Universal Orlando Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Week 14 – Monday Round-up

April 6, 2015 by Bel 3 Comments

This week Monday has passed me by so fast that I completely forgot to do my round up post. As I write this it’s Wednesday morning and we’re on our way to Kennedy Space Center. Since these posts are largely for my benefit, I’ll probably backdate this post to Monday anyway.

So as you probably know, we went away to Florida last week. It’s been a crazy, wonderful, exciting, hot, exhausting experience so far! However on Monday we were still at home. The girls were with their dad and Chris was at work, so I spent majority of the day sewing last minute dresses and skirts for the girls. At lunch time I headed over to Lincoln. I had parcels to post and last minute money to exchange into dollars. After that I headed to my mum’s where I would attempt to finish off the dress I was making for myself. At 6pm it was almost done but I needed to collect the girls from their dad at Grandma’s house. I lingered a while there but eventually we got away, getting the girls home and ready for bed. I spent the evening finishing off my dress and watching TV with Chris once he was home from work.

Tuesday was our last day at home so it was pretty mental. We packed, we cleaned, we shopped and I sewed some more. The day went past in a bit of a blur but Chris even fitted in a visit to his gran by the end of the day. Watching TV and sewing into the evening, Chris and I ended up awake till 2am, just so I could get everything done. We headed to bed exhausted, knowing we had to be awake again at 7am. When that time came around, we crawled out of bed and got ready for the day ahead.

Having set myself the deadline of 9.30am to leave the house, it was actually 10am when we left (I knew that would be the case though which is why my deadline was earlier than necessary). We travelled to mum’s and swapped all our bags to her car, before a last minute toilet swap and off. We headed down to London, stopping once at a services to eat our packed lunch and go to the toilet again. We then drove to the Hounslow West tube station, where we would park the car and head into London. One the tube we headed straight for Leicester Square and when we got there we located the Cinderella Exhibition. We queued for a short while before getting in and it then took around half an hour to look around. We took loads of pictures and even headed into the shop. We didn’t buy anything but a programme, but it was a nice experience to have had.

After the Exhibition we walked to Covent Garden, planning to visit the Disney Store. Unfortunately it was closed due to fire nearby and so we walked back to Leicester Square to catch the tube again. This time we got off at Gloucester Road and walked to the ASK Italian restaurant. We had dinner there and it was nice but just average really. Afterwards we caught the tube again, back to the car and then drove to the Travelodge we were staying at. After struggling to get a parking spot, we were finally there, checked in and overnight bags at the ready. Mum had her own room, so the four of us settled in for the night, watched some TV and I even sneaked a blog post in. By about 10pm we all went to sleep, knowing we would need to be up early again.

The next morning was Thursday and we all woke naturally just after 7am. I showered and got ready while the girls popped to see mum and then they got ready as well. By 8.30am we headed down for breakfast – all you can eat breakfast buffet. We filled ourselves up and then headed back to our rooms to grab our stuff. We went out to the car, loaded up and then drove to Purple Parking, for our airport parking. After sorting out the car, we unloaded our stuff, packed it into the trailer and minibus and then got on ourselves. We were driven to Heathrow airport, terminal 2, where we disembarked, grabbed our cases and headed inside! Check in was pretty easy, all done from this little self check-in machine. We got our boarding passes and luggage tags printed, before handing in our luggage and then going through security. Once in the terminal lounge, we had an hour to kill so the girls waited with mum and Chris and I took a wander around the shops. We headed back for a while, sat down and chilled out. Then at 12pm the boarding gate was announced so we all made our way there. Once there, it wasn’t very long till we actually boarded. We settled into our seats and got ready for takeoff.

Lily picked a movie out and got straight into watching it – Big Hero 6 again. Megan and mum watched it too but Chris and I watched different – mine was Mockingjay Part 1. The flight was just over 7 hours and while it was fine for the most part, Megan getting sick definitely took away from some of the enjoyment. We arrived at Montreal airport at 3.20pm local time (8.20pm on our body clocks) and since it was just a layover we didn’t have to collect luggage. However we did have to go through customs and security again and this took ages. Not only that but when we finally got through, we discovered the plane was delayed. As with all things like this, you never quite know how long you’ll have to wait and in the end it was almost an hour delayed. Once we were on the plane, Megan settled in to sleep while Lily looked wide awake. Megan did manage to sleep for majority of the flight and Lily fell asleep only for the last hour.

