

Was disappointed that the new Fast & Furious ride hadn’t opened yet at universal. It said Spring 2018 and I’d have thought it would be ready for Spring Break, but not yet unfortunately!
I quickly learnt that "spring" in the Florida theme park game translates to "first half of the year", my money's on it opening in June to combat Disneys Toy Story land.
 
Yep, seems that way ! There's a Margarettiville resort opening up down the road (Kissimee) that claims to be ready summer 2018....its a building site at the moment, can't see that being ready !
 
Well now that we’re back home, looks like we missed the awful weather in the U.K. over Easter ! All slept well last night after the travel and back to school/work tomorrow .....boooo !

Great holiday, highlights:
- discovery cove
- the weather
- Mako and Manta rides @ sea world
- Cheetah Hunt and Sheikra rides at Busch Gardens
- the airboat ride at Boggy Creek
- having a house with a pool
- 14 day passes for the theme parked meaning we visited all at least twice
- kids loved Texas Roadhouse restaurant [emoji4]

Lows (but no issues really)
- long queue at Universal (but with the 14 day passes we just kept coming back to get through all the rides
- Volcano Bay was a real disappointment. It was busy, but getting into the park was a joke and the “tapu tapu” queuing system was very limiting when busy
- missed out on doing Gringotts this time as the queues were stupid (but we’d all done it before anyway)
- Millers Alehouse didn’t live up to the hype !
 
Quite agree re Millers Ale house, used it a few years ago (the restaurant at the back, not the Sports bar at the front which is my idea of hell!)
Used it last year and found it's gone downhill both the food and the service.
I was quite taken aback with our server who had another guy with him who he was training, when we got the bill at the end of our meal (4 of us) he had circled the most expensive percentage of the 3 suggested gratuities.
In hindsight I should have spoken to the manager who was walking around asking customers if everything was okay but all the servers seemed to be quite pally with him and I got the feeling although he may have apologised to us, in private nothing would have been said to our server.
 
If you can afford to do it, it's worth staying at least one night in the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal during the busy seasons.

It's a nice hotel, has a nice pool area for chilling at night, including an adult only hot tub. It's close to the park's entrance and has its own bag check and the big benefit is the room includes express ride passes for all guests. Arrive early on check in day and they'll issue your passes before your room is ready and they're valid on check out day too. So, one night's stay gets you two days of express passes. These are the best passes too, as they're unlimited use, although a few rides aren't included, such as Gringotts.

After doing this a couple of times during August visits, it made Universal and Islands of Adventure days much better, as you can get much more done and repeat rides more easily.
 
Express passes are now accepted on Gringotts....it’s a good idea and we may do that next time.

It wasn’t really an issue as we spent 5 days at Universal in total including volcano bay so we could’ve queued and done it but we weren’t that bothered to be honest! We got to do everything else (height of kids permitting) including Kong which also had massive queue times !

Definitely an idea for next time though....or don’t go during US school holidays :)
 
Well now that we’re back home, looks like we missed the awful weather in the U.K. over Easter ! All slept well last night after the travel and back to school/work tomorrow .....boooo !

Great holiday, highlights:
- discovery cove
- the weather
- Mako and Manta rides @ sea world
- Cheetah Hunt and Sheikra rides at Busch Gardens
- the airboat ride at Boggy Creek
- having a house with a pool
- 14 day passes for the theme parked meaning we visited all at least twice
- kids loved Texas Roadhouse restaurant [emoji4]

Lows (but no issues really)
- long queue at Universal (but with the 14 day passes we just kept coming back to get through all the rides
- Volcano Bay was a real disappointment. It was busy, but getting into the park was a joke and the “tapu tapu” queuing system was very limiting when busy
- missed out on doing Gringotts this time as the queues were stupid (but we’d all done it before anyway)
- Millers Alehouse didn’t live up to the hype !

For future reference did you go to the Millars and Texas Roadhouse on highway 192?
 
Well now that we’re back home, looks like we missed the awful weather in the U.K. over Easter ! All slept well last night after the travel and back to school/work tomorrow .....boooo !

Great holiday, highlights:
- discovery cove
- the weather
- Mako and Manta rides @ sea world
- Cheetah Hunt and Sheikra rides at Busch Gardens
- the airboat ride at Boggy Creek
- having a house with a pool
- 14 day passes for the theme parked meaning we visited all at least twice
- kids loved Texas Roadhouse restaurant [emoji4]

Lows (but no issues really)
- long queue at Universal (but with the 14 day passes we just kept coming back to get through all the rides
- Volcano Bay was a real disappointment. It was busy, but getting into the park was a joke and the “tapu tapu” queuing system was very limiting when busy
- missed out on doing Gringotts this time as the queues were stupid (but we’d all done it before anyway)
- Millers Alehouse didn’t live up to the hype !
The Mako was absolutely horrific. I came off that swearing I'd never go on a roller-coaster again... But I always come back for more.

