In the Parks Series - Universal Studios Orlando Review (Because Even Disnerds Love The Wizarding World of Harry Potter)
I know this is generally a Disney blog, but today we are going to discuss Universal Studios Orlando. As a lot of individuals do spend time at both Disney and Universal on their holiday, it seemed worthwhile to cover Universal Studios as well for those of you who are considering it.
I’m going to be completely honest: I don’t generally like Universal nearly as much as Disney. In fact, I actually don’t like it much at all other than a few notable exceptions. Regardless of this fact, I’m going to do my best to cover both the pros and the cons of Universal Studios to help you make the most informed decision you can about spending time there on your holiday.
First off, let’s look at the Universal phone app.
As you can see, it has a similar-but-different look to the MyDisneyExperience app. You can look at ride wait times, shows, some dining menus, and even buy tickets for Universal Studios. If you buy tickets, they will show up in the My Wallet section of the app (located in the drop-down menu). We found getting in to the parks with the digital tickets to be a snap: simply walk up to the entrance, select your tickets, and the park employee will scan the barcode and your finger to grant you entrance.
Universal has a similar park-hopper option to Disney, where you can visit the two regular parks in one day (their water park, Volcano Bay, will be extra). For one day, with access to two parks, it’s going to cost you $170 USD per adult, and $165 USD per child. Volcano Bay will cost $80 USD pr adult and $75 USD per child.
What is Express Pass?
Universal Studios also has an option they call Express Pass, which is similar to a super ticket one can get at the fair. It allows you to skip the regular lines at the parks as many times as you want for $109.99 USD per ticket or once per ride for $79.99 USD per ticket. Although some may consider this a good deal, there is a catch: this is per day. That seems fairly steep to pay for each day you wish to ride the attractions. Additionally, there are exceptions. Currently this does not apply to Fieval’s Playland or Pteranodon Flyers. On our previous trip, at least half of the attractions were excluded (including the Harry Potter rides)! Not great value if you ask me.
What is Virtual Line?
Virtual Line is similar to Disney World’s Fastpass+ system. You pick a ride and select a time slot, and the app “waits in line” for you. You then come back at your pre-selected time slot to enjoy the ride.
This option is currently quite limited, with only three attractions utilizing it:
How do the rides compare to the rides at Walt Disney World?
It depends what you like best. A lot of the rides (Harry Potter rides included) have a large amount of virtual component to them. Although the graphics can be impressive, this means a lot of jerking around and sudden stops to accommodate for the adventure being propagated by virtual reality. We personally did not like this experience. Those of us prone to motion sickness and back/neck issues may have an issue with this type of ride style.
Additionally, these virtual reality rides got monotonous fast. If you’ve seen one, you’ve basically seen them all. A notable exception to this would be Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which utilizes a good amount of virtual reality mixed with actual stage setting and animatronics to make up the difference. Although I found this ride to be a little nausea-inducing, it was pretty cool.
The Kong: Skull Island ride is also pretty cool. It's a little more mature than Disney rides (don't think any of those have a giant ape breaking the jaw and killing other creatures in it, but maybe I'm just blind). That being said, it has a pretty cool Kong animatronic at the end that I found quite impressive.
Other than the virtual reality rides, this park is known for its crazy roller coasters. A notable example is The Incredible Hulk Coaster, which reaches a top speed of 67 mph (108 km/h for my fellow Canadians)! To be honest, this isn't for me. I'd much rather go on the whimsical rides of Walt Disney World.
That being said, I have one ride that I'm pretty hardcore over: Revenge of the Mummy. It has an Expedition Everest-esque ride track, so in other words, just the right amount of intense without being too crazy.
This ride is based around the mummy of the movie franchise, Imotep, trying to GET YOUR SOUL to grant himself eternal life, NBD. That escalated quickly.
You go through a track doing your best to escape his clutches while he chases you around sounding like a demon that had too many packs of smokes for breakfast. It’s awesome. Purely great and resonates well with the movie.
One part in the ride, Imotep lights the ceiling on fire while screaming, “Prepare to forfeit your souls!” Unfortunately, this part of the ride wasn’t working when we went, or had been removed. Fire in another scene of the ride was removed as well, so it may very well have been intentional. I found this a tad bit disappointing since it really added to the theming the last time we went, but it was not enough for us to stop riding the ride until we felt like we might just die.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Let's be real, fam, this is a main reason people go to the Universal Parks in the first place. This is one of the only places you can be immersed in Harry Potter's adventure and live like a wizard.
