The Ultimate Guide to the Universal Orlando parks

 

Universal Orlando Resort is home to 8 hotels with 3 on the way and 3 parks and 1 new one coming soon! I have already covered the hotels which you can read about here. Now I am going to discuss its two theme parks!

The theme parks at the resort are Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida Park. The water park is Volcano Bay! I am a travel agent who can help book your trip for you here. Now, let's get onto the theme parks.

When you arrive at Universal whether you park or bus from a hotel, you arrive in City Walk. This is the area post security that you can find shops, dining, and even mini golf! Some dining options include Vivo Italian kitchen, Antijitos Mexican Restaurant, NBC Sports Grill, Margaritaville, Bubba Gumps, and more! Some shopping options include a universal studios store and the universal legacy store. Of course several restaurants like Toothsome and Margaritaville also have their own respective shops! You can find great quick dining options too like Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon, and Voodoo Doughnut! Entertainment can also be found like live performers at the Hard Rock Cafe, the Hollywood Drive In Mini Golf course, and even a movie theatre: Universal Cinemark. At the end of city walk, you'll find entrance to the two theme parks, go left for Islands of Adventure, and right for Universal Studios Florida park!

At Universal's Islands of Adventure, shows and interactive attractions bring your favorite stories, myths, cartoons, comic book heroes and children's tales to life. This park is full of fun themed lands that offer exciting rides, dining, and more! These are the themed lands:

• Suess Landing
• The Lost Continent
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade
• Jurassic Park
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong
• Toon Lagoon
• Marvel's Super Hero Island
• Port of Entry

Now, I have already covered the wizarding world in full, but there are other lands here to discuss! Lets start with Suess Landing:

The area has 7 attractions/shows and 4 dining locations. At Christmas time, the area gets an overhaul theme to grinchmas featuring decorations, a show, and a meet n greet with the grinch that gets a very long line. I waited 4 hours! The attractions include:

• The High in the Sky Suess Trolley Train Ride
• Caro-suess-el
• Oh! The Stories You'll Hear
• Dr. Suess Character Zone
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
• The Cat in the Hat
• If I Ran The Zoo

Dining includes

• Moose Juice, Goose Juice
• Hop on Pop Ice Cream Shop
• Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous
• Green Eggs and Ham Cafe

The Lost Continent Area once featured an attraction but is now closed. All it has now is some dining and the Mystic Fountain. Here are the dining options:

• Doc Sugrue's Desert Kebab House
• Fire Eater's Grill
• Mytho's Restaurant

Jurassic Park features 2 kind of areas: the Jurassic Park area and the Jurassic World Area. They are connected via the Discovery Center. There is also a shortcut to the VelociCoaster area right after the Mythos Restaurant in the Lost Continent Area! Here are the attractions in the area

• Camp Jurassic
• Pteranodon Flyers
• Jurassic Park River Adventure
• Raptor Encounter
• Jurassic Park Discovery Center
• Jurassic World Velocicoaster

here are the dining options:

• Thunder Falls Terrace
• Pizza Predattoria
• The Burger Digs
• The Watering Hole

Skull Island: Reign of Kong is home to only the attraction named the same as the themed land.

Toon Lagoon is where you'll find some water rides and comic strip characters! Here are the attractions offered in the land:

• Classic Comic Strip Characters
• Me Ship, The Olive
• Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges
• Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls

Here are the dining:

• Comic Strip Cafe
• Blondie's
• Wimpy's

Marvel's Super Hero Island is themed after comic book characters from Marvel. It has a few rides and character meet n greets as well as some dining. Here are the attractions:

• The Incredible Hulk Coaster
• Storm Force Accelatron
• Doctor Doom's Fearful
• The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
• Meet the Marvel Super Heros

Here are the dining:

• Cafe 4
• Auntie Anne's Pretzels
• Captain America Diner

Port of Entry is the entrance point area for the park. If you go left you go towards Suess landing. If you go right you'll go towards Marvel's Super Hero Island! This are just has some shops and dining. Here are the dining options you can find:

• Croissant Moon Bakery
• Confisco Grille
• Backwater Bar
• Starbucks
• Cinnabon

Universal Studios Florida Park is the other theme park located near city walk. Upon first entry you will find the universal globe! It's a highly coveted photo spot in my opinion! This park has 8 themed areas including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley which I have discussed in my WWOHP Guide! Here are the themed areas in this park:

• Minion Land
• New York
• San Francisco
• WWOHP -Diagon Alley
• World Expo
• Springfield USA
• Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone soon to be Dreamworks Land
• Hollywood

These themed areas are full of fun attractions, entertainment, and shopping experiences for the whole family! Lets get into more detail of these lands however starting with Minion Land

Minion Land is the newest land in the parks currently as it previously was other attractions in addition to the Minion Mayhem ride. These are the attractions/entertainment options you'll find in Minion Land:

• Illumination's Villian Con
• Despicable Me Minion Mayhem!
• Illumination Theatre

