Universal Studios: Orlando, Florida - A Review

Since the Harry Potter rides were added, Universal Studios has been (almost embarrassingly high) on my bucket list.  I am so happy I had the chance to finally visit the wizarding world this summer!  

There are three parks within Orlando's Universal: Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and the new Volcano Bay.  We did not go to Volcano Bay, but we did get two-day park-hopper tickets to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  These tickets were roughly $250 a piece, but I would say it ended up being worth it as a huge HP fan!  

I'm not entirely sure how people generally review theme parks, so I'm just going to do it in my own way.

We entered the park on the Universal Studios side, as this is the side with London: Diagon Alley and Kings Cross Station.  This is near the back of the park.  Walking into the London section of the park, you can see the Knight Bus, Kings Cross Station, and Grimmauld Place. If you're a muggle, it'd be easy to walk right on by and miss Diagon Alley. The small sign for the Leaky Cauldron is the only way to spot it.  I have to say, walking through the broken wall and entering Diagon Alley was just as magical as it should have been!  Every shop and every single detail was so beautifully done.  Knockturn Alley was even down the way, with Borgin and Burkes!  The big ride in Diagon Alley is in Gringotts (the Escape from Gringotts).  This ride was incredible.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it was really well done!  All of Gringotts throughout the line and the storyline was so great, too.  Small spolier: seeing Voldemort was actually terrifying.  

Then, we went over to Kings Cross and crossed over to Platform 9 3/4.  The Hogwarts Express takes you over to the Islands of Adventure park.  This was an awesome experience, and seeing the Hogwarts Express was magical, too!  The train ride was funny and arriving in Hogsmeade Station was just as magical as the entrance to Diagon Alley.  I was in heaven all morning living out my Harry Potter dreams.  Seeing the Castle for the first time really did feel a bit like coming home.  Hogsmeade has the Three Broomsticks, Hog’s Head, and so many great details added in! My favorite ride in the park was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which is in Hogwarts Castle. I rode this probably 6 or 7 times, and I noticed new details each time.  I loved it!  The other two Harry Potter rides are outdoor coasters, the Dragon Challenge – which is actually two coasters! – and the Hippogriff ride, which was honestly the worst of the Harry Potter rides by far.  However, in line, you do get to go by Hagrid’s hut.  The Dragon Challenge lets you see the Goblet of Fire, and many things from the Triwizard Tournament. 

Overall, the Harry Potter section was incredibly well done, with great attention to detail, and the butterbeer was tasty! 

Now, outside of the Wizarding World, the park was still really fun! Universal has some policies that I think every theme/amusement park should have. 

The first one was the single rider line.  My advice for that is this: if you know and absolutely love a certain story, go through the whole line at least once.  The HP rides are some of the only rides we went through the whole line for, but I’m glad we did.  Seeing the pre-ride movie and the details through the buildings was important for me on those rides; it’s part of what I paid for.  However, with a ride like the Transformers ride, since I’ve never seen the movies anyway, I don’t really care about the storyline.  The single rider line makes the wait much shorter, so we got to ride so many more rides so many more times since we did this almost exclusively throughout both parks!

The second policy was the free locker rentals through the lines.  A downside is that you don’t get to keep your stuff with you through the line, but I liked having a place for my belongings during the rides.  These also have timers that move with the ride line waits, which is really useful.

The third thing was their refill-able souvenir cups with the Coke Freestyle machines and Icee Refills!  Every ten minutes, you can refill it and share it with your family or group.  We refilled ours enough to make each refill cost less than $1, so I’d say this is a great deal!

All of the rides, even if you don’t know the stories, were really great!  The major outdoor coasters were quite good, like the Hulk, and the Hollywood coasters.  (Be prepared to go through metal detectors if you ride these rides, they do not play around with you emptying out your pockets.) However, I found out I really loved the movie experience coasters.  Wearing 3D glasses and flying through a made-up world is actually so cool!  You might not do as many flips or get so much speed, but I actually really appreciated all of the rides. 

The only negative review I have is of the Simpson’s ride.  But, this was HORRIBLE.  This ride was honestly the worst, do not ride it.  Now, I don’t really like the Simpsons anyhow, but that didn’t matter for most of the rides for me.  This ride was so dumb and I hope they replace is soon.  It was mostly a 4D movie, not a coaster, and I could seriously see all of the other cars from my seat, which completely ruined the effects for me.  The Seussland was also a bit of wasted space, maybe unless you have young kids. 

The newest ride in the park was the Jimmy Fallon 4D movie ride, which was hilarious.  The NBC studio was cool to go through and see all of the Tonight Show History while waiting.  Jimmy is so funny, and as you can imagine, his Race through New York City ride was no different. 

Four of my other favorite rides I don’t really know the complete stories behind, but they were still great rides!  The fastest was the Mummy, which was almost like the Flight of Fear at Kings Island in Ohio.  The Transformers and the Spiderman rides were similar in nature, but both really fun to ride!   The King Kong Skull Island ride was fun too, and was even a bit different each time we rode it. 

The Jurassic Park ride was also so much fun, but we did get a bit wet.  I’d advise bringing a waterproof phone case, because these rides didn’t have lockers.  The water rides are not a joke; the other 2 water rides will drench you, which felt good in the heat, but just be prepared. 

Louie’s Pizza was a great, relatively cheap way to get dinner for the 6 of us, and bringing in snacks, sandwiches, and Lunchables were good for lunch and snacks.  Park food is obviously quite expensive, so if you want to go and save some money, this is probably the best way to go! 

While we didn’t stop to see too many shows, they were great even in passing.  My family did choose to stop and watch the Barney show, which was actually pretty good, I must say.  We got to meet Barney, too, which Brynn absolutely hated. 

Some rides weren’t really rides, but “tour experiences” like the Poseidon’s Fury, which was interesting, but a bit strange.  The 4D movies, like the Shrek and Despicable Me rides, were pretty great, but not worth a super long line, if you’re going to Universal.   

I would definitely recommend Universal to anyone, especially if you like the Harry Potter series.  Both days were such good days for us, and I think anyone would find something they enjoy in these parks!  I don’t like spending money, but it was worth the ticket price.