Islands of Adventure Report: Hagrid’s Magical Morning
For this park report, we’re heading over to Universal Orlando Resort to do Islands of Adventure. Crowds have been picking up at Universal over the last couple of months, with the parks hitting capacity multiple weekends in October. In this photo report, we cover wait times and some of what we did throughout the day. Let’s start with Universal’s post-reopening successes.
I’ve been really impressed with the way Universal Orlando has handled its reopening. In many ways, their approach has been better–or at least preferable, in my view–to Walt Disney World’s. While still adopting the same health safety protocol, Universal opted not to require reservations and didn’t overcomplicate things. The proactive communications, clear policies, and the way Universal has demonstrated that they value their customers are all commendable.
Universal Orlando has also offered a variety of ticket, Annual Pass, and hotel deals that really make all the changes and cutbacks more palatable. And truly, not as much has changed at Universal, as the key on-site and AP perks among other offerings were never cut. Obviously, the style of Disney’s and Universal’s theme parks are very different, so it’s never an apples to apples comparison. Nevertheless, the value proposition remains strong at Universal Orlando right now, which makes it easier to recommend.
Consequently, we’re once again toying with the idea of covering Universal in greater depth. We’ve contemplated and discussed doing that many times. We’ve been Universal Annual Passholders to the parks in Florida, California, and Osaka and have a Guide to Universal Studios Hollywood and Guide to Universal Studios Japan in addition to our Universal Orlando Planning Guide. Obviously, we’re big fans of the Universal parks (and hotels).
Still, we’ve never gone all-in on more granular coverage. We could blame you for that, and a lack of interest among readers. 😉 That’s only partly true–it mostly comes down to a lack of time on our end. It’s impossible for us to cover everything. Meaning that if we spend more time at Universal, that’s less of our hard-hitting Disney journalism. To that end, we’re curious if you want to see more Universal coverage and, if so, what? (Park reports like this, itineraries, dining, hotels, etc.)
Selfishly, I’m hoping there’s some interest in this Islands of Adventure report and our upcoming Universal Studios Florida report. For one thing, I’ve really enjoyed our hotel stays thus far at Universal and “needing” to book the more expensive resorts “for the sake of research” is a great excuse for doing more.
Second, each visit to Universal Orlando is at least one ride on E.T. Adventure, which is right up there with Country Bear Jamboree on the list of potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Central Florida. With things on earth not going so hot, I’m ready to relocate to the Green Planet.
Now that the long-winded preface is out of the way, let’s get down to the brass tacks of this visit to Universal Orlando. Due to the drive, line at the parking booths, and getting into the park taking longer than expected, we didn’t enter Islands of Adventure right at rope drop.
So basically, Universal already shares something in common with Disney’s Hollywood Studios–taking longer than expected to enter–despite being about 30 minutes farther away from us. Once we did get into Islands of Adventure, we headed directly to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter…
The Universal Orlando app indicated that the wait time for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was already 90 minutes, but wait times boards in the park said 60 minutes, as did the Hagrid’s marquee.
Even if the wait time was trending upwards and it ended up being somewhere in between, we figured this was going to be about as good as it got. Wait time data suggests no drop-off over the course of the day.
The queue wrapped all around the Lost Continent, including into the theater that previously housed the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad stage show.
This whole area isn’t currently used for much of anything, so overflow queue for Hagrid’s seems like as good of a use as any. Plus, the venue could probably house a lot more of the extended queue if necessary on busier days, as we only entered the upper area of the amphitheater.
Regardless of whether the posted wait time was 60 or 90 minutes, the actual wait for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure ended up being much lower–only 35 minutes.
Given that this was Orlando’s second-biggest new attraction debut of last year (after Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance) and is the best themed roller coaster in Central Florida, I’d say that’s not too shabby. I won’t willingly wait 35+ minutes for much, but Hagrid’s is definitely one such attraction.
After wandering around the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for a bit, we figured it was time for lunch.
With crowds peaking in Hogsmeade and already a long line for Three Broomsticks, we thought it might be a good time to take the Hogwarts Express Train over to Universal Studios Florida. Posted wait time was 60 minutes; our actual wait was 25 minutes.
We’ll have a separate report on Universal Studios Florida very soon, but for now let’s fast-forward to late afternoon when we returned to Islands of Adventure.
Rather than doing a play by play of our afternoon, I’m just going to offer some photos and stray thoughts in the captions…
Universal Orlando is doing a great job with the socially-distanced selfie stations.