When we landed we collected our luggage and then went to collect the rental car. The line was huge and we waited over an hour – tired and grumpy! Finally we were all sorted, got the car and were on our way. It was 45 minutes to the villa so still a good chunk to go but when we got there, we all just collapsed exhausted. We unpacked the bare minimum and fell into bed. It was midnight local time but 5am for all of our bodies!

In the morning, majority of us were awake early – around the 6/7 mark. The girls had cereal as I’d brought some for them and we’d picked up milk on the way to the villa the night before. We scrapped together a cup of tea and coffee but otherwise there was nothing else. This meant we got up and ready, heading out food shopping for some essentials. We travelled only five minutes, till we reached a Publix – all of us heading inside. Despite it being an essentials shop we bought loads of rubbish too and all in all it came out almost $200. We headed back to the villa, unpacked the shopping and then had lunch. We spent the afternoon chilling out in the pool, unpacking our suitcases and basically just relaxing. We made dinner at the villa too, the girls having sausage burgers and chips, while we had regular burgers with chips and salad. Mum and I had blue cheese burgers while Chris’ were cheese and bacon. Finally it was bed time for the girls and as they headed off to sleep, we went back out to the poolside where it was now cool. We stayed there for an hour or so before finally calling it a night and heading to bed.

On Saturday the plan was to lay in as long as possible but I was awake for 6.30am. I headed for my computer and sorted out some photos and even the odd blog post for Twice the Mum. Everyone woke up bit by bit and we all had breakfast and tea/coffee. We were supposed to be meeting up with one of my friends at midday but they messaged to say they were ill and so this changed our plans. We’d had a lazy morning and we grabbed an early lunch before heading off to Magic Kingdom. It took just over half an hour to get there, then park, catch a tram, catch a monorail, go through bag check and finally use our tickets to get in. Megan’s ticket flagged up an error so we needed to sort that out and Megan got issued a new one. We then headed into the park, I was perhaps the most excited! We went into the Theater and had our Meet and Greet with Tinker Bell. We then queued to see Marie and then sat to wait for the parade which was about to start. First came the special Easter parade and next was the main Festival of Fantasy parade. The main one was awesome any my favourite part was the fire breathing Maleficent float.

Next we signed up for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, an interactive card game that you play around the park. We did the first portal but then we had to head off into Adventureland as we had FastPasses booked for the Magic Carpet ride. It only took a few minutes to ride and afterwards we headed onto the Jungle Cruise. Next came a Meet and Greet with Peter Pan and this was my most favourite bit by far, so far. Next we wandered around the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and then around a few shops. We headed back towards Cinderella’s Castle and actually managed to catch the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street parade. We stopped to watch this before continuing on and heading back to Main Street USA. Here we did a few more portals for our card game and defeated Cruella De Vil. We decided to leave it there and pick up on it another day. We headed out of the park and back to the car, where we drove back to the villa we’re staying in. However we were all so hungry that we stopped at the local takeaway and bought some pizza, garlic knots and chicken wings. We then rushed home to eat and relax, before getting the girls to bed and relaxing a bit before heading to bed ourselves.

Finally it was Sunday and the end of the week – though by this point we’d already lost all track of days. The plan for the day was Harry Potter in both Universal Studios and also Islands of Adventure. We headed out after breakfast and when we got to Universal Orlando we went straight for the Studios. Though it took a while to get through some of the park, we eventually made it to Harry Potter London and Diagon Alley. The girls spoke to Ernie at the Knightbus and had their picture taken outside 12 Grimmauld Place. We then headed into the shopping area of Diagon Alley, changed some money into Gringotts notes (not that I knew they existed – what happened to galleons, sickles and knuts??) and watched the street show of The Tale of the Three Brothers. We then queued up for the Gringotts ride – Escape from Gringotts – taking about 45 minutes in total. After that we went for lunch at The Leaky Cauldron and it was amazing. We tried Butterbeer in all three ways – regular, frozen and hot – as well as fish and chip, banger sandwich, lamb & beef stew and macaroni cheese. We were so stuffed afterwards!