We already discussed Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but Escape from Gringotts is well-done as well. You're hurtling around the depths of Gringotts bank, trying to escape the clutches of Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort, whilst hopefully not being burned alive by a dragon. The theming of the bank is just like the movie, with well-done animatronic goblins that have just the right amount of condescension to be believable.
You can visit two themed areas: Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios Park (my favourite of the two Harry-Potter themed areas) and Hogsmeade in the Islands of Adventure Park. If you ever wanted to go to Honeydukes, the sweets shop in Hogsmeade, now is your chance!
There’s also a pretty cool train ride between the two parks on the Hogwarts Express if you have the park-hopper option.
Inside, there is a pretty cool scene where Dementors float through the train and the main trio fights them off. Overall, I found the ride quite enjoyable.
Additionally, you can pick up a wand at a variety of shops within the two themed areas of both parks and interact with various areas of the park. I've also heard you can duel - pretty neat. Although this option is not for me, I saw many people enjoying it quite a bit! Are you more of a Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy? Albus Dumbledore or Voldemort? The choice is yours!
What about the foodies?
Now we’re talking! Chris and I came to Universal Studios for two reasons: to ride The Mummy and drink frozen butterbeer.
First off, both Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios park and Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure have butterbeer. It comes in two forms: regular and frozen. A word of advice: don’t bother with regular. It is almost tasteless. Frozen butterbeer is where it’s at. It tastes like cream soda with a hint of butterscotch: delicious!
Additionally, I had an Auntie Anne’s pretzel as a snack. I had the Cinnamon sugar one. It was moist, with just the right amount of salty sweet goodness. I had it with the sweet glaze dipping sauce, which paired quite nicely.
We also went to one of what would be considered a Quick Service restaurant by Disney standards: Richter’s Burger Co. I had The Aftershock burger.
It was no D-Luxe burger. But it was pretty tasty, especially after so many trips on The Revenge of the Mummy. I especially enjoyed the toppings bar, which allowed me to load my burger to my preferences. I give it 3.75/5 Imoteps (can’t use mouse ears on this one, am I right?)
We also went to The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium for dinner, which is akin to a Casual Table Service restaurant, but without allowing dining reservations.
We had the baked Brie En Croute for an appetizer. That flaky pastry actually has baked Brie inside of it! There was also a chocolate almond bread that was to die for.
For our entree, we split the Brisket and Wild Mushroom Meatloaf. One thing I will mention is that they actually brought it to us split on two serving plates. I thought that was a nice touch that went the extra mile for us.
The meatloaf was tender and flavourful. The fried onions added some nice texture to the meal. I cannot offer one ounce of criticism to our entree. It was simply delicious.
Of course, you don’t go to a chocolate emporium without getting dessert! We got the Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding.
It was very delicious. The density of the pudding made it perfect for sharing. It came with vanilla ice cream and a dusting of chocolate powder. It was a nice end to a good meal.
Believe it or not, Toothsome has its own themed characters. Meet steampunk characters Dr. Penelope Toothsome and her trusty robot sidekick, Jacques! Dr. Toothsome is off to share her love of chocolate with the world through her industrialised chocolate emporium, with Jacques along for the ride!
Overall, I give his restaurant 4.5/5 Imoteps! It is not located in the parks but on The Universal CityWalk, so you can always just come for the dining alone if you want.
What about shows or walking tours?
We did two of these, so I’ll do my best to speak to those.
First off, we did the walking tour Poseidon’s Fury. You walk through a series of hidden chambers to help restore Poseidon’s power by giving him his trident to defeat the evil demon within. Pretty interesting, with a bit of a showmanship element to it.
Next up, we went and saw a horror makeup show! That’s a little more up my alley. They also had a bit of a horror gallery you could peruse beforehand.
As you can see, some of the classics are on display for all to see.
The actual show illustrated how they cut people and make blood appear, make movie monsters move, and even illustrated how the werewolf's face transformed in An American Werewolf in London. Pretty cool, and something I would definitely recommend.
So, should I go to Universal Studios when I go to Disney World?
For this, I'm not going to give a definite yes or a definite no. What I will say is this:
If I'm staying on resort at Disney, how do I get there?
You could rent a car, but I think this is a waste of money. We took an Uber there and back with no hassles and minimal wait times. The cost was quite reasonable as well, with both trips being under $20 USD each way.
Have you gone to Universal? Love it or leave it? Comment and subscribe :)
Let me book the magic for you. Click here to let me do the work for you!
