Last year's mistake was doing Universal very first thing, though we still had a fun day (here's a link to last year's trip). Last year we flew in Wednesday and went to Universal on Thursday. We were still jet lagged, and the kids were struggling to wake up early and stay all day long. We started at Islands of Adventure first, took the train over to Studios around 1:30pm, then walked back to IOA after Universal Studios was closed. This was a mistake since all the early entry people increase the crowds at IOA in the morning, and Studios gets packed in the afternoon with people arriving for HHN. Back then we qualified for the attractions assistance pass due to Allison's self-destructive habit of picking at her hands until they bleed. If it weren't for that pass, we wouldn't have been able to do half of what we did last year. She's gotten better at it this year (still picks sometimes but doesn't do as much damage and stops for longer periods when reminded to stop), so I didn't apply for the AAP this year. But thanks to some good strategizing, we were able to get more done this year without the AAP than we did last year with the AAP.
This year we arrived on Wednesday the 16th and didn't do Universal until the 23rd. This gave us much more time to adjust to the time change, and we took things easy and went to bed early on Tuesday so the kids were more prepared for a long Universal day on Wednesday. Our Uber dropped us off at 7:36am. It took awhile to walk through CityWalk, but we still made it in line for Universal Studios several minutes before they started letting people in the park. It took much longer to get an Uber than it did anytime the rest of this trip. It was about 5 minutes for Uber to find the driver then 16 minutes for them to get to our hotel. I assume there are a lot less drivers available at 7:00am on a weekday than there are later in the day.
Once we were in the park, we walked to Diagon Alley to ride "Escape from Gringotts." Only certain attractions are open that early, and it seems most people go to Minion Mayhem or Transformers. We'd done both of those before on previous trips to Universal Hollywood, and we rode Villain Con last year, so we skipped those this year. We went to Diagon Alley, which is relatively empty this early, and Gringotts had maybe a 10 minute wait, even though it said 15. Later in the day it was 60+ minutes.
From there we rode the Mummy Coaster and Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon. Neither had much of a wait. By then Rip Ride Rocket was almost open, and we hopped in line for that. That was a high priority ride for us since Allison was too short for it last year. I've since heard it's going to close to make room for a new coaster, so it will also be the only time the kids get to ride it.
On the way over to Dream Works land, we met Doc from Back to the Future.
In Dream Works land we rode the Trollercoaster with zero line before watching the Dream works Imagination Celebration show. Not many people are in this area this early. I checked the app and the three rides we'd been on with barely any lines all had much bigger lines now while we were still crowds free. There were maybe 20 of us at the show.
This is a great way to get the kids a fun character fix in without waiting in line for a meet and greet (which were the only things in Dream works land that had any crowds). With so few of us there, the characters were all very attentive to us. Tyler was totally star struck and just beaming the entire time. He's in that middle school phase of transitioning into a sullen teenager, but his sweet little inner child came out in full force.
After the show we bought a Shrekzel and a Swamp Dog.
Afterwards they played on some of the equipment while I got in line to meet Shrek and Donkey. The characters took a break just after I'd gotten in line, so instead I walked over to Mama Luna where Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws were doing a meet and greet with a fairly short line.
Tyler had fun doing wand spells. At first his wand wouldn't work, but a nice cast member told us there was a scratch on it and told us to take it in for repair. They fixed it right away and now it works just fine. My (Hermione's) wand also works well.
The same cast member showed us a secret spot without an identifying spot on the ground. You make the dragon dung move and bubble inside the shop.
When we took the train over to IOA, a nice lady in line pointed out platform 9 and 3/4's to us. She offered to take a video of us passing through it so we could watch ourselves disappear.
Here's Tyler on the Hogwart's Express. The nice lady who'd taken our video is sitting across from him. We had a good chat with her while we waited.
Once in Hogsmeade we purchased a frozen butter beer and found the "Have You Seen This Wizard?" moving image from my shirt.
As a family of cat lovers, I knew my kids would want to meet the cat characters and play in the interactive area. I texted Oscar to bring them over, and they arrived just before I got to the front of the line. We got some cute pictures and they had a ton of fun playing with the digital cats.
The only thing we missed in Dream Works land was playing in Shrek's Swamp. We were told it was currently under construction.