Next we headed into Ollivanders, watched the show and both girls bought a wand. We headed out to look around all the other shops too and even made our way down Knockturn Alley. I bought an Avada Kedavra t-shirt and a Pygmy Puff key ring (to replace the one I lost when my car was stolen) and the girls bought full size Pygmy Puffs, one in pink and one in purple. Apparently the boys are pink and girls are purple so our two got named Ginny and Arnold. Next we made our way to the Hogwarts Express, via Kings Cross Station. It took a while to get on but the journey was fun, a ride in itself with story and screen on the windows and doors. Once we were off, we were in Hogmeade and of course near Hogwarts. We wandered around a little before deciding to do the Hogwarts ride – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Despite the fact Lily couldn’t ride (and Chris didn’t want to) we were all allowed to queue together which meant we could all see inside. The ride was amazing though mum got off feeling sick and Megan was a little wobbly too. I would definitely recommend it to ride lovers but not for the faint hearted.

To recover ourselves we headed to The Three Broomsticks for a drink, this time including Gilly Water and Pumpkin Juice. Pumpkin Juice was disgusting but I kept the bottle as a souvenir anyway, I made a note to pick up a souvenir Butterbeer glass, the next time we had some. After another quick look around the shops, we went back to Hogsmeade station and caught the Hogwarts Express back to London. The story was different this time which was nice as well. When back at London, we were a bit lost for what to do. We needed to stay in the park for dinner in order to use our dining card but we were all still full from lunch. In the end we left mum sat on a bench with her book, while we headed into a ride called Disaster. The queue time was only 10 minutes and the ride was a lot of fun, so we were definitely glad we did it. Afterwards we headed back to mum and we were all ready to eat again. We went to Richter Burgers where we all had burgers and fries, milkshakes etc. as we had one snack left to use on our dinning card we headed back into Diagon Alley and grabbed some ice cream. We tried Butterbeer flavour amoungst others but unfortunately we were so full that no one managed all of theirs! We hung around long enough to see the dragon breathe fire at night and then we left. Everyone was tired and it was late so after eventually getting back to the villa, we all headed to bed. This ended our week, though technically we seem to be working on a Thursday to Wednesday week right now!

Please keep an eye out for the wonderful guest posts I have going live this week, as well as some scheduled wish lists and tags! I’ll hopefully remember my Monday round up post next week but I wouldn’t hold your breath as I have a busy Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday planned! Hope you’re all having a nice week – I know I am!

Florida 2015 (3 weeks to go) The Planner

March 11, 2015 by Bel 2 Comments

Hey! So this post should really have gone live earlier today but unfortunately I didn’t get time to finish it (I spent the evening sewing a blue Cinderella inspired skirt). As such its a little late on this evening, but even if it had been tomorrow, its still technically 3 weeks to go, because we actually fly on the Thursday. If you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know that I’ve covered the preliminary planning (accommodation, flights and park tickets) and then pre-planning for the things you want to do (character dining, photo passes and fast passes). This week I want to share with you my actual physical planner, with our actual plans!

At first, my planner didn’t start off as an actual planner. Instead it started off as the odd print off here and there. However as my planning grew (especially with the fast passes booked) it seemed like a good idea to get some sort of organisation. As such I created this planner, with a folder I already had kicking around and a whole bunch of freebie stuff.

The first page is a calendar, but only really of the days we’re on holiday. I googled for an April 2015 calendar and then chopped it down until it only had the days I was interested in. I then printed it off and completed it – in pencil of course, in case there were any changes! After that came the maps. I’d found these a week or so earlier, but I’d printed them off and stapled them together in various forms. I had a map for each park – Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios etc. and also ones for Downtown Disney and Universal’s CityWalk. Each one of those got a separate pocket in the folder so I could see them easily. Along with that map, I’d also downloaded some Character Meet maps from Kenny the Pirate. I slid these into the same pockets (Disney only), but back to back so I could see both sides.

