Travel Feature: 

Planning For Your First Trip to Universal Studios Orlando
by Cheryl Pendry, PassPorter Message Board Guide and Featured Columnist

With four theme parks, there's plenty to keep you busy at the Walt Disney World Resort, especially if you only have a few days in Orlando. But venture outside those famous purple gates and there's a whole new world of theme park entertainment waiting for you.

Now I'll be honest here. I'm one of the worst for venturing off Disney property during our vacation. The only exception to that are our trips to the mall to pick up some bargains. Apart from those, I'm happiest staying within the boundaries of Walt Disney World. But we have to push ourselves and after ten visits to Disney, perhaps it was finally time to see what Universal Orlando was like. So our last trip was arranged so that we could spend a couple of days there, trying out the various rides and shows. For me, it would be my first ever visit there and unsurprisingly, I had plenty of questions that I wanted answered before we got through the park gates.

As a seasoned Disney veteran, planning my visits to the various Disney parks is second nature for me, but wait... my trusty PassPorter doesn't extend to cover Universal Orlando! Now what? That was really my first question -- where can I find out what I need to know? Fortunately, I found a good substitute for my faithful PassPorter in the shape of Universal Orlando: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure by Kelly Monaghan, which is packed full of useful information. And it's available to purchase through the PassPorter store.

Other great places to get information about Universal Orlando include their official web site which has sections on the parks, hotels, nightlife, and tickets, amongst other things. One of the most important things I learned was that if a ride was deemed to be suitable for "ultimate adventurers" in Universal-speak, that was a sure signal that we should keep as far away from it as possible if we didn't want to be turned green!

Now, there's another great addition to the wealth of information about Universal Orlando on our very own PassPorter boards. The recently added Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure section is the place to head if you've got any questions that you can't find the answers to.

Let's be clear. Heading to Universal Orlando is not a small undertaking and it's not some quick day trip. It's second in size only to Disney, with two theme parks, CityWalk, which is their equivalent of Downtown Disney, complete with dining and nightlife and three resorts - the Portofino Bay, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific Hotels. The main difference you'll immediately notice is the size of the place. Compared to Disney, it's tiny and everything is in walking distance, although I'll grant you, it's still a long walk from one end of the theme parks back to the hotels -- I know, as we walked it!

That means there's lots to see and you're not going to do it all in one day. Ideally, you need to allow three days to do both parks, perhaps longer if you want to do every ride or you're visiting at a busy time of the year. And don't forget to put some time aside in your visit to check out CityWalk -- its well worth a visit and has some excellent restaurants.

With so much to do at Universal Orlando, it's worth looking at staying at one of three onsite hotels. OK, so it's not cheap, with prices on par with Disney, but if you're a Universal Orlando hotel guest, you do get a pretty impressive bonus -- exclusive front of the line passes. The Universal Express system allows hotel guests to bypass the regular lines and best of all; this perk is free of charge to hotel guests. It's something worth thinking about, particularly if your visit to Universal Orlando is likely to be at a busy time of the year. Fortunately ours wasn't, so we stayed put at our beloved Beach Club and drove over.

Regardless of whether you stay on Universal property or not, it's worth making time in your schedule to visit the three resorts. They're all unique and beautifully themed and if nothing else, you can admire them and consider staying at one of them in the future. We were exceptionally impressed with what we saw of the resorts and in particular, how you can walk over to the parks in the mornings, although admittedly by the end of the day, the walk back might be a bit too much. Then again, that's what the complimentary water taxi that runs to all the resorts is for!

If you drive over to Universal Orlando from Disney, the drive should take you about 20 -- 30 minutes, depending where you are on Disney property, although obviously it could take a lot longer in the rush hour or if there's been an accident on the I-4. Universal Orlando, as you'd expect, is very well signposted and as a result, it's easy to find. Self parking costs $11 a day and there's also an option to valet park, which costs $18 a day.

The other question I had was, which tickets should we get? Having worked out that we'd be spending two days at Universal Orlando, I knew that at the very least, that's what we'd need. Over the next few months, I watched the Universal web site very carefully, having learned that their park tickets are very different than Disney's. Unlike Disney tickets, which are fixed price at all times, Universal regularly has great offers on park tickets. We ended up paying for two-park, two-day tickets that were extended to five days admission! So if you're planning a trip to Universal, don't just buy the tickets at the first price you see -- unless it is a great deal that you can't pass up! Instead, keep an eye on the web site, as you never know what type of offer might be around the corner.

So now we've looked at tickets, how long to spend in the parks, whether to stay at the resort and where to find more information about Universal Orlando. If you're thinking of a visit there for the first time, that should be a lot of your questions already answered. And if you've got any others -- don't forget to pop into PassPorter's new Universal forums and ask away!


About the Author: Cheryl and husband Mark live in England and love to travel, particularly to America. They're now looking forward to setting sail on Disney's first cruise around the Mediterranean in May.

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Kona Café - A Hidden Jewel at The Polynesian
by Mary Albright, Guest Contributor


I admit that dining is a big part of what I enjoy about my vacations to Walt Disney World. Like most return visitors, we have our favorite haunts and our "must-do" places to eat. But every trip, I want to try something new so it isn't the same old-same old each time we visit.

