We started by driving to Universal Orlando Resort parking after checking out from our hotel. The parking for Universal is on the far end of CityWalk, their Downtown Disney like shopping and dining district.
Parking was pretty easy, as was walking to the resort. We decided to start in Islands of Adventure since we wanted to hit up Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure early, since it is known for having a long wait all day. We waited for a LONG time for this one. In the end, it was about 45 minutes to an hour of waiting. The attraction itself was pretty good. As with Stardust Racers at Epic Universe, it has two launches and some fun surprises.
Once we were done with Hagrid’s, we decided to hop on the Hogwart’s Express and head on over to Universal Studios. Once we arrived there, we headed over to Springfield to get some food. On the way, I stopped at one of the food kiosks and renewed my Coke Freestyle bottle for the day. Bumblebee Man’s Taco Truck had just opened and we picked up the Carne Asada tacos, which were tender marinated grilled beef served in soft flour tortillas with onions and cilantro. James got the Pollo tacos, which had marinated chicken served in soft tortillas with onions and cilantro. We enjoyed both of these.
We continued around the resort and came across the Animal Actors On Location show that was just starting. We enjoyed watching all the animals do tricks and be silly. It was also nice that it was in the shade.
After the Animal Actors show, we went over to the E.T. Adventure. This attraction has been around for a long time, but I always forget what it entails. Seeing a fairly young Stephen Speilberg is alwys fun in the pre-show. This one is like the Peter Pan attraction as it is a hanging ride vehilcle. It was pretty enjoyable.
We decided to skip the Dispicable Me Minion Mayhem since we had such a bad experience with the wait time in Hollywood. We did go to Villain-Con Minion Blast. This was an interesting attraction as it was like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, but you stood on a moving walkway and shot at targets. It was pretty fun, and a unique experience.
Next, we headed over to Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon. Interesting timing for this one since the Late Show with Stephen Colbert had just been canceled and the talk of the future of late night shows was in the news. This was a simulator ride through New York – and the moon? with Jummy Fallon. Overall, a pretty neat concept. I like that Jimmy Fallon doesn’t take himself too seriously and can have a goofy attraction like this.
The Universal Mega Movie Parade was going to start soon, so we went over by the start of the route to see it. There was a crepe stand nearby, so we ordered a couple of crepes. I got the classic strawberry and Nutella crepe. It was excellent. James got a blueberry lemon one. He thought it was good, then too much blueberry flavor.
The parade started and luckily there were some clouds overhead that made this much more comfortable to be in. Each float corresponded to a different movie in the Universal library. There was Back to the Future, Minions, Trolls, Ghostbusters (two floats for that!), E.T., Jaws, and Jurassic Park (two for that as well). It was a really fun parade with nice floats and performers.
After the parade, we headed over to the Bourne Stuntacular which had been recommended to us by another guest the day before at Epic Universe. This was a very unique show that uaed a very high quality screen, along with physical sets and actors to work together to give the feeling of a much larger spectacle. Here is a video showing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZCxiXCNzCI
After, we walked through the front of the park area to see if we wanted to do any of the attractions there. Since we had experienced them before, we didn’t want to use the time we had to wait for them again. We got back around to the Fast & Furious Supercharged attraction. The preshow for this was very entertaining. The cast members who interacted with the pre-recorded actors were a highlight. The attraction itself was the same as the one on the Universal Studios Hollywood Backlot Tour. Kind of a disappointment.
We headed back into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley. We walked around a bit, and decided to ride Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. When we rode this last time when were here, we were not that impressed. This time, it was a little better than I remembered it, but still the weakest of the three big attractions in the different Harry Potter areas.
We wanted to ride back to Islands of Adventure on the Hogwarts Express, but it was down for some reason. So, we walked all the way back to the front of the park, and over to Islands of Adventure.
Once we got back into the park, we decided to start the loop of the lagoon and stared with Marvel Super Hero Island. The first attraction here was The Incredible Hulk Coaster. This was not too long of a wait and was a lot of fun. The worst part was it was so hot out that it just felt like hot air being blown at us. Also, looking directly up at the sun on a couple of the lifts. Otherwise, great ride!
From there, we rode The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. This was as fun as always. It is expected that the new Avengers E-Ticket in Avengers Campus (Avengers Infinity Defense) will be like this.
We walked through the rest of Super Hero Island, and through Toon Lagoon, finally getting to Jurassic Park. We decided not to ride the Jurassic Park River Adventure, but to head straight to the Velocicoaster. This was another slow moving, hot line. This felt like it took forever. It was about an hour and a half. However, it was a fantastic attraction! In comparison to Stardust Racers, it was more back and fourth around corners. This was another dual launch coaster, which I think I prefer so you can have something exciting in the middle of the track, instead of just at the beginning. If the line had been shorter, I would have gone on this again for sure.
We ventured back into The Wiarding World of Harry Potter and ate dinner at The Three Broomsticks. I ordered the Shepherd’s Pie, which had ground beef, lamb & vegetables crowned with potatoes, served with roasted root vegetables and sauteed broccoli. James got the Fish and Chips fresh north Atlantic cod battered & fried with chips and tartar sauce. We waited for about 45 minutes for our food. For the inconvenience, we were given two frozen Butterbeers. We will take it! Food was pretty good.
After, we went to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey a couple of times. Great as always. Still stands out as a great attraction even after 15 years.
We wanted to see the Hogwarts Always nighttime spectacular. It had started drizzling and there was lightning in the distance, which made us nervous that they would cancel it. They did not. It was a pretty great show. There were no fireworks with this viewing, but the projections were excellent. A must see.
At this point, the park was closed, so we headed out to the parking garage. We had to drive about an hour to Cape Canaveral for our hotel for the night.
Drive went well, hotel was nice. Could not get into the charger since we got there late.