For our family vacation this year, we decided to spend five days at Universal Studios in Orlando. We visited two years ago and had such a fun time, we couldn't wait to go back.
We flew out on Saturday morning.
We made it to our resort that afternoon. We stayed at the same resort as our previous trip. The family suites there are a great fit for our family of six.
We were up bright and early the next morning and heading to the bus stop before 7:00am. We are dedicated to our theme park days!
I adore this cute Hogwarts student.
These four were ready for a day of fun!
Who are those crazy people right at the front gates 45 minutes before the park opens for early entry??
We are all smiles, ready for an awesome day!
Our first stop of the day was Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure. It's a favorite for everyone. So fun!
Katherine is still too short to ride, so the big kids got to ride twice.
After Hagrid's we headed over to Forbidden Journey.
Our plan was then to head over and ride the new Jurassic Park coaster. However, it was closed that morning, so because of that and because Katherine only got to ride one ride that morning- and the other kids rode five (counting the double rider swap rides), we decided to hop on the Hogwart's Express and hop over to Universal Studios to ride Escape from Gringotts.
This sweet girl was excited to ride for the first time.
We also ride Flight of the Hippogriff- Katherine's fave!
The Gringott's queue is one of the best- really all the Harry Potter attractions have awesome queues.
She was a little nervous and had a tight grip on her daddy's hand.
Riding the elevator down to the vaults for our tour.
Katherine said she loved it but also said she kept her eyes closed the whole time :). She told us if we rode it again, she'd try and keep her eyes open.
After Gringotts, we were ready for our first butterbeer of the trip. It's my favorite treat at Universal, partly because it's so unique and limited (only available at Harry Potter World)
On our way out of Diagon Alley, we stopped to visit with the Knight Bus Driver.
We finished up our butterbeer on our way to ride Men in Black, Alien Attack.
We also walked over and rode the Simpson's Ride. Katherine rode it on our last trip and talked about being scared of it for months (She didn't like the "giant baby"). Two years of growing, and she loved it and named it as one of her favorites.
Katherine said she loved it but also said she kept her eyes closed the whole time :). She told us if we rode it again, she'd try and keep her eyes open.
This girl didn't remember the butterbeer from two years ago, but she was a big fan this time around. We always had to pry it out of her hands to get a drink.
The picture printed with Hagrid's background, but we did shoot some aliens, and Matt decimated all our scores.
After the Simpson's Ride, we walked back to Diagon Alley to have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron.
Then we explored the other end of Universal Studios.
We rode Escape from New York with Jimmy Fallon and posed for a picture with Panda. We never watch the Tonight Show, so we didn't recognize all the references, but it was a giant panda, so who wouldn't want a picture with it?
The big kids and daddy went to ride Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket, while this cutie and I grabbed some popcorn for a snack. Then we swapped and I rode it with the kids. It's not my favorite, but the 90 degree uphill climb, always gets me.
We also rode Transformers. The girls kept themselves occupied in the line.
I caught this girl just hanging out while we refilled popcorn.
We explored the super hero island first by riding Spider Man and the Incredible Hulk Coaster.
We also rode the tea cups with the fastest spinner around.
The animatronic raptors were cool.
The theming of the ride was that we were in the Jurassic World theme park and this attraction was a roller coaster built in the Velociraptor's paddock. Really, it was just a really cool roller coaster, with some raptor statues and sound effects throughout the ride. The two launches were super fast, and it was new and smooth, had some air time, and lived up to the hype for us.
The park was closed after the show was over, so we walked to the exit and stopped for one last picture of us closing down the parks. We stayed from early entry at 8:00am until closing at 9:00pm and aside from Seuss Land and the water rides at Islands of Adventure, we rode pretty much everything. Such a fun, full day. I left so grateful to be able to make these sweet memories with my family (and I'm glad that we've trained them to love rollercoasters and theme parks).
We caught a bus back to our resort to rest up for a bit and get ready to do it all again the next day.
We also rode the Minions ride and posed with Gru afterwards.
Funny Story, we were the first ones out of the theater after the ride, so we were first in line to pose with Gru. He was standing so still, that we thought it was just a statue, until he startled us by moving once we were all posing for a picture.
It's a rite of childhood to look and see if the personalized merch has your name isn't it?
Then we walked over and rode Revenge of the Mummy, one of Elisabeth's favorite coasters.
We were close to Diagon Alley and ready for a treat, so we stopped and grabbed ice cream cones at our favorite Universal Orlando ice cream shop.
Then we rode ET, a classic fav! It always gives me Disney dark ride vibes, with the flying bikes over the city, and the celebration when ET saves his home planet. On our way to ET we saw that the Bourne Stuntacular show was beginning soon. I hadn't researched that show at all, and really had no plans to watch it (I'd been burned multiple times by Universal's "Shows"), but we decided to watch it, and it was EXCELLENT! Incredible effects, simulators, etc. SO GOOD! I'm not a Bourne fan, but I still very much appreciated it, and I'm so glad we stopped and watched it.
We posed for a picture at the entrance of Universal Studios and walked (the Hogwart's Express had a longish line that wasn't worth it for us) back to Islands of Adventure to continue the fun.
These two are still too short for Hulk. They were able to entertain themselves in the test seats, while we waited for the boys to ride.
Matt and I loved the Hulk Coaster when we visited in 2018, but it's gotten rougher over the years and is fun to do a couple of times- the launch is awesome, but I think we're getting old, ha!
Afterward, we finally walked over to Jurassic Park to ride Velocicoaster, our most anticipated ride. It was also the only real line we'd had to wait in, and we hadn't developed a tolerance for it, so that 30 minute wait was a downer for us. I guess we're spoiled, ha! We also hadn't ridden it before, so we didn't know how long the line really was or when we were close to the ride. Thankfully, the coaster was worth it and improved our moods!
After the coaster, we walked back over to Hogsmeade to catch the Hogwarts Light Show. I had pretty low expectations for it, since Universal Studios is not known for their nighttime entertainment, and I'm glad I kept my expectations low, because it wasn't anything to write home about. It was pretty and I like the Harry Potter music, but it was very short, and fell way short in comparison with Disney's castle projection shows. But we didn't have to stake out a spot and save seats for an hour to watch it, so there's that too.
The park was closed after the show was over, so we walked to the exit and stopped for one last picture of us closing down the parks. We stayed from early entry at 8:00am until closing at 9:00pm and aside from Seuss Land and the water rides at Islands of Adventure, we rode pretty much everything. Such a fun, full day. I left so grateful to be able to make these sweet memories with my family (and I'm glad that we've trained them to love rollercoasters and theme parks).
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