After the map sections, come actual planner sections. These were free to me, because Amy sent them to me, but I know she originally bought them off Etsy. I personally wouldn’t have bothered buying something like this and probably would have just made a few pages in Word, but I have to admit they do look lovely and give a sort of uniformity to the planner. I printed one for each park and slid those into separate pockets too. The Ride Plan page is really the only one I’ve used for each park, but it contains space for Park Opening Times, Crowd Predictions, Fast Pass Reservations, Ride Wishlist and then Notes. This was really all I wanted.

As I began to fill them in, I realised that it would perhaps be better to have a few more for Magic Kingdom, as its the one park we have plans to be in for more than one day. After completing my planner page for Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, I printed out a further three copies of the Magic Kingdom one (four in total) and completed these too. It seemed natural to place them in date order and so almost unintentionally I was making a day by day guide.

Because of this, I decided I would like a similar thing for my days in Universal and also at Kennedy Space Center. I went searching the internet for Universal Orlando planners, but basically drew a blank. There was something on Etsy which I did actually buy (it was less than £2) but to be honest it was rubbish and not worth the money. However it gave me a basis and a place to start, so instead I chopped it around myself and edited it, making it be what I wanted it to be. I made one page of solely Harry Potter rides and attractions -in both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure – and two pages of all the other rides and attractions – one for Universal Studios and the other for Islands of Adventure. I then printed these off and gave them their own pocket, marking out the days in my planner that would be designated to them.

After that I researched into the Kennedy Space Center. We already have our tickets and although they’re not for a definite day, we do have one in mind for visiting. I looked up how far away it is from where we’re staying and also some directions to follow. I printed off a complex map too so at least we have a rough idea of what there is to do and how long it might take us to look around.

Finally that just left the things like dinner reservations, flight info and accommodation. Although I already have the information written down elsewhere, I figured I may as well complete it, just so that it makes one whole complete planner – and perhaps a souvenir of our trip afterwards. So now I had a page for almost every day that we’re away, not including the day we fly, the two days after we arrive and the two before we leave. I realised it was likely that we’d probably spend another day in Magic Kingdom at some point, so I made a blank page and listed all the other rides and activities I wanted to cover, that weren’t already FastPass’d on other days. I figured this would give me a good place to start for what was left to do and what we wanted to do. With every day we spent in Magic Kingdom I could mark off anything we’d managed to do, so by the end of the holiday I could see what was left.

The whole thing was really simple and easy to do and since doing it I feel a lot more organised and ready to go. Whenever I think about something I need to do or want to make a note of, I just go to my planner and add it there. Since making it I have gone through it several times and even sat and gone through it with my mum. I’m pretty proud of all the work it contains and fingers crossed it will give me all the information I need when we’re away on holiday!

Next week I’ll be updating on the shopping we’ve done for holiday – the girls shopping trip to Meadowhall and Chris’ birthday present clothes. It will include the dresses I’ve most recently bought from Hot Topic and also the clothes I’ve made for us to take with us! Please come back next Wednesday to see what else I have to share with you!!

Florida 2015 (4 weeks to go) The Planning: Part 2 – Booking in Advance

March 4, 2015 by Bel 4 Comments

As I mentioned last week, in my initial post Florida 2015 – The Planning, I do love to plan. However I also mentioned that when it comes to a holiday, I like to leave room for flexibility. I’m not one for itineraries and agendas, I don’t want every day planned out. That’s exactly how I’ve had every holiday in my adult life… until now.

If you’re heading to Orlando and you’re wanting to make the most of your holiday, there are definitely some aspects I recommend you plan in advance. That’s what this post will focus on – the things to do when you’re there, that you should plan in advance!

Of course, like I mentioned last time, you need to make sure your passport is up to date (renewal costs around £46 for kids and £72.50 for adults, so it’s an expense you should take into account too). Usually it’s recommended that you do this several months in advance but in my experience, a passport is usually returned to you within a week or so, especially off peak. You also need to apply for your visa, under the ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation). This costs $14 per person – a charge of $10 for the visa and then $4 for admin fees, which works out around £9-£10 total. Don’t leave it too late, just in case you have any unexpected problems! Finally, another essential is of course travel insurance. My mum has an annual policy but I just used Travel Supermarket to compare the prices for a family of four. I’ll be honest and admit I just picked the cheapest but they all seemed to offer very reasonable amounts of cover so I wasn’t cutting corners. This cost around £32 (I also checked Compare the Market and Confused but generally Travel Supermarket came out a pound or two cheaper than the other sites, for the same quotes).

