When I turned 25 I didn’t want a crazy party or fancy dinner, I just wanted to go ride roller coasters and pretend to be a kid (a kids who’s still tall enough to ride roller coasters that is ). We decided to go to Universal Studios Orlando because it has the larger Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or Harry Potter World for short, and I’m a big Potterhead and couldn’t resist. As I was planning my trip I went to dozens of blog sites trying to answer simple questions and couldn’t seem to find help/detailed responses. Since I like to plan everything down to the ‘T’, this was an issue for me. So, I decided to make a one-stop-shop for all your Universal Studios questions, complete with pictures (what everyone really cares about).

What time of the year should I go?

The off-season for Universal Studios is from Jan – May; essentially all times excluding summer, holidays and spring break. This is when hotels are cheaper, lines and shorter, and the weather is Florida is bearable. If your schedule can allow for it, then this is the time to go. We went the second weekend in November, right after Halloween, and the crowds were moderate, there seemed to be a lot of people in the park but the lines weren’t crazy long. I’ve always had good luck going to the parks in November because it’s right after Halloween but far enough away from Christmas and the holidays.  The weather is always really good in November and less humid; the mornings and nights were chilly and I brought a jacket, but during the day it was sunny and warm.

What kind of tickets should I get?

At Universal Studios Orlando there are two theme parks, Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. Each park is separate and you need a ticket to get into each park. Each park also has a section devoted to Harry Potter; Universal Studios has Diagon Alley and Island of Adventures has Hosmeade Village. Each park is worth it and you should plan on going to each, but if you have teenagers who like roller coasters, then you’ll probably spend more time in Island of Adventures. There are two types of ticket options, park-to-park or single park. The park-to-park option allows you to go to both parks in one day, it’s about $50 more expensive per person, per day. The only way I’d recommend the park-to-park option is if you’re planning on riding the Hogwarts Express. Since the Hogwarts Express connects the two Harry Potter Worlds, you need the park-to-park ticket to visit both parks. Universal is nice because you really can do each park in one day, but in order to ride the Hogwarts Express it’s required that you have a park-to-park pass. Keep in mind that if you’re going for 2 days, you can get the park-to-park option for one day and then do the single park option the other day.

One thing that I splurge on  is the ‘Universal Express‘ ticket add on, aka the ‘Front of the Line’ pass. These passes allow you to skip the regular line and go to a separate line specific for people who have the Express passes. This line is suppose to be shorter and faster, because they let Express pass holders onto the ride before others. To make things a little more complicated, there are two options for this add on as well; the Universal Express Unlimited and the Universal Express. The Universal Express (recommended) is less expensive and gives you the Express ticket option once per ride; for each ride you can go into the Express line one time. For the Universal Express Unlimited ticket, you can use the Express line every time you ride a ride. For us, we ended up only riding each ride once so we would have saved money by not getting the Universal Express Unlimited and just sticking with the Universal Express. Overall, I do think that it’s worth it to pay extra for these tickets, we waited about 15 minutes for every ride. If you’re going during the summertime, when the lines are longer, then I would definitely recommend this.  Only once have I had the Express line be longer than the actual line, and even then it was only a 30 minute wait. Because of this, it can be a gamble whether or not the Express passes will actually save you time, but as an anal planner, I like to have it just in case.

** The one caveat to having an ‘Express’ pass is they don’t work for any of the Harry Potter World rides, so you still have to get to the park early and ride those first (or else you’ll be waiting in line for 3 hours). If you’re staying at one of the Universal Studios hotels, then you get into Harry Potter World (including the rides) 1 hour before the park opens, you just have to show your hotel key.

Is it worth it to stay on-site?

Staying on-site means that you stay at one of the Universal Studios hotels; Cabana Bay Beach Resort, Royal Pacific Resort, Portofino Bay Hotel,  Sapphire Falls Resort and the Hard Rock Hotel. Staying at any one of these resorts  is a little pricey but gives you the following perks:

Early admission to the park: This allows you to enter, and ride the rides, at Harry Potter World 1 hour before the scheduled open time. We always take advantage of early entry (at Disney too!) because the lines are a lot shorter, most people don’t want to wake up early to take advantage of this offer so it’s less people in the park which means shorter lines.

Express passes: The Express passes that I mentioned above are pricey ($85 per person, per day). So when you stay at one of the Universal Hotels they give you this for free!

Complementary Transportation to and from the theme parks: Universal Studios is actually laid out very well and there is one drop off location for both parks and the Universal City Walk. There is one bus for each hotel and runs about every 15 minutes so you never have to wait long for a bus, and they are air conditioned (huge perk in central Florida)!!

We stayed at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort and it’s really nice, I would stay there again. It has a definite 1960’s vibe with retro, bright colors (it feels like you stepped into stereotypical 1960s). The amenities here are great, they have a huge pool and  workout areas,  a full Starbucks (opens at 5am!), a large food court area and it’s within a 5 minute drive to the parks.

What are the best places to eat in the park?

Restaurants:

The Three Broomsticks ,in Hogsmeade Village (Island of Adventure), was really good! It had traditional English style food, fish and chips, chicken breast with potatoes etc. This was my favorite place to eat at the park. The setup is very efficient and the line goes by fast. The food is fresh and very tasty. But the best part is the decor, if you read the books or saw the movies it looks just like you’d imagine the Three Broomsticks to look. I was really hoping that everything in Harry Potter World would look just like the movies and this restaurant did not disappoint.

No, this picture isn’t tilted, that’s the way the entrance actually looks! They did such an amazing job with the fake snow and making everything look run down and slanted, even with the chimneys.

