We’re here at Universal Studios! It’s the first full day of our trip, a bright and sunny Saturday in April! Check out this view of the parks from our room. Everyone woke up early, and we’re excited to walk over to Universal! Come along!

Let’s talk as we walk. Hopefully, your flight down was smooth. We flew down to Orlando last night, leaving right after school like we usually do for our trips. We like to get in the previous night, even if it’s late so that we can start bright and early the next day to catch the park opening. After landing, we took a Lyft to the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios. This is usually the cheapest way to get there.

Royal Pacific is the resort that we usually like to stay at when we do our Universal trips. It includes Express Passes, which let you go in the faster line on most rides. During check-in, make sure that everyone in your group gets a room key with their name printed on it, even the kids. The room key acts as your Express Pass card to scan into each ride, so bring it with you to the parks each day. The resort is also gorgeous and easily walkable to the parks.

Anyway, by now, we’ve walked about 10 minutes along the scenic path to reach the City Walk area and the entrance to the two Universal parks. You can take a water ferry too if you don’t want to walk. As we walk through City Walk, we pass the numerous restaurants there. There are several that we still haven’t eaten at yet, so we’ll definitely come back to explore this area later.

Today, we’ll be going to the Islands of Adventure park first. It’s at the far end of City Walk, at the opposite end of the Universal Studios park entrance, so let’s keep walking in that direction. Go towards the tall lighthouse.

City Walk is basically one big oval with water in the middle, and the restaurants and both park entrances all around it. Everything is very close-by and easy to get to. That’s one big plus about park hopping at Universal vs Disney World.

As recommended, we bought our tickets online ahead of time, so we don’t have to wait in the ticket window lines now. You can go right to the gates if you have the tickets printed or mailed to you ahead of time. It is recommended that you line up at least half an hour before park opening so that you’re in front of the crowds when the gates open.

Pretty much everyone here this early will be aiming for the Harry Potter rides, especially the new Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure one, which is what we’re dyin’ to ride still. Last time we were here, it was just after that ride opened, and lines were like 8+ hours long, so we didn’t do it. This time, let’s go for it first! If we go early enough, hopefully, it’ll be just 1-2hrs. Since it is so new, it doesn’t accept Express Passes yet. This is why you have to get to the parks before park opening if you want to ride the popular rides, which right now are still all of the three big Harry Potter ones. Many people have said that this new ride is one of the coolest ones in all of the parks. We’re waiting this time no matter what! Whose with me??

OK, the gates are opening, hurry! The shorter lines are usually towards the left. Scan your ticket and your finger. Remember which finger you used the first time because you need to use that same one next time too. We’re in! Are you?

Real quick! Gather under the “The Adventure Begins” arch at the entrance. I love this quote! Obligatory group pic! Say cheese!

OK, let’s go! Don’t run, but do your fastest walk! Follow the crowds towards the right of the lagoon to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade land towards the back. We’ll walk through Seuss Landing and several other cool things on the way there, but don’t get distracted. We’ll come back to those later. Bee-line to Hagrid’s, remember!

Oh, actually, there is one distraction you have to pause a quick second for! Right before you get to the Wizarding World entrance, you’ll see this!

That’s right, people! A real-life Hogsmeade train station with a real, working Hogwarts Express train inside that can take us to Diagon Alley!! OMG! Just soak that in for a second. OK, we’ll come back later to ride it. Promise! Keep going to Hagrid’s first! Other people are getting ahead of us now!

TIP: The Harry Potter rides, and other big rides, have free lockers near them. They make you put everything in, so gather up your group’s bags (empty your pockets – phones and sunglasses too, but keep your Express Pass cards if it’s a ride that takes passes) and send one fast person ahead to store them. The locker area is small, so it’s better to just send one person in regardless.

The rest of us keep walking past the lockers to the line for the ride. Though, depending on how long the line is already, the end may be before the lockers already. Just look for the line of people, you can’t miss it. OK, we found it. Not too bad yet. So exciting! Revel in the amazing Wizarding World around you as we wait. Amazing!