This one probably is not the best example as these costumes look like they’re knockoffs from the clearance aisle of Party City. Nevertheless, there are a variety of options with little to no wait…which is probably because no one wants to meet any of these characters. But still. Points for effort.
“Knockoffs from Party City” might be an apt way to describe the aesthetic of Marvel Super Hero Island to anyone only familiar with the movies, and not the comics.
However, one undeniably top-tier component of the land is the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, which is one of the best theme park attractions in the world. It honestly shocks me that Imagineering chose Spider-Man as the character for a DCA attraction because it’ll inevitably invite comparisons to this twenty year old attraction–and I doubt most objective assessments will be favorable towards Disney.
Universal does this thing where it oscillates between flavor of the month IP and characters no one born this century has ever heard of. Maybe Walt Disney World does the exact same thing and I’m just too close to the subject to have a clear view.
Or, maybe I’m still bitter that Universal removed all but one of my childhood favorites. To add insult to injury, Universal then had the nerve to replace the new cult classic Disaster with Fast & Furious Supercharged. That abomination was literally one of the worst theme park attractions/segments of all-time years before it even began construction in Florida.
Speaking of childhood favorites, let’s turn to the park’s King Kong attraction. While this blog (rightfully) sings the praises of E.T. Adventure, my all-time favorite Universal Studios Florida attraction is Kongfrontation. As a child, this was a top 5 of Orlando for me–not in the same league as Journey Into Imagination, but close.
Skull Island: Reign of Kong is no Kongfrontation. However, it is better than the similar segment during the Universal Studios Hollywood tram tour, so there’s that. Skull Island: Reign of Kong’s end scene is undeniably impressive, and offers a brief shot of nostalgia. The queue is also normally a highlight, but not as much right now.
Jurassic Park is also a really solid land, and one that is improving with age.
The Raptor Encounter is fun, bringing some of the magic from the Discovery Center into a standalone experience.
I’m also really looking forward to Jurassic World VelociCoaster, which Universal recently announced opens in Summer 2021.
The track layout looks tremendous, as does the rockwork and thematic elements. It also looks like VelociCoaster won’t introduce the same type of clutter to the land as the Flying Dinosaur. If it’s even half as good as that (very different) roller coaster, VelociCoaster will be a top-tier addition to the Jurassic Park/World land.
Ultimately, it was a really fun day at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. A long day, but we got a ton accomplished and the visit had great flow (thanks to park hopping) that we haven’t experienced recently at Walt Disney World. This “great flow” may not be readily apparent here since this Islands of Adventure park report is clunky and disjointed.
In my defense, it’s not easy to write something like this since I don’t know really know where to begin. Do I assume most people reading this have no experience with Universal, and start from square one with a bunch of background that would be absent from our comparable Walt Disney World park reports? Or do I assume the primary audience is Universal fans who have said knowledge, and simply leave those who don’t behind in the dust? In retrospect, it would seem I’ve chosen a “worst of both worlds” approach that makes a range of assumptions and confuses or alienates everyone. Perhaps we’ll find our footing in the Universal Studios Florida park report. Or perhaps not, and this will end up being a very short series of interest to no one. We shall see!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Islands of Adventure in the last couple of months? Did you rope drop Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure? Stay until park closing? What was your experience with crowds and wait times? If you’ve visited both Disney and Universal post-reopening, which do you think is doing better? Do you have any questions about the current modified Universal experience? Will you be attempting to visit Central Florida this holiday season, or are you waiting until 2021 or beyond? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Yes, Express pass is an option. Unless staying elsewhere already, I’d recommend staying at one of the resorts that includes the Express Pass (Portofino, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific). I’m not sure if Portofino has opened back up yet, but the other two are open.
I just read your Studios TR, and just found this one? so…..
Please add me to wanting more Universal/City WAlk reviews. We went in kind of “blind” regarding what to do at Universal a few years ago. It would have helped alot to have a guide to the rides, food, special events, etc instead of just winging it, and not doing half of the attractions offered:( We didn’t even know ET was at US. We thought it was at IOA. Now, we know somewhat what and where things are, but still feel there is much more to learn.
So, YES, please do more Universal reviews.
I would love to see more reports on Universal. Although we are DVC owners, we absolutely love Universal as well. Do you know if the express pass is currently an option at Universal? Thanks
I would love to see more Universal reports, and more granular in nature too. I could deal with not knowing that the chicken nugget basket at Golden Oak now contains one less nugget if it meant I could be warned that the strawberry cheesecake milkshake (with sour cream ice cream) at Toothsome was gag worth and a waste of $14.
