Universal Orlando Trip Report

The final leg of our Floridian adventure brought us to my favorite city to visit in all of America. Sunny Orlando Florida, home of the worlds greatest collection of theme parks!

We only had a day at the Universal parks which meant it was a super jam packed day. It ended up being doable but it was quite literally a 12 hour day. It had been since 2019 that I was at Universal Orlando and while I enjoyed it, I wasn’t into the coasters then like I am now. I think most coaster enthusiasts would rather go to Universal over Disney mainly due to Universal having more thrill options. I was super eager to get back considering that VelociCoaster had opened which was by all accounts the new standout ride at the resort. Last time we went was right after Hagrid’s opened. It had a consistent three hour line the entire time so we never bothered.

Much like our Busch Gardens day we got super lucky. The weather was fantastic all day, 30 and sunny with not too much humidity. We were also able to get on the five coasters we hadn't yet ridden. We did have the express passes which definitely helped. I don’t think that would have been possible without them so even though they were extremely expensive, they ended up being worth it because of our limited time at the park.

Bonus Park: Fun Spot America Orlando

We headed over from Bradenton to Orlando on Thursday getting in around 2:30. Our hotel ended up being just a five minute walk from Fun Spot, so with three coasters available and nothing to do until dinner, I figured it was worth a visit.

Fun Spot is a chain of three small regional amusement parks/permanent fairs. The most notable of which is Fun Spot Atlanta which oddly enough has one of the best coasters in the world with ArieForce One. The Orlando location is interesting. I'm not really sure there is anything I’ve been to that's similar. Maybe the best comparison is if you took 1/8th of the Ex and made it permanent ten minutes outside of Wonderland. There are some smaller scale flats (scrambler, bumper cars, ferris wheel, etc), four different jank-as-hell go-kart tracks, and three small scale coasters.

Of the three coasters we ended up riding two. The third was a Vekoma family suspended coaster called Freedom Flyer (lol) which was closed. It didn’t even have a train on the track so not sure what was going on with that one. If it is anything like Silver Streak then I don’t think we missed much there. We also rode the kiddie coaster Sea Serpent. Felt a bit of shame doing so, especially because the attendant had to walk over to let us ride, but a credit is a credit.

White Lightning

The main attraction here is White Lighting, a smaller scale wooden coaster made by Great Coaster International. I kinda expected this to be rough considering the park, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The first drop is somewhat angled going down which is cool and going up the lift you also get a decent view of Universal. The ride has really good pacing and you fly through it. There are also some good little pops of airtime throughout. There is one pothole as you're going through the turnaround but aside from that it's pretty smooth. Fun Spot has been doing a good job taking care of this one for sure. The park wasn’t busy so we rode in the front and the back. I don’t really have a preference. Both are good.

I wouldn't go out of your way to come to Fun Spot but if you have a couple of hours to kill and are decently close by it is worth popping in.

Universal Islands of Adventure

The first park we headed to was Island of Adventure mainly for VelociCoaster. I had been keeping an eye on it the day before and it ended up being broken for the majority of the day. I don’t think it ran past noon and there were no signs of life when we were at CityWalk the night before. We also figured it was probably best to try and get Hagrid’s done around lunch before we used the Hogwarts Express to head over to Universal Studios Florida. There is no express line for Hagrid’s so it always gets crazy in the morning with everyone with early entry trying to rope drop it.

Flight of the Hippogriff

This is literally the same coaster as Woodstock Express at Cedar Point just with Harry Potter theming. It’s a fine family coaster. I don’t think I’d ever waste time waiting to ride this again even with express.

Incredible Hulk

This was the highlight of our first visit. I'll never forget those two morning rides, especially experiencing the launch up the lift. This time was a little different. I still enjoyed the ride but it was a lot rougher than I originally remembered. Kinda similar to Kumba, it almost feels like the train is shifting around on the track a bit particularly in the latter half of the ride. Still a classic, the first series of elements is so incredibly intense and hearing the Hulk sound effect off ride is a staple of Islands of Adventure. Like I mentioned in my Busch Gardens trip report, the Hulk gets compared alot to Kumba with both being B&M sitdown loopers of a similar era. I’d say Kumba has more even pacing where the Hulk is very front loaded. That being said, the start of Hulk is so good that I prefer it to Kumba significantly.

