Fun at Universal Orlando!
We wanted to stay in a couple of different hotels on this trip and our first stop was at Universal's Aventura Hotel which opened in 2018. This swish 3 star property is right next to Volcano Bay (Universals brilliant waterpark) and comes complete with a roof-top bar, pool and a very handy Starbucks in the lobby. Our room here was a huge Kids Suite which featured a separate twin room for the teens, a master double for Rich and I and Volcano Bay Views! Interestingly all the hotels at Universal are operated by luxury US hotel chain Loews but they don’t officially have any properties with the ‘Loews’ name attached to it below a 4 star… so whilst Aventura is technically a 3 star property, it’s got a 4 star sensibility in terms of service and amenities.
We stayed at Aventura for 2 nights before moving to Hard Rock for another 3 nights. We stayed at the Italian themed Portofino on our last visit but we always wanted to stay at Hard Rock so we were excited to check-in! As you might expect, this is a really fun property with a huge resort pool, great restaurants and cool musical memorabilia everywhere. They also do this brilliant thing where you can borrow a guitar for free to have in your room so guitar-mad Charlie was delighted!
There are 3 parks here; Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Islands of Adventure and the aforementioned Universal's Volcano Bay. All 3 parks are AMAZING and if you’ve only been to Alton Towers, you’ll be blown away when you come here because the level of theming and the sheer size and spectacle of everything is out of this world. As well as revisiting some old favourites such as The Incredible Hulk Coaster, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, we were SOOOOOOOOO excited about going on Jurassic World VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and they did not disappoint!
VelociCoaster is quite probably the best coaster that I have ever been on… it’s a super-fast launch coaster with multiple inversions and a HUGE top-hat section where you feel like you’re going to fly out your seat. It’s also cleverly built with just a lap-bar restraint rather than should restraints which is more typical for coasters with inversions so this adds to the fun!
And Hagrid.. what can I tell you?! This is a world-class family coaster with so many inventive elements to it such as surprise drop sections, multiple launches and going backwards when you don’t expect it! It also features a clever seating system where you sit on a motorbike or in a side-car next to it, just like Hagrid and Harry from the movies. I can write pages and pages about how brilliant Universal Orlando is so instead of that I’ll just give you our top tips to help you with your visit!
1. ** BIGGEST TIP KLAXON ** There are hotels to suit all budgets at Universal but if you can stay at one of the top three hotels (Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal Pacific) you get complimentary Unlimited Express Passes included FOR FREE which are both hundreds of dollars.
2. Where to eat? It won’t come as a surprise to you that food isn’t cheap here and this is particularly the case inside the park but if you come to the CityWalk area just by the gates you’ll find lots of restaurants to chose from and we find that you get more for your money. Portion sizes are typically quite large too so you can easily share some meals. Our favs are Cowfish (burger and sushi combo.. trust us.. it works!), Red Oven Pizza, Vivo Italian, Antojitos Mexican and super-cheap noodles Panda Express.
3. Think about bring snacks from home if you can fit them in your suitcase as having a box or two of cereal bars for a quick breakfast will save you time and money. Another idea is to jump in cab to go 1 mile down the road to a supermarket to stock up on bottled water, fresh fruit and snacks.
4. Universal Orlando is much smaller than Disney and you can walk from park to park, transport from the hotels is very easy to with a brilliant water-bus system for most hotels as well as bus-shuttles. You can also walk to the parks from many of the hotels too
5. When to go? Easter is very busy indeed, the summer is a little quieter if you don’t mind the daily flash showers but I think October is our favourite time as the weather is consistently nice without the humidity of the summer.
6. How to beat the queues? If you don’t have an express pass you can still have an amazing time and on our recent trip, we didn’t have the passes whilst staying at our first hotel. All Universal hotel guests can have access The Wizarding World of Harry Potter one-hour before the gates open, not only does this mean that you can enjoy the Harry Potter rides with less queue time, you can also be a bit tactical and make sure that you’re in the queue for your favourite ride before if officially opens.. this is perfect for new attractions like VelociCoaster.
7. Unlike the UK the water rides here are VERY wet so if you’re wearing socks you’ll be ringing them out afterwards!… the only good thing is that as it’s so hot, you’ll dry out in no time.
8. Many of the big rides (ie Hulk and VelociCoaster) don’t allow you to take ANYTHING on the ride in your pockets so no keys, wallet, phone, loose change… there are free lockers you can use at each ride where you can squeeze in a small rucksack and all your personal belongings.
9. If you do go in September or October you can also enjoy the amazing Halloween Horror Nights event which runs for around 45 nights. This is separate ticketed event with fun scary horror-houses, all sorts of walk-about street performers and themed food.
10. Get the Official Universal Orlando App! This is a really handy app where you can see live queues time, order food for collection (this will save LOADS of time) and find out all the practical info you might need like nearest toilets, heigh restrictions and parking opening and closing times.