Orlando my goodness!
Hey guys. The Travel Junkies here.
We just returned from a very successful trip to Orlando, Florida. It was our first trip of 2022!
Our trip started out just the two of us but quickly grew to a group of 8. Our 5 nieces ranging from 27 to 13 and our 5 year old nephew joined us. It was really our first trip being “kid responsible”.
We’ve been to Orlando several times in the past but there are so many different ways you can do this “fun packed adventure land” The last couple of times we visited our stays were at Disney World resorts, Disney Coronado Springs Resort and Disney’s Pop Century Resort. Both of these resorts worked out great. Coronado Springs is considered a moderate property and Pop Century is a value property. We had great stays both times staying on property when visiting the mouse house. This time we decided to stay at Universal on property and opted for Universal Orlando Cabana Bay Beach Resort. Since there were 8 of us, we stayed in the biggest room they had, the Volcano Bay View Room 2 Bedroom Suite and we loved it! Super Cute 50’s themed resort. Very comfortable accommodations. You can walk right to Volcano Bay from this resort and also catch a bus to Universal Orlando, Citywalk and Universal’s Islands of Adventures theme parks.
We opted for the 3 day 2 park passes at Universal to get the full Harry Potter experience you need to make sure to have the park to park tickets. This will allow you to take the Hogwarts express from one park to another. Sine the 5 year old is BIG on trains, he really loved the feel of going through the actual train stations and the magical scenery once on board. If you have a Harry Potter fan in the group, make sure to opt for Park Hopper tickets to experience this cool and convenient transportation between the two parks.
The parks at Universal worked out really nice. I think the longest line we waited in was for the newest rides, Velocicoaster and Hagrid’s motorbike adventure. These lines were about an hour long wait and were also the favorites among our group. Most rides averaged around 30 minutes or less. Universal does offer an upgraded express pass if you prefer not to wait as long, there is a dedicated express line that you can use with this pass.
Since it was the first time for most of the kids. We wanted to make sure that we included a visit to Disney World as well. We figured that if we had only one day that we should focus on one park. We decided on Magic Kingdom, the most iconic of the parks in our opinion. This was a good experience for us as well even though we had been to Disney several times in the past, so many things have changed since the pandemic started.
The first thing to know is that you will need to make a reservation for the park you are visiting along with your park pass.
Disney made some changes last November to the express pass feature, this feature used to be complementary but now there is a small daily fee to take advantage of the express lanes. Their express feature is now called Disney Genie Plus Service. You still want to make sure to set up your My Disney Experience App as soon as you make your travel reservations.
We decided not to go with the genie plus service since we were thinking the parks would be slower this time of year. This was not the case. Magic Kingdom was busier than expected.
We still had a wonderful time walking the park and riding some of the classic rides.
We ended the day watching the new Disney Enchantment night show at the castle. You should not skip out on the shows, they are worth waiting for!
We had a wonderful time and returned home safely after making some unforgettable memories. We wanted to share some of our experiences and photos with you.
Definitely reach out to us for assistance with your travel plans to Disney World or Universal Orlando. We would love to help!
Safe Travels,
Jay and Becca
