Universal, That Other Big Park in Florida

So I love Disney. I am not obsessed with it :) but after visiting numerous times I still say it is one of the most magical places to visit as a family. Recently though we decided to visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Orlando. As a Disney lover I thought it only fair to share my experience with clients and readers.

I think I was as excited to go as my kids. We were all about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and though I could not wait to see, I was nervous that I would be disappointed. I was thinking my expectations were too high. Well in one word, it was AMAZING. I truly felt like I was in a Harry Potter book. We spent a lot of time in the world at both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and we were not disappointed. The attention to detail and realism in the area is pretty much like nothing I have ever seen before. My kids loved it, I loved it, my husband that has never read a Harry Potter book loved it, and my parents loved it. The Forbidden Journey in Universal Studios was probably my favorite ride in all of Universal. Being inside Hogwarts was awesome and it so realistic. I think I was smiling the entire time. My first piece of advice would be to get there as early as possible. We stayed onsite so we were able to get in the park an hour before it opened and I am so happy we did this. We were able to explore with very little crowd at all. We were also able to enjoy Ollivanders Wand Shop without crazy lines and the kids had room to do their spells with their special wands. You must purchase the 2 park pass. That is the only way you get to experience the Hogwarts Express and that was one of my kids favorite rides. My son said it wasn’t ‘realistic” yet he smiled the entire ride. I am posting some pictures of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter below but they don't do it justice.

The rest of the park was OK. In my opinion, a lot of the rides were the same. By the end of the trip we were joking about the fire and water in each ride and when it might happen. The majority of the rides are roller coasters and 3-D/4-D rides and by the end of the trip we were sick of them. The theming in the parks is awesome. Simpson Land was a lot of fun as were New York City and California. If they could change the rides up a little bit I think they would appeal to more guests. I also felt like something was missing in the rest of the park. It really needed more shows or parades or something. We missed the break that those type of things provide at Disney. One thing I can not stress enough is that this park is not little kid friendly. Most of the rides have height requirements which my daughter just barely met. In addition, the majority of the rides have a scary aspect to them. There were lands in each park themed for kids but I still felt like there was not enough there to entertain young kids for an entire day. This is definitely a park for kids 8 and over. Another issue we had in the parks was a lot of rides not working or being out of service briefly each day. The first day we were there 3 headlining rides were not working. This was a huge disappointment, especially when we went to the park early to ride one of them. After asking around, this seems to be a common occurrence. It would not deter me from visiting the park again but I would have liked to know ahead of time that this happens quite often.

We stayed at the Loew’s Royal Pacific on Universal property. I can not stress how helpful this was. This resort not only allows for early park entry but it also gave you unlimited Universal Express. Unlike the Fastpass+ at Disney parks, Universal Express more or less allows you to use a different line for most rides that allows you to either not wait at all or in a much shorter wait. The only disappointment is that the Universal Express can not be used on some of the rides in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We did not wait over 30 minutes for any rides and the 30 minute rides were only the ones that we did not have Universal Express for. In addition, with the Universal Express Unlimited you can ride the rides as many times as you want. The free Universal Express Unlimited in and of itself was worth the cost in my opinion. It was more than the base level Universal hotels but once you added in the cost of the unlimited Universal Express it was a very small cost difference. Because of the Universal Express we were able to literally walk onto the majority of rides other than those in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. As a result, I didn't feel like an entire trip was spent waiting in line. Since we saved so much time in the parks, we were able to have down time at the resort pool each day. I also loved the convenience of the resort boats. Fortunately, we had great weather and as a result we were able to take the boats to and from the parks. We were also close enough to easily walk but we used the boats as a way to rest our feet and relax. The resort itself was clean, up to date, and the staff were very nice and helpful.  

The dining at Universal was pretty much what can be expected at an amusement park. We ate at The Leaky Cauldron for lunch one day and we all enjoyed our meals and we all really enjoyed the Butterbeer. It was much better than I expected. I was anticipating a cream soda flavor but it had more of a butterscotch flavor. We really liked it frozen. It was a nice mid day treat. We also ate at Moe’s Tavern inside Springfield. The cheeseburgers were OK but exactly what we expected. We also enjoyed eating at City Walk. We ate at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen on opening night. The food was pretty good and we would go back again. The chocolate and desert shop was very fun and we loved looking around it but we were all of a little disappointed in our purchases there and the milkshakes we ordered for desert after dinner. They looked amazing but were a little too much stuff and not enough milkshake. Regardless, it was a fun experience. My main issue with the dining in Universal is how expensive it is. This is to be excepted but we definitely had sticker shock at all of our meals. Be prepared to pay a lot for meals all around the Universal property. To be fair, we have always had the dining plan at Disney but did not use the one at Universal. Perhaps we would not have found the meals at Universal to be so expensive if we had used the meal plan. This was also a recurring theme all through Universal. Though, Disney and other parks can be expensive I definitely felt more nickel and dimed on the Universal property. Everything was expensive, very expensive. In addition, the souvenirs that we bought were not great quality and some of them even broke while we were still on Universal property. They were more than willing to exchange the items for us but it was still a little disappointing. The big gimmick at the Universal parks is the purchase of interactive wands in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I am torn about if I thought the money was worth it for the interactive version. My 9 year old loved it and since she was ‘scared’ of some of the rides, she was able to do activities with her wand while others went on the ride. My 12 year old did not like it as much. He used it for about an hour and then did not touch it the rest of the trip. He was excited to get it but we definitely did not get our moneys worth for him. I felt like my daughter did get her money’s worth.

So after reading this you might think I had a very negative impression of Universal. I will assure you we had a great trip. It was a lot of fun and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter did not disappoint at all. I did go into this trip as I do all trips with a very critical eye. The parks and resorts did not disappoint. I would recommend this a great long weekend get away or if you are visiting the area, to make sure you visit Universal. It was not a destination that I could have spent a week at but it was a great for a few nights.