Tom, appreciate all you do to keep us informed of all things Disney but like others I am also ready to learn more about Universal. What are hotel experiences like? Which have the best value which are worth the splurge? Dining is also pretty important to our family. It doesn’t seem like Universal has many dining spots so dining reviews would be very welcomed. Looking forward to reading more.
I was there last November. I lucked out and had a work conference at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort. I managed to schedule an off day on Wednesday which meant we had to fit BOTH parks into just one day. I had read online it would be possible, but you needed to follow a plan had have an Express Pass Unlimited (see details below). We contemplated staying an extra day but that would have put us in the parks the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we decided to try the one day option (benefit you get to ride the Hogwarts Express a cool experience)!
I will say this if you plan on hitting the parks and want to stay on property, if you stay at a Premier level hotel (think Disney Deluxe Level) your hotel stay INCLUDES the Express Pass Unlimited (EPU)! NOTE: The cheapest starting hotel at this level is the Loews Royal Pacific Resort. The EPU is something like Disney’s fast pass but you must pay for it unlike the fast pass. There are tons of comparisons of the two on the web (I recommended you Google it), but it is worth it in some circumstances which I’ll cover below and run some numbers so you can decide.
You may ask what does the EPU cover … the EPU allows you to skip the lines unlimited times with no time limits on when you visit the ride or cap on how many times it can be used per hour/day. That is the biggest difference to me than Disney’s Fast-Pass. Of course there are restrictions (like Disney’s FP), there are two rides it does not work on (Hagrid’s Motorbike & Pteranodon Flyers) but if you are at the park when it opens you can hustle to Hagrid’s and ride it first thing in the day, which is what we did, with almost no wait. Be prepared to “fast walk” (you will get yelled at if you run) to Hagrid’s when the park opens! The Pteranodon Flyers ride had small waits multiple times and is not a must ride anyhow (IMHO). You can also get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter an hour earlier (like Disney’s resorts but this benefit is for any Universal property). We went on a Wednesday and with the extra hour on the front end and our EPU it worked like a charm and we experienced no wait times save a few 5 minute waits all day!
Your room key doubles as your EPU pass so everyone in your room needs one and must bring it to the parks. Like I said I had a conference which was at Loews Royal Pacific Resort, so we pulled our kids from school for the week and my wife & kids came with me. My family swum in the pool all week and we hit Universal city walk for dinners and fun nightly. I had a break on Wednesday from the week long conference, so we only had ONE day to do both parks. My kids were 12 and 9 at the time so it was easy to hustle through both parks. We hit almost EVERY ride we wanted to in both parks. But without the EPU it would have never been possible. All the resorts are an easy walk to the parks (15 minutes), or a boat ride/shuttle is provided as well if you don’t feel like walking.
We did walk to all the properties one night since the Christmas stuff was up (sort of like Tom’s Disney Hotel Christmas Tour) and every hotel was decked out and beautiful.
If you love Chocolate, you must visit/dine at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium on the City walk … Heaven!
I am a number guy so let us run some numbers and see if it is worth staying on property:
(NOTE: I grabbed these numbers off Universal’s site this morning they may vary but let us assume the numbers are for a 5-night stay for a family of four that plans on visiting two parks, one per day):
Universal’s Value Hotels start at $116/night
Universal’s Preferred Hotels start at $165/night
Universal’s Premier Hotels start at $225/night (which is still cheaper than most Disney Deluxe Hotels).
Now the math:
If you stay at the Royal Pacific for 5 nights, it would be $1,125 dollars.
If you stay at a value resort for five nights, it would be $580 dollars.
If you do not stay at a Premier level hotel you have to pay for the EPU. The prices are $90/person per park visit, or $360 per day for a family of four. Now let us factor in the EPU to visit both parks (on separate days), $360 * 2 days = $720 dollars.
Now looking back at the hotel costs if you factor in $580 + 720 the Value Hotel w/EPU now costs $1,300 total, which is $175 dollars HIGHER than the Premier Resort.
It really comes down to what you plan to do during your visit. If you’re a person that likes to hit one park or you do not mind waiting in HUGE lines, then staying at a value resort would be for you. If you hate lines and plan on visiting multiple parks then upgrading your hotel is definitely worth it dollar wise. Remember even if you buy the Hogwarts Express pass (which allows you to travel between parks) and visit both parks in one day without some time of Express Pass, you will NEVER be able to hit most rides because of wait times. The Express Pass lite is still $70/person per park and limits you to skip the line only once per ride. Factoring in those numbers it would still be a better deal to stay at the Premier Hotel.
