We chose to start our first full day of our trip at Universal Studios. We wanted to avoid leaving Disney property for the rest of the trip, just to make things easier. Our main objective: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We used a rideshare app to get to and from Universal Orlando. It was a very easy use. We used Uber to get there and Lyft. It cost us about $30 each way, so if you decide you want to adventure over to other parks while staying on Disney property, it’s very easy and efficient to do so.
Given the options of the two Universal parks, Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure, we picked Islands of Adventure park for two main reasons. The first reason was because it had the Hogwarts castle and Hogsmeade Village. The second was because it had more of the rides we wanted to experience, like the new Hagrid ride and Jurassic Park ride.
We didn’t rope drop at Universal, so there were already crowds forming by the time we got there. Getting into the parks was seamless. There is a security checkpoint at the entrance to the entire Universal complex that streamlines the process. Everyone has to go through security, even if you’re just going to the CityWalk shopping and dining district. After you pass the security checkpoint, you then break off to the right or left based on the park you’re going to – either the Universal Studios or the Islands of Adventure.
As soon as you walk towards the Islands of Adventure entrance, you are transported into an outpost in the Middle East. This area is called Port of Entry, and it’s the gateway to the rest of the park. The best comparison I could give is that it feels like a scene out of either The Mummy or Indiana Jones. This area is where all the general souvenir shops and snack locations are. Once you get to the other side of the marketplace, the layout of the park is a giant circle with a lagoon in the middle. Each of the themed sections is considered an island, with all of the islands being arranged in a circle around the lagoon. Counter-clockwise around the lagoon, the islands are (in order): Port of Entry, Seuss Landing, The Lost Continent, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Skull Island, Toon Lagoon, and Marvel Superhero Island.
The first island we visited was Seuss Landing. This island is geared more towards kids, but there is fun to be had for all ages! There is even a meet and greet with The Grinch during the Christmas season that always draws in a huge crowd. This island has the most attractions because it is make more of a children’s area We started with The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride that takes you up above and around the entire Seuss Landing to see all the different stories all the while rhyming in a Suess-esque version of alphabet. Next we rode One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, which is a ride similar to Dumbo. After those two rides, we walked around the island to see all of the architecture and colors that make it feel like you’re in a Dr. Seuss book.
The next island we ventured to was The Lost Continent. This island pays homage to mythological stories and legends. The main draw of this island is the Grecian-inspired Lost City of Atlantis area where the presence of Poseidon, God of the Sea. There is a show that people could see within this island, but the next show was 30 minutes away and we were eager to get over to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter as quickly as we could to maximize our time in the world of our favorite literary series. The Lost Continent island also includes one of the two full-service restaurants at the park, which we didn’t get the chance to enjoy. We would love to try the Mythos restaurant on our next visit!
The next island was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! This area is where we spent a majority of our day. Mary Ellen and I are both huge Harry Potter fans, having both grown up with the books and movies. This area of the park gave us the magical “inner child” feeling that Disney World often gives. The first thing you see when you walk into Hogsmeade is the Hogwarts Express. There is actually a version of the train that moves. It serves as a way to get from Hogsmeade station in Islands of Adventure to Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios park. Unfortunately, we decided to stick to Islands of Adventure for our one day. Mary Ellen has ridden the Hogwarts Express on a previous trip, and it was a magical experience!
Walking through Hogsmeade and making sure to take in all of the magic, we leisurely made our way through the Wizarding World. As we walked through the area, we saw that the line for Butterbeer was really short and decided to take advantage. Now, full disclosure, the last and only time I had a Butterbeer was at the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play in New York City. That version did have alcohol (butterscotch schnapps) in it. That said, I definitely thought that all Butterbeer had alcohol in it and was very confused when there was no choice between a non-alcoholic and alcoholic Butterbeer. Mary Ellen definitely got a giggle out of my assumption. Luckily, our 10:00AM Butterbeer was alcohol-free, and we were energized to explore the rest of the world.
From the Butterbeer cart, we walked around and took in the rest of Hogsmeade. We checked the wait time for Hagrid’s ride (it was over 2 hours) and decided to wait it out to see if it went down any throughout the day. Hogsmeade has a ton of cute shops full of Harry Potter themed souvenirs. The only shop we really explored was Honeydukes to explore all the candy and chocolate offered from the books and movies. Even after seeing all of the delicious goodies, I only walked away with a Chocolate Frog. Thank goodness it didn’t end up jumping out of a train window!