Not all of those things needs to be done immediately when you first book your holiday, but you do need to write them on your “to do list”. However, once you’ve got all the essentials spoken for, you need to consider what else you’re wanting to do. My first tip would definitely be to buy a book specifically for Florida, or even better Orlando. Even if you’re going specifically for Disney World or even the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, its great to get a general book to begin with as it will cover the basics of everything there is to do and therefore help you narrow down where your interests lie.

Guide Books – I personally started off with Brit Guide Orlando 2014 (Brit Guides), a book which came with a 4.5 rating on Amazon. It was a great read and very thorough – including some great tips. It included everything from villas and hotels, to each park with map and break down of attractions, to everything else there is to do in Orlando, including eating out and shopping. However as I bought it early in 2014 (published October 2013) and my trip is April 2015, I soon realised a lot of the information – especially with regards to Universal Parks and Walt Disney Parks – was out of date. Nonetheless it was a great starting book and nearer the time (i.e. February 2015) I paid out for two newer books, one for Universal and one for Disney. These also included information on booking hotels, but obviously at that stage I wasn’t interested in those things. To be honest, I don’t think you really need a book to help you book accommodation – just some common sense and probably Google.

After reading a guide book, you’ll hopefully have a better idea of what you’re looking to do. If Walt Disney World is part of your trip, then I highly recommend downloading the My Disney Experience App to your phone or tablet, or signing up for the Disney website and using the My Disney Experience options there.

Character/Themed Dining – I do know that Universal Orlando has some character and themed dining options, but I want to be honest and say that I’m not at all interested in that so I’ve made no bookings and have no experience of what to do when it comes to booking for Universal Studios or Islands of Adventures. I do however have several reservations for Disney, so that’s really what I’m focusing on. Dining at Disney World (parks and resorts) can be booked 180 days (6 months) in advance. Some of the dining is VERY VERY in demand and unless you’re lucky, there’s a high chance you’ll miss out unless you get in there at the earliest moment. If you’re staying in a Disney Hotel you can actually book ALL your dining, at 180 days from your first day (you have to ring up though), meaning you’ll get in before a lot of other people, especially for the harder to get dining.

I was lucky because my best friend Amy is visiting Florida at the same time as us and staying in a Disney Hotel, where we’re staying off-site in a villa. Because of her we have all the dining we wanted, even the most sought after. While a little tricky, Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast was possible, just using the regular 180 days. However Be Our Guest for dinner proved to be virtually impossible. It was only because she rang to enquire and realised she could book slightly further in advance, that we were able to secure this booking, literally a few days before we go home. Also, at the time we originally booked all our dining, Be Our Guest was only available as a dinner reservation. This system has now been changed and you are able to book lunch reservations too – though this is quick service and not table service dining. We’re now booked in for lunch there too. As well as the three bookings I’ve already mentioned, we also have breakfast booked at 1900 Park Fare, which is located in the Grand Floridian Resort and has Alice in Wonderland characters in attendance, along with lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Epcot which has Princesses Storybook Dining on offer, this was probably the best part of the evening since the Event Banquet Room was lovely and packed with food for family that walked in. The only other thing to note really is that all of these reservations require a credit or debit card to secure the booking – however only Cinderella’s Royal Table requires (full) payment in advance.

FastPass+ – While Character Dining is obviously an optional extra to your holiday, if you’re planning to do anything in any of the Disney Parks, FastPass+ really isn’t that optional. Yes you can try without it and yes its still possible to get on all the rides you want to, but honestly if you’re hoping to avoid as much queuing as possible, plus fit in as much as possible, FastPass is really the best way to go. For people staying in a Disney Hotel, FastPass is available at the 60 day mark. For those staying off-site and purchasing their tickets separately, FastPass booking starts at the 30 day mark. Again, thanks to Amy, we were able to book the majority of our FastPasses at the 60 day mark, due to the fact she’s staying in a Disney Hotel. However the only problem with that is she could only book us all the same FastPasses as her, rather than pick and choose for smaller numbers within our party. As such we have a few bookings that need altering when it gets to our 30 day mark, but I’d rather have that than not have them at all. The best thing about FastPass is that it’s completely free and just included with your ticket – so need to worry about high costs, just to cut queues.

