How do I explain Universal Studios Florida?
Essentially it’s the world’s premier movie and TV based theme park that inspires its guests to "ride the movies", and it features numerous attractions and live shows. The majority of the park is made up of 3D and 4D rides with the occasional rollercoaster ride. Universal Studios Florida features eight themed areas all situated around a large lagoon.
The eight surrounding themed areas, clockwise from the entrance, are Production Central, New York, San Francisco, Springfield, London/ Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley, World Expo, Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone and Hollywood. I’ll be honest I didn’t really notice us moving from theme to theme outside of going from Production Central to London/ Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley to Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone.
So let’s start our journey over from the perspective of Universal Studios Florida theme park! Which to be honest was pretty much covered all in one day.
Day One - Monday
Remember on day one in Islands of Adventure we concluded with me getting to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but again I’m skimming that part. What we did do next was hop on the Hogwarts Express train over in Hogsmeade to get to the Universal Studios park. The train connects the two parks and only people with park hopper passes can ride it. Luckily for us we had park hopper passes! So we catch a ride on that bad boy and find ourselves getting off at King's Cross Station over on the other side. At this point we’re all super tired but we’re still running off of energy from pure excitement. Honestly, we just find our way out of the park while noting things along the way that we’d like to explore later on when we come back. Which we did.
Later that night we go back to the resort with about an hour to spare in the park. We head back to Universal Studios, got in line for the 4D Shrek attraction, enjoyed the show, and stopped off at Studio Sweets - where my dad bought everyone whatever they wanted. I got the Despicable Me Minion candy apple. I will say I discovered from that buy that I don’t like caramel. I’ll stick to hard icing and the red candied coating please.
Now remember…. Day Two -Tuesday was a short day and was spent at the other theme park. Plus a late night dinner at CityWalk. While Day Three - Wednesday was our day off from both parks.
Day Four - Thursday
Now this was our biggest day in the park. Here we pretty much did everything and rode every attraction available. This park was ultimately the best for kids who don’t like roller coasters because it was a ton of kid friendly rides.
From the top! That morning I got up with a plan in mind and I meant to stick to it. I was leaving at 3:30pm and no one was going to stop me. Remember I drove myself down to Florida so I had my own car and could leave at will. I ended up rounding all the kids up. So there’s my brothers and my two cousins who ride with me to the park. My dad took a day off from the fun, and my mom and eldest cousin, along with her son, stayed at the hotel to finish prepping food for dinner. They'd join us later on.
Alright, so the five us get to the park and we head directly to Universal Studios. We take a small photo opportunity with the revolving globe and then we’re off. First up on our list is Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. That was our longest wait that day, about an hour long. After that my mom and eldest cousin, who stayed behind, get there and they go back to see Shrek again while my youngest cousin and I take that opportunity to go ride Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit which is an actual roller coaster. I’ll say I liked this one better than The Incredible Hulk.
After that we meet up with our family again who has now migrated to the TRANSFORMERS: 3D ride. That was pretty cool, but by this time all the rides are starting to feel the same. Which they are. It’s a mini mission that the crowd gets to participate in and feel like they’re apart of it because they’re in some type of vehicle chasing down bad guys with the movies' cast.
We finish up with Transformers and we chill out on the sidewalk as we wait for the character parade to start. It was really cute. It had popular movies and tv show characters in it, and they were all dancing. To name a few I got to see:
Spongebob Squarepants
Go Diego Go
Secret Life of Pets
Despicable Me
So at this point everyone is pretty straight about the park, and no one is afraid. Everyone’s been pretty much following me as their guide and they’re like “Where to next?”. I end up leading them to Revenge of the Mummy. Looked like an indoor roller coaster, shouldn’t be too bad right? Well we wait in line and finally get to the top for my youngest brother to try to back out, and I’m playing devil’s advocate and pushing him to ride it. Well I got my way, all eight of us got on that roller coaster to my delight. I had fun as always but it was great for me because my mom NEVER GETS ON RIDES!!! Like true rides. Granted there were no loops or going upside down, but there was a nice little drop.
There’s not much after this. We all get on the Fast & Furious – Supercharged ride together, and then split up to explore Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. After meeting back up near Kang & Kodos' Twirl 'n' Hurl where my mom took the kiddos. Then we end our day on a good note; having done everything we set out to do in that park, so there was no day five lol.
What have you done to go #BeyondYourWindow recently? Share on social media with the hashtag, comment below, or send me a private message!