- Lauren Ehrhardt

Universal Studios-Orlando

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Tootsie’s Bottom Line:

VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure-Photo credit: Wikipedia

Overview

Let me start with this, I LOVE rides! I grew up in a family of people that love rides and, as the youngest, I knew I had no choice but to love them, too. I’m so glad that I was “strongly encouraged” to ride a roller coaster (Tower of Terror) that may have been a little out of my range at the age of 6! I won’t lie, it was terrifying and my mom says it wasn’t her “best parenting moment”, but I came out on top and now I love rides of all kinds!! I had to write this blog because Universal Studios is one of my absolute favorite places to go on vacation! You need a plan though. Here’s how we do it.

“Universal” is made up of three, soon to be four parks, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios-Orlando, Volcano Bay and coming in 2025, Epic Universe. We have only been to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios; they are beside each other and you can easily travel between them on the Hogwarts Express, you must have a Park-to-Park ticket to ride. This is an upgrade from the basic ticket that allows you to go between 2, 3 or 4 parks. See below for details on tickets.

The two parks are very different in the types of rides and the themes. Islands of Adventure is mostly thrill rides and rollercoasters. Universal Studios is based on tv and movie themes and allows guest to “ride the movies”. The Revenge of the Mummy and Men in Black are two favorites in Universal.

Where to Stay

Photo courtesy Universal Cabana Bay Beach Resort

When we go, we stay on property. Recently, we stayed at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort. The hotel worked well for our family because there are two beds, a pull out sofa and small kitchenette. Very old-fashioned type of hotel. There’s a big pool with a lazy river and waterslide. They also have a firepit near the pool! As I said above, when we ate our meals at the hotel, we either grabbed food to go from Starbucks before jumping on the bus to the park or we ate at the Bay Liner. This is more of a food court than a restaurant which works great for our family since we eat such different food. Generally, we stay at the park from open until close so if we eat here it’s because we’ve taken a break or the park isn’t open very late. Bottom line is it costs a bit more to stay on property but you get some nice perks and don’t have to move your car. To summarize:

  • All on property hotels provide free transportation to and from the parks
  • All on property hotels provide early/late park access
  • Premium hotels provide a FREE Universal Unlimited Express Pass-this is worth $100+/person/day
  • Access to other hotels pools is permitted for guests of Premier, Preferred or Prime Value Resorts

Tickets

You can buy all kinds of different ticket types. You can buy a ticket to one of the parks for one day. That will get you admission to one park for one day. You can also buy a ticket for one day that will allow you to go to multiple (two or three) parks. You can also buy a multi-day ticket that allows you to go to one park for multiple days or multiple parks for multiple days. The park-to-park ticket (multiple parks ticket) allows you to move freely between two or three parks all day. You will choose the number of parks you want access to and the number of days that you want to have single park or park-to park access. The park-to park access is an upgrade and is not required. Once you have an idea of how many days and parks you want to visit, you’ll need to decide if you want the Express Pass. The Universal Unlimited Express pass is an extra that allows you to go into a special line that is shorter and gives you “express” access to a ride. This is definitely worth it if you like rides! Beware that this can cost almost as much as the ticket though.

One of the big advantages of staying “on property” is that you get early admission to parks. On property means staying in one of the hotels that Universal Orlando owns or manages. Having an extra hour to access the rides is a big perk and can make a huge difference in how much you can do in a day. There are lots of people staying in their hotels though so there are still crowds. The premium hotels, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, Lowes Royal Pacific Resort and Hard Rock Hotel add a free Universal Express Unlimited pass to your daily tickets when you are a guest.

Planning Your Day

It is important whether you stay on property or not that you have a plan. Each of the parks is divided into areas that have rides and entertainment. Knowing what you like will tell you where to start.

Be sure to download the Universal Studios Orlando/Hollywood app before going. The app is a great resource for park hours, map, hotels, restaurants, etc. You can link your tickets and a payment method to make your day seamless. The best part of the app in my opinion is the wait times-being able to see the wait times allows you to adjust your strategy, if needed. The interactive map makes navigating the park so much easier. Showtimes, dining reservations, placing mobile food and drink orders are some additional options as well. This is a must for your trip!

Islands of Adventure

Regardless of whether you’re on property or not, certain rides will attract huge crowds. We always prioritize a few rides and do those first so that no matter what happens with the rest of the day, we’ve done what we wanted to. Here is a link to the park map. This is helpful for making your plan for the day! We’ve been to Universal a few times and pretty much start the same way each time, we use our early hour of admission to head straight to the Harry Pottery rides in Islands of Adventure. Jurassic World VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. For those less excited about the coasters, Hagrid’s is fast but no loops and a very cool ride! Once we have these rides done, we will grab some butter beer (get the butter beer!) and head to our next favorite, The Hulk. Once this is done we take a breather and explore the other rides in this section of the park. We gradually make our way back to Harry Potter section where we take the Hogwart’s Express to Universal Studios. Hogwart’s Express is a train the connects Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios. The train transports riders from Hogsmeade Station in Islands of Adventure to the King’s Cross Station in the London area of Universal Studios.

Photos courtesy Universal Studios Orlando and Wikipedia

Universal Studios

Although the Universal Studios park isn’t known for their huge rollercoasters, it has plenty of excitement. Since we’ll arrive via Hogwart’s Express, our first stop will be Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringott’s. This is an exciting ride in the dark through underground bank vaults that ultimately returns you safely to Diagon Alley.

Photos courtesy Universal Studios Orlando

From Diagon Alley, we’ll make our way out to Men in Black Alien Attack where our family will enjoy a ride/game combo. This is a nice break from the big rides and is really fun. We then hit the virtual reality ride, The Simpson’s. We continue to make our way around the park until we arrive at the last must do.

Hollywood Rip Ride RockIt is the last and one of the greatest coasters in these parks, (Photo courtesy of Universal Orlando). When you climb into the seat of this roller coaster, you’ll have the chance to chose your own personal anthem for the ride. In the picture to shown, the far left of the ride goes straight up. You guessed it, when the ride starts, the seats rock back and the only thing to look at is the sky. After climbing to the top of the ride, you’ll be sent on a wild ride overlooking much of the park-if you’re able to focus!!

From here, we go back and hit any rides that we want to do again or cover the ones that weren’t a top priority. We’ve squeezed in lunch and snacks when the crowds are lighter and then get back to it. The park hours at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure aren’t as late as the Disney parks but trust me you will have had a full day.

When you head back to your hotel, you can enjoy the pool/hot tub before heading to bed to hopefully do it all again! I hope that you got a sense of what’s needed to make the most of your trip. Have the best time!!

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