One restaurant we ate at that I was super disappointed about was Mythos Restaurant, voted #1 Theme Park Restaurant in the World. My expectations were not high because it’s still theme-park-dining, so I was expecting the same quality as a normal restaurant. However, we were not impressed and thought this place was severely overrated. The quality of the food was average, at best, and the atmosphere was not what I would expect for $50 a person, the chairs are metal with no cushion and it looked like nothing had been updated in a couple years. The decor reflects that of a cave, which is good for the ancient Greek atmosphere they were going for, but it looked like everything needed a fresh coat of paint and the curtains were washed out from the sun. That being said, I plan on giving it another chance, hoping  I just had a bad experience, because the reviews I’ve read online are positives.

Snacks:

While there are plenty of restaurants at Universal Studios to pick from, both in the park and at the City Walk area, there are not a lot of snack options. I was expecting something like Disney, where there are snack carts every 100 feet with ice cream, pretzels, churros etc. This is not the case at Universal Studios but they do have some awesome and unique snacks that we found within the shops and stores.

If you’ve ever seen an episode of the Simpsons, you’ll know Homer is all about his donuts and beer. Luckily, the park holds true to the show and has their own Duff Brewery and over-sized donuts, at the Kwik-E-Mart of course! I knew I had to take a picture with the over-sized donut. I wasn’t even planning on eating it but after paying $5 I figured I might as well try it… we got 3 more throughout the course of the trip because it was so good! And the pictures turned out really cute because they had an exact replica of Moe’s! If you’re not in for a sugar rush then they have regular-sized donuts as well.

Clockwise: Cookies and Cream, Chocolate, Glazed and Maple Bacon

Harry Potter World pays exceptional attention to detail, even down to the candy. You can find most of the candies mentioned in the Harry Potter books, my favorite were the  Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs.

The Chocolate Frog is massive and comes in the same pentagon shaped box as in the films with a Wizards and Witches Trading Card. It’s relatively low quality chocolate but it’s not hollow on the inside like most large, chocolate treats so that was definitely a plus.

Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans are exceptional, and a must buy. You can buy them on the internet almost everywhere but if you buy them in the parks you get the special packaging. They have every flavor including earwax and grass. Don’t worry, you’ll get a cheat sheet so you don’t accidentally eat earwax, thinking it’s lemon.

Butterbeer: The lines in front are not just for the hype, the Butterbeer is actually really good! I was thoroughly impressed, I went into it convinced that I wouldn’t like it and it’s actually pretty good. They have both a frozen and soda option and both have the same flavor and consistency. If you need something to compare it too, it’s essentially root beer but a little better in my opinion. 

Is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter worth it?

Yes! We only went to Universal Studios to go to Diagon Alley and Hosgmead and it was worth every penny. The attention to detail is amazing, I felt like I stepped onto the movie set and was in the movies.

Our Itinerary and the order in which we rode the rides:

This was our itinerary for the trip. I like to get a lot knocked out in the morning. It’s typically the time with shorter lines and less people. When I plan out theme parks, I just plan out the morning portion then leave the afternoon as ‘free-time’, essentially to do anything you want to do. Whether it be shopping, riding other rides or simply taking a break at the hotel, I like to use the afternoon as my flexible time to do whatever. Also, we were able to skip Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone, Seuss Landing and Toon Lagoon because they are catered towards kids. We also skipped the water rides, for obvious reason.

Things I wish I knew before I went:

For every roller coaster, you have to put all your belongings in a locker, including cell phones! They have medal detectors at almost every ride to ensure you’re not bringing on your phones, cameras etc. The lockers are free so it’s not a deal breaker but it is annoying to have to find a locker, put your stuff in it and then get in line for the ride. We didn’t have this happen to us but the lockers do fill up and then you have to wait in line for a locker, then wait in line again for the ride. Just be mentally prepared.

To be on the safe side, I bought the Universal Express Unlimited passes, allowing you to utilize the Express Lane each time you ride a ride. However, we ended up only riding each ride once so we could have saved some money and purchased the Universal Express pass, that only allows you to use the Express Line once per ride.

If you’re staying in one of the on-site hotels then you’ll be able to get into Diagon Alley, Harry Potter World, at Universal Studios, 1 hour before the park opens, typically 8am. I was able to utilize this both days and it was super helpful. I knew that the Harry Potter lines could get super long (3+ hours) and you can’t use the Universal Express passes, so my goal was to ride them first thing. Luckily, Harry Potter World doesn’t take one hour to go through, even if you ride the rides it should only take about 30 minutes. Then you can use the rest of the time to take pictures throughout the land. One thing I wish I knew beforehand was that people line up to ride the Hogwarts Express before it even opens. It opens with the park at 9am but we noticed people were getting in line around 8:45 to ride it. Assuming they knew something I didn’t, I went ahead and got in line and I’m so glad that I did. Being one of the first to ride the Hogwarts Express means that you’ll get to the other Harry Potter World early as well and you can get a jump start on riding all the rides over in Hosmeade Village too. Being able to get the Harry Potter World rides out of the way first thing in the morning was a big relief. It also gave us the ability to ride other rides while everyone else was waiting in line for the Harry Potter rides. Needless to say, make sure you utilize the 1 hour early entry and get in line for the Hogwarts Express early.

I really wish we had taken photos of Harry Potter World at night! Normally we were just too exhausted or hanging out in the City Walk area and didn’t want to walk all the way back to Harry Potter World but I really wish we did!

Thanks for reading, those are all my tips for visiting Universal Studios Florida! Have fun!