As you may already know, our big family vacation this summer was to Orlando, Florida! We visited 2 Disney World parks and 2 Universal Studios Parks. I’ve already shared my blog post with everything I packed for this trip, including theme park outfits, dinner outfits, and travel essentials. I wanted today’s blog post to be a resource for those who are planning trips to any Disney or Universal theme parks. I’m sharing below what we did each day and tons of helpful tips that we learned along the way.
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Day 1 – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
On our first day of parks, we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The most important thing to note about Disney parks is that you have to buy an admission ticket and make a park reservation. You should check the park availability before purchasing your tickets to make sure the parks you want to visit have availability on your dates. You also will want to download the Disney app before your trip. The park map in the app is very helpful for giving directions and updating you on attraction wait times. If you want to check out the new Star War’s attraction, you will also need to use the app to reserve your spot in the queue. We actually didn’t get to ride this one because the spots fill up extremely quickly! There are only 2 times each day that you can make a reservation – 7:00 am and 1:00 pm. I recommend trying the 7:00 am because when we tried to reserve at 1:00 pm exactly, there were so many people doing the same thing that we couldn’t get in. Overall this was a great park to start off our trip with!
Day 2 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Our next Disney park was Animal Kingdom, which we enjoyed so much! The safari tour is a must and was definitely my favorite part. One thing to note about Animal Kingdom is that it opens earlier than any of the other parks. We always tried to arrive to each park 15-30 minutes early to beat the crowds. We also had great success with heading straight to the back of the park, because many people seem to visit the attractions located near the entrance first. If you want to make the most of the day and visit every attraction, another thing we did to save time was pack sandwiches for lunch. In addition to saving time, this will also save you a ton of money! We did this every day and had no issues with bringing food into the park. The lines for food were often extremely long, so just keep that in mind. We did get the full Disney experience by getting some of their well known snacks and drinks though!
Day 3 – Universal Studios
We’d planned to use today as a free day, but decided to continue with parks due to the threat of inclement weather later in the week. I do recommend taking days off in between parks if you are able to. Universal Studios is the cutest park, in my opinion! The Universal globe, old fashioned streets, and huge lake are all great photo ops. You also can’t miss walking through Diagon Alley and seeing all of the details that make this area very realistic for Harry Potter fans. We found the attractions in this area, as well as the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, to have the longest wait times. Similar to Disney, the Universal app lets you know the current wait times so you can plan accordingly. If you buy a park-to-park ticket, you are able to ride the Hogwarts Express from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure. This was a neat experience, but I wouldn’t let it be the deciding factor on buying a park-to-park ticket. If you’re a military member or veteran, you should definitely check out their Military Freedom Pass – see more details here.
Day 4 – Disney Springs
After 3 full park days, we were eager to have a more relaxed day at Disney Springs. You should definitely check it out if you get the chance! The parking is free which was super nice. They have tons of restaurants including quick service, table service, and bars, several of which have live entertainment. Additionally, they have stores to buy Disney souvenirs, as well as an abundance of name brand retailers. If you’re up for even more adventure, you can take a ride on a tethered hot air balloon or in a vintage Amphicar across the lake. Cirque de Soleil is also coming soon to this area.
Day 5 – Universal’s Islands of Adventure
If you’re adrenaline junkies like us, you definitely don’t want to miss out on Universal’s Islands of Adventure! This park has the most high speed attractions out of all of the parks we went to. The new Jurassic World VelociCoaster is outstanding, and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is my all time favorite ride! While we were there, the only ride you had to do a virtual line for was Hagrid’s, but we actually preferred this as it was very easy to sign up for a time in the app. Another thing I want to mention about the Universal parks is their City Walk. It’s a strip of stores and restaurants you walk through after you go pass security, but before you enter either of the parks. There are tons of quick service and table service restaurants, as well as bars and other fun treats. This area can get crowded though, so I highly recommend making a reservation if you want to eat here after the park. In fact, you should consider making a reservation a few days in advance.
Recap
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at both Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks! Animal Kingdom was a must in my opinion, and Hollywood Studios was also super fun. Depending on you and your family’s interests, you may also enjoy Magic Kingdom and Epcot. If you love high speed attractions, I highly recommend both of Universal’s parks. Be sure to view the park maps before choosing to see exactly what each park has to offer. If you’re visiting a Disney park, don’t forget to buy your admission ticket and make your park reservation. If you’re a military member or veteran, make sure you check out Universal’s Military Freedom Pass for an awesome deal! I highly recommend visiting Disney Springs and Universal’s City Walk to shop or grab a bite to eat, but definitely make reservations. Lastly, a few tips for both Disney and Universal – arrive early, head to the back of the park first, download the app to stay up to date on wait times, and pack bagged lunches to save time and money! 🙂
Such a fun trip! As always, you make everything easier with your thought out plan and organization!