Whilst we were in Orlando, Kariss and I took two days out of Disney to visit Universal Studios. Honestly, this was the part that I was most excited about because I just couldn’t wait to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, that section is going to need its own post though.
We went to Universal Studios on two consecutive days, a Tuesday and a Wednesday. On the Tuesday, we decided to get there for when the parks opened and do Universal Studios first. Our first stop was of course Diagon Alley but like I said, you will have to wait to read all about that! We made sure we did all of the rides that we wanted to do in the park and I must say that I was so impressed with the rides. Compared to Disney, Universal Studios seem to put a lot more effort into the visuals of the rides.
After Diagon Alley, our first port of call was Springfield. I grew up watching The Simpsons, so it was really surreal to see everything ‘in the flesh’. I couldn’t believe that you could actually go inside Moe’s Tavern and you could really shop at the Kwik-E-Mart, I also love that they actually had the statue of Jebediah Springfield! We went on The Simpsons ride which was good fun, we joined the single rider queue to get on there faster and although we were both on separate parts of the ride, we were in and out at the same time. I felt like I had to buy something from the Kwik-E-Mart, so I went inside and bought a can of Flaming Moe’s which was just over $5. As it was an energy drink, I was hoping it would be a bit like Red Bull but unfortunately, it was flat and tasted quite weird.
As we were coming out of Springfield, we got to see the Delorean and Dr. Emmett Brown from Back To The Future which was really cool. It’s a shame that there wasn’t a Back To The Future ride as I can imagine that would be pretty amazing if the special effects in all of the other rides are anything to go by! For years there have been rumours floating around about a Back To The Future ride but so far nothing has been confirmed, it would be a great addition to the park though.
We spent the rest of the day trawling round the park and going on as many rides as we could. We stopped briefly for some lunch at Universal Studios’ Classic Monsters Cafe where I had the biggest slice of pepperoni pizza I have ever seen in my life. The food was quite pricey, especially as we were used to not actually paying for it thanks to our Disney Dining Plan, so we chose to not eat anything in the evening and instead go back to Walt Disney World and use our dining credits!
My 5 favourite rides in Universal Studios were:
- The Incredible Hulk Coaster
- The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
- Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
- E.T. Adventure
- Skull Island: Reign of Kong
I loved how the rides were so much bigger, faster and more exhilarating than anything at Walt Disney World and I could have easily have spent more than one day in the park.
