In April we were able to take a family vacation to Hogwarts and Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida! Our parents generously gifted us this trip for Christmas and we are so grateful to have had this experience with our family. As first timers, we learned so many things on this trip. Lot’s of do’s and a few don’ts for next time we visit. Today I want to share with you our tips for traveling to Universal Orlando. I hope you find this “guide” helpful if you have been considering going there!
Travel Itinerary
I’ll first share with you our itinerary and schedule so you can see what we were able to do on this trip. I’ll also talk about the resort we stayed at and loved, and then have a couple of other posts about the parks themselves and what we enjoyed.
Traveling to Orlando
We traveled to Orlando on April 10th-April 17th. This week ended up being AWESOME for weather. It was hot and sunny but not too humid, and we only experienced two rain storms. Luckily one was at the very end of the day a the park, and the other was during lunch at a restaurant. Thankfully we were inside (Florida rain storms are no joke!) and just enjoyed our pizza while it rained, and then after 20 minutes was beautiful and sunny again.
I assume the parks are always very busy, but when we traveled it wasn’t so busy that I felt overwhelmed. I think we hit it just right going after spring break.
Helpful Tools
I would HIGHLY recommend downloading the Universal Orlando Resort App before you visit Universal. Not only does this give you access to maps and ride wait times, but you can order food at the restaurants ahead of time, find a seat, and they will bring your food to the table. IT IS A MUST for convenience!
Day 1. This was a travel day. We flew from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Orlando. The flight actually went really smooth, and we were there in just over 3 hours. We were tired from staying up late the night before, packing and just not sleeping great (just a bit of anxiety over flying with the kids and making it through the airports etc). Everything ended up going so smooth, thank goodness.
Here are the items I purchased for my carry on backpack to keep my kids busy. I also made a zip lock bag full of small snacks to give them on the flight.
Where we stayed
We checked in to our hotel at Loews Sapphire Falls Resort that night and we were able to grab dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was so delicious and such a beautiful place to eat our first night. I have also heard from a friend that the Universals Dockside Inn (a budget hotel option with great reviews) is another one to try!
I cannot recommend Loews Sapphire highly enough. This resort is insanely beautiful and had so many fun things to do for our family. The very best part was we were able to travel by water taxi (7 minute boat ride) over to CityWalk and the parks each day. The hotel is surrounded by stunning gardens on your walk. The pool was my very favorite part, it was shallow enough for the kids to play the whole time without me worrying. They had so much fun! There was a fun water slide and they even had a screen they pulled out for a poolside movie.
Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley
Day 2: Park day. Today we visited Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley! We wanted to get to the parks right at opening, so we made sure to get there by 7. One thing I did not take into consideration is the time change. We were on Mountain time waking up at 6am to get ready (but really that was 4am our time!) This after a day of traveling did catch up to us so we snuck back to the hotel mid-day for a 2 hour nap.
Schedule in rest time
If I could change one thing, it would be to schedule a rest/pool day our first day there so we could catch up on rest before a park day. After our rest we went back to the park and stayed until 10pm. Evenings in the park are just an absolute blast. Not to mention Hogsmeade is lit up so cozy and you get to see the light show!
Express and Hopper Passes
We really wanted to be able to see both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade so we decided to go with the express pass and get a hopper pass so we could travel by Hogwarts express train between parks.
Hopper pass allows you to go back and forth between parks. An express pass allows you to cut into a quicker line for rides that saves A TON of time. The most we waited was 20-25 minutes in line. I would highly recommend this if you can at all possible make it happen, the train ride is so fun and there are so many cool things to see between the two parks. More details on that in another post.
Is an express pass worth the cost?
Having an express pass made 100% difference for us as we were able to ride rides all day long. If we hadn’t had the express pass, we would’ve spent most of the day waiting in line. I realize you pay dearly for an express pass, but the way I look at it is you either travel to stand in line and ride a few rides, or you travel with the express and ride as many as you want, unlimited! Most rides had a 2 hour wait without the express. We closed the park and in the evening when it slowed down, we were able to ride our favorite family roller coaster 4 times in a row back-to-back. We rode it twice in 16 minutes if that gives you an idea of how wonderful the express pass is.
Day 3: Park day. Day 3 we were back in the parks again. Our family enjoyed Hogsmeade a second day and rode our favorites. We also ventured out to Islands of Adventure, and rode some rides in Jurassic park and some of he surrounding parks like Whoville. I had no idea, but felt super lucky to find out our 6 year old is a little dare devil and loved the adult rides! He was tall enough to go on nearly all of them so we were able to do everything as a family.
If you have young children, I would wait until your kiddos are big enough to go on the rides in Hogsmeade (we especially LOVED the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster). There are lots of other kid-friendly rides in Islands of Adventure, but we all loved and wanted to stay in Hogsmeade the most.
Our favorite rides/activities in Hogsmeade/DIagon Alley and Islands of Adventure:
- Our top favorite ride ever was Hagrid’s Motorcycle Adventure. It is a MUST for adults and older teens! I would say probably too intense for any kids. This is the only ride we went on that didn’t accept an express pass, and you will just have to plan on a 2 hour wait no matter what time of day you get to it. TRUST ME, it’s worth the wait!