Here are the dining options:

• Bake my Day
• Freeze Ray Pops
• Illumination's Minion Cafe
• Pop-A-Nana

Now, in universal you can venture left to New York and circle round or right to Hollywood! But like I said the park circles back around! In New York you'll find a variety of entertainment and a few attractions even! Here is that list:

• Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
• Meet the TRANSFORMERS
• TRANSFORMERS the ride 3D
• Race through New York with Jimmy Fallon
• Marilyn and the Diamond Bellas
• Revenge of the Mummy
• The Blues Brothers
• Sing It!
• iVamos! - Báilalo

Dining found in the New York Area includes:

• Finnegan's Bar & Grill
• Auntie Anne's Pretzels
• Haagan-dazs
• Starbucks
• Louie's Italian Restaurant

San Francisco is the next area before getting to London/Diagon Alley. This area is small but features some dining and few remnants of the Jaws attraction! Attractions/entertainment include:

• Beat Builders
• Fast and Furious - Supercharged

Dining includes 

• Richter's Burger Co.
• Chez Alcatraz
• Lombard's Seafood Grille
• San Francisco's Pastry Company

Next you will find the WWOHP -Diagon Alley which I have already written a post about within my guide to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! After that is World Expo which only has 1 thing: the Men In Black: Alien Attack attraction!

The next spot is Springfield, which you may know as the home of the Simpsons. This is the area to go to if you're a fan of the tv series. It has the Kwik-E-Mart, Moe's and more familiar sights! These are the attractions options: 

• The Simpsons Ride
• Kang & Kudo's Twirl n Hurl 

Dining includes:

• Duff brewery
• Fast Food Boulevard
• Moe's Tavern

Fast Food Boulevard is home to a variety of options in a food court style location. You can get virtually any food option here!

Woody Woodpecker's KidZone is tinier than it used to be but that's because nearby its making way for the new Dreamworks land! Currently in the area is the show Animal Actors on location, a SpongeBob meet n greet, KidZone Pizza company, and the E.T. Attraction!

The Hollywood area is last on our list and it doesn't have much but here's what it does have in form of attractions/entertainment and its more of the entertainment side:

• NBC Media Center
• Drive in and Dance
• Character Party Zone
• Universal Orlando's Horror Make-up Show
• Hollywood Character Zone
• The Bourne Spectacular

Dining in the Hollywood area entails:

• Cafe La Bamba
• Mel's Drive-In
• Schwab's Pharmacy
• TODAY Cafe

That covers those parks, but there is actually a few more things I want to cover: Coca Cola Freestyle cups, Universal Express Pass, and the My Universal Photos option. I plan on doing Volcano Bay in its own post!

Coca Cola Freestyle Cups are an option for soda drinkers, or just really anyone who doesn't just drink water all day. The cup starts at $20 for the first day and is $10 after that to reactivate every day on your trip. The cup is valid for use in the two theme parks, volcano bay, and city walk. Once activated, the cup allows you to drink any drink from the Coca Cola freestyle machines located around the park. You can also get Icees at select counter locations around the park as well. The only thing is, you can only fill up your cup every 10 minutes in attempt to avoid sharing. 

Express Pass is Universal's skip the line pass. It's been a thing for years and cost a heavy price. If you stay at one of the premier hotels, you get the unlimited pass option included during your length of stay. There are two options of the pass: unlimited and regular. The unlimited pass allows you to ride as many times as you'd like in one day whereas the regular pass only lets you go once. You can also buy this pass in a variety of park options: 1 park or park to park. It can be purchased with you tickets or once you arrive. If you buy it separately, you do have to pay per day. Here are the attractions that use express pass:

universal attractions:

• Animal actors on location
• Despicable me minion mayhem 
• E.T. Adventure
• Fast & Furious - Supercharged
• Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
• Hogwarts Express
• Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
• Kang & Kodos twirl n hurl 
• Men in black alien attack
• Race through New York starring jimmy fallon
• Revenge of the mummy
• The Simpsons
• Transformers the ride 3D
• Universal horror make up show
• The Bourne spectacular 

Islands of adventure attractions:

• Caro-Suess-el 
• Doctor dooms fearfall
• Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls
• Flight of the Hippogriff
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
• Hogwarts Express
• Jurassic World River Adventure
• One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish
• Popeye and Bluto’s Blige-Rat Barges
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong
• Storm Force Acceleration
• The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
• The Cat in the Hat
• The High in the Sky Suess Trolley Train Ride
• The Incredible Hulk Coaster
• Jurassic World Velicoaster

My Universal Photos Pass is the memory maker of universal. You can buy a couple different pass options for this: 1-day, 3-day, or 5-day. You get a card and scan it every time you take a picture with a photographer or ride photos as well. It's a simple way of getting some photos from your trip! Universal does also sell you prints of your photos, so if you don't take many you might come out cheaper! 

Well that covers the Universal theme parks! Stay tuned for more info on Universal's Water Park next week!