Here’s a quick preview of what we can see as we wait in line. More later…

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The line is moving steadily! We’re almost in! Right before the entrance, they have a sample ride car so that you can try it out and make sure that you’ll fit in it before you wait in the long line. Try both the motorbike and the sidecar. Some people are more comfortable in one, but not the other.

Along the way, the queue has some exciting features too. Check them out. That’s the thing with the entire Wizarding World. They recreated soooo many details from the books. It’s like you’re really in that world. You have to look all over, even up on the ceilings and down on the ground. There’s stuff hidden everywhere. You can spend all day in these lands and not see everything.

Yea!! It’s our turn to ride! Let’s go!

Note: the videos throughout this trip will show the actual ride experiences, so don’t look if you don’t want spoilers.

That was soooo cool!!! We definitely have to do that again later on this trip! The line’s already really long (see, good thing we got here early), and there’s still so much more of Hogsmeade that we have to explore!

Let’s continue walking further into the Hogsmeade Village. Look all around and soak it all in. Can you believe you’re here? Explore the cute shops (can’t leave without some wizarding candy and souvenirs), drink a Butterbeer (YUM!), mail yourself a postcard from the Owlery (get it stamped with a Hogsmeade postmark!), and of course, visit Ollivander’s to buy your very own wand! There are magical spots around the village where you can use your wand to do spells! Make sure to get an interactive wand if you want to do that. In fact, since this is our fantasy trip, let’s visit the village with the stars from the Harry Potter movies! They’re on our group trip too! Yea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0rtgPyPws

Wasn’t that cool? There’s so much more for you to discover still, though.

Now, for the best part yet! At the end of the village, you round the bend to the most glorious site ever to behold! I still get chills every time I see it! Ready for it?!?

HOGWARTS CASTLE!!!

There it is in all its glory! Look at how amazingly they recreated that! We need to take a closer look! In fact, we need to go inside!!!

Time to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey! The ride is inside Hogwarts Castle! I can’t even begin to describe how cool it is inside! You have to see it for yourself. The details! Look EVERYWHERE! If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you just died and went to heaven …several times! You actually walk through Professor Dumbledore’s office, the Dark Arts classroom, the Gryffindor Common Room, and several other cool places in the castle as part of the queue to the ride! Videos can’t even capture the full glory of everything inside, but it’ll give you an idea.

The ride is really awesome! Luckily, this ride accepts Express Passes now, so don’t forget to look for the Express line. Otherwise, the regular wait time is probably really long by now. You’re sneaking out of Dark Arts class to go to a Quidditch match. Hermione enchants your seat so that you can fly with Harry and Ron there. Of course, mayhem ensues pretty quickly. Will you make it back?

Wasn’t that amazing?!? You really have to go through the castle several times to catch all of the details! We’ll be back!

TIP: If anyone doesn’t want to ride the ride, they can still go through the castle to view everything, and just leave through the exit at the very end where everyone else is boarding the ride car.

All of this excitement is making us hungry! Let’s have lunch at The Three Broomsticks! It has tasty English platters for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s one of our favorites in this park. The design is really neat inside too! Don’t forget to look up and be on the lookout for house-elves! Check it out! Yum!

Well, now that we’re stuffed, we should head out to explore other parts of the park. There’s another way out of the Wizarding World over by Hogwarts Castle, so let’s go out that way instead of the entrance where we came in this morning. There are more rides in that direction. Oh, on the way there, just past The Three Broomsticks, are the restrooms. Go inside and just listen. Trust me. LOL

OK, round the bend at the end of the village, and there’s the other entrance/exit right before Hogwarts Castle. The bridge that connects the Wizarding World to the other lands in the park offers a fantastic view of the castle on the way out. Another great photo op!

You know what, we sped in here so fast this morning that the newbies in the group may not be properly oriented. Why don’t you do a very quick run-through of the whole park so that you get an overview of where everything is. We’ll wait here on the bridge and stare at the castle some more. Do your fastest walk!

Good, you made it back! Doesn’t everything look cool? Let’s explore the rest in more detail now.

