Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Behold our most expensive day of fun. For one day we spent nearly 30% of the previous six months’ of adventuring before we even walked in the door of Universal Studios.

Doug and I both wanted to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter portion of Universal Studios, even though author J.K. Rowling has gotten in some public opinion scuffles lately. 

Except the Harry Potter experiences are actually in two parks side by side, Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure.

The entrance price for the day pf our visit (yes, the price changes by day) was $144. For just $55 more, you can visit both parks the same day.  So we could pay $199 for a one time visit, or go on two different days and pay $288, and then pay for parking and food on two days.

In addition, you can only ride Harry Potter’s Hogwart’s Express between the two parks if you have the expensive park-to-park ticket. So, in the end we decided to do the one-day two-park experience, because we really weren’t that interested in any of the other non-Harry Potter attractions in the park except as filler.

But wait, there’s more! Universal sells Express Passes, which allow you to skip the line (or at least part of the line, we learned). If you’re going to try to visit both parks in one day, you really can’t afford to spend hours waiting for each ride. I had downloaded the app, which showed real-time wait times, and I saw many rides with wait times of 60 to 90 minutes — or longer.

The 2-Park Express Pack was of course more money ($175) than if you were only visiting one park ($160). These are per person prices! This all adds up to $199 just to enter, plus $175 for the Express Pass, plus taxes, for a total of $400 per person before we’d even parked (another $40 for the van since it is oversized) or eaten a single jellied eel or drank a mug of butterbeer.

Needless to say, after my heart palpitations calmed down, I extensively researched everything we wanted to do in the park and how we were going to do it.

I told Doug to get ready — we were going to earn every cent of the entrance costs.

We were in line before Universal Studios opened at 8 am, having sailed through security at that early hour. When the doors opened (about ten minutes early!), I directed us straight to Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley.

We were able to see this area of the park when it had very few visitors and pop into lots of stores while they were still relatively empty. It can get so packed here directional traffic lanes are set up during busy times – the park gets 11 million visitors a year!

We also had no wait to see a wand ceremony (which is not covered by the Express Pass). Since I thought it was rather lacking, I was very glad we had not waited in line for it. We were tickled by the response of the younger sister of the girl chosen to have a wand matched to her; after two or three errant attempts to cast a spell, the sister was frustrated by her older sibling’s failures and admonished her! It was nice to see that real-life magic still exists for some!

We rode Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts right away, and it was truly something else. I said to Doug, “these are not the roller coasters I grew up with!” The effects were incredible – well, the parts I could keep my eyes open for, as the 3D effects (we wore 3D glasses on the ride) made me very queasy, in spite of having on motion sickness bands and taking Dramamine beforehand.

We then hopped on the Hogwarts Express to ride over to Islands of Adventure for their 9 am opening, and repeated our experience. We saw Harry Potter’s Hogsmeade with very few people in it and quickly got in rides on Flight of the Hippogriff and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

At this point I realized I wasn’t feeling so hot, and suggested Doug do some rides on his own. Doug said “I don’t want to make you wait for me while I go on rides,” to which I replied “I paid $800 to get in here, you’re gonna ride every ride you can get on until this place closes.”

Thanks to the Express Pass, I didn’t have to wait long for Doug. I spent my time waiting by adding up how much each family I saw had spent to get in the park, then how much more they had spent for Express Passes. It’s truly a stunning amount.

Fortunately, I felt better after an hour or two, and we were able to take in a number of shows and walk through both parks. I only rode five rides in the end, but Doug probably did around 12.

It is truly unbelievable the level of detail that has gone into creating the experiences at the parks, both the rides and the look and feel of buildings. Even the line queues are adventures for many of the rides.

The good news with my motion sickness is that we hardly spent any money on me for food. Universal allows you to bring in water bottles and snacks, so I subsisted on trail mix and water for most of the day.

We did get some ice cream in a Harry Potter shop, and of course tried the Harry Potter Butter Beer (like a buttery cream soda).

Around 5 pm we saw the wait for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was down to about 65 minutes (because yes, after you pay a fortune for an Express Pass, this ride is excluded from it!), so we headed over to get in line.

We opted for the “single rider” line, which meant a hopefully shorter wait, but we wouldn’t sit together (you get assigned to someone in a group with an odd number of people). That’s fine, it meant I couldn’t throw up on Doug, which I was indeed worried about.

The entire time we waited we listened to a warning on repeat saying not to ride if you had neck or back issues, had a heart condition, were pregnant, or were subject to motion sickness.

The ride is set up like a motorcycle with a side car (just like in the movies). When it was my turn, I got assigned to a young girl, maybe 10 years old. Of course I offered her the motorcycle, even though I really wanted it – but she said she preferred the side car. Woo-hoo!  Doug was a few rows behind me, and his person also gave him the motorcycle!

Let me tell you, this ride is fast! It goes up to 50 mph, and it whips this way and that, not to mention kicking into reverse and also dropping a few floors in the dark with no warning.

Those alerts for the weak and sick to avoid the ride were not kidding!

I felt that being able to hold on to the motorcycle handle bars really helped with the motion sickness (I pretended I was driving), but the part in reverse was definitely a little nauseating. I was a bit wobbly but okay in the end.

The single line was definitely faster. We exited the ride about 40 minutes after entering. But at this point we had been walking through and between the two parks for more than ten hours, and even though the park was open another two hours, we were both done.

We conceded defeat and headed for dinner in the City Walk area between the two parks.

I asked Doug what he thought the day was worth and he said about $300. I felt more like $200 to $250, but it’s not Universal’s fault that I get motion sickness.

So, the tickets weren’t so outrageously beyond the value we got, and if you figure the cost was about $40 per person per hour that seems less horrific. Thanks to living in a van we weren’t tempted to buy any souvenirs. We were both glad to have done it and don’t feel any need to go back for anything.

We had 28,000 steps for the day and were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.