We had family coming into town for the July 4th holiday weekend and they wanted to take their kids to Universal Studios (primarily for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter). Since we needed to buy tickets for ourselves, we took advantage of a current Florida resident deal and got 2 free days with our 1-day tickets. As a result, we had those two extra days to go by ourselves and since it’d been 5 years since our last visit, we decided to spend Father’s Day weekend scoping out of the parks before our visitors arrived.

Our trip turned out to be almost an exact replica of our weekend back in 2018. Once again it turned out to be cheaper to stay at a Universal resort hotel and get the “free” Express Unlimited service than to pay for the service separately. We drove over to the Royal Pacific first thing Saturday morning to park the car and pick up our tickets but were surprised to find that our room was already available! That was nice and let us unload the car before walking over to Universal Studios. We spent the day dodging the occasional Florida rainshower and taking advantage of the Express Pass, which let us ride everything we wanted (even Rip, Ride, Rockit Rip-off which, despite my history with it, is still a fun coaster). I was sad at first that the Terminator T2 show had been replaced with The Bourne Stuntacular, but after we saw it, I got over those feelings (that is one cool show, I highly recommend it!). Unfortunately the new Minion Blast attraction opening had been delayed so we didn’t get to experience that but we did spend time in Diagon Alley refreshing ourselves on the layout and activities so we’d be prepared to show the neice and nephew around. It’s still crazy to me that the Universal parks close at 9pm. I guess this forces everyone out into CityWalk to spend more money (but I have to admit that unlike Disney, having both of Universal’s parks and CityWalk all in the same single location has its benefits). We had late dinner reservations at The Cowfish Burger and Sushi Bar and had a great family meal sitting outside on the balcony while it rained some more. Finally, before walking back to the hotel, we picked up tomorrow’s breakfast from Voodoo Doughnuts.

We got up early Sunday morning (Father’s Day!) and walked to Islands of Adventure to be there right when it opened so we could immediately get in line for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. Once the gates opened and we got through the ticket lines, we fast-walked with the large crowd back to Hogsmeade. The line looked really long once we got in it, but we only waited for about 30 minutes. The last time we were here, I was sad that the Dragon Challenge/Dueling Dragons coaster was being replaced, but like with Terminator/Bourne yesterday, once I rode the new coaster I no longer missed the old one. The Hagrid’s ride is amazing. Totally different than Velocicoaster, but still a thrilling ride with everything I love in a roller coaster (forwards, backwards, drops, speed!). We came dressed in our water-wear planning to hit the water rides early and then change into dry clothes back at the hotel like our last visit. After riding both the Jurassic Park River Adventure and Ripsaw Falls we were wet, but not as soaked as we expected (and I left my hat on Ripsaw Falls … oops!). Still, we had to go back to the hotel to check out anyway so after walking back, changing, and packing the car, we headed back to the park to knock out more rides including the VelociCoaster, which was incredible (the inversion at the end over the water … oh man!). We tried the single-rider line for Hagrid’s which turned out to be a mistake: it took us just under 90 minutes to get on the ride, which was shorter than the regular line (and it was so hot). Still, getting to ride the ride with first-timers was fun. Having that Express Unlimited pass really worked out great so that by late afternoon we had done everything we wanted to do and hit the road home.

Day 3 of our tickets was used the Sunday of July 4th weekend with the visiting family. We were only going for the day (so no hotel or Express Pass service this time) and we were focusing on stuff for the kids so it was good that we got to ride all of the other stuff during our previous month’s visit. We started at Universal Studios and went right to Diagon Alley where my niece got chosen at Ollivander’s, rode Escape from Gringott’s, and then the adults spent time relaxing and drinking butterbeer while my daughter and neice ran around casting spells with their wands. Then we took the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade (at Islands of Adventure) and did the same Harry Potter stuff there. After lunch, my sister and I slipped away to ride the Velocicoaster and then met up with the family again (who had visited the Seuss area) to ride Hagrid’s. It only took us about 50 minutes to get on Hagrid’s (even though the sign estimated 70) and my niece got to ride it twice due to child swap. Later, we hopped on the train again back to King’s Cross Station (back to Universal Studios) and finished up the day there with dinner at the new Minion Cafe and then ran and barely got into the line for Minion Mayhem before it closed at 9:00pm. It was crazy trying to do both parks in a single day with such a large group, but since we were focused mainly on the kids/Harry Potter stuff we managed to get it done (again, glad we got to do all the other rides the other weekend by ourselves) and the kids had a blast.