I’ve wanted to go to Universal Orlando since I first heard about Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening in 2010. I jumped at the chance to go for a day in 2016 and to go back for 3 days in 2017. As I mentioned in a previous post, I just didn’t feel like 1 day was enough time to really take it all in. This is particularly true if you are doing both Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure. You certainly can and will enjoy 1 day in the park, but we think 3 days is perfect.
After our second trip to Universal Orlando I noticed that we definitely had favorite “lands” and while we used to be huge amusement park people it had been a while since we had been on any rides. Here are a few of our favorite lands, rides and food!
My Favorites
Obviously, Wizarding World of Harry Potter but I also really liked Springfield and Jurassic Park. All of the franchises of my childhood!
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, The Hulk Coaster, Revenge of the Mummy and Jurassic Park River Adventure. I think I probably would have liked The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man ride as well but it was being worked on every time we tried to ride it.
Funny Story: keep your head back on Revenge of the Mummy ride because at one point it slows down really quickly. I am terrible at remembering to keep my head back and definitely bashed my head on the back of the seat. No injuries. Just Corey loves to make fun of me for never remembering to keep my head back.
The Mr’s 2 cents: I thought she snapped her neck!! You can’t be that floppy on rides like that. haha
All variations of butter beer to include: frozen, ice cream, fudge and plain old cold butter beer. That stuff is amazing! Toothsome.
His Favorites
Springfield and Jurassic Park. I also like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter just not as much as Vanessa does.
Jurassic Park River Adventure, The Hulk Coaster, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
Funny story – Like I said, it’s been awhile since we’ve been on any amusement park rides (particularly roller coasters) and Corey really felt the wrath of the Hulk Coaster. We both agree it was one of the coolest roller coasters we’ve ever been on BUT he definitely had equilibrium issues the rest of the day. I didn’t. haha He also later told me that Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey messed up his equilibrium too!
Hands down the Lard Lad donut. But honestly, Krusty Burger was one of my favorites. Not because the food was amazing, but it was really cool to feel like you are in Springfield/The Simpsons. I also really liked Antojitos, the margaritas were great.
We agree on this one Skull Island: Reign of Kong. The lines were really long and we had heard great things but we didn’t think it was that great. It had a lot of hype and in our opinion it did not deliver.
Any way you slice it, Universal Orlando is a lot of fun! You may be thinking that it sounds very kid oriented, but we would argue that you can have a great adult only trip at Universal.
