Universal Orlando Resort Reviews 54

We have been going to Universal Studios Orlando for 20 years, last year was the first time we used the IAC Disability card. The process was extremely straightforward, and the Universal Team Members were absolutely fantastic and extremely accommodating. We really could not have asked for more from Unversal, they made our trip even more special than it normally is. Disney could learn so much from how Universal do things! It is a shame there are so many negative reviews, many from people who don’t understand or visit the Orlando area theme parks frequently! Universal have gone from strength to strength with their theming, service and overall offering, including the hotels. I look forward to coming back real soon!

Orlando epic, the props and sets are amazing good detail ,Harry potter, Mario world all amazing props the bad is you spend anywhere from one and a half hour to two hours or more on line for a ride that ends in 40 seconds. You spend all day literally in line two much time waisting on lines that you can't really enjoy the park. Then take Mario world for instance you have to buy this watch to interact with the world of Mario outside of the rides, like to hit a block and make coin noise it's ridiculous always a gimmick to get you to spend more so the kids can enjoy it. Speed pass is another gimmick and ridiculous expensive $170 to $320 per person. You have to rush all day if you want to get in the rides due to long lines thus you cannot enjoy the day. Every thing is so expensive.

We paid nearly $800 for four 1-Day, 2-Park Park-to-Park tickets to Universal Orlando, plus $32 for standard parking. Additional costs included $3 for a large locker per 30 mins while queuing/riding. We also paid $28 for two chocolate frogs and over $10 for one butterbeer. One of our family members cannot tolerate long queues or being separated from us for extended periods. In the UK we hold the official Access Card and, at all of the major UK parks we’ve visited, we’re issued a virtual return-time card: you go to an attraction, a Team Member notes a comeback time equal to the posted wait, and you return at that time to ride together. It’s simple and it works. For this trip we did our homework and obtained the U.S. equivalent—the IBCCES Individual Accessibility Card (IAC)—which was approved.

Before our visit, Universal attempted to call to discuss “accommodations.” Because we were travelling and dealing with phone issues, we asked to handle it by email, but were told that wasn’t possible and that it could be dealt with on the day. We arrived early and went straight to Guest Services outside Islands of Adventure with the IAC, expecting to receive the same basic tool we’re used to—the orange return-time card (AAP)—or some clear app-based equivalent.

Instead, the advisor said that, based on our needs, he would provide a “queue re-entry accommodation.” He did not explain what that meant in practice. We asked if we needed a card to record return times and were told no. From that exchange, it was reasonable to assume things would be handled seamlessly, perhaps via the app, since no physical card was issued and no clear process was explained.

We headed straight to Hagrid’s. The Team Member there told us we did, in fact, need the orange return-time card from Guest Services so they could note a comeback time based on the current wait. This directly contradicted what we had just been told. We went back to Guest Services to sort it out. The same advisor now elaborated that his accommodation meant we should stay in the physical queue and, if necessary, two of us could step out with our family member and later re-join with help from staff. Again, this had not been explained earlier, and no card had been issued. When we asked again for the orange return-time card—the simple, proven tool we expected—we were told, very matter-of-factly, that based on the earlier discussion this was the only accommodation they would provide. We shared more detail about our family member’s needs, but the advisor refused to change the accommodation. The manner felt obstructive and not at all customer-focused.

We asked to speak with a manager. After roughly ten minutes, a supervisor arrived. Although more courteous, the supervisor also refused to issue the return-time card. We explained that, had we known this would be the approach, we would not have spent over $800 for a single day. The supervisor offered to discuss “options if we wanted to leave,” which wasn’t helpful after a three-hour drive with two excited children. As a make-good, the supervisor said they would call Hagrid’s to authorise one-time immediate access. We walked back to Hagrid’s, gave our name, and were told no call had been received. A manager at the attraction confirmed there was no record of any call and sent us back to Guest Services. By this point we had lost about 1.5 hours at the start of a 10-hour operating day—roughly $140 of our time—while queues were building and our children were understandably upset.

We then tried to use the queue re-entry model we’d been left with. In practice, it was unworkable. We were told to locate a Team Member inside the queue if our family member needed to step out and then re-enter later, staying in touch by phone. In reality, there were no staff visible inside the queue until the very end near boarding, and only at the entrance at the start. “Chill-out rooms” were mentioned, but these were few and far between and not conveniently located. The result was constant phone coordination, uncertainty, and stress—the exact opposite of what accessible accommodations are supposed to relieve. By contrast, the return-time card we have used at every park we have visited is clear, predictable, and allows a family to plan their day without escalating anxiety.

Very busy as you may expect. However, unless you have fast passes avoid.

I needed to re add all my tickets to the app because it was playing up. I emailed them and it was all sorted within 24 hours! I was very pleased with the quick turn around and the response to the emails.

