Universal Studios Hollywood!

 

Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to visit Universal Studios. Every time I see or hear commercials for it, I always think about how much fun it would be to visit. We were recently finally able to visit! We had been saving up for a family trip, and over Thanksgiving we skipped doing a Thanksgiving meal & headed to Hollywood instead. I am going to share a bit of what we thought about the park & some tips that might help you on your trip to Universal. We visited on Thanksgiving, so we didn't get to see all of the Christmas stuff such as the Grinch as that wasn't open until the day after we were there, but we did still get to see a lot of the park decorated for the holidays. 

The newest addition to the park is of course Super Nintendo World & there are tons of people who want to see it. You are able to buy an early access pass for $20-$30 per person, which allows you to enter the park to visit only Super Nintendo World an hour before the rest of the park opens & without the need to make a reservation to visit. The day we went to the park, it was pretty busy so there were still a ton of people who bought the early access passes. I didn't realize before visiting that the Super Nintendo World area only has one ride, otherwise the entire area is catered mostly to anyone who purchased a power-up interactive band for an additional $40 per band. When you walk through the tunnel into Nintendo World, it really does feel like you've stepped into another world. They did an amazing job curating everything to feel and look like it does in the video games & I absolutely love the landscaping they have in the area. In hindsight I do wish we would have purchased the express line passes instead of entering the park an hour early, it would have saved us so much time waiting in lines. 

Half of the park sits on top of a hill & the rest is at the bottom, there are five or six levels of escalators that will take you from one section of the park to the other. It was insane seeing how high up the top half of the park is & watching the bottom half getting bigger and bigger with each flight of escalators you take.  Alongside each attraction area, you will also find themed food & gift shops that fit the theme for that area. Some of the rides do not allow purses or backpacks on board so they have free lockers available next to those rides to keep your belongings in which were easy to use.

Some of the rides are mostly 3D visual movies, but they were still a lot of fun. Our favorite rides were Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey along with Revenge of the Mummy. The Transformers ride & Jurassic world were pretty great as well. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the studio tour or not, as I wasn't sure what all the tour actually included, but it had a lot to offer. We were able to see some of the backstage areas where they shoot & drive through familiar settings like the neighborhood where they filmed "The Good Place" which I loved watching. On the studio tour you will also see two different 3D