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

This is just pure fun. Is it the most intense no, but did I enjoy the hell out of this ride absolutely. We got very lucky and ended up getting the first car with myself on the bike and Jayme in the sidecar. It is just a really fun experience. The launches are punchy and frequent, the backwards section is cool, the drop track catches you by surprise, and the theming is very well done. This is definitely the Universal equivalent of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot. A very expensive, very well done, super fun family coaster that everyone can appreciate.

VelociCoaster

The new star attraction of the Universal Florida Resort is as advertised. A very intense, extremely fun thrill coaster. This reminds me a lot of a more refined bigger budget version of Maverick at Cedar Point. It’s not quite as intense but has way more memorable elements. The first half is good but the real magic here happens as soon as you hit that second launch into that top hat. After that you get the zero-g roll and the mosasaurus roll over the water. The top hat by the way has some insane ejector airtime all the way down. Unlike the two other Intamin multi-launch coasters I’ve ridden, VelociCoaster has very good restraints. Just lap bars which are very comfortable as you get thrown around. I don’t like this as much as Iron Gwazi but it will come in very firmly at #3 on my ranking.

Like I mentioned earlier VelociCoaster was having a ton of issues the entire time we were there. It was running fine during early entry but then broke down immediately as the park opened. It ended up opening again about an hour later and we got our first ride then. When we went back later for a re-ride in the afternoon we were just about to get on when it broke again. Thankfully it was just for about 20 minutes but it's a shame to see such a great ride having so many problems this early in its life. I’m honestly just glad we got to ride it at all.

Universal Studios Florida

We headed over here on the Hogwarts Express around lunch time after getting on Hagrid’s. This is still a very good park but definitely the lesser of the two. We ended up just sticking to the back half of the park and the New York area mainly due to time. I think of the two parks we probably had to skip more here but that mainly was just some of the second tier virtual rides like Simpson and Transformers.

I do still prefer Diagon Alley to Hogsmead mainly due to the more secluded nature of the land. Similar to Galaxy's Edge, Diagon Alley does a great job of immersing you ensuring that any line of sight from inside is not obstructed from the outside world. We did ride Gringotts and while it’s technically a coaster, it really feels like more of a dark ride. Gringotts is fine but Hagrid’s is clearly the best of the Harry Potter themed rides.

Revenge of the Mummy

For some reason I don’t remember this ride at all from our first visit. It's not like it's new or anything but I also didn’t really do any research before going the first time so I guess I just never knew it existed. It's a shame because this is a really fun ride. This is like the Universal equivalent of the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. An older indoor launch coaster based on a bit of a dated property. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though because this ride is still good. The theme is pretty decent, it's able to tell a story that's concise enough for you to follow on a ride that is less than five minutes, and all the effects worked well, especially the multiple fire effects. The coaster, while not the most interesting, is still pretty good. I especially liked the fake ending.

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit

This is a bizarre ride. It has a fully vertical lift hill, it's made by a manufacturer mainly known for making smaller scale spinning coasters, and it is themed to making a music video (I think). I still enjoyed it but this thing is kinda janky. The restraints are weird, they are on a hinge on the side of your seat so you end up feeling like you're in the train in a slightly uneven manner. They also have this tiny very mid-2010s touch screen where you can select a song. There are a bunch of genres so you think you’ll have a ton of choice but there is only like one song per category. I ended up going with Waterloo by Abba. The vertical lift hill was way more terrifying than I expected with the wonky restraints. You kinda feel like you're going to fall out. As for the coaster itself, it's pretty good. The non-inverting loop is cool when you get whipped around while you're in the pullout. The helix at the one end is pretty forceful as well. I was worried about this ride having so many mid-course brake zones that it would kill the pacing but it didn’t really have a negative effect. Overall a truly bizarre experience but not necessarily in a bad way.

Conclusion

It was a very long day but it was a great time. Universal to me is like the best possible version of a regional theme park. There is a lot more ride diversity than you’d see at Disney with real deal thrill rides, but at the same time it's just missing that Disney magic. I know it's cliche to say, but having gone to both resorts within 18 months of each other, I know which one I prefer.

For example, Universal has those carnival style games peppered all over certain parts of the park, the ones that are designed to separate you from your money. I’d expect that kind of thing from your usual regional park, but it feels out of place at Universal considering how much they already charge. There is none of that nonsense at Disney. It's all about immersing you in whatever world or story they are trying to tell. Honestly five years removed from visits, I still kinda feel the same way I did when I left last time. It's a fun park but I don’t need to come back until there is something new (Epic Universe).

I still had a great time and will definitely be back, hopefully for longer!