I’m going to be completely honest: I don’t generally like Universal nearly as much as Disney. In fact, I actually don’t like it much at all other than a few notable exceptions. Regardless of this fact, I’m going to do my best to cover both the pros and the cons of Universal Studios to help you make the most informed decision you can about spending time there on your holiday.
First off, let’s look at the Universal phone app.
As you can see, it has a similar-but-different look to the MyDisneyExperience app. You can look at ride wait times, shows, some dining menus, and even buy tickets for Universal Studios. If you buy tickets, they will show up in the My Wallet section of the app (located in the drop-down menu). We found getting in to the parks with the digital tickets to be a snap: simply walk up to the entrance, select your tickets, and the park employee will scan the barcode and your finger to grant you entrance.
Universal has a similar park-hopper option to Disney, where you can visit the two regular parks in one day (their water park, Volcano Bay, will be extra). For one day, with access to two parks, it’s going to cost you $170 USD per adult, and $165 USD per child. Volcano Bay will cost $80 USD pr adult and $75 USD per child.
What is Express Pass?
Universal Studios also has an option they call Express Pass, which is similar to a super ticket one can get at the fair. It allows you to skip the regular lines at the parks as many times as you want for $109.99 USD per ticket or once per ride for $79.99 USD per ticket. Although some may consider this a good deal, there is a catch: this is per day. That seems fairly steep to pay for each day you wish to ride the attractions. Additionally, there are exceptions. Currently this does not apply to Fieval’s Playland or Pteranodon Flyers. On our previous trip, at least half of the attractions were excluded (including the Harry Potter rides)! Not great value if you ask me.
What is Virtual Line?
Virtual Line is similar to Disney World’s Fastpass+ system. You pick a ride and select a time slot, and the app “waits in line” for you. You then come back at your pre-selected time slot to enjoy the ride.
This option is currently quite limited, with only three attractions utilizing it:
- Fast & Furious - Supercharged
- Pteranodon Flyers
- Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon
How do the rides compare to the rides at Walt Disney World?
It depends what you like best. A lot of the rides (Harry Potter rides included) have a large amount of virtual component to them. Although the graphics can be impressive, this means a lot of jerking around and sudden stops to accommodate for the adventure being propagated by virtual reality. We personally did not like this experience. Those of us prone to motion sickness and back/neck issues may have an issue with this type of ride style.
Additionally, these virtual reality rides got monotonous fast. If you’ve seen one, you’ve basically seen them all. A notable exception to this would be Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which utilizes a good amount of virtual reality mixed with actual stage setting and animatronics to make up the difference. Although I found this ride to be a little nausea-inducing, it was pretty cool.
 |
| The impeccable detail in the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride is pretty awe-inspiring. Plus, look at this griffin! This just screams about Dumbledore’s bad-assery. |
The Kong: Skull Island ride is also pretty cool. It's a little more mature than Disney rides (don't think any of those have a giant ape breaking the jaw and killing other creatures in it, but maybe I'm just blind). That being said, it has a pretty cool Kong animatronic at the end that I found quite impressive.
Other than the virtual reality rides, this park is known for its crazy roller coasters. A notable example is The Incredible Hulk Coaster, which reaches a top speed of 67 mph (108 km/h for my fellow Canadians)! To be honest, this isn't for me. I'd much rather go on the whimsical rides of Walt Disney World.
That being said, I have one ride that I'm pretty hardcore over: Revenge of the Mummy. It has an Expedition Everest-esque ride track, so in other words, just the right amount of intense without being too crazy.
 |
| The outside of my favourite ride, Revenge of the Mummy. |
This ride is based around the mummy of the movie franchise, Imotep, trying to GET YOUR SOUL to grant himself eternal life, NBD. That escalated quickly.
You go through a track doing your best to escape his clutches while he chases you around sounding like a demon that had too many packs of smokes for breakfast. It’s awesome. Purely great and resonates well with the movie.
One part in the ride, Imotep lights the ceiling on fire while screaming, “Prepare to forfeit your souls!” Unfortunately, this part of the ride wasn’t working when we went, or had been removed. Fire in another scene of the ride was removed as well, so it may very well have been intentional. I found this a tad bit disappointing since it really added to the theming the last time we went, but it was not enough for us to stop riding the ride until we felt like we might just die.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Let's be real, fam, this is a main reason people go to the Universal Parks in the first place. This is one of the only places you can be immersed in Harry Potter's adventure and live like a wizard.
We already discussed Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but Escape from Gringotts is well-done as well. You're hurtling around the depths of Gringotts bank, trying to escape the clutches of Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort, whilst hopefully not being burned alive by a dragon. The theming of the bank is just like the movie, with well-done animatronic goblins that have just the right amount of condescension to be believable.