Did you do the VR Kraken? Found that disappointing.

I loved Miller's. Cheap beer and nice cheap food. Zinger Chicken Salad was my favourite.

Just booked Disney Paris for August... That'll have to do for this year and I'll keep chipping away at the wife for Florida next summer.
 
For future reference did you go to the Millars and Texas Roadhouse on highway 192?

Texas roadhouse was on the 192, but we tried Millars a few times there, but was always a min. 45min wait for a table, so in the end we went to the one off the i4 (Champions Gate).

The Mako was absolutely horrific. I came off that swearing I'd never go on a roller-coaster again... But I always come back for more.

Did you do the VR Kraken? Found that disappointing.

I loved Miller's. Cheap beer and nice cheap food. Zinger Chicken Salad was my favourite.

Just booked Disney Paris for August... That'll have to do for this year and I'll keep chipping away at the wife for Florida next summer.

Mako was brilliant, I love those type of hyper-coasters. Manta was a weird experience based on the seating position and the pressure of the g-force on my head was unreal, especially through the loops. The VR Experience for Kraken was not available, but no harm as I liked the ride without it anyway and I heard that it wasn't great anyway.

There's nothing wrong with Millars, it was just another American restaurant/sports bar to me, but my expectations had been heightened by the great feedback on here. I can see the attraction, but didn't stand out as anything special, to me anyway.

Chick Fil-A was a big hit as well....great for breakfast too !!

We'll head back in about 3-4 years to Orlando and do the Disney parks next time.
 
Okay... 24 hours of nonstop pestering and looks like we're a go for next summer. But apparently that's it for 5 years.
 
Mako was brilliant, a proper coaster and really enjoyed it.

Kraken VR is just a stunt. I imagine it’s a cheaper way of being able to market a new experience without having to actually build a new ride. It has slowed down loading beyond belief and made it ridiculous. That said, I ride without VR so get to the front of the queue in no time!
 
Is what you'll be saying until after your next trip!
We were planning on going in 2020, but then we'd have to pay for bump's plane tickets and our current 2 year old's Park tickets (he'll be trained to say he's still 3 for the purposes of Disney).

We'd save over a grand going next year compared to 2020.

I won't be going every other year when I'm paying flights and park tickets for 5 of us.
 
I won't be going every other year when I'm paying flights and park tickets for 5 of us.
Yeah I dread to think the cost for 5, it's expensive enough for us when there's only 2 of us!!
 
My only worry (apart from how the fudge I'm going to pay for it) is if Star Wars Land is delayed.
 
My only worry (apart from how the fudge I'm going to pay for it) is if Star Wars Land is delayed.
When next year are you thinking of going?
 
Can only go in August.
If I was a gambling man I'd say it'll be open by then! It'll be insanely busy though, it would not surprise me if we see 6+ hour wait times on the attractions.
 
The Disney park trend is they usually aim for a summer opening and Galaxy's Edge is scheduled for summer 2019.

Pandora and Toy Story Land were both planned for summer and they opened/open May 2017 and June 2018 respectively, in time for their main seasons. So, hopefully Galaxy's Edge will make its summer opening as well.

We're aiming for Florida either next year or 2020 for Galaxy's Edge, but if Pandora is anything to go by - an area based on one film from 2009 - I can only imagine how busy the new Star Wars area will be.
 
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The Disney park trend is they usually aim for a summer opening and Galaxy's Edge is scheduled for summer 2019.

Pandora and Toy Story Land were both planned for summer and they opened/open May 2017 and June 2018 respectively, in time for their main seasons. So, hopefully Galaxy's Edge will make its summer opening as well.

We're aiming for Florida either next year or 2020 for Galaxy's Edge, but if Pandora is anything to go by - an area based on one film from 2009 - I can only imagine how busy the new Star Wars area will be.
I'll use and abuse their parent swap system so we can at least do everything twice on one queue.
 
We’re going to give it 3 years before going back, hopefully Star Wars will be well open and slightly less busy and the youngest will be tall enough for all rides! They’ll hopefully also be more interested in a trip to Cape Canaveral as well as it would’ve been wasted on them this last trip in my opinion.
 
Well no turning back now... Treated my 4 year old to $25 IHOP voucher and $25 Miller's voucher for his birthday today.

(they're for me).
 

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