- We absolutely loved the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster. Its short and not too scary for little kids. SO fun for adults and families! We rode this more than 10 times together. Knox (age 6) absolutely loved it, but my husband and I did, too!
- Escape from Gringotts Roller Coaster (located in Diagon Alley)
- Hogwarts Express train (you can only ride this with the park hopper pass).
- The Forbidden Journey (my son loved this but it made the rest of us adults SO dizzy. It’s so cool but I was motion sick for a while after because it included screens that made you feel like you were on a broom flight. I would at least recommended you walk up to the ride as it’s set up like a castle tour (the people in the paintings speaking to each other and a view of Dumbledore’s office), then you can cut out the door before the ride.)
- Olivander’s Wand Shop. This was a fun experience and we did get one wand. They are pricey, I think we paid $55 for it. It worked out fine to have the kids share a wand. My one complaint is you really do have to get the hand motion just right for the action to work. There were usually a few other kids waiting in line so I felt a bit rushed to have my kids hurry through. We ended up waiting to finish this activity until evening when it slowed down. Be sure to take time to look at all the beautiful and magical window displays! I loved the mandrakes.
- Honeydukes Candy Shoppe. We had to visit this absolutely adorable shop for a chocolate frog! So fun and magical. The green and pink colors and apothecary jars were so whimsical.
- Butter beer. You have to plan to enjoy some butter beer in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. If you head over to the Leaky Cauldron, you can enjoy it cold, hot or frozen in a really beautifully themed restaurant. We also loved visiting the Three Broomsticks for lunch. You can order on the Universal app and save time by just grabbing a seat!
- Jurassic Park River Adventure. This ride has some fun dinosaurs but ends with an 85′ plunge ending in a splash (you’ll get pretty wet!) its an even bigger drop than splash mountain.
- One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. This is a fun little kiddo ride but all my kids laughed so hard on it since we were getting sprayed as we rode. This was such a fun one at night before we closed the park!
- My very favorite activity in Hogsmeade was the castle light show. Make sure you’re close to the castle to get a good spot for it. This show had me in tears, it was SO SO good. Enjoy a cold butterbeer while you take in the magic.
Day 4 POOL/REST day. We were so excited to have a planned pool and catch up rest day at the resort. My dad and mom rented a little cabana for the day so we were able to relax and have a little covered space with a table, couch, TV and fridge for our drinks and food. I actually used my Walmart Plus membership to order groceries to the hotel and made us lunch at the pool. It saved a lot of money and was nice to have drinks to stock our fridge with! I also ordered us breakfast food and snacks for our room to save money so we didn’t have to order room service. This is a tip I would highly recommend if you are traveling. You can sign up for grocery delivery HERE and just add the address to wherever you are!
Day 5: Park day. Today we visited Disneyland! We split our day between Animal and Magic Kingdom. I will write a whole separate blog post on this as I have a lot of feedback from our rides and the things we did there.
Day 6: Rest/pool day. Today we decided to wander into CityWalk for some pizza at the Red Oven (order on the app!), and to visit The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium for a famous milkshake. They make the most amazing desserts, I would highly recommend this as a fun little visit with your family. The view around the restaurant is so pretty. You need to schedule reservations about a month ahead for this place. If you can’t make dinner happen, you can visit the dessert section and candy shoppe without a reservation.
Day 7: Travel home day. My biggest tip for flying is to bring an extra jacket, I was so cold on the plane and so glad I brought an extra layer. You can also purchase earphones for $2 on the plane to watch shows the whole time. If you have a little one who needs headphones, I bought this awesome set for my 6 year old!
Biggest Tips For Traveling to Universal Orlando:
- If you are flying Delta, ask them about the deal they offer through American Express that will wipe the fees (round trip!) for your checked bags! It saves a lot of money!
- Download the Universal App and save time by ordering restaurant food in the app before you arrive.
- Pack a ziplock baggie of snacks to take on the plane in your carry on and bring a jacket.
- Use your Walmart membership to get groceries delivered to your hotel so you have snacks, water bottles, breakfast food and a few things stocked in your room fridge to save money.
- Get an express pass if at all possible. This will help you be able to ride so many more rides and have minimal wait times at the park. I would also recommend the hopper pass as well, so you can ride the Hogwarts express train and enjoy Diagon Alley (there is so much to see!)
- Getting to the parks early is great, but I would choose to close the parks every time! Being there in the evening when it cools down and slows down a bit is so fun and SO magical!
- Take a rain poncho. You will very likely get caught in a downpour! They are short but you will be completely soaked head to toe without a poncho.
- Use a lanyard for your pass. THIS WAS A LIFESAVER!
shop my must-haves for the park here
I hope you enjoyed this post, be sure to stay tuned for another with a few more details on Disneyworld and what we learned there, as well as our very favorite places we ate in Orlando! I would love if you would PIN this post if you found it inspiring or helpful. THANK YOU!