Make the most out of your Universal Studios trip
With hard earned vacation time on the horizon you want to make the most out of your trip & I am here to help. If you’re used to going to Walt Disney World or other vacation destinations in general Universal is a different type of vacation and requires a different type of plan. Universal Studios in Orlando has two amazing action packed theme parks, one very cool water park & they also offer 8 onsite resorts with a variety of benefits. Staying onsite is wonderful and really can help make the most out of your trip. With Early Admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter & transportation for all of the resorts this is a great way to make the most out of your trip. The premier resorts: Loews Portofino Bay, Hard Rock Resort & Loews Royal Pacific offer unlimited express pass for everyone in your room, this is also pretty key to getting the most out of your visit. But say you’re only in town for one day or you have a different spot to stay, no worries I’ve got you covered. Here are my top tips to making the most out of your Universal Orlando trip!
Arrive early- If you need to pick up your tickets at the will call, or even purchase tickets; get to the parks an hour to an hour and a half before park opening. If you already have your tickets in hand arrive about an hour before park opening. If the park opens at 9am the resort guests can enter as early as 8am and there will be a line to get it. You will want to give yourself time to go through security, get your tickets and get into the parks. Worse case you’re there so early you can grab a donut at Voodoo and a Starbucks, and that really is not a bad idea to begin with. A good coffee in the morning can make the day even better. Even if you are so early and grab tickets and coffee you will be able to enter the parks before they officially open. You won’t be able to enter the Wizarding World as a non-resort guest until official park opening time but this little bit of extra time will give you an opportunity to check out other parts of the park & when the Wizarding World is open you’ll be ready! I personally love being able to take empty park pictures!
Universal Studios will be quieter than Island’s of Adventure in the morning. Island’s of Adventure currently has the latest and greatest; Velocicoaster & Hagrid’s, becuase of this Island’s will draw more people. My advice is to start your day on the Universal Studios side. You will be able to explore Springfield & Men in Black before heading to Diagon Alley. Once the park has officially opened you can enter Diagon Alley. There are a couple spots to grab your frozen butterbeer & you can eat at the Leaky Cauldron, which always seems to have a shorter wait than the Three Broomstick and pretty much the same menu so I say eat here! There is one ride here; Escape From Gringnotts, it is a must do for any Harry Potter fan! If you want to get a real magical wand, there really is only one place for that; Ollivander’s. Here you can watch the wand experience and even pick out your own magic wand. They will give you a map of the two Wizarding area and you can explore doing magic!
Make dining reservations in advance. There are a lot of wonderful spots to eat in City Walk and within the parks. City Walk restaurants are pretty popular and for good reason, great food, great thumbing and great service! Make a dinner or lunch reservation, you can leave and reenter the park. Some great spots to eat I recommend in City Walk are Toothsomes for those with families. Cowfish is a burger and sushi joint and the food was so delicious! If you like Mexican food check out Antijitos for dinner. And a classic everyone will love; Margaritaville this place has great music and is located very close to the entrance to Island’s of Adventure.
Purchase a fanny pack before your trip. I know this might be not be totally to some, my daughter being one of those people. But bags are not allowed on most rides, there are lockers to rent but if you wan to keep on moving have a fanny pack to store your wallet keys and phone in, it is so handy! My daughter even admitted that it was nice to have, or for me to have, as she handed me her phone before the ride and we didn’t have to spend time to get a locker. There are at least two rides that do not allow any bag or phones on at all; Velocicoaster & Hulk. You will pass through a metal detector before going on these rides. You will either have to hand over your phone and fanny pack to the brave soul on the ground or get a locker. This is one of those rules that if you’re use to Disney it can be hard to get used to. We love packing a little bag with water bottles and snacks and never having to worry about them on any ride in Disney, but Universal rides are a little different and having that ever so stylish fanny pack will make your life a litter easier while in Universal theme parks.
Duff fanny pack not recommended ;)
Watch the shows! Universal has some amazing experiences great for the entire family. The Bourne Stuntacular is such a cool high tech show, you will not know what is real and what is on the screen, trust me this is a must do! You can catch the Universal Superstar Parade which will have some of your favorite Nickelodeon characters like SpongeBob as well as seeing Despicable Me characters. Each park has a nighttime show in the evening as well. At Islands of Adventure you can see ‘The Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle’ and at Universal Studios you can see ‘Universal Orlando’s Cinematic Celebration’ this was personally my favorite. I loved seeing the different movies represented in the parks throughout this show. It brought back a lot of memories and made me smile, I think this was such a well done show you and your family will love.
Let me know if you have any questions! Did you know I can book your Universal trip too? gbuck@letsadventuretravel.com I would be happy to help.