For all four of the parks, each person can only hold three FastPasses at a time. In Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, you can book any three attractions or rides (providing they have FP options), however in Epcot and Hollywood Studios, there is a Tier system, where you can only book one from the A group and two from the B group. It’s a bit complicated but if you some searching you’ll find lists of what rides and attractions fall into each group and hopefully figure out what suits your family/group best. The three FastPasses you are able to book in advance, all need to be within the same park. However once you’ve “spent” all three passes, if you move on to another park (say later that day/afternoon) you will then be able to book further passes in another park. This applies even if you’re not moving to another park, that you can book extra FastPasses. Just visit a FP kiosk and see what’s available to book.

It is worth noting that some FastPasses are better to have than others, depending on what you’re hoping to achieve. Most shows are available on FP for example, but if you’re not too fussed about “the best” seats, then its probably not something to worry about. Likewise if you’re not too worried about meeting characters, these FP options can be skipped as well. If you’re happy to choose according to has the shortest queue at the time, then you’ll not need a FP. However if you’re dead set on meeting Anna and Elsa – by all accounts, FP is a must. That said, they also fly out as fast as they become available, so be prepared to book early and maybe even take a reserve list option! It’s worth researching which rides gets the busiest and which rides generally don’t. This will help you decide which three options you should “spend” your FP on!

Express Pass – Again, while I have no experience of booking this (or even wanting it), its worth mentioning that Universal has their own version of FastPass, called Express Pass. As with Disney, not all rides have the Express Pass option, but a large amount of them do. However unlike Disney, the Express Pass is NOT free. Prices start at around $60 for both parks, or $50 individually. Since the website states “starting at”, I can only imagine that these prices are for whatever the basic version and the more you pay, the better your Express Pass options are. If you stay on-site with Universal, then Express Pass IS included in your tickets. From what I’ve read, this is the most cost effective way to purchase the Express Pass, by actually just booking a day or two at an actual Universal Hotel.

I do think its important to note though, that not many of the Harry Potter rides are included in the Express Pass. Exempt from the Express Pass is; Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the Hogwarts Express and also Ollivanders (technically a shop but since it has a sort of pre-show, I figured it was worth mentioning). This means the only Harry Potter ride you can use the Express Pass on is Flight of the Hippogriff. That said, there are loads of other great rides that will definitely benefit from you having Express Pass.

PhotoPass – Disney World offers a complimentary service called PhotoPass to all their park guests. Photographers are located around the parks and after having your first picture taken you will receive a PhotoPass card that you can then use each time you have a picture taken, placing all your photos together in the same place. After your holiday you just go online and make an account, using the PhotoPass to retrieve your photos. If for whatever reason you’ve acquired more than one card, its not a problem as you can just combine all of the cards into one online account. You can then view the photos and make edits, whenever you want. Now of course, with it being a free service, that does lead to some disadvantages. While you can view and edit photos as much as you like, you can’t download digital copies – or at least, not without paying. You can pay to download prints (approx $15 per photo), you can pay to have printed copies made, you can pay to get your photos put onto certain objects (like a t-shirt or mug). However every little thing you want to do, will cost you money. Also because all photos expire at some point, it does mean that if you don’t download them and you haven’t bought prints, then you will lose the pictures eventually. Of course there are options such as a photo CD or photo book, but all of these will cost you extra money.

Memory Maker – If you’re interested in using the PhotoPass option but don’t want to get caught out with the prices afterwards, there is another option. It’s quite expensive but overall could work out cheaper. It also gives you more benefits such as ride photos and dining photos too. Disney’s Memory Maker is basically an advanced version of the PhotoPass, which you buy in advance (either months in advance or at the beginning of your vacation). It costs $169 if you book online or $199 if you wait till the day you need it. Having the Memory Maker allows you to not only collect all the PhotoPass photo options, but also have Ride/Attractions photos (and sometimes videos too), along with Dining photos as well. Afterwards you can go online in just the same way as with the PhotoPass and view/edit all of your photos. However with this option, downloading all your photos are free. Of course you can still pay to have a photo CD or place a print on a mug, but at least you know you can download and keep all your photos, without having any hidden costs (especially if you’ve had 1000’s photos taken).

