After spending the last few years in the Pacific Northwest, it felt heavenly to walk outdoors in the heat of the Florida sun. The sunshine state has become a vacationer’s paradise, with countless theme parks, sparkling swimming pools, and activities for everyone in the family.
With so much to do in the Orlando area, it can be difficult to decide on how to spend your vacation. After hearing so much about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we decided to break away from the mouse house and spent some time at Universal Orlando.
Universal Orlando has become the new hot spot for vacationing families and when I look at my son’s interests, I can see why. He is at the age where animated fairytales no longer capture his imagination. Like all of his friends, my son loves watching the Transformers, Spiderman, Spongebob, and Despicable Me. All of the rides at Universal’s theme park caught his attention and, best of all, he was tall enough to ride the vast majority of them.
The layout of Universal Orlando makes it very easy to get around. You can take a boat, or just walk to the main entrance if you are staying at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel, or Loews Royal Pacific Resort (the on-site luxury hotels). The new Cabana Bay Beach Resort is just a quick shuttle trip away. If you drive there, like my family did, the parking structure is right up close and they have moving walkways to whisk you to the City Walk area.
The layout makes it super convenient to hop between the two theme parks: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. It is also nice to be steps away from your hotel so you can take a break to play in the pool or just take a mid-day nap.
We started our day at Universal Studios Florida and then went over to Islands of Adventure in the afternoon. I wish that we had planned an extra day or two instead of packing it all into one day. We saw a lot, but there was much more that we will just have to catch the next time around. When planning your own trip, I recommend at least a day for each park. There is a lot to do and several things you will want to try more than once.
One of my favorite parts of Universal Studios Florida is how they recreated the town of Springfield. I grew up watching the Simpsons and felt like a kid again as I walked into Moe’s Tavern, ordered a Krusty Burger, and took my picture with the Duff Beer guy. The woman at Krusty Burger actually said “Have a Krusty day,” which still makes me laugh when I think about it.
Diagon Alley is the newest area and, simply put, it is amazing. It is one of the most impressive areas I have experienced at a theme park. If you stay at one of Universal’s three luxury hotels, you can get into the park an hour early, which is your best way to see the place before it gets packed. Hotel guests also get Universal Express, which gives you priority access to many of the rides. We used this during our stay and it dramatically reduced the amount of time we had to spend in line.
There is a lot to love about Diagon Alley. There is a fire breathing dragon on the roof for goodness sakes. The main ride is Gringott’s Bank, which my wife said was her favorite at the park. I got a kick out of just exploring the place and taking in all of the details. My son liked the dragon, of course, but also liked talking to the shrunken head at the Knight Bus (the three story bus parked out front).
As we boarded Gringott’s Bank, I saw a waiting room for families, which I later learned Universal has these for all of their attractions. I was used to the typical child switch procedure where your family had to split up (one person rides while the other waits with the child). Universal made the process much easier by including these family-friendly waiting areas right next to where you would board the ride. They have large TVs inside the rooms, which play family-friendly movies. There was plenty of space to park a stroller and let your kids out to play. And when one adult finished riding the attraction, it was a simple process to swap and then the other person could go on the ride. I was very impressed that Universal made the effort to make this a standard part of how they designed attractions.
Universal made another smart choice when they connected the two parks with Hogwarts Express. You get a themed train ride from one park to the other, which really transports you into the world of Harry Potter. Every detail about the train station, down to the individual train car compartments, was exquisitely themed and made you feel like you stepped right into the movies. It was rather spectacular to say the least.
Islands of Adventure has the Hogsmeade area, where you can explore the snow topped buildings that surround Hogwarts castle and ride the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction. But what you really should do is grab a butter beer. This non-alcoholic drink was the best thing to have on a hot Orlando day. Universal really outdid themselves with the design of these two Harry Potter areas. Your family will be blown away by how they transport you into the movies and the rides are top notch.
Islands of Adventure has several thrill rides, like Transformers: The Ride – 3D and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, that my son simply loved. But the fun thing was that he also had a great time in the areas specifically designed for children, like the Dr. Seuss themed Cat-in-the-hat section. Of course, his favorite thing, other than surviving Jurassic Park, was being turned into a minion on the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem attraction.
My family had a wonderful time at the Universal Orlando Resort and plan to make this a must do part of our next Florida vacation. You can’t beat the convenience and perks of staying onsite and the remarkable design of the theme parks will make you feel like you stepped into the movies. Universal Orlando is the perfect place for a family vacation because of all the fun you can have, together.
Thank you to Universal Orlando for providing tickets so my family could check out the resort!
