As I mentioned in my previous post about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, in total we spent 2 full days at Universal Orlando Resort. And by full days I mean FULL days. We arrived less than an hour after the park opened and left as it was closing. We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but it was so worth it!
We used Uber taxis to travel from Walt Disney World to Universal. We were staying at Disney's Port Orleans Resort (Riverside) and it cost us around $20 each way. There was 5 of us, so it worked out less than $10 each per round trip - much cheaper than hiring a car!
For those who don't know, Universal Orlando is split into 2 parks; Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. We had park hopper tickets which meant we could move between both parks as much as we liked.
Universal Studios
On our first day we started off the morning in Universal Studios. As soon as we were through the turnstiles we headed straight for Rip, Ride, Rockit, which is one of the park's biggest thrill rides. I LOVED this ride, especially as you get to select which song you want to listen to as you speed around the track. I chose "I will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (for obvious reasons haha!)
Next up was Revenge of the Mummy, which is an indoor rollercoaster. I can't remember much about this ride other than it was pretty dark and a lot scarier than it looks from the outside.
Universal studios also has some fab indoor simulator rides, which is ideal considering Florida's weather can be so unpredictable! I'm not usually keen on 3D and 4D rides as they make me feel a little ill, but I really enjoyed Shrek and Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem.
Islands of Adventure
The best piece of advice I can give you if you're planning to visit Islands of Adventure is make sure you wear clothing that will dry easily! IOA has 3 of the wettest water rides I've ever been on; Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges and Jurassic Park River Adventure. We found the queues in the afternoon were over an hour long, however in the morning we barely waited 10 minutes for Ripsaw Falls and Jurassic Park. If it's a warm day then you can easily dry off within 30 minutes. Just don't wear denim!
Another ride not to be missed is The Incredible Hulk, which I'd easily rank as one of my top 5 favourite rollercoasters of all time (and I've been to a lot of theme parks!) We also went on the new Skull Island: Reign of Kong ride, which was visually amazing, although the 2.5 hour queue to get on it was a bit of a pain!
Overall I really enjoyed the 2 days we spent at Universal. I love Disney, but it felt good to escape from the bubble for a while and get our adrenaline fix on some BIG rollercoasters!
Don't forget to check out my other Florida 2016 posts!
Wow this looks amazing. Would love to visit this park with the family. I bet you had a great time.
Not going to lie, just looking at the Rock It is making me feel a little dizzy haha. It looks so much fun at the same time though. I would love to go to the florida universal studios as i've only been the one in singapore.
Yay! Finally a post about somewhere I've been too. Revenge of the Mummy was the first roller coaster I've been on and I found it pretty scary... Loved all the water rides but Skull Island wasn't open when we visited. I'm so jealous and I just want to go back!!! <3
Gisforgingers xx