The “lands” in this park form a circle around the lagoon in the middle, so we’ll be going counter-clockwise around. The next land we’ll enter is Jurassic Park. There’s a play area here for the kiddies and a couple of other features, but the big ride is the Jurassic Park River Adventure one. This is one of three water rides in this park that will get you pretty wet (most likely soaked!). If you don’t feel like getting wet, you may want to skip these, but otherwise, they’re really fun. Since it’s pretty hot today, we should dry off pretty quickly, though, so we’re going to do them! Just give your bags to someone whose not riding, or put them in the lockers.

TIP: the best strategy is just to do all three water rides in a row, then go back to do the other rides in between. Since we’ll be wet anyway, we might as well do them all while we’re at it.

Let’s go!

Did you get soaked? We did! Let’s keep going to the next water ride. Skip King Kong for now, and make our way over to Toon Lagoon. The Ripsaw Falls flume ride is next. If you’re not going to ride, you can watch the flumes go down the final big drop from the bridge. Just be careful where you stand! You may still get splashed! LOL

That was fun, right? A little farther down, in the Toon Lagoon land still, is the Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges white-water rapids ride. If you’re not wet enough yet, you will definitely get soaked on this one!

Phew! All three water rides! That was really fun! So, how to dry off… We could get a snack and just stand in the sun, or… ride a super-fast coaster! What do you want to do?

Actually, we can do both! Let’s keep walking around the lagoon to the next Super Heros land, towards the Hulk coaster. You can’t miss it. It’s the one with the gigantic, green coaster tracks that you can see from all around the lagoon. However, on the way there, there are some snack stands where we can get ice cream, pretzels, etc, so let’s get something to eat along the way. Nothing too big, though. It’s never a good idea to eat much before one of the craziest coasters in the parks. We’ll dry off a bit on the walk, and the speed of the coaster will dry us off the rest of the way on the ride. Good plan?

Warning: this ride is not for the faint of heart. If you can’t handle being thrown all around and upside down, you may want to sit this one out. Get another snack while you wait for the others to ride. This one goes so fast that they have x-ray machines to make sure that you truly put everything in the lockers, so nothing can fall out and hit someone. Don’t bother trying to sneak in your phone or anything else. Empty your pockets except for your Express Pass card. If you can handle it, it’s a crazy kind of fun, though! Let’s go!

OK, that was cool, but sit and let your brain unscramble a bit before walking. Haha! You OK? Dry yet?

TIP: The Hulk ride and a few others in both parks take photos of you during the ride. If you tend to collect those, I suggest looking into buying a photo package. It may be cheaper than purchasing several photos individually. There is a photo store inside the entrance of both parks. Stop in there to check out your options. They should be able to look up past ride photos from this trip to add them onto your card if you can identify approximate times when they were taken. Going forward, scan your photo card at the ride photo kiosk right after each ride that has a photo.

At this point, we’re back at the entrance of this park, so we’ve done the full circle around. Let’s check the ride times for the Spider-Man and King Kong rides that we skipped before. If they’re not too bad, let’s go back and ride them next. Otherwise, we can come back to them another time. Yup, as suspected, they’re both pretty long by now, which is late in the afternoon.

TIP: Download the official Universal app, so that you can check ride times, see maps, and get other handy info about the parks.

Let’s keep going around to the Seuss Landing land that we skipped this morning. There are a couple of cute rides in here, especially for the little ones, though they’re fun for adults too. This is pretty much the only land with rides for wee little ones in this park. If you like the Dr Seuss books, look all around. There are cute references all around the land and nooks n crannies to explore. Let’s roam around here for a little bit.

Ready to move on? Let’s continue on back towards the Wizarding World again. Remember how we skipped the Hogsmeade train station this morning? Well, now that we’ve basically done everything in this park, let’s go ride the Hogwarts Express train over to Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios park on the other side! We can certainly just walk out the front entrance, through City Walk, and over to the main Universal Studios park entrance, but we can’t give up a ride on the Hogwarts Express!

NOTE: You need to have a “park-to-park” (park hopper) type of ticket to ride the train since you are really going over to the second park on the same day. If you don’t have that and you want to ride it, you can upgrade your tickets to the park-to-park ones at guest services now. It’s a little pricier but well worth it to be able to go back and forth between both parks in one day, and even if just to ride the Hogwarts Express. That’s just priceless! It’s amazing!