From there we made our way towards the Hogwarts castle to ride Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey. As we made our way over, there was a performance of the Triwizard Spirit Rally and we stopped to watch the Durmstrang students do an acrobatic routine and the Beauxbatons do a lovely dance. The live entertainment was excellent (which we soon learned would be a theme throughout our entire trip).
Once we arrived at the castle, we saw it was a 20 minute wait for the ride and decided to jump on it. What’s great about this ride is that the queue is interactive and entertaining. You weave through the greenhouse and head into the castle where you interact with Dumbledore, the Sorting Hat, and even the golden trio: Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.
This ride is a 4D ride that makes you feel like you’re on a broomstick riding through Hogwarts and the area around it. You even get a chance to “fly” through a Quidditch game! If you get motion sickness or don’t like 4D effects coming at you without warning, this may not be the ride for you, but we very much enjoyed it!
Once we got off of the Forbidden Journey, we made our way back towards the front of the island and checked the wait time for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. It was down to 90 minutes and since we honestly thought the wait wouldn’t be that long, we decided to go for it. Little did we know that the wait would be a true 90 minutes. Being as it was also July, the first half of the line was a little rough because we were standing directly in the sun during the noon hour,. Similarly to the Forbidden Journey ride, there were lots of props and facts to look at while waiting in line. This ride also had a cave/dungeon portion of the queue where it did get a little stuffy and claustrophobic, so if that affects you at all please be aware.
Once we finally got the ride, we had to choose which person rode the bike and which person rode in the motorcar. I took the bike while Mary Ellen took the motorcar. If the line wasn’t so long, we probably would’ve gone again and switched spots. This ride was definitely a top ride for us at Islands of Adventure. While it doesn’t do any crazy twists and turns or go upside down, it’s still a thrill ride with lots of speed. There’s even a portion of the ride that goes backwards and even a surprise drop similar to a drop ride like the Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
After finishing Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, we decided to finish our time at Harry Potter World in the best way – with lunch at The Three Broomsticks! The Three Broomsticks is a quick service restaurant that offers breakfast and lunch daily. The menu was a wide variety of British staples including shepherd’s pie and fish and chips with American classics like ribs, turkey legs, and rotisserie chicken. As you go through the line to get up to the register to order, they display each item as it’s served. I changed my mind on what I wanted at least five times while going through the line (especially when I saw the meal displays!).
I ordered the turkey leg, which came with a side of wedge fries. That turkey leg was incredible and I ended up eating almost all of it. Mary Ellen got the rotisserie chicken and she said the chicken was cooked well and very flavorful. The chicken came with corn and roasted potatoes, which were also delicious. Her only wish was that she could’ve swapped out the corn with a green vegetable, like green beans.
After lunch we moved on to Jurassic Park. The most anticipated ride here was the new thrill ride, Velocicoaster. We decided to make our way back to this ride later since we had just eaten and moved on to the Jurassic River Adventure. However, as we were approaching it, the ride had just shut down for a technical mishap and unfortunately never came back up for the rest of the time we were at Islands of Adventure.
Next was Skull Island where there was only one ride available called Skull Island: Reign of Kong. We didn’t do this ride and can’t remember whether it was due to lack of interest or the ride being unavailable due to refurbishments. But, if King Kong is a franchise you’re interested in, it’s a trackless 3D/4D ride.
We then moved on to Toon Lagoon. This one really made my inner child come out. As soon as you walk into the area, you see famous comic characters that I grew up reading every morning in the newspaper, from The Family Circus, Marmaduke , Blondie, and, most prominently, Popeye. This island is called a lagoon because the rides in this area are all water rides.
We started with the river rapid ride, Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges. No matter where you sit on this ride, you’re going to get soaked. We figured the sooner we rode it, the sooner our clothes would dry in the hot Orlando sun. I actually preferred this rapid ride to the one in Animal Kingdom (which we rode a couple of days later) because it was more engaging and entertaining. This river raft adventure also definitely lived up to its name as a water ride. Thankfully the shorts I was wearing were a crinkle material and dried fairly quickly. I was only uncomfortable in them for a short period of time.
The other water ride in Toon Lagoon was Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. This ride is a log flume ride, similar to Splash Mountain, where you wind your way through the story of Dudley Do-Right unsuspectingly heading towards a 75 foot drop and a large splash at the bottom. Now, I’ve never seen any of the Dudley Do-Right cartoons or even heard about it, but they do share comic scenes and clips to introduce the world that we are going to see during the ride throughout the queue. I really enjoyed this ride and would definitely ride it again.
