Universal Studios

I have been to Universal in Orlando 3 times in the past few years – once for a day during my moms 50^th birthday trip to Disney, once for a long weekend for Hayley’s bachelorette party, and once for a day when I was in Orlando for Evan and Zenia’s wedding. If you add up all of the days, that’s five days in Universal. Ironically, this is the exact amount of days Universal wants you to go for with their recent deal, and I really don’t feel like 5 days was too long. I’m ready to go back.

I loved it. Every. Single. Time. Because it is amazing. Here’s the thing about Universal – everything is walkable. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney. But Universal is so manageable. You can walk between the parks and to and from your hotel if you stay on site. No need to worry about the monorail, busses, boats (although they do have those and they were fun and useful when we got lazy), because it’s all right there.

Let’s talk about the parks.

I am a pretty big Dr. Seuss fan, so hanging out in Suessland during my moms 50^th birthday trip was pretty fabulous and probably my favorite part. We obviously also saw all of the rest of Universal and Islands of Adventure including all of the Simpsons stuff and, of course, Harry Potter World which had recently opened (only one park though – more on that below), but for me, nothing in the world compares to The Sneetches. It’s my favorite Dr. Seuss book and seeing it live and riding the ride were really spectacular. And yes, I understand it is for children. And no, I do not care.

Hayley’s bachelorette party was all about Harry Potter. If you know Hayley, you get this. If you don’t…who am I kidding, I have no actual followers except Hayley, and I assume you know yourself.

Harry Potter world is actually incredible. Honestly, I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan. I read all the books and liked them enough in the beginning, and sort of lost interest as it went on but forced myself to keep reading because it was the thing to do and I was 14. But it doesn’t really matter. It is so well done and you actually feel like you have a real picture of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Everything is so perfect whether you like Harry Potter or not.

We even bought the bride a wand that worked in select locations throughout the park. Seriously, contact me for a video of Hayley literally making it rain. And the goblins at Gringotts ACTUALLY TALK TO YOU. Like you can ask them questions, and they answer, but they are robots and it’s super cool. And you can buy whatever currency they use at Gringotts and use it to make purchases throughout Harry Potter World.

At this point, the second park had also opened so it was entirely new to me. And let me tell you, the park-to-park pass is SO worth it just do ride the Hogwarts express. I’ve been to London and seen the “real” platform 9 ¾, but the one at Universal is actual magic. I feel like I really ran through a wall with Hermione.

Side note: the park to park pass is worth it even if you don’t ride the Hogwarts express because the parks are so close to each other, and the unlimited express pass really lets you get around.

We happened to be there the weekend of some Harry Potter Convention. Seriously, we saw Ron Weasley at the airport and Hayley’s sister Taylor basically attacked him for a picture as all good Maids of Honor would do. But it still didn’t feel like we spent the entire weekend waiting on lines thanks to our unlimited express pass. Seriously, stay on site for this pass. So worth it.

I also want to talk about Universal City Walk. There is so much to see and do there for all ages. We walked around here a few times throughout Hayley’s bachelorette weekend, and we never got sick of it. One thing that really stood out was our dinner at Antojitos. The food was great, there was live music, which was also great, and our waitress was a rock star. She was attentive to our big loud annoying group of like 10 girls, she handled all of the “no this” and “no that” requests, and Hayley’s allergies, with ease, and she remembered what we each got and took it upon herself to bring us each our own check without being asked.

We also did a few non Harry Potter things that weekend.

My last trip to Universal was just a day trip before Evan and Zenia’s wedding. If I’m being totally honest, I don’t remember much about this day. I had my first baby who I had just left home for the first time and I think I was probably pretty tired. Also, I stopped taking pictures of anything but him once he was born so I barely have any photo evidence. But I do know that we had a such a great day that we stayed late enough for dinner even though I was exhausted from my newfound motherhood and we had a wedding the next day. We went to Antojitos for dinner again, and we had the same waitress, and she remembered us because she was a rock star. But I swear there are other great restaurants there, we just went back to Antojitos because we knew they would do a great job with Hayley’s allergies and we were too tired to find somewhere else.

When more people start reading my blog, they will get more shoutouts. In the meantime, I’ll stick with Hayley.