I have been wanting to blog our trips to Universal Studio’s (and all of our travels really) so here is to back blogging. It’s kind of fitting because the newest Harry Potter Book comes out this coming week so maybe it’s perfect timing rather than late. We had annual passes to Universal Studios from July 2014-July 2015. There’s already a new ride at Universal Studios the King Kong ride so I guess it means we have to go back right? This is part 1 of 3 posts about Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.

HOTEL

Our first trip to Universal Studios as a family was in July of 2014 and we stayed at the  Loews Royal Pacific Resort with my in-laws. We spent two nights at the hotel and had three days at the Parks. We got annual passes to the theme park. This trip was planned because Diagon Alley had just opened up and there are some serious Harry Potter Fans in our family. One of the reasons that we stayed at the Resort onsite was Express Passes were included for the hotel guests. The Express Pass is kinda like the Fast Pass of Disney. If you don’t stay at the resort they are about $100 a day per person. Sounds insane right? If I didn’t have an annual pass and this was my only trip to Universal Studios for a while I would definitely want the Express Pass. This way you can do more rides in a day (rather than paying for more days at the park and another hotel night). Three days was definitely a good amount of time to go to both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure especially with the express pass. Another nice thing about staying in the resort was being close enough to walk to the park. We took the water taxi one time but it was much quicker to walk. We were also able to enter the park an hour earlier than other guests. We fully took advantage and showed up at 7am to line up and enter the park. Time at the park is important because the more time you have at the park the more rides you can ride. We had long days at the park even with our two kids.

The rest of the year we stayed at this Hampton Inn because it was close (we didn’t get express passes the rest of the year). Where have you stayed while visiting Universal Studios.

PHOTO TIP/SHOES

Here’s my one photo tip for this post. Take the picture that everyone else gets (with everyone in the party in the same frame). On every vacation I try to get a picture of the whole party at least once (many times it is just once). That’s our family of 4 soon to be 5 (I was 5 months pregnant in that photo!). Teva‘s are my favorite shoe to wear for amusement parks when it’s warm because they are super comfortable and can get wet.

FAVORITE RIDES

My absolute favorite ride of ANY theme park is the Popeye Ride at Island’s of Adventures. The reason being is EVERYONE gets soaked on the ride. Some water rides only some people get wet but on this ride the whole barge get’s wet. I love it. It’s especially nice to go on in the afternoon. Matt’s favorite ride at Universal Studios is the Revenge of the Mummy. My daughter’s favorite ride was the Cat in the Hat. My son’s favorite ride was one fish two fish red fish blue fish.