So we just got back from Universal Studios in Orlando. It was so much fun; I really enjoyed the time there!!! It was nice to get away not just for out 3 year anniversary, but from the stress of planning the wedding as well. So I’ll go over a bunch of the things we did, and how well we enjoyed them.
So the main reason for us going was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter of course. Most people who know me are likely aware that I have read the books multiple times, seen the movies multiple times, peruse Pottermore often, and overall just love the franchise and have for a long time now. Therefore I couldn’t wait to literally be in the middle of a world I dreamed of so often. Speaking of which, one of my most favorite moments was walking into Diagon Alley. It was just perfect, exactly like I had always imagined. I of course made a stop at Ollivander’s for my wand. One of the most fun things to do around the park is perform spells on shop windows which caused lights to flicker, things to float, dance, flush etc. I would definitely recommend this to anyone going. I also got my house robes, which really completed my wizard feel. Diagon Alley is also where you will find the best restaurant I tried in both parks: The Leaky Cauldron. We had both a breakfast and a lunch here. The food was good, and the workers have a good time staying in character. This is the ultimately place to shop for Harry Potter goods, so it’s also where we ended the trip. However, they do have one ride as well, Harry Potter and the Escape from Grimgotts. This is a mix roller coaster and 4D ride, one of the most roller coaster ones we rode too. It was still good fun though, definitely try it.
You can also take the Hogwarts express from Kings Cross Station outside of Diagon Alley (Universal Orlando) to Hogsmeade Station (Islands of Adventure). This is an experience I recommend doing both ways if possible, but King’s Cross to Hogmeade is definitely the better experience. The outside of King’s Cross station even has a vendor selling the type of stuff you would get in London – Union Jack everything. Once in the station, you actually walk through a pillar in between platforms 9 and 10 (admittingly there is a hole in this pillar, but the experience is worth it). Once in the train compartment, they close the door and the train starts moving to the other park. The way the rides bumps around, gives the feeling of being in a steam engine. The window and doors are also screens so you can see the world changing as you move, but also hear/see the shadows of the Hogwarts students, trolly witch, etc in the halls. The train was actually one of my favorite experience rides, so I highly recommend it.
Once off the train, we arrived in Hogsmeade. There were more shops, the Hogshead Pub, and the Three Broomsticks. The Three Broomsticks has similar food, but isn’t close to being as good as the Leaky Cauldron. We also ran into many more workers that were just grumpy and didn’t care about keeping up the experience for us. I don’t recommend this as much. I do recommend the frozen butterbeer though. It was really hot when we went, and the frozen butterbeer was a delicious treat in coping with that fact. I have to say one of the times, I felt most immersed in the illusion was sitting outside of Hogsmeade drinking the frozen butterbeer, watching the people going in and out of the Owl Post shop. From Hogsmeade, it’s a short trek up to the Hogwarts castle. This is another ride I highly recommend, but not so much for the ride as the waiting line. Standing in line for the ride is part of the experience, and you can actually do this without riding the ride. You walk through the castle, listen to the portraits talking to eachother, see Dumbledore in his office, etc. It’s an awesome experience and you haven’t even gotten to the Forbidden Journey ride yet. The Forbidden journey is pretty fun though. You are flown in and out of the castle, the Quidditch pitch, the forbidden forest, all while chased by a dragon. Again I highly recommend doing everything in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at both parks.
