A Unique Orlando Experience

Our oldest son was adopted the day after his 13th birthday. Our tradition is to celebrate his A-Day (adoption day) with a surprise outing that we commemorate with a Christmas ornament, since it’s December, and since he doesn’t have a lot of Christmas ornaments from his growing up years. This year, I thought it would be neat to take him to Universal Studios in Orlando. It was a bigger trip than we would normally do for A-Day, but I felt like the time was right, and we could make it work this year. In my research about the parks, I saw an ad on Facebook for the Orlando Informer Meetup. It’s a private, ticketed event that happens after the parks close and includes admission to both parks and unlimited food and non-alcoholic beverages. Because they only sell a limited number of tickets, wait times for rides are much lower than they are during regular park hours. Because of this, we could do most of both parks in one night. As luck would have it, they had a Meetup scheduled for December 13th and 14th. We got three tickets for Saturday night.

Flying Frontier

When I saw an ad for $15 flights, I knew it had to be too good to be true. Turns out, I was WRONG! Our outbound flights were $15 each, with returning flights almost as cheap (I think $36 each), enabling us to fly round trip for $57.33 per person including taxes and fees! I read mixed reviews about Frontier, but we had no issues. Our flights were on time, staff was friendly, planes were clean and appeared new. They do charge for carry on bags as well as checked luggage, but we were able to fit everything we needed for one night into backpacks (not overstuffed), which counted as our free personal item. We even had room for a travel pillow and snacks. I checked in for both flights as early as possible (24 hours before departure) and we were even able to get seats together, which wasn’t guaranteed. I’ve already booked another trip to Orlando for the end of January and got two round trip tickets for $105 for that trip. I may be flying to Orlando on the regular!

Staying On-site At Universal

Universal Studios opened a new budget resort, Surfside Inn, earlier this year, and we were able to book it with a group rate for the Meetup for $118. There was a delay at check in, although they had 5 staff members working the registration area. But finally we were able to get our room keys and drop our stuff in our room. The hotel, being brand new, is clean and colorfully decorated in a beach theme. They have a surfboard shaped pool outside and our room had a nice view of it. Because of our late night in the park and our early morning flight, we were only in room from 2:00 a.m. until 5:30 a.m, but the beds were comfy, the building was quiet, and the shuttle to the park was convenient to our side of the building (Tower 1). The shuttle ride was just 5 minutes long, and it drops off at CityWalk, where you go through security and then can visit any of the shops, restaurants, and other businesses there as well as walk into the parks.

The Meetup

We arrived at CityWalk at 6:00 and made our way to the check-in table for the Meetup, where we were given light up bracelets, an event map, and a number that we could text with questions during the event. With the Meetup ticket we could enter the parks as early as 5 p.m. but the parks did not close to the public until 8 p.m. We checked out the wait times for the nearby attractions and decided to do Shrek 4-D because it was only a 10-minute wait. It was okay, but not one I will probably do again. After that we walked across to the amphitheater where Mannheim Steamroller was performing a Christmas concert. I was glad to see that. 

It was nearing 8:00, and we headed over to the London side of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Since it was our first time seeing it, we spent close to an hour walking through the shops, which were very neat. Our first ride of the night was Escape From Gringotts. That line was still a bit long because the crowd hadn’t thinned out yet, but it was nice to be able to see all of the detailed decor in Gringotts Bank. In hindsight, we should have gotten ice cream from Florean Fortescue’s then, but I wasn’t sure they were serving the Meetup yet, since it was before 9:00. Instead, we did the Men In Black ride, then spent some time in the Simpsons’ area eating, playing carnival games, and riding the rides there. A nice bonus of the meetup was having the carnival and arcade games open for free play. 

We checked Transformers, Rip Ride Rockit, and Jimmy Fallon’s Race Through New York off the list before heading over to Islands of Adventure. I wanted to be sure we got to ride the new Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure before it had to be shut down at midnight due to the noise ordinance. We made it! And it was excellent! No spoilers from me, but I highly recommend it.

We did a bit more eating after that at The Three Broomsticks and I enjoyed sampling Butterbeer in the regular, frozen, and hot varieties along with pumpkin juice. Pumpkin juice was very refreshing, and the hot Butterbeer was my favorite of the three iterations. Perhaps my opinion was swayed by the cool evening air. 

Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey and a ride back to Universal Studios on the Hogwarts Express ended our time in Islands of Adventure. We returned to US for more food from the Springfield area. Between the three of us we had tacos, wings, a chicken and waffle sandwich, and more soft drinks. And then we picked up popcorn, churros, and a pretzel from the street carts. They also had dessert buffets and hot chocolate stations at different places, and those were our final tastes of the evening. We closed out the night with The Mummy, which I rode again twice by myself while the guys played in the arcade. It was a very full seven hours in the parks and we arrived back at our hotel room at 2:00 a.m. 

In all, I highly recommend the Orlando Informer Meetup. I felt like it was a good value, a fun and unique experience, and it worked really well for us to be able to do the full trip in just 24 hours! I hope to go again, maybe even the next one in February, and when I do, I’ll start at Islands of Adventure and do the rides I missed there. The only downside is I’m probably ruined for life now that I’ve experienced walking right onto rides and eating as much free food as I want throughout the parks!