Showing posts with label Universal Studios Hollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universal Studios Hollywood. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Travel Splurges that are worth it (My top 5)!

12:52 PM
I love to save a buck when I can. Nothing makes me quite as giddy as getting a great deal! But sometimes there are things that are expensive, that I cannot find great discounts on, or any discoutns at all really. But they are TOTALLY worth it to me. Now, my splurge-worthy items are probably different than yours would be because my interests are different than yours. But I want to share with you what some of the pricy travel choices I have made that I would absolutely do again! 

My top 5 worthwhile travel splurges 
(In no particular order)! 

1-Disneyland: 
I have written extensively about Disneyland and how difficult it is to get deals for Disney. This post is all about choosing the right ticket options for you to get the most bang for your buck. But notice there is no top secret money saving tips here-the tickets are what they are. There are rarely any discounted tickets or awesome deals on DL tickets, but in spite of that, for our family, Disneyland is a travel splurge that is totally worth it. When we plan a Disney trip, I just plan on the park tickets being expensive and I try to save money in other areas (Hotel , Food, airfare, etc)

2-Hotel Del Coronado: 
Our family stayed here once for Wes to go to a conference, and it was magical. We went to Disneyland a couple days on that same trip, and our little Disney fans could not wait to leave DL and get back to the Hotel Del. There is something magical about this historic gem right on one of the most amazing beaches in the world. But it is a real splurge-especially for a large family like ours. Wes and I were able to go back there last month without the kids. It was still as magical as the first time and we cannot wait to go again with the kids (they are so mad we went without them this time LOL). 

3-Broadway shows:
For my 16th anniversary my amazing husband just took me to New York City for a week of Broadway shows! Dream come true!! But I will tell you that the prices for Broadway shows have certainly gone up in the past decade since I was last in NYC. The good news is there are ways to get discounted tickets (which I will write about soon). BUT I decided that on occasion, it is totally worth the splurge to buy exactly the seats you want at exactly the show you want to see. Like how I bought full price tickets almost a year ago to see Hamilton for my 16th anniversary on May 17, 2017...totally worth it!!! :)

4-Helicopter in Kauai

When I was planning our trip to Kauai, there were a few consistent pieces of advice people gave me-make sure you get to see the Na Pali coast, and take a helicopter ride-it is amazing and totally worth the cost. Once again I learned that my friends give great advice. We took a helicopter ride through Blue Hawaiian Helicopter. They had an online special that saved us some money by booking it online at least 5 days in advance. Even with the special it was over $200 each (We saved about $30 each through the online special). But $200 per person is not cheap! But it was totally worth it! Maybe someday we will take our kids to Kauai, and if so, we will have to save for this splurge! 

5-Universal Studios VIP tour!!
 

Last year we took our family to Universal Studios and since Harry Potter land had just opened and we had one day only, we decided to splurge and go for the VIP experience. It was pricey, but so, so worth it! I thought the front of line passes all day would be worth it alone, but that was just the tip of an already awesome iceberg! We are NOT guided tour people. At all. So we thought that if we get through the few hours of the tour, it will be worth it to get the front of line passes the rest of the day. BUT friends, this tour was awesome! Our guide rocked, our group was fun, and we had so much fun. Then the gourmet, all you can eat lunch...Um YES! Please! It was ideal for our family (my teen aged son for sure got his money's worth of food! I wrote an extensive review of this amazing experience here. Please read all about it, and if you are considering a big family splurge, consider this one seriously! 

BONUS!!! 

Family Visits

There is not time that is more expensive or more of a hassle to travel than holidays. Seriously, they are not cheap times to travel, but they also happen to be the times when kids are out of school and hubby is (sometimes) off and we can go see family. We do not live near any family, so it is a treat to visit family or to have them visit us. And a lot of times, it is also an expensive splurge to do so, But it is always worth it! You can save money of course on those family visits by staying with family (not hotel costs) and letting them feed you as often as possible (less $$ on food spent), etc. One more thing I always do when planning a family visit during the splurgy times (cough Christmas cough) is to research flight options plus van rental costs and compare that cost to how much gas (and time) it will be to drive to the family. With 5 kids and 2 adults and family visits usually about a 10 hour drive away, it almost always ends up that driving is our best cost option...but sometimes I still splurge on the flight/car rental option because like I said, sometimes the Splurge is worth it (like if you have limited time!). 
Photobucket


Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 0 comments
Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Universal Studios VIP experience

11:07 AM
My husband and I coordinated with Santa last Christmas to do Christmas presents a little differently. Instead of lots of presents, we gave the family "adventures" that the kids wanted to do. For example, our 9-year-old is a huge sports fan and he wanted to see one of his two favorite players play live (Tom Brady or Stephen Curry). We found a Warriors game in January in Portland and took the family to see Stephen Curry play live! They opened an envelope with the tickets in them on Christmas. Our oldest daughter wanted to go see Wicked or another Broadway show. We could not find any Wicked shows coming nearby that we could make work, but Newsies was coming in April. So we got family tickets to that. Our oldest son wanted ski lessons from dad, so we arranged a ski weekend for the fam. AND all the kids wanted to go see the new Harry Potter land in California. So, we arranged to have that happen as well. ALL these experiences (that we likely would do anyway) doubled as Christmas presents. (YEAH! Pay once, get the excitement twice-once when you open the experience description and once when you use it)

Now, Friends, sometimes in life you decide to splurge on something. This is one of those times. Last week we finally had our Christmas "Adventure" to Universal Studios to check out the new Harry Potter area. We only had one day for Universal, and it turned out that day was a Saturday. Which we assumed would be super busy. As we were researching options, we saw online that they have a VIP experience that would give us unlimited front of line passes (plus other benefits). I am not going to lie, it was pricey, but I would do it again in a heartbeat (well, a heartbeat after I had saved up enough money to do it again).
What Is the VIP Experience?

Here are the things included in the VIP experience: 
  • Exclusive Backlot Access
  • Priority access to all rides and attractions (ie unlimited Front of line Passes)
  • Access to VIP lounge with breakfast
  • Gourmet Lunch in the private VIP dining room
  • Valet Parking 
  • Personal Tour Guide with a small group of other VIP's
One thing to note, guests must be at least 5 years old to experience the VIP tour. Our youngest is just 5 and the next two kids are 8 & 9. We read online LOTS of people saying not to bring kids under age 10. I disagree completely! Our little 5 year old LOVED it and he did not impede the others in our group at all. He was too short for a couple rides, so my husband and I took turns staying off those rides with him. Other than that, having him there was no different than anyone else being there. In fact, it was harder for the expectant mother in the other VIP group than it was for us with our little kids. (BTW, if I was pregnant, I would skip paying the added price to be a VIP. You cannot participate in SOOO much anyway. Just my opinion though.) We did have a pretty awesome group though and they all loved the kids. Yeah for our awesome group!!!

What was MY Experience with it?

We arrived at Universal Studios and headed right to Valet parking. They parked our car as we headed to the VIP entrance at the theme park. Once we were checked in, they sent us up to the VIP lounge where they were serving what they call "a light breakfast". It was amazing. AMAZING! Here are a couple pictures of it (this only shows 2 of the 6 stations full of food):
That breakfast alone had my oldest son sold on this VIP thing! 
At breakfast, our host, Sami (pictured below with my family) explained to us what she had planned for us for the next few hours. We would spend about 3 hours out in the park doing rides and a show, eat lunch, then go to the Backlot studio VIP tour for 2 hours. After that, we would be on our own to do whatever else we wanted to at the park until it closed at 10 (still with unlimited front of line passes).


Besides the 7 of us, there were 8 other people in our VIP group. Here are the rides and attractions we did with our group:

  • Transformers: The Ride-3D
  • Jurassic Park: The Ride
  • The Simpsons Ride
  • Universal's Animal Actors Show
  • Harry Potter Land!
  • Flight of the Hippogriff
  • Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
  • Ollivander's wand choosing ceremony
Let me just share one picture from that part of the day (from the Jurassic Park ride) because it is hilarious: 

After all that in just a few hours (3), we had our amazing gourmet lunch. It is served Buffet style and you have about an hour to eat and drink all you want. It was truly amazing! I will just let the pictures do the talking for that: 











During lunch we even met a couple characters, like Betty Boop and Count Dracula.



Once lunch was over we did our 2 hour VIP Backlot Studio tour. It was awesome! We joined another VIP group on a comfy bus (not the trams you usually ride in the backlot tour). We got to walk through a real sound set, walk along the streets of the backlot, go through part of the Prop building and wave at the trams go by (they thought we were famous people and took pictures as they passed. It was funny). Here is my family on the steps of the clock tower from Back to the Future (and yes, the 5 year old IS asleep on my husband's shoulders):

After our backlot tour was complete, we went on our own to experience more of the park (like my youngest kids FAVORITE ride in the world, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem) using our front of line passes.

Final Thoughts?

It was a splurge to do the VIP experience at Universal Studios, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was well worth the splurge! It was perfect for my whole family (2 adults and 5 kids ages 5-13). We ALL loved it. We have gone to Universal Studios without front of line VIP passes and enjoyed it, but the VIP tour made us LOVE it. If you want to go to Universal Studios and experience it at it's very best (and you are willing to pay for the splurge), the VIP tour is the way to go! 
Photobucket


Labels: , , , , | 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)