And of course NONE of these numbers include the actual park admission prices, although for a five night stay you can always find deals at Universal like buy two days get 3 days free (which would make your EPU even MORE valuable for staying at the Premier level)!
I hope all this helps and apologize it turned into a small novel!
Tom. The fact is there is a “shift” going on in Orlando right now and Universal seems to be taking this opportunity (albeit one that they probably wish didn’t present itself in this way) to differentiate themselves from Disney and set a new precedent on how to cater to their members/fans/audience and “steal” people from Disney. Universal was already getting the reputation as the “older” kids park with more thrill rides. Universal reopened when they thought it was right and didn’t wait for Disney. They kept their important express pass feature while Disney dropped fast passes. They just leaked that their nighttime spectacular would be held next week. They initiated discounts to get people into the parks very early. Universal also kept their Halloween haunted house during the holiday season. Disney dropped fast pass, didn’t offer discounts for months after universal, stopped all their special events and most importantly still have a “stripped down” experience with no shows, fireworks or extras while laying off Live performers that are a big part of a lot of people’s experience while charging full price. My family is a great example. We are dvc members and were forced to sell off our points because we would have lost them. We decided that it was too expensive to go to Disney without any of the aforementioned extras. We didn’t want to spend all that money for a limited experience while waiting in very long lines without fastpasses and no guarantee that we could ride ROTR (thanks for your reports). That’s a lot to ask from someone like us traveling 1500 miles for 4-5 nights We took the money and booked 4 nights at the hard rock with express pass, haunted house, etc and for far less money, included deeply discounted park tickets. Disney should take a lesson because they are starting to lose some of their loyal audience right in front of their own eyes. Love to see more universal reports.
Yes to more Universal. They are a great park and who doesn’t love the movies and Harry Potter
Yes to more Universal! I’ve only been once and had to do so much research from different sites just to figure out the basics (like which attractions we could do without fear of motion sickness cause we can’t handle the more intense screens), how to map out our time in each park, where to eat, etc. So basic info, plus info for those who’ve been a few times, insider tips, etc. would be great. And honestly, your writing is so good and you have such a knack for finding interesting things to write about, so I’m sure any topic would be great!
I would love to see more Universal trip reports, tips for park visits, and hotel stay info! I’ve been to Universal a few times, not nearly as much as WDW, but enough that I can follow along with minimal background info.
I share your perspective on much of WDW rides and parks, including the childhood love of Figment and enjoyment of country bears. HOWEVER I must disagree with you on Fast & Furious, because -while I make no arguments about ride quality- I find it as ridiculous and enjoyable as the movies themselves. As a fan of way over-the-top action comedies defying laws of physics and logic, I get amusement from the movies and the ride in a similar way. I’d never can them “good” in the serious sense, but rather a really good time.
Tom, as always I love your reports. You crack me up “each visit to Universal Orlando is at least one ride on E.T. Adventure, which is right up there with Country Bear Jamboree on the list of potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Central Florida. ”
I like E.T. and ride it each time but understand why it is not that popular. Men in Black it the older ride that I can do time and time again.
Over the years we have gone to Sea World, Lego Land and Kennedy Space center when at Disney and had a nice day. We now LOVE Universal SO MUCH that we have done a split stay between the 2 for every trip for years and don’t have time for anything other than Disney and Universal. We LOVE the express pass. It is definitely worth staying at the 3 hotels that offer it. With that we actually only need 1 day per park. We have had tickets that gave us 4 days for the price of 2 the last 3 times and when we got up the last day and could go to the park the kids (teens) said they didn’t want to go back to either park and just wanted to head over to Disney.
I keep hoping Disney will realize that there is an advantage to giving more of a benefit to guests staying at their hotels. Universal seems to get it.
My son’s favorite is Hulk Coaster. My husband’s is Kong. Mine is Forbidden Journey. My daughter used to LOVE dueling dragons and I think Hargid will be a favorite. She loves the Mummy and escape from Gringots.
ALL of us thought Fast and Furious ride was HORRIBLE. The cars you could look at in line were nice but the ride was one of the worse we have done in years. We liked the earthquake ride before so I cannot believe they replaced it with that. PARTY bus was no PARTY for us. If you told us there was NO WAIT we would probably still skip it to wait in line for a different ride.
We love Universal and really enjoyed the article! I have to say Universal is hands down handling the pandemic better than Disney. At Universal they have an employee at the entrance to each ride physically putting hand sanitizer on each person’s hand, Disney it’s there but employees don’t make folks use it. We rode Men in Black and when a lady departed she had her mask down, they literally stopped the ride to wipe it down because of this. I really think they are doing a wonderful job!
