When we heard we were going to Orlando, I immediately started thinking of what we could do. We have done Disney numerous times, in fact we have done Disney World in Florida 4 times already, but we have never done Universal Studios. I had always heard it was better for older kids so that was my plan, of course we couldn't make plans until we knew our schedule. Thank goodness they posted it back in December, so I was ready. Friday night she had the latest game time so I knew that was our best choice, but I didn't want to waste too much time at the park since I knew it would be busy on a holiday weekend, so I discovered their VIP guided tour & booked it right away:
They pretty much promise you can do 2 of their parks, Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure in 7 hours. That included valet parking, buffet breakfast & lunch, plus skip the line passes & behind the scenes access. The park didn't open until 10:00 but we got in at 9:30 & was amazed to have the park to ourselves!
They took us straight to Cafe La Bamba where we had breakfast:
And I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had plenty of gf & df options for both of us, just like Disney:
After a quick breakfast, they loaded us up with water bottles & we headed out. Out tour guide was Abner & we were in a group with 12 of us. I had booked the tour for our family of 4 but instead of cancelling Bryan & Sadie's tickets, we invited her friend Reese & her Dad, which Sadie was even more excited about:
We started at Universal Studios & walked from Los Angeles to New York, where we did the Jimmy Fallon attraction:
Then we walked through San Francisco
to get to London so we could visit Daigon Alley from Harry Potter:
We had free time to walk around the stores, shop, do a few attractions & then we got dessert:
Sadie went for frosted butter beer while they got ice cream:
Once we finished this park, we took the Hogwort's Express train from Universal Studios to the Island of Adventure:
This is where the adventure really began. Universal Studios is based on movies and has more 3D attractions/virtual reality, but Islands of Adventure is based on books & is definitely more adventurous, mostly thrill rides! We stepped off the train & landed in Hogsmeade:
We went straight to my favorite ride of the day: Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure. The wait time was 140 minutes, but our tour guide took us through the exit, straight to the front of the line & he literally put Sadie & I in the very first cart. We literally walked in, rode it & were out in 10 minutes. SO worth it!
We quickly went through Harry Potter, Jurassic Park & Skull Island. Before we knew it, it was 4:30 & we had already finished both parks! Our tour guide was amazing & did a great job teaching us about the parks, explaining all of the rides, making sure we had the best seats in the house & showing us a great time. We all agreed if we go back, we will request him again:
We had never done a VIP tour before, & even though it wasn't a private tour, it was worth every penny. The valet parking had us so close to the park, we didn't have to walk far & surprisingly, there wasn't a line when we went to pick it up. And by the time you factor in the cost of parking plus our buffet breakfast & lunch, the tour itself didn't cost much more. I would highly recommend to anyone going! Next time we'll have to go back with Bryan & Sophie so we can try Epic Universe!
No comments:
Post a Comment