American Adventures – Part 2 – Universal Studios Orlando

Originally, when we started planning this American Adventure, we were only going to the west coast – San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. 

However, the prospect of watching Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers play Aaron Roger’s Green Bay Packers was enough to get us over to the east coast. So we figured we might as well make the most of it. Knowing we only had one day to explore Universal Studios and Miss 11’s love of all things Harry Potter, we dove into many different planning pages, seeking all of the hacks, tips and hints on how to make the most of our one day at Universal.  

In the end, we opted for the VIP Experience as we had read a lot about how this allowed visitors to get to the front of the line on 10 of the most popular rides across the two parks (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure) in 7 hours. It was a pretty big financial investment, and we got nervous when we found out that the Universal Halloween event would be running the night of our visit, meaning we would lose access to the Universal Studios park from 5pm. 

But all of those fears melted away on the day of our VIP tour. 

We got to the park super early and parked our car in the valet parking. This is complimentary as part of the VIP Experience, normally $75 for the day, so consider that when doing the math on the VIP Experience versus other, regular ticketing.  Oooh, and on that, if you are going to Universal City Walk for a meal or shopping, it is free parking after 6pm (rather than paying $27 for the privilege of parking there). Anywho. 

Waiting outside the VIP meeting point, we were greeted by Universal staff who advised us of the time they would start greeting VIP guests; then at the advised time, the doors opened, and we were checked in and directed to the meeting point for breakfast and ushered into our table. Here we met John, a man from Mississippi who was a regular visitor to Universal and the VIP Experience. The four of us ate our brekky and had a chat and were soon greeted by Jim – our Universal VIP tour guide, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Richard Attenborough / John Hammond in Jurassic Park in his beige shirt and brimmed hat. 

Jim asked us questions about what we hoped to see or ride on through the day and gained a sense of our appetite for thrill rides, and then our day began. 

In the end, we were able to ride on all of the following, which was punctuated by an amazing buffet lunch back at the VIP restaurant between Spiderman and E.T: 

1. Transformers
2. Hogwarts Express – Kings Cross Station
3. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike adventure
4. Flight of the Hippogriff
5. Jurassic Park River Adventure
6. Jurassic World Velocicoaster
7. Skull Island
8. Incredible Hulk Coaster
9. Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
10. E.T Adventure
11. Men in Black – Alien Attack
12. Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts 
13. Bourne Stuntacular
14. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (missed as part of the tour as not working, but we were able to use our VIP pass to skip the line to ride this after our VIP experience ended) 

In addition to being walked to the very front of each line, we were also able to access a special section within the Men in Black ride, where we got to take photos, and Miss 11 was able to create an alien profile which will be reviewed by other people who enter the area in the coming months. Add to this accessing staff-only areas and hearing some awesome stories, as well as getting to know both Jim and John better. 

As someone who waited 3 hours to ride one ride at Movie World on the Gold Coast, I was absolutely thrilled with being able to go on so many rides in a day. By the time you factor in the amazing dining experiences for breakfast and lunch, valet parking, and how much time you would spend in the parks lining up for rides, I would highly recommend the VIP Experience to anyone travelling to Universal Studios in Orlando. 

One blog we read before we went to Universal Studios stated that the biggest downside of the VIP experience was the nasty looks you get from other parkgoers, but for me, the biggest disadvantage of the VIP experience is that you become accustomed to this VIP treatment and are more willing to pay for the Genie+ and other front-of-line privileges anywhere else you go!