Love the report. I’m a Disney and Universal fan and I have an annual pass for Universal. I got it mainly because it is way more affordable than Disney’s annual pass especially since they removed the different tiers years ago. Have you ever been to one of the Orlando Meetup events? I have tickets to the upcoming one in December. I would love to get your take on it since you’ve covered various specialty ticketed events in Disney.
We love Universal too and agree they did a much better job with reopening. We were there in July and stayed at the Hard Rock. The express pass just makes the visit do much better.
Disney will always have my heart, but Universal is a nice alternative and their Seasonal 3-park annual passes are a lot less expensive than WDW. We are huge Harry Potter fans….(who isn’t!?) and enjoyed 5 days at UOR and Cabana Bay Beach Resort last June and Halloween Horror Nights/parks again in October. Harry Potter World is awesome and Hagrid’s has surpassed Flights of Passage as my favorite attraction! What we loved most is the easiness of UOR…no 180 day dining reservations, no 60 day FPP (although that has all changed now), no mad dashes from one attraction to the next. We did follow a Touring Plan, but it was less of a quest than at Disney parks. Volcano Bay is the BEST Water Park we’ve ever experienced and the Fearless River is where we spent most of our time there. I would highly recommend that readers step outside the Disney bubble and experience more of what Orlando has to offer. There’s something to be said for SeaWorld Parks, the Kennedy Space Center…heck, even Gatorland! I for one would love to see you branch out and cover some other parks Tom! BTW, we bought DVC resale at SSR back in 2014 because of your recommendation….I know you prefer BLT now, but SSR was a great deal and it saved us a boatload of money on a much smaller contract at VGF. Thanks for your amazing photos and reports! Keep ’em coming! 🙂
We’ve never been to Universal. We want to someday, but part of the problem with being so used to Disney is that I am turned off by the learning curve of having to figure out a whole new set of touring strategies, where to stay, where to eat, etc. Would love if your blog had more reviews and how-tos on Universal.
MomOTwins….it’s so much easier than WDW! Most websites have great touring plans for UOR so there’s no need to figure it out yourself! Also, if you stay at their Premium resorts (Portofino Bay, Hard Rock or Royal Pacific) you get Express Passes for every attraction that offers them AND you get 2 DAYS of Express Passes for just one night’s stay! Then you don’t even need a touring plan! I sincerely hope Disney takes advantage of this time to reinvent themselves, become more guest friendly, and make vacations more magical and less stressful. Less expensive would also be greatly appreciated! 🙂
I’m a Universal newbie so most of this article seemed like it was in another language, but I still appreciated reading it. 🙂
I love universal and Disney so I would love to see more reports on universal thank you I love reading all these
So glad to see this Universal report! We’ve been APs for both WDW and universal and are FL residents. Definitely think Universal handled the reopening much better. They took care of the APs far better than Disney has. Unfortunately, we’ll be letting both expire…. It was a sad day recently when I took off my Disney AP car magnet.
I love Disney, but feel the high end Universal hotels (Portofino, Royal Pacific, Hard Rock) offer a much better deal than the moderate Disney hotels in the same price range and with the Express Pass being included makes a much better quick trip that WDW.
If a family were to ask me for advice on which to pick, I’d say Disney if the kids are say 7 and under. After that, Universal. Except for the food…. Disney definitely takes it there in my opinion.
We love love love Universal! To the extent that we have twice stayed on what is technically Disney-affiliated property while only going to Universal. We haven’t been to Disney in many years, and every time we start to research a trip, we decide against it in favour of the more affordable and less structured approach of UO. We love it so much that we are out-of-state UO APs.
The pandemic has kept us away since before shutdown (our last trip was in late February), but we have been reading everything we can find about how things have gone after reopen so we can plan our next trip to Florida and UO. The most complicated aspect for us is the travel to and from Florida.
More Universal trip reports, please! I like to see the differences in Universal vs. Disney, it’s always interesting. Also, Universal hotel reports, and park food reviews as well!
Disney will always have my heart but I’ve developed a soft spot for Universal in recent years as I experienced 2 trips there that were extremely special. The first was a long weekend with 2 dear friends where we acted like we were 18 again (we are mid to late 30’s LOL) and had a wonderful time. The second was a day trip with my husband as we were going through infertility treatment and I was recovering from miscarriage. The thrill rides and vibe were exactly what we needed. I love the more spontaneous aspect of universal and I would love more in depth coverage from you!