FAMILY FUN AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO!!

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Plus 10 Tips to Make Your Visit Easier!

This year we chose to go to Florida and experience Universal Studios and Universal Island of Adventure! We had a blast! We put in over 21,000 steps that day! When you go to Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Adventure Island wear your most comfortable shoes!! Your feet will thank you.

We started off in Universal Studios and decided we would ride all the rides in that area before we took the train to Universal Adventure Island. We were going to start with the Incredible Hulk Coaster, but, my granddaughter thought we should ease into that ride and come back to it after riding some of the other rides first.

So we started off with the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, then moved on to the Minions, Transformers, Skull Island, Reign of Kong then we went and got in line for the Jurassic World Velocicoaster. The wait time was an hour but well worth the wait! After that we met up with my daughter and son-in-law and 2 other granddaughters for lunch. You definitely want to eat lunch AFTER this ride rather than BEFORE!

After lunch it was time to go to the train station so we could go to the land of Harry Potter.

This is absolutely the best way to travel from park to park. That is why you need the 2-park ticket. That is the only way you can travel from park to park. All of the Harry Potter rides and adventures are inside Universal’s Island of Adventure. You don’t want to miss the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts or the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was shut down each time we tried to get in line, so that is one ride we missed unfortunately.

There is so much to do and see at Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Island of Adventure that you need to plan a full day to give both parks your undivided attention. But you do need the 2-park ticket. We were able to do both parks in one day, so we had bought the 2-park-1-day ticket. We were able to do and see everything we wanted to. It did rain in the afternoon and that caused some of the rides to be shut down. It almost started raining while we were in line for the Velocicoaster, but luckily it waited until we rode the coaster and got off. That is one of the most awesome roller coasters I have ridden and I have ridden a lot of roller coasters. The Incredible Hulk roller coaster was shut down for the rest of our day.

We headed back to the Universal Studios side of the park and it started raining pretty good, we decided to run into the “Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon ride. That was fun. After that ride when the rain let up we went outside and we were getting organized in the park area and almost got hit by lightening! We got out of there pretty quick!

Well it’s time to go now. We were at Universal Florida for 13 hours and we were getting tired. The only way to fit in both parks is to get there early and leave late. We actually got there about 7:45 am and left about 7: 30 pm.

10 TIPS TO MAKE YOUR VISIT EASIER!

• Go Early– I know you’re on vacation but you will be so happy you went early while it’s less crowded. The park fills up quickly.
• Make Sure You Have the 2-Park Ticket— This is the only way you can easily travel on the Hogswart Express between the 2 parks.
• Backpack— Pack snacks, rain poncho or umbrella (we took both) water bottle ( I like my hydroflask since the ice stays frozen for all day and I like my water cold).
• Don’t Overpack Your Backpack— Try to keep your backpack as light as possible. It gets heavier throughout the day.
• Download the Universal App –This is invaluable. You can buy tickets, keeps your tickets with QR code, (contactless entry, and payments), gives you wait-times of the rides, has a map, and dining venues.
• Dress Comfortably— Even dressed comfortably my feet hurt at the end of 13 hours and over 21,000 steps!
• Do ride the Hogwart Express Between the 2 Parks— Besides the fact that it is just fun, it will save you some walking.
• Ride the rides you Really want to first — If you’re there early the lines won’t be so long, and if you don’t ride it then you may not get to. (Example, we never got to ride the Hulk Rollercoaster because later it was shut down due to lightening).
• Take Breaks— You’re going to get tired so take a few breaks, eat a snack get a drink, eat lunch. We packed sandwiches so we would only have to eat in the park one time, but we were so hungry we shared a pan pizza, ate the sandwiches for a snack! There are souvenir cups/glasses that you can buy for $16.99 and you can refill them with soda at all the restaurants with refill stations. We just bought a small soda each and drank our water, and refilled our water bottles frequently. Stay hydrated!
• Have credit/debit cards handy— You will need to buy lockers for certain rides and they do not accept cash. We also did our shopping last so we didn’t have to lug our purchases around all day.

BIGGEST TIP OF ALL! JUST HAVE FUN!!