Photo Connect – As with most things, Universal have a similar (usually lesser) version of everything Disney has. Instead of Disney’s PhotoPass, Universal offers Photo Connect. It’s basically exactly the same thing, whereby if you get your picture taken in the park or on a ride, you receive a Photo Connect card and you can redeem it later online or within the park to receive a print (paid for, obviously). The Photo Connect card itself is free, but getting a print will cost you money. Also, major downside – if you don’t retrieve your photo that day, in some way, shape or form, then the photo is gone by the end of the day.

Star Card – Either in advance, or at the time of getting your first Photo Connect card, you can choose to get a Photo Connect Star Card. This basically upgrades your Photo Connect card, to something worth having for a longer term. Star Cards are available in a range of options, including 1 Day, 3 Day and 14 Day periods. There is also an annual pass too. The standard option in the park is a 3 Day Star Card, with 1 Day and 14 Day only being available to order online. Also, the 3 Day Star Card is $69.95 in the park, whereas it’s $59.95 if booked in advance. Apparently it is possible to extend your Star Card, with options of 1 Day and 3 Day extensions. There is plenty of information available online about this so I would recommend you look into it thoroughly.

The main advantage to having the Star Card, is that your photos become available online. Not only that but instead of expiring at the end of the day, they are available for some period of time afterwards, meaning you can get home and download them all safely, without any further cost. Not just that, but also by buying the Star Card, you are able to get certain other advantages. One of these for example is the option to buy prints at a cheaper price. Where a print of a Photo Connect print may cost you $10 each, with the Star Card you can purchase prints for as little as $2. You also get access to a smartphone app, a lovely lanyard to keep your card safe and if my information is correct, a couple of free prints too. A 1 Day Star Card costs $39.95, while a 3 Day one costs $59.95 (when booked online in advance). While you can book these passes on the Universal website, I would strongly recommend going directly through the Photo Connect site. Booking with Universal will cost you $39.95/$59.95 etc plus tax, where as booking through the Photo Connect site will simply cost you the face value price (no tax). Check out all your options before making a decision, especially Shutterbuttons if that’s on your list, as there is a Star Card to include that video too.

If you’ve made it this far through my post, then well done! I never expected it to get this long but once you start writing about Florida, it’s sometimes hard to stop! So far I’ve covered booking your dining options in advance (especially Disney’s Character and Themed Dining) along with Disney’s FastPass+. I’ve also discussed the various photography options available. There are loads and loads of other add-ons to consider, Universal’s which can be found here and Disney’s which can be found here.

Both Disney and Universal have a variety of Dining Plan options, again with plenty of information available online about them. While we haven’t gone for a Dining Plan with Disney – just booked the specific meals we want to do – I have booked a Dining Plan option with Universal. I’ve bought in advance, though I don’t think that was money saving particularly, though the plan itself is. I paid $19.99 (plus tax, which is approximately $24) per adult and $12.99 (plus tax, which is approximately $15.50) per child, which gives us 1 main course and 1 non-alcoholic drink, in any quick service restaurant (there are a couple of exclusions), 1 snack (from various carts and shops around the park) and 1 non-alcoholic drink (again from carts and shops around the park). This works out at approximately £15 per adult (or £10 per child) for a meal, two drinks and a snack – hopefully enough to last us through the day. To tell the truth, I actually upgraded the kids to the Universal Dining Plan plus Coca-Cola Freestyle. The Coca-Cola Freestyle option is basically a souvenir cup which you can refill during the day, at various locations in the park. Stand-alone price for this is $11.99 each but when bought with a Dining Plan it’s only $6 extra. I know the kids will love trying out the various Coca-Cola flavours and since they’re free refills, I’m sure the adults might benefit from the odd sip here and there too!

This concludes my second post in the Florida 2015 series, but I will be back next week with post number 3. From now on I’ll be focusing more on our personal preparations – The Shopping, The Packing and probably the Panicking! Please pop back next week to see what I have to share with you.