OK, we have our park-to-park tickets and have made our way into Hogsmeade Station. The Hogwarts Express is pulling in now! Look how amazing it is! I can’t get over it! You know what is even more amazing than riding this iconic train? Riding it with the Weasleys!! Let’s go!

Now, wasn’t that worth it?!? So cool!! This doesn’t even do it justice actually. You have to experience it for yourself!

Note: The view is different in each direction, so make sure to ride it back from Diagon Alley later too!

For now, let’s make our way out of King’s Cross Station and turn left into the London street. Look how incredible it is already. We have to find Diagon Alley! Do you remember how to get there? Hint: listen for moving bricks!

Incredible is it?!? It is so detailed in Diagon Alley! You have to look all around, read the signs, check out every store, explore every alley, try all the foods, watch all the shows. We’ll explore some of them in more detail tomorrow. You can spend days in here!

This is why we’re starting it tonight. The strategy is to come to this land first tomorrow so that we can beat the crowds in the morning for the Escape from Gringotts ride, just like we did with Hagrid’s this morning.

Actually, Gringotts accepts Express Passes now, so we can see what the wait time is for Express Passes. If it’s not bad, we can ride now instead! It’s such a cool ride!

The Gringott’s Bank is so incredibly detailed! Pay attention to the goblins. Let’s explore the bank first.

On the ride, we join the trio on their attempt to get the horcrux from a vault in Gringotts. As usual, trouble ensues quickly. Will we be able to escape?

That was so cool!

Let’s continue exploring the rest of Diagon Alley a bit. If our timing is right, we might be able to catch one of the shows too on the side street. Keep an ear out. If you got one of the interactive wands, there are a lot of spots to do spells here. Let’s go find some. We love doing those. Warning, don’t stand near puddles. Ooooh, and maybe get some Butterbeer ice cream?

Well, it’s getting late in the day. As much as we’d like to stay in Diagon Alley all night, let’s start making our way out to see the rest of the park a bit. We’ll be back here to explore this more in-depth tomorrow. Let’s check the Universal app to see what the ride times look like for the other rides as we make our way out of Diagon Alley.

After we exit Diagon Alley, the way that we came in, let’s go left through the rest of the London street. Keep an eye out for Kreacher at 12 Grimmauld Place. See him?

The rest of the park is nicely lit up for the evening now. Let’s make our way over to the Men In Black ride just over the bridge. This ride is pretty fun. How many aliens can you shoot?

Who got the highest score in our group?

OK, let’s keep going to the Simpson’s area. There are several standalone food stands and a food court building where we can get food. But let’s save that for another day because we’re going to get dinner at one of the City Walk restaurants in a bit. The Simpson’s Ride is pretty fun. Let’s do that at least.

Phew! Are you dizzy? These screen simulator rides can be dizzying if you’re prone to motion sickness. The seat moves around so much. But it was fun!

Are you tired yet? I think my feet are starting to feel it. We managed to do a lot today! Did everyone have fun? We’ve begun to cover this Universal Studios park, and we did pretty much everything over in the Islands of Adventure park earlier, including the Hagrid’s ride, so big win! Do you want to call it a day and go get dinner out in City Walk?

OK, let’s make our way out to the front of the park. We’ll pass several rides along the way that we’ll come back to tomorrow.

Ah, back out in City Walk. There are so many restaurants out here to choose from. Ideally, you should make a reservation ahead of time. Let’s walk around and see what’s available, though.

The newest restaurant at City Walk is Big Fire American Fare. Let’s try that one tonight!

Did you like it?

Well, from here, we can either walk back to our resort or take the water taxi back. How are your feet holding up?

Ahhh, we’re back! We had a fun day! Hopefully, you did too! What was your favorite ride?

Do you want to ride Hagrid’s again? Since we were able to ride Gringotts tonight, it may be a better strategy to do Hagrid’s again first tomorrow since that doesn’t accept Express Passes yet. That’s the only way to ride it without a massive line. We can do that first thing in the morning again, then hop back over to do the rest of the other park. What do you want to do?

Let’s rest up and plan to get up early for park opening again tomorrow!