You can visit two themed areas: Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios Park (my favourite of the two Harry-Potter themed areas) and Hogsmeade in the Islands of Adventure Park. If you ever wanted to go to Honeydukes, the sweets shop in Hogsmeade, now is your chance!
There’s also a pretty cool train ride between the two parks on the Hogwarts Express if you have the park-hopper option.
 |
| Platform 9-3/4 |
Inside, there is a pretty cool scene where Dementors float through the train and the main trio fights them off. Overall, I found the ride quite enjoyable.
 |
| On the train! |
Additionally, you can pick up a wand at a variety of shops within the two themed areas of both parks and interact with various areas of the park. I've also heard you can duel - pretty neat. Although this option is not for me, I saw many people enjoying it quite a bit! Are you more of a Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy? Albus Dumbledore or Voldemort? The choice is yours!
What about the foodies?
Now we’re talking! Chris and I came to Universal Studios for two reasons: to ride The Mummy and drink frozen butterbeer.
First off, both Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios park and Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure have butterbeer. It comes in two forms: regular and frozen. A word of advice: don’t bother with regular. It is almost tasteless. Frozen butterbeer is where it’s at. It tastes like cream soda with a hint of butterscotch: delicious!
 |
| I had two. I’m gonna channel my inner We’re The Millers and say, “No ragrets!” |
Additionally, I had an Auntie Anne’s pretzel as a snack. I had the Cinnamon sugar one. It was moist, with just the right amount of salty sweet goodness. I had it with the sweet glaze dipping sauce, which paired quite nicely.
We also went to one of what would be considered a Quick Service restaurant by Disney standards: Richter’s Burger Co. I had The Aftershock burger.
It was no D-Luxe burger. But it was pretty tasty, especially after so many trips on The Revenge of the Mummy. I especially enjoyed the toppings bar, which allowed me to load my burger to my preferences. I give it 3.75/5 Imoteps (can’t use mouse ears on this one, am I right?)
We also went to The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium for dinner, which is akin to a Casual Table Service restaurant, but without allowing dining reservations.
We had the baked Brie En Croute for an appetizer. That flaky pastry actually has baked Brie inside of it! There was also a chocolate almond bread that was to die for.
For our entree, we split the Brisket and Wild Mushroom Meatloaf. One thing I will mention is that they actually brought it to us split on two serving plates. I thought that was a nice touch that went the extra mile for us.
 |
| Brisket and Wild Mushroom Meatloaf |
The meatloaf was tender and flavourful. The fried onions added some nice texture to the meal. I cannot offer one ounce of criticism to our entree. It was simply delicious.
Of course, you don’t go to a chocolate emporium without getting dessert! We got the Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding.
 |
Believe it or not, Toothsome has its own themed characters. Meet steampunk characters Dr. Penelope Toothsome and her trusty robot sidekick, Jacques! Dr. Toothsome is off to share her love of chocolate with the world through her industrialised chocolate emporium, with Jacques along for the ride!
 |
Overall, I give his restaurant 4.5/5 Imoteps! It is not located in the parks but on The Universal CityWalk, so you can always just come for the dining alone if you want.
What about shows or walking tours?
We did two of these, so I’ll do my best to speak to those.
First off, we did the walking tour Poseidon’s Fury. You walk through a series of hidden chambers to help restore Poseidon’s power by giving him his trident to defeat the evil demon within. Pretty interesting, with a bit of a showmanship element to it.
Next up, we went and saw a horror makeup show! That’s a little more up my alley. They also had a bit of a horror gallery you could peruse beforehand.
 |
 |
| I-mo-tep! I-mo-tep! |
 |
 |
| Chucky and Michael Myer's mask. My favies! |
As you can see, some of the classics are on display for all to see.
 |
So, should I go to Universal Studios when I go to Disney World?
For this, I'm not going to give a definite yes or a definite no. What I will say is this:
- Do you like roller coasters?
- Are you a big proponent of the virtual reality ride segment?
- Do you like to take your experience to the extreme?
- Are you a die-hard Harry Potter fan that NEEDS butterbeer in your life or wants an interactive wand?
If I'm staying on resort at Disney, how do I get there?
You could rent a car, but I think this is a waste of money. We took an Uber there and back with no hassles and minimal wait times. The cost was quite reasonable as well, with both trips being under $20 USD each way.
Have you gone to Universal? Love it or leave it? Comment and subscribe :)
Let me book the magic for you. Click here to let me do the work for you!
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