We arrived in Orlando, Florida, ready for 3 days of fun at Universal Studios. Universal Studios is actually two theme parks – Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure (home of the wizarding world of Harry Potter!)  We spent our first day at IOA, our second at Universal Studios and our third split between the two. We had an absolute blast! Some of our highlights were:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This was so awesome. There is a whole village, a castle, and three great rides – Dragon Challenge (a hanging roller coaster), Flight of the Hippogriff and the Forbidden Journey, which takes you through the castle on a roller coaster.  This was done so well and was such a highlight. You will probably like these photos more if you are a Harry Potter fan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water rides – we got completely soaked on Jurassic Park,  the log flume and the rafting rides! We also discovered the benefit of being in the single rider line on a hot day – by not sitting next to each other, we got through the line in 5 minutes instead of 60. The single rider line is awesome! They use you to fill the gaps, so you generally get through much quicker. This also worked the second time we rode the incredible 3D Spiderman ride – 10 minute wait instead of the hour we waited the first time!

 

 

Another highlight (for Karen) was the huge roller coasters. Nothing better than screaming your lungs out!

 

 

 

We both loved the Mummy ride – an indoor roller coaster that is completely in the dark. We also liked the Simpsons ride – a simulator ride.

 

 

We were lucky enough to preview the Despicable Me ride, which was amazing. It doesn’t officially open until July but they were doing sneak peeks.

 

We caught a concert with 3 Doors Down and ZZ Top playing.

 

We had an incredible time just hanging out in the parks and being little kids.  We tried to keep costs down by bringing packed lunches and spending all day there – I think the longest day was about 12 hours but we were having a fabulous time!