We skipped ET and Simpsons since we've done them before and went over to ride "Men in Black" while Oscar grabbed some food at Krusty Burger. After "Men in Black" Allison and Oscar took the train over to IOA to ride Velocicoaster while Tyler and I geeked out at all the Harry Potter areas on the Studios side.
Kreacher peaked out while someone was taking our picture at #12 Grimmauld Place!
I got pictures of Tyler with the Knight Bus and had a conversation with the shrunken head.
Someone offered to take our picture when we came around the back side of the knight bus. We then went in the telephone booth and dialed the number for the ministry of magic.
We then went inside Diagon Alley and went into Ollivander's wand store. We'd never seen the show where the wand chooses the wizard. We were 1st in line for the next show and waited about 7 minutes.
To our great delight, Tyler got picked! There were maybe 9 of us in there, and everyone was an adult except for him, so it was no surprise that Ollivander would choose the 11 year old in a Griffindor robe. It was a great experience, though we didn't buy the wand since we already have two (Mike gave us the Elder wand years ago and Malia gave us Hermione's wand that used to belong to Alex). Tyler is fairly soft-spoken, so when Ollivander asked his name he thought he'd said "Taylor" and referred to him as Taylor the whole show. We like to joke around that he moonlights as "Taylor" sometimes and that of course we couldn't buy that wand because it's Taylor's wand!
I was wearing SpongeBob socks with sandals since I knew we'd get wet, but I didn't want my feet to chafe too much from walking all day (I ended up at near 30,000 steps). I wore socks until my feet got wet, then put them back on once they were dry. It may look tacky, but it makes for much happier feet.
From there we joined Oscar and Allison for Velocicoaster, their 2nd time and our first. It was a 40ish minute line, but it was worth it. It's such a good coaster! My favorite part is the top hat followed by the giant drop, though the roll over the water is pretty neat too.
By then the kids needed a play break, so we let them play at Camp Jurassic while we grabbed some lunch.
I got some yummy pulled pork and rice at the Terrace restaurant near Kong, and I picked up their key lime cheesecake for my cheesecake loving darlin'. Everything was really good. The kids are picky, so we also picked up pizza for Tyler and a pretzel at Auntie Anne's for my daughter.
We'd gone over to ride Dr Doom's Fearfall, but the line moved incredibly slowly and we ended up leaving it. It said 15 minute wait, but after 20 there was still a lot more line and the wait time on the app had increased to 35. I think they were only operating one tower, hence why the line moved so slowly.
We tried to ride Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, which was high priority since it'd been closed for maintenance during our last visit, but it closed for a delay just as we arrived. We did Jurassic River adventure and wanted to come back to it, but it was still delayed, so we did Kong. It still said "delayed" on the app after Kong, but when we walked by it, it had just reopened! We had maybe a 5 minute wait, which was extra nice since it'd been a 45 minute wait before the delay. We then went over to Hulk which I rode with my Tyler while Oscar grabbed a parent pass. Allison isn't quite tall enough at 52ish inches, so she rode Storm Force Accelatron and then went over into Seuss Landing with Oscar.
After Hulk it was about 5:45pm, and the wait for Hagrid's said 75 minutes. We were going to skip it this trip since we did it last year, but we had enough time and the wait wasn't horrible, so we waited it out. It ended up being about 50 minutes, and the ride was great as usual. It wasn't quite dark by the time we were on it, but it was twilight, which is a great time to ride it. It's light enough to see all the scenery while still getting the nighttime coaster benefits of it being cooler and darker.
After Hagrid's it was a little after 7:00pm, and the park closed at 8:00pm. Tyler wanted to do some more wand stuff in Hogsmeade and then do the parent pass for Hulk with Oscar while Allison and I wanted to ride Velocicoaster at night. This was a great idea and would have been pretty quick (it said 45 minute wait but we were nearly at the lockers in 10 minutes), but then they announced a "brief" delay. 8 minutes later they announced "the hunt is on!" and we all cheered, then a minute later they announced a delay again. It ended up taking 25 minutes total before the ride got going again. We did eventually get to ride, but it was 8:00pm by the time we were about to get on, so it was our last ride of the night. It was worth it though. Velocicoaster is amazing at night! Overall it was a fantastic day, and we can't wait for our next trip to Universal Orlando in 2026. We'll use our free day in Hollywood in 2025 so the kids can do the Mario Kart ride and see their Super Nintendo Land, and we'll wait until at least summer 2026 so we can go to Epic Universe without having the one day only requirement.
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