After immersing ourselves in the stories of Toon Lagoon, we walked over to the final island, Marvel Superhero Island. This island confused me because it felt misplaced. Wasn’t Marvel owned by Disney? Apparently, because Disney purchased Marvel after they had built this area of Islands of Adventure, Disney cannot feature any movies made pre-2009 in their parks that are east of the Mississippi River. This means that while you will see Marvel characters and rides at Disneyland (specifically in California Adventure’s Avengers Campus), you will not see any of what I consider “original” Marvel characters in the parks at Disney World.
There were a few rides in this section of the park, including a 4D dark Spiderman dark ride, but we decided to only do the Incredible Hulk Coaster. This coaster is a thrill ride that goes up to 67 mph and is full of loops and inversions. We were so excited to do this ride. The wait was so short that it was practically a walk on! We should’ve taken that as a warning. At the beginning of the ride, I was fine, but I think the constant loops and spins without a break between them got to me. Combine the intense ride with the Florida heat and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. The Diet Coke break we had before the ride may have affected me more than I thought. I was feeling a little lightheaded after the ride, and Mary Ellen felt nauseated. We drank loads of water after getting off to get rehydrated and back to feeling well. We even grabbed a light snack to speed the process along. The Incredible Hulk Coaster definitely didn’t make us feel “incredible.”
After recovering from the Incredible Hulk Coaster and getting back to about 60% normal again, we decided to head back to Jurassic Park Island to do the Velocicoaster and then call it a day at Islands of Adventure. It was around 4:30PM, and we had almost hit our wall for the day. Strategically, we figure that waiting in line for Velocicoaster would also give us more time to get back to 100%. The line was about 45 minutes long and boy did it feel like it, if not longer. I ran out of water in my water bottle while in this line and the heat was getting to me. Since rides at Universal’s Islands of Adventure are the main form of entertainment, most of our time was spent on rides or in lines, unlike at Disney where there are parades, shows, and live entertainment at every turn. We didn’t have anywhere to take a breather between queues. Maybe we didn’t pace ourselves well for our day at Islands of Adventure, but we still had loads of fun.
The Velocicoaster was an incredible ride. Like the Hagrid ride, it was very smooth because it was a newer rollercoaster. It had tons of twists and turns throughout the track. I thought the coolest part of the ride was that it was built into the lagoon area. There was even one section of the coaster where we were upside down over the lagoon and I felt like the top of my head was skimming the water. There are some people who say that the Velocicoaster is more intense than the Incredible Hulk Coaster, but to me it didn’t feel that way at all. It might have had something to do with where we were sitting. We might have gotten a more intense version of the Hulk rollercoaster because we were sitting in the front row!
Fun fact: When Universal was building Velocicoaster, they answered multitude of questions about what they were building with “we’re building a churro stand.” On Velocicoaster’s opening day, they handed out free churros to everyone as they got off the ride!
My only, and maybe biggest, complaint about the rides at Universal is that they don’t have a spot for your bag on the rides themselves. Every time we rode any of the rollercoasters, we had to rent lockers in which to store our backpacks. The only one that had free lockers was Velocicoaster. Even still, the lockers were tiny. The ones at Velocicoaster at Universal were the smallest of them all. We had to expend a lot of energy shoving our bags into the tiny lockers. It took even more force to pull them out. Mary Ellen’s bag even got a small tear in it from pulling it out of the locker at Velocicoaster. I wish they would’ve had a spot to store our bags inside the ride vehicles like they do at Disney.
After we finished all the attractions we wanted to experience at Islands of Adventure, we decided to head back to the hotel for a relaxing evening at the pool and dinner in our room. As we were leaving the park, we decided to stop by Voodoo doughnuts store in CityWalk to pick up some of their specialty donuts to have for breakfast over the next few days.
Overall, we really enjoyed our time at Islands of Adventure, and would definitely come back one day to do Universal Studios. Universal is currently in the process of building their third park in Orlando, Epic Universe, which we also want to visit someday. We took a selfie in front of the iconic Universal globe as we were leaving the par. Just like getting to the Universal complex in the morning, we again had a painless experience using rideshare to get back to Old Key West. The only minor issue was getting the driver to our location because there was a lot of traffic. Thankfully, Universal has a section of their parking garage dedicated to Uber and Lyft pickup/drop offs.
After an adventure-filled day, it was nice to unwind by the pool and eat dinner on our porch while listening to the fireworks over at Epcot. Our unexpected moment of the day was how much we enjoyed the Hagrid ride. We felt like the 90 minute wait was well worth it. After our fun-filled day at Islands of Adventure, we got to sleep early because the next morning we were going to get up early rope drop Magic Kingdom!
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