BadPinkTink
Republic of Ireland is not part of UK
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2015
Ok, just back to my hotel after my 1 day at Universal Studios Hollywood
1. Buy Tickets online in advance from Universal Studios website and print out at home. I had bought my ticket, paid $95 , my friend got a ticket at the gate and paid $115
2. Go early, but paying extra for early opening is not necessary. We got there around 9am, crowd levels very low compared to Disney at the same time of the morning.
3. Go direct to lower lot at around 9am. All 3 signature rides, The Mummy, Jurrassic Park and Transformers were walk ons until about 10.30am, where as Harry Potter was showing a 50 minute wait time.
4. Go bagless, and dont shop until you are ready to leave the park. We did the Mummy, put our stuff in a locker, and then cos the wait time for Jurrasic was so short, we left our stuff in the lockers there and went straight to Jurrasic.
5. The Simpsons area is well worth the time to explore, there is so much more than just the Ride.
6. Doing the park backwards to the majority meant that when we went for food, we missed the main lunchtime crush. We took some time out for a Duff Beer around 12pm, sitting at the bar, chatting to the bar tender, then did the Backstage Tram Tour and then had lunch.
7. The tram tour wait time was about 15 minutes longer than the posted time, but the 2 3D sections, King Kong and Fast and The Furious made up for it.
8. WOW, Harry Potterland, it was about 4pm when we finally made it through the gates. The crowds had really thinned out but there was still alot of people there. The shops are small and have max capacity limits. I guess Americans are not used to small shops, but for us it was just like shopping back home. Thats how many of our shops are lol. There is a HUGE amount of detail in the shops, not just the outside windows but in the interiors. They are really like walk through attractions in their own right.
After walking through the village, we finally made it to the main ride. Flight of the Hippograph is just a basic themed traditional roller-coaster, so we skipped that and just went straight to the main attraction.
My friend had bought some stuff so we joined the line for the lockers. This really takes time and is very crowded and so if at all possible, be bagless.
The first time we went through we did the regular line. This took an hour, from the time we joined the locker line to the time we exited off the ride. The themeing in the line, which winds its way through the Castle, starting outside in The Green House, to meeting up with Harry, Ron and Hermoine in a class room are just amazing. There is just sooo much detail in everything.
OMG, the ride itself is just breathtaking. A total immersion experience, with animatronics and water mixed with 3D video which twists and tumbles you 360 degrees. 1 gem of advice from my friend, do not have a Duff Beer before going on Harry Potter or if you suffer in any way from motion sickness.
Overall, Universal is defiantly a 1 day park. Everything is so compact, there is far less walking than Disney. The park was open until 10pm but we left at 8pm, and we did many rides multiple times.
1. Buy Tickets online in advance from Universal Studios website and print out at home. I had bought my ticket, paid $95 , my friend got a ticket at the gate and paid $115
2. Go early, but paying extra for early opening is not necessary. We got there around 9am, crowd levels very low compared to Disney at the same time of the morning.
3. Go direct to lower lot at around 9am. All 3 signature rides, The Mummy, Jurrassic Park and Transformers were walk ons until about 10.30am, where as Harry Potter was showing a 50 minute wait time.
4. Go bagless, and dont shop until you are ready to leave the park. We did the Mummy, put our stuff in a locker, and then cos the wait time for Jurrasic was so short, we left our stuff in the lockers there and went straight to Jurrasic.
5. The Simpsons area is well worth the time to explore, there is so much more than just the Ride.
6. Doing the park backwards to the majority meant that when we went for food, we missed the main lunchtime crush. We took some time out for a Duff Beer around 12pm, sitting at the bar, chatting to the bar tender, then did the Backstage Tram Tour and then had lunch.
7. The tram tour wait time was about 15 minutes longer than the posted time, but the 2 3D sections, King Kong and Fast and The Furious made up for it.
8. WOW, Harry Potterland, it was about 4pm when we finally made it through the gates. The crowds had really thinned out but there was still alot of people there. The shops are small and have max capacity limits. I guess Americans are not used to small shops, but for us it was just like shopping back home. Thats how many of our shops are lol. There is a HUGE amount of detail in the shops, not just the outside windows but in the interiors. They are really like walk through attractions in their own right.
After walking through the village, we finally made it to the main ride. Flight of the Hippograph is just a basic themed traditional roller-coaster, so we skipped that and just went straight to the main attraction.
My friend had bought some stuff so we joined the line for the lockers. This really takes time and is very crowded and so if at all possible, be bagless.
The first time we went through we did the regular line. This took an hour, from the time we joined the locker line to the time we exited off the ride. The themeing in the line, which winds its way through the Castle, starting outside in The Green House, to meeting up with Harry, Ron and Hermoine in a class room are just amazing. There is just sooo much detail in everything.
OMG, the ride itself is just breathtaking. A total immersion experience, with animatronics and water mixed with 3D video which twists and tumbles you 360 degrees. 1 gem of advice from my friend, do not have a Duff Beer before going on Harry Potter or if you suffer in any way from motion sickness.
Overall, Universal is defiantly a 1 day park. Everything is so compact, there is far less walking than Disney. The park was open until 10pm but we left at 8pm, and we did many rides multiple times.