Universal Studios
Are you a Harry Potter fan? It is totally okay if not. Universal is still a great place to visit!
I have been to Universal multiple times and I just watched Harry Potter for the first time before my last trip with my family. I booked our vacation and my husband said that we were not going without watching all of the movies. We had about 3 weeks to finish them, and we did. I promise even if you have not watched them that you would love Universal!
Letβs chat a little about what it has to offer!
There are lots of great resort options on property at Universal. For this trip we stayed at Loews Portofino Bay. This resort is a Premier property, it includes the Universal Express Unlimited pass and is closer to the parks. We loved the location and how easy it was to navigate. We would grab a Starbucks in the morning and walk over to the park. There was also an option of a water taxi, but we usually enjoyed the walk over. It was so nice to be super close to CityWalk and the parks.
Universal has 3 parks. Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay water park. For our trip in February we did not visit the water park, that will be on a future trip list for sure!
One important thing is to make sure you get the park to park pass when you go to Universal, this will allow you to ride on the Hogwarts Express between the two parks!
If you stay on property or buy your tickets from a travel agent (me) you get early park admission. The park that is open early changes, so it is important to check that. We arrived early because we wanted to try to jump on Hagridβs Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. The ride was delayed, but the girls were not too sad because they picked out a wand. They were super excited about this part of the trip. The magic around the parks is pretty cool and keep your kiddos entertained for hours.
We spent 4 nights, 3 days at the park and 1 day at the pool. It was the perfect amount of time for us. My girls are the kids that go, go, go and do not take breaks because they want to do all the things. The parks did close earlier when we were there, so we got to enjoy dinner at CityWalk. There are lots of great places to eat. For this trip we ate at Red Oven Pizza Bakery, Big Fire and Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We loved all of them. Of course in the parks we had lots of snacks and tried a few of the quick service dining locations.
Kaylin loved the roller coasters, she was tall enough to ride all of them! Hadley really enjoyed Harry Potter World. They both canβt wait to go back next year to try new things and enjoy more of the magic.
My husband was really worried that the girls were not old enough to enjoy it, but I knew they would be. He agreed and said that it was one of our best trips. For a last minute vacation we all agreed that it was one of the most memorable and we are already booked to return next February!