Sami was most looking forward to going to Simpsons Land! The area is pretty spot on theme with KrustyLand. There is even a KrustyLand ride which is another 4D screen ride with carnival games lining the outside of the entrance. The ride is really amusing, it’s a roller coaster that goes off rails as Sideshow Bob is chasing after you. It was cute and enjoyable. While the carnival games are spot on, they are actually also really expensive (like $6 for 3 swings). We did not participant in them because of that reason. We paid enough in theme park tickets, so paying for those games seemed a rip off. I mean you weren’t even guaranteed a prize so you couldn’t justify the price as buying a souvenir. It was fairly disappointing just like their Krusty burger. We ate lunch here because it seemed fun. There is a Moe’s tavern that is really well done and serves alcohol if you want. There is also a Krusty burger, Cletus’ Chicken Shack, Luigi’s Pizza, and Lisa’s Teahouse of Horror. We tried the Krusty burger. The quality was very fast food quality despite the price being more. We got a flaming Moe with it though that was pretty cool. It’s basically orange soda with a pellet that makes it smoke. You also get to keep the cup so it was worth it. Finally they made the souvenir shop look like a Kwik-e-Mart which is really cool to see from the outside. Inside though, it’s the same souvenirs you see everywhere in the park. We were hoping for more creativity. They didn’t even have Bort license plates (although they did have keychains). Overall this was pretty neat, especially with the stautes and building facades, etc. on the outside, but was a disappointment once you were actually inside of it.
At Islands of adventure there is a fun place called Marvel Island with a pretty awesome and well-done Spiderman 4D ride. There is also a scary Incredible Hulk coaster if you are into that sort of thing, but it’s not for us. The island itself had a pretty cool atheistic, although I was hoping for a better comic book selection. However, there were plenty of shops for almost any other kind of Superhero merchandise. I got a really awesome full print Hulk shirt that makes my upper body look Hulked out. There is another really awesome and well done transformers ride in Universal studios that is similar to the Spiderman ride. I recommend both. One fun fact about the Transformers ride though is we asked an attendant about the ride to make sure it wouldn’t hurt Sami’s back. The gate attendant was not only very informative but brought us to the front of the line. It was really awesome.
At Islands of Adventure there is a Jurassic Park area as well. This was pretty cool, especially walking under the huge Jurassic Park gate if coming from Hogsmeade. There is a Discovery Center similar to the movies where you can see dinosaur bones, animatronic dinosaurs, an egg nursery (with live show of one of the eggs “hatching”), Mr. DNA can help you fuse a new dinosaur and more. This was a pretty neat area so we decided to eat lunch at the restaurant up top. This was a mistake. It was quite possibly the worst food we had in the park all weekend. It was literally like heating up and eating the cheapest frozen foods at Walmart. I absolutely can’t believe how much we paid for that crap either. I barely ate any of it. Despite that though there was still some cool things in the area. There is an animatronic raptor you can take pictures with, a cave exploration area for kids (that’s actually really fun for adults too), and a Jurassic Park River Ride that gives you other views of the park to explore. This area was a lot of fun actually.
The newest ride at the park when we went was King Kong. This was a trackless ride that brought you in a safari jeep through the caves which included 4D screens and animatronic set pieces of an attack on your convoy through King Kong saving you from the dinosaurs and ultimately passing intimately close to King Kong. This is another must do while you are there. I actually recommend going straight to this ride though due to long wait times. We were able to use our early admission into the park to get in line early on the last day. If you aren’t as lucky though, the wait is still fun too. You are walking though the caves and animatronic arms will randomly grab out at you from the walls. It’s an entertaining wait at least (inside an air conditioned area).
That’s the newer ride, but there are still some older rides at the park as well. The one that I felt held up the best was the Men in Black ride. You are recruited to the agency and are put through a practice run. This means shoot all the aliens with your gun. This is fun no matter how old the basic premise is. You get a score and can compete against your friends as you go too. I was in the lead most of the game, but Sami took it away from me right at the end. When you are leaving, they tell you that you did not do well enough to make the team and wipe your memory. This is hilarious. You should definitely do this one. The next one is Shrek 4D. This is the most traditional of the 4D rides in that you sit in a theater and you char shakes, they spray you with water and there is some air blown at you. Nothing too special. Plus the story takes place after the first Shrek movie and ignores everything that has happened since. It’s still a cute and funny story but not the most inventive of rides. If you find yourself with extra time though worth going into. Finally Terminator is probably one of their oldest rides and it shows. It takes place after the events of T2 and uses footage of the actors that played in the movie, but combines it with stage acting using actors that don’t always match up well in body shape. The effects are really old, and the 3D doesn’t work as well. I would only recommend this one if you have nostalgia attached to the Terminator series.