When the time came to make our December 2006 Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR), I usually would have booked 'Ohana (also at the Polynesian) since my kids, my husband and I love the food there. But I have been dying to go to Kona Café since I saw some of their menu items. We were giving the Disney Dining Plan a trial run this trip, so I booked Kona Café as our first dinner the day we arrived in Florida.

We had eaten at Kona Café for breakfast on previous trips and like most people, fell in love with Tonga Toast, but this was our first dinner there. I feel that Kona Café is a hidden jewel among the dining options at Walt Disney World - great food, great service, but not always on everyone's radar.

It was a very busy Saturday evening at the Polynesian Resort. The line to check in at ‘Ohana, next door to Kona Café, was very long. In contrast, we waited behind just one party while checking in at the Kona Café. We had a 5:30pm ADR, checked in at the podium a few minutes early and were given a beeper. The nice thing about the Polynesian is that the beepers work all over that second floor. So we wandered over to Trader Jack's and shopped a bit. Maybe 5 minutes later, our beeper went off and we were promptly seated. Debbie was our server and she was fantastic. We ordered Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade and Root Beer all around and started working on appetizers. We asked if we could just put in our whole order with her all at once since we were hungry. She said that would work well because there were a couple larger parties and we'd probably get our food quicker if we did that. Since my children were 10 and 11, respectively, they were treated as adults on the Disney Dining Plan. This worked great because they could each pick things they liked and get good and full!

My daughter, Caitlin, ordered the pot-stickers, which were little dumplings. They were filled with duck meat and came with a creamy ginger soy sauce and some pickled cucumbers. My son, Stefan, ordered the sticky chicken wings, which came with a garlic sauce and sesame seeds on top. This was a very generous serving of chicken wings; it easily would be a nice appetizer for the entire table. I ordered the crab cakes, which was served with a tartar sauce and pineapple relish. I really liked the crab cakes, 'though I'm not really into crab cakes at all. I thought my portion was a perfect appetizer size for one person. My husband, Bryan, had the Creamy Kona Seafood Chowder. It's a blend of shrimp, crab and fish in a sort of creamy bisque. He really enjoyed that soup. Caitlin didn't really care for her pot-stickers, but I think it was more because she loves chicken and wanted Stefan's chicken wings. They pretty much inhaled that plate. The plate of chicken wings could easily have been an entree for Caitlin, but they did well sharing together.

When we ordered our entrees, Caitlin wanted to get the turkey medallions and Debbie told her right away that she would not like that. I appreciated her honesty and her assistance in helping Caitlin pick something that she would like. She asked Caitlin what she liked. Caitlin describes herself as a "meat-o-saurus" and her favorite meat is always chicken. She tells Debbie, "chicken" so Debbie recommended she have the Coconut Chicken. It also came with Asian greens, pineapple, strawberries and a yummy honey-lime dressing. Caitlin ate the chicken; I ate her "salad", as she put it, and everyone was happy.

Stefan ordered the shrimp and scallops entrée, which came with sticky rice and a variety of dipping sauces. He loves shrimp and was ready to try scallops. He inhaled his shrimp pretty darn quick, but didn't care much for the taste of scallops. I was happy to help him finish those off!

Bryan ordered the prime rib with mashed potatoes and stir-fried broccoli. It was slow-roasted and must have tasted pretty good because it wasn't too long before he was wiping his plate clean.

I ordered the Macadamia Nut Encrusted Mahi Mahi. It came with mushroom rice, sautéed bok choy and fried onions, with a lime-butter sauce. Mahi Mahi is my absolute favorite fish. I loved this dish and ate everything! I don't even like onions as a rule, and I made those fried onions disappear. Caitlin's favorite word to describe really good food is "Yumatrocious!" and that applied to every bite of my entrée.

Then it was time for dessert. Kona Café has a wonderful dessert selection. Stefan opted for the Kona Kone, which had 2 kinds of ice cream in a sugar cone with cotton candy around the bottom. He loves ice cream so this was a good deal for him. Since Caitlin considers chocolate a food group unto itself, she ordered the Kilauea Torte. She giggled with glee when that chocolate fudge oozed out of the cake when she cut into it.

Bryan chose the White Chocolate Cheesecake. He generally doesn't like white chocolate, but commented that this cheesecake was quite tasty.

I had the Caramel-Banana Crème Brulée. All I can say is "Oh my gosh!" I love crème brulée and this was just rub-your-tummy good!

As we were on the Disney Dining Plan, this meal used four (4) Table Service Credits. If we hadn't been on the dining plan, this meal would have cost $179.22. I felt that for our family, this was a very good value. We all tried new things that we hadn't tried before and I enjoyed being able to do that without worrying about the total cost.

Dinner at Kona Café was a definite thumbs-up and we plan to visit here again for dinner on our next trip to Walt Disney World.


About the Author: Mary Albright is a previous PassPorter News Guest Contributor. Married with two children, she lives in Minnesota and works as a director for a direct sales company. She has visited Walt Disney World 11 times since 2000. Her next trip is December 2007.