This is Universals original park in Orlando opening in 1990, and in many ways the feeling of nostalgia and connection to old Hollywood lives on, despite the updates to the park and Universals glossier shinier Islands of Adventure Park and fabulous new water park Volcano Bay taking centre stage. Universals latest announcement about their brand new park, called Epic Universe, ensures Universals tight grip on the theme park dollar in Orlando. Universal Studios is still a very popular park with over 10 million people visiting in 2017. It is some 108 acres in size and Steven Spielberg was a creative consultant on the park.
It is split into 6 areas and the feel of each of those different areas is very different indeed. There is Production Central as you enter the park, followed by New York, San Francisco, Diagon Alley, Springfield and the Woody Woodpecker kid zone.
Universal Studios has seen a lot of changes over the last few years, the replacement of the original King Kong ride with The Mummy, the closing of the iconic Jaws ride and replacement with the fabulous Diagon Alley and all the excitement, rides and experience that had brought to the park, the Transformers ride, Rip Ride Rocket and many more, which we’ll talk about in a moment. Despite these changes, and rides showcasing more modern films and TV shows the park keeps its original charm and nods to the old movies. Laurel and Hardy still drive round the park in an old car, the Blues Brothers also do that, as well as performing a fantastic show with musicians and singers on the steps in one of the side streets, the old Hollywood look is still very evident with Mel’s Drive in burger restaurant with the amazing 50’s cars outside and mock ups of Hollywood Boulevard Beverley Wilshire Hotel and Schwabs Pharmacy where Lana Turner was allegedly discovered buying a soda in the 1930’s. There’s so much to see, do, eat, ride and experience, we absolutely love a day, or 5 days! at Universal Studios. It changes every time we go, and there is something new to see every time we go.
As a starting point our first head to ride is usually Rip Ride Rockit. A proper roller coaster – love us a roller coaster at the Oh! Orlando. This is a full on fabulous one. The first time we went on it we actually got off and just stared at each other until one us said “what the heck just happened”? The start has you selecting your music track for your own unique ride, and you immediately go into a completely vertical climb – the tension is already mounting at this point as we start to feel a mix of complete panic, excitement and heaven knows what else. What follows is a while of steep sudden drops, loops, corkscrews and surprise changes of pace and direction, all to the track you have chosen to listen too. Amazing ride – truly fantastic. For a laugh afterwards you can not only select your photo to purchase but also watch the film of your ride from the car – wobbly jowls anyone?!
The Revenge of the Mummy is another one of our favourites here – part roller coaster, part experience, dark bits, scary bits, backwards bits – we won’t spoil the surprises but it’s a great fun ride and the queue is pretty great too.
There are a number of fully immersive 3D rides at Universal Studios, Transformers for us is one of the best, along with Jimmy Fallon’s Ride through New York coming a close second. The pre-show queue bit that’s in the Jimmy Fallon ride is well worth a look (or listen too) and you’ll know what we mean when you get there, again not wanting to spoil the fun we’ll leave that up to you to investigate. The Simpsons Ride is also in this category – it is great fun and very well done, and sits in it’s own Simpson’s land now, which is pretty fantastic – drink in Moes Tavern anyone? – but the ride itself is a rough one for us for motion sickness and we tend not to go on it now because of that! It is super fun though and no doubt the kids will love it. Fast and Furious also sort of fits into this half ride half 3D type ride – again fans of the films will probably find it pretty cool, but to be totally honest we found it pretty unexciting and not that great, but on the plus side the air conditioning was top notch! So possibly worth the wait on a hot day.
You can whizz along through the city streets shooting aliens in Men in Black which is a fun family ride and always worth it! On a quiet day in the Men in black ride if you are super nice or really lucky and speak to a cast member there is a chance of visiting the immigration hall for a backstage tour and possibly skipping the queue altogether . Don’t forget to aim for the headrests on the car in front of you! Many points for a hit, and you make their car spin like crazy. Very funny to watch.
There are lots of fun rides and mini coasters etc for kids in the Woody Woodpecker fun zone – including the fantastic ET – still worth a ride after all these years and as grown adults, we still love it! You can do lots of the character meet and greets here as well.
You can run into The Simpsons, Doc Brown from the Back to the Future films, Betty Boop, Dora the Explorer, Woody Woodpecker, Scooby Doo and the rest of the gang, (we always look out for the Mystery Machine and go on a Scooby Hunt). You’ll also run into Shrek and the wisecracking Donkey and we can stand there happily for a while listening to Donkey being cheeky to the folks queueing to get their photo taken with them. He once asked our niece where her tooth had gone, she said it had fallen out and he asked her if she got any money for it, she said she had £2, to which Donkey replied “that’s nearly $3 – go and get me a latte”. Good fun!
The Shrek 3D cinema show and Minion Mayhem are also great fun for all the family. A little tip for the Minion one though is go to it later on in the afternoon, it’s the first thing you get to as you walk into the park and so most people head there straight away and the queues are long! Much better to try and get to it at the end of your day and the waits are much shorter, this is our test of how busy the park is going to be, if Minion Mayhem is busy right from the start then head right to the back of the park and avoid it till later.
Food wise you can get everything here – the usual theme park fare, lots of options and we’ve had some yummy food, both snacks and pastries, slices of New York style pizza and the fantastic corn dog truck and taco truck. There are also Starbucks in the park and a great selection of quick service counters – we have never struggled to grab a bite or a drink in this park. (Mr Oh! Orlando likes the Starbucks as they sell a LARGE Flat white, just the job for the morning at a park!)
…… and we’ve saved the best until last – Diagon Alley. A mind blowing experience if ever there was one! This is sited on the old Jaws ride, and despite Universal looking and moving forward it never forgets the past so you’ll find a couple of nods to the Jaws ride if you look – if you look inside the shops you see them selling records, one of them is by the ‘Quint Trio, Here’s to swimming with bow legged women” the telescopes in Wiseacres joke shop are from the boats on the old ride , also a set of Shark jaws are hanging in the old Apothecary. Nice little nods to the past. The Jaws shark is still hanging on the dock before you get to Diagon Alley for a photo opportunity.
You will nearly walk past the entrance to the Alley, its very cleverly made to look like a normal brick wall and we did almost walk past it!! The night bus from Harry Potter is outside with the conductor posing for pics and the famous shrunken head chatting to passers by. Another thing that blows your mind is the full size replica of Kings Cross Station, you get off the Hogwarts Express here for entrance to the Alley. The attention to detail here is amazing. All the staff wear the correct British Rail uniforms for the period and the sweet and tobacco counters are just like the UK ones of the time – even down to selling cans of Irn Bru and KitKats.
On entering the Alley it’s breathtaking to see to see the shops, it’s literally like walking on to a film set. Everything is as it should be… with children using the wand they have purchased from Olivanders wand shop to perform spells. You see them waving them around and books are opening in displays, people are getting squirted with water from statues and fire works popping in windows. It’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
Diagon Alley is quite a different experience to what you are normally used to in a theme park, its tall buildings and quite closed in feeling really give you an experience of an old London street, lots of hustle and bustle. (Be warned if you don’t like crowds you are not going to enjoy this Alley much). As you enter the Alley first on the left is the restaurant The Leaky Cauldron. Normal theme park style food with a U.K. twist (fish and chips, bangers and mash, toad in the hole and ploughman’s lunch) etc. The portions are quite good as a rule but it is possibly one of the loudest restaurants we’ve ever been in – a combination of high ceilings and lots of people makes for a noisy meal time. All served with Butter Beer or the other fave is Pumpkin juice…. our friends from across the pond do love these odd taste combinations.
Now for the reasons for the queues! First off is Olivanders wand shop. Just like the film you queue up for a “bespoke wand fitting” where the wand chooses you! With the help of the assistant of course. The shop is a direct replica of the one in the film, as we keep saying the attention to detail in these places is astonishing. All the little tricks that they do to make the “magic” happen is what makes it and they cannot do enough to make the experience a truly magical one (pun intended)!
The Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride is a 3D ride, part coaster and part like 3D experience. One of the few rides where they have got most of the cast together for filming scenes for this ride. Even walking up to the bank is an experience, from the fire breathing enormous dragon on the roof you know this is going to be good! (The dragon breathes fire about once every 10/13 minutes – you’ll hear a rumbling noise before it starts. So have your camera ready!) The entrance to the ride is through the lobby of Gringotts Bank, a massive room with a vaulted ceiling surrounded by tills where the staff are working away at the desks silently judging you for being a muggle. When you enter the lifts to access the vaults you have a photo op before starting to queue again. I know this sounds like a lot of queues but the way you are entertained it seems like time flies by – especially when the portraits and newspapers start moving and the headlines start coming to life…….. The ride itself?? Oh man. This is a blast! Strapped in and ready to go through the deep underground vaults you whip along and meet some nice, and some not so nice people! Haha. That’s all we’re going to say! Will never give spoilers! All we will say is make sure you are holding onto your caps! Mentioning no names… (Richard Jones!)
As you leave Gringotts the ride you can pop to the Gringotts money exchange. They will take your Muggle money and change it into Gringotts bank notes to use while in Diagon Alley, make sure you don’t take any of the Gringotts cash into Walmart later.
Another good way of getting a hit of air conditioning and a chill out is to make your way over to The Tales of Beadle the Bard. A story telling venue that features Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees, a ‘trunk show’ with puppets and set pieces from the Fountain of Fair Fortune and The Tale of Three Brothers. Really well done and fun for the die-hard Potterists with you.
There is also an ice cream parlour and a bar called the Fountain of Fair Fourtune selling both alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. Frozen Butter Beer, Pumpkin juice and Gillywater. Or water as we muggles call it!
So that’s our quick whizz round Universal Studios for you. Love love love it here – we could ride Rip Ride Rockit and The Mummy all day long and not get bored! And we probably will – see you soon Universal!
theohorlando.blog 