Accidentally bought tickets to Universal Hollywood instead of Universal Orlando. Didn't realize it until we were at the gate. Waited a hour in a line for customer service to tell me there was nothing they could do. When we asked again for any help at all,they offered a 10 percent "discount" for us to buy the tickets again. This "discounted" rate turned out to be not significantly discounted at all. We called the third party we bought the tickets from and they fixed it in 5 minutes. Go through a 3rd party if you're going to go to this park, at least they might help you if something goes wrong.

We visited Universal with our 4-year-old who has life-threatening dairy and peanut allergies. We followed every step—submitted a doctor’s note, did the pre-trip call, and packed our own safe food just in case. We were assured the restaurants could accommodate us.

But when we arrived, not a single dining location had an allergy menu or even an ingredient list. Seven different chefs told us they couldn’t guarantee a safe meal. One couldn’t even boil plain pasta in a clean pot.

We felt misled and helpless. Our child was excluded, and we were left to fend for ourselves.

As a nursing mom, I also couldn’t find a single clean or private spot to breastfeed. Nothing listed in the app, and no support from staff.

This was more than just a letdown—it felt discriminatory. Until Universal takes real steps to support food allergy families and nursing moms, we won’t be back.

Overcrowded. Disinterested customer service. Poorly maintained. Generally not enjoyable. Visited for two days after a week in Disney. Both parks were unbelievably overcrowded to the point it was nearly impossible to actually move around yet alone do anything. Forget trying to do any activities in the Harry Potter lands completely. Had express passes, but still waited at least 30 mins each time we used them. Not enough places to sit. Over reliance on mobile ordering made getting food complicated. Queues even for food were massive. Quality of food poor. Rides got repetitive - ‘here’s another simulator where a ride vehicle jumps from screen to screen with exactly the same story arc as the last one, just with different characters this time’. Dire, left before the end of the two days as was so unenjoyable. Disney was crazy busy also but wish we’d skipped universal and had more days there. Nowhere near as good as it was 12 years ago+ ago that I last visited.

how can i sue them? we were stuck in a ride and because of that i became unwell and was taken to hospital. i am looking for a lawyer, which lawyer can help me with that?

Overly expansive, not well run and rides keep breaking down. Wish I'd not wasted my money and stayed with just Disney parks.

We stayed for 3 nights at the universal ADVENTURA Resort Hotel And it was the worst experience ever.If you are going to the theme parks, save your money and stay at ANY other hotel so that even if you get a bad experience then it was expected to begin with.The staff is so rude. Yes the customers are going to have issues of all kinds but if you are not equipped to handle it then you should not be in business as a universal resort hotel.Universal resort Hotel means a brand name and you should live up to the expectations that come with this name.First night we had a issue with so much noise disturbance caused by their elevators thoughout the night. We requested change of rooms and the lady at the front desk was the rusdest to us. She said without a pause, well you will have to bring all your stuff down in the lobby by 11 am and then we will check you in at 4 pm? What? Do they mean we leave our stuff unattended for that period of time or miss out on a whole day of the park worth a $1000 bucks for the family? Then one of the three nights, we come back at midnight after a whole day at the park and see that the house cleaning team had missed our room? I would give them a zero star. I will ask the manager for a partial refund for this stress caused by their rude team.

Poor show all the way from UK 1 attraction after another experiencing delays technical problems this is now the 3rd....no updates not worth the money day light robbery...ended up leaving absolutely poor show never come back ..dont waste your money folks not unless you happy to hang about with no updates provided....poor poor poor

It’s a shame that Universal charges $12+ dollars (each additional day you visit) to reactivate the drink bottle they happily sell you for $18+ dollars when you first purchase it. I mean you visit Universal for Memorial Day & weather is high 90s with “NO ICE” to be found at the “REFILL” stations. Come on Universal you can do better than that for the price of the “DRINK BOTTLE!” My family visited with annual pass from 5/25/2024-5/29/2024. No ice experience at Universal, Island of Adventure & Volcano Bay👎🏻 happened at all three parks!

Spent a fortune today spending over $300 on the entry fee then were charged another $32 on parking when we arrived. Further ripped off inside Universal where I was charged $33 for 3 x bottles of Smartwater and 3 x Snickers share bars (the water was around $5.97 each - the most expensive I have seen.

When we arrived I asked for a paper map at the concierge desk, but told the only way to access a map is by downloading the Universal Resorts Orlando app. I downloaded the app, but the map does not show most of the rides, stores or restaurants, so looked online for a copy of a digital map of the park. Still impossible to follow where any of the attractions were and something that Universal did not think about is that not only is it difficult to navigate a map on a phone, you cannot see the screen in the sunlight as the screen is too dull with such bright sunshine, so we gave up and just walked around hoping to stumble across the things we may want to visit.

There was very little to see or rides of interest with many of the faster rides or rollercoasters not of interest to us, but had expected to see some characters based on a previous visit 12 years ago. There were no Sesame Street characters (apparently this is in Seaworld for some bizarre reason - what has had that to do with the sea), no Transformers characters who we had seen walking around in the past and other than Spongebob did not seen any other characters.

Took the opportunity to have a family photo by the Universal globe on the bridge by an official photographer. I asked him whether this would be free and how we could access our photos. Told to visit the photo shop and they would explain and told photos would be $23.99 for VIP package + $10 per photo. This is a further complete ripoff considering how much we had already spent on visiting this attraction.

Managed to go on the ET ride which we liked and the minions blaster ride which was pointless, although the Animal Actors show was quite entertaining with a vast array of trained animals.

This visit was a complete waste of time and money, so please if you are reading this don't visit and stick with Disney who actually genuinely care about their visitors and are so friendly and polite or go elsewhere whereas Universal are not that bothered about their visitors and seems it is just a job for them.

Also we noticed that there were some newly born duckings and the mother duck in the water, but next to them there were quite a few pieces of plastic including a bottle lid near them and could easily be eaten by them. I cannot understand why staff have not removed this as it looked like it had been there for a while and could easily have been removed and it was on a flat concrete ledge which shows Universal's lack of care for wildlife and the natural environment - please clean your lakes.

Best part of our visit today was leaving at the end of the day. Did not look like anyone else was enjoying their visit.

There are not a lot of rides, the workers are rude, and it’s tiny. Not worth the money!

Parking and entry time was well organised and smooth. However, that’s where the compliments finish and the real experience begins.
We had 14day multi park passes for three of us. We went to add the tickets to our apps after being told if we lose the credit card size paper ticket, we would need to buy new tickets.
I scanned my ticket and it asked to add another person so I added my wife to which it then allocated my ticket to her name. Then the app didn’t recognise my daughter’s ticket at all.
So we decided to give upon the app and purchase themed lanyards priced each at $26!!! for a plastic wallet and lanyard to protect our tickets.

We were in the park at opening and the queues were already 100 minutes for key rides
Express pass for today per person $349!!!
If we buy one the queue is still 30-40mins per ride.
Decided to try fix our app with guest services but the queue for that didn’t move and was over 20 persons long.
After not moving for half hour decided to give up and walk thru park
Totally heaving with crowds so it’s difficult to enter any themed shops like Harry Potter
Everywhere are stalls with people trying to sell you something else overpriced
Literally everywhere
Why don’t they use some of those staff to help at guest services
I have decided to ditch the other 13 days of my tickets and cut my losses

Would not recommend to come to this park. Totally overcrowded, total rip off. Poor service.

Great experience.

I’ve visited a few times and granted it does get busy and there can be a long wait on some rides but that’s common on loads of big theme parks on there popular rides and not limited to a issue that only Universal has so I’m quite surprised at the amount of bad reviews about it..

I’ve been quite a few times on our last visit myself and my son went in late October 2023 and we was staying at a universal hotel so had the early park access benefits but no fast track.

We only got in 30mins early due to our own bad planning yet we managed to get all the Harry Potter rides done in the morning so the Forbidden journey, escape from gringotts, Hagrids magical motorbike, flight of the hippogriff and hogwarts express. So we managed to get on loads in a morning.

I like universal studios and islands of adventure the style of areas such as wizarding world of Harry Potter, Jurassic park, themed streets etc all are very nice.

I’ve seen some BIG queues on popular rides later in the day and some of the Halloween horror nights but to me it’s to be expected and i just go to the popular rides first thing.

I do like that they sell unlimited refill cups which are a great idea i wish Disney had them too, My son even lost his cup and we contacted customer services and they gave us a replacement with no problem and it was my son’s fault.

I’ve always liked universal parks and there rides, customer service have always been helpful and friendly.

I can’t wait to go again with my son when there new parks open 🙂

Margarittaville restaurant Universal served terrible overpriced cold food. Meals were returned yet still came back cold.
Waited ages for the food into the bargain.
The waiter argued over his Tip,demanding nearly $30 for slow service,cold food and bad manners.
AVOID at all costs.

Could only dedicate one day and bought a two park, one day ticket to focus on Harry Potter (a rip off I itself as two park ticket is expensive). The queue for Hagrids Magical creatures ride (supposed to be our highlight as.it had been recommended)was horribly claustrophobic, loud and long. After queuing for more than 90 minutes we were told there was a slight delay. The message was repeated a couple of times and then changed to 'an extended delay'. We left the queue and managed to get fast passes for later when we queued for more than 30 minutes when the same happened. Time ran out and we were not able to get on the ride at all. Universal offered fast passes for another visit which was unsatisfactory as we could not visit again. Not the magical experience we had hoped for and was disappointing to say the least.