By: Jon Self
After watching the Harry Potter movies for 246th time, you plan to visit Universal Orlando for vacation. You decided you want to dine at The Leaky Cauldron (that is in London, you know) and the Three Broomsticks. You want to enjoy every version of butterbeer. You are saddened to learn there is not a Wizarding World themed hotel, so you need to decide where to stay. You scrutinize prices of the “Premier” level hotels. You decide that your budget cannot handle those price points since you do not have a “philosopher’s stone” to turn lead into gold. You realize that your budget is closer to a Weasley family budget.
Fortunately for you, Universal Orlando has well themed resorts for lower budgets. Universal Orlando has defined these resorts into two categories: Value and Value Plus. As you might imagine, values are the lowest cost resorts at Universal Orlando and value plus are slightly higher priced but with more features. Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” became a over night hit that elevated the horror television genre. Created, directed and executive-produced by horror mastermind Mike Flanagan (Hush, Oculus, Gerald’s Game) and executive produced by Trevor Macy via their Intrepid Pictures, the chilling horror story follows members of the Crain family who are haunted by long-dormant fears stemming from their time living in the menacing Hill House as children and then forced to face the ghosts of its grisly past.
By Jon Self Right before the July 4th holiday weekend, Universal Orlando has discontinued their full service and quick service dining plans. This came as a surprise to many in the theme park community. Pietro Maximoff’s first line of dialogue in Avengers: Age of Ultron was:” You didn’t see that coming” In fairness, Pietro and Universal Orlando, I did not see that coming. When Disney is promoting that their dining plan would be returning at some point, I did not see that coming! When the news broke on July 2nd in the morning, I was messaged by several theme park writers saying all my work on how to maximize the Universal Orlando version of the dining plan was no longer valid. Yes, I did not see that coming. In fairness, when the news broke, I was proofreading a potential article entitled: The Universal Orlando Resort Dining Plan Demystified. Well, maybe you are like me and sometimes used the dining plans at Universal Orlando. Now you are confused what to do. As of writing, I have spoken with multiple travel agents that were also caught off guard by this change. This is what we know for sure: Both varieties of the Universal Dining Plan are no longer being sold in person or online. If you have already booked a full-service plan or have credits with a quick service plan/card, those will still be honored through the end of the year. Overall, this seems like a curious move with Walt Disney World talking about a return of some version of a dining plan. |
Thrills Taste Travels BlogThe Thrills, Taste & Travels Team provides news, information on attractions, restaurants, as well as provide general information about our favorite parks Archives
October 2023
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