Universal Orlando {Vacay Day 6}

by Amanda @ The Bay Bush
Universal Orlando Tips with Kids
We finished up our trip at Universal Orlando.  Avery got to meet Diego right as we walked in the park and was giddy with excitement.  McKenna wouldn’t deign to have her picture made with him.
Universal Orlando with kids 5
While Avery was meeting Diego, Chad set off to buy gloves for all of us.  It was so cold and the wind was blowing.
If Avery wasn’t already on cloud 9 after meeting Diego, her life was about to be made when we met Scooby and Shaggy next to the…wait for it…Mystery Machine!!!

 

Universal Orlando with kids 3

 

Universal Orlando with kids 2

As if things couldn’t get better…we made our way around to the Curious George play area.  None of the water stuff was on while we were there because it was so cold but the girls still had a ball.

Universal Orlando with kids
Actually, they had about a million balls…some of them shot at through air hoses and the like.

 

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Universal Orlando

And they met one of my childhood favorites, Woody Woodpecker.

Universal Orlando Woody Woodpecker

And Curious George!

Universal Orlando Tips 6

 

Universal Orlando Tips 5

We literally had to drag Avery away from the Curious George area and made our way around to the Simpsons.  We really aren’t big Simpsons fans but we did have doughnuts from the Lard Doughnut shop there and they were delicious!  Chad proclaimed them the “best theme park food ever.”

Universal Orlando Tips

 

Universal Orlando Food

We had limited time because we were going to start driving back home that day so we went straight to Diagon Alley.

Universal Orlando Harry Potter World
Want to take a ride on the Night Bus?
Diagon Alley was as crowded as Hogsmeade.  We wandered through and went in a few of the shops and the girls used their wands in a few places.

 

Universal Orlando Harry Potter 2

 

Universal Orlando Harry Potter

But it was really so crowded that we just looked around and headed for the Hogwarts Express. This was the SOLE reason we bought the park-to-park passes for Universal.

Universal Orlando Tips

We loved the ride and I wish we could have done the one from Hogsmeade to London as I’m told its a different experience.

The train takes you to the other park so we made our way back through Seuss Landing.

Universal Orlando Review 2
Caught a little show…
Universal Orlando Dr. Suess

Met some more characters…

Universal Orlando Review

 

Universal olrando Cat in the Hat

 

Universal Orlando with Kids

And then made our way out of the park.

Universal Orlando Tips
We met my college roommate for dinner.  My girls loved seeing her girls again!  I never would have thought that we would have 5 (and now 6!) girls between the two of us.

 

We left dinner and headed north.  We made it all the way to Savannah that night and then drove the rest of the way home the next day.

A few thoughts on Universal Orlando…

  • The Universal Orlando park seemed to have more attractions that were age appropriate for my girls (ages 7 and 5 at the time) than Islands of Adventure.
  • We took the girls on the ET ride and they had no clue who ET was.  I wish I had let them watch the movie before our trip.
  • It was really cold in January.  If you’re going then…bring your gloves from home!  They were ridiculously expensive there.
  • The only way to ride the Hogwarts Express is to have the park to park tickets.  Otherwise, we would have purchased the single day tickets instead.
  • Bring your autograph books!  I didn’t expect many characters to be there but we were pleasantly surprised to get almost as many signatures there as we did in the Disney Parks.
  • Diagon Alley was crowded but there was hardly any wait throughout the rest of the park on the day we were there.
  • I bought our tickets through Undercovertourist.  They seemed to have the best prices when we went.

Have any questions or other tips?  Feel free to post in the comments below!

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