We are in the midst of a Disney and Universal vacation to celebrate my father-in-laws 60th birthday. With that said, we have spent two days at Disney (Magic Kingdom and Epcot) and one day at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Today we will be visiting Universal Studios Universal, followed by several more days at the various Disney theme parks. Seeing as I have not been to Universal Studios since I was a little kid, I thought this was a good opportunity to evaluate Universal Studios from our initial visit.

What Universal Does Wrong

ALL-DAY REFILL CUP- Our family elected to take advantage of the all-day drink cup for $11.99 with unlimited refills. However, after purchasing the cup, we learned it can only be refilled at select Coca-Cola Freestyle stations around the park. The problem is there are only a handful scattered around the park, and if you want to refill the cup at any of the food stands, they still charge $0.99 per refill.

Second, the refill cups are throttled at how many times you can refill them. When I went to use the cup at a station, and elected to sample one of the freestyle flavors, I went to refill the cup and learned there was a 10 minute wait until I could fill the cup again.

I understand the reasoning is to likely prevent abuse from constantly refilling and people refilling other cups. However, on a really hot day, like during our visit, our family sharing a cup could easily empty the cup within minutes.

THEME AREAS- Islands of Adventure was broken up into distinct themed areas. Our problem with the concept was each theme was limited in what it offered guests for attractions. You could easily find a dozen different stores and restaurants in each area, but each only offered guests a handful of attractions to go along with it.

CHILD SWAP- If there was one aspect of this trip I was nervous about, it was child swap. We had back luck at Disneyland ever getting child swap to effectively work for our family. So I was not to optimistic of using it at Disney World. In addition, never having been to Universal, we did not know what to expect.

WHAT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS DOES RIGHT AND WRONG- Fortunately, Disney World has been outstanding with handing out child swap passes, letting our family use the FastLane+ lines and avoid super long lines and wait times for the non-riding parent. However, Universal’s policy is not so accommodating.

Guests wait in the normal ride with the kids. Once the party gets to the ride, the waiting parents and child enter a secondary wait area. Then when the riding parent is complete, the party swaps in the room. The rooms are nothing more than a plain room, with nothing in them to entertain the kids. Plus waiting in line with kids for an hour or two is torture for all involved, including the baby/toddler.

Fortunately, having a larger party let us perform our own child swap with grandparents who did not want to ride select rides. Plus, using the single rider line really helped cut the wait times. The Universal child swap policy is simply ineffective and not accommodating towards parents traveling with little ones.

What Universal Does Right

ALL-DAY REFILL CUP- The refillable cup is a great value when shared between a family. The bottom of the cup is encoded with the activation of the cup. Once placed into the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, it identifies an active cup versus non-refillable versions.

I am a big fan of the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines anyways, despite not being a huge pop/soda consumer. Having 100+ choice of different combinations, and especially in an “unlimited” refill cup makes keeping hydrated and full throughout the day extremely easy and satisfying.

The other thing I noted was anyone could fill their cup with water at the Freestyle stations. Believe-it-or-not, my favorite thing to fill the cup with all day is water, as too much sugar consumptions on a hot, long day, can be overwhelming.

THEME AREAS- Orlando is an amazing place, if not the best in the world, to experience theme parks. Theme being the key word, as places like Cedar Point back home are more of an amusement park, and do a poor job theming. I am used to the incredible attention to detail that Disney presents its guests. However, I was amazed at what Universal has executed. The incredible themed areas of the park are totally immersive.

We rode both Harry Potter ride and Spiderman, and we were amazed by how intricate and complicated the designs of the rides were at interacting with the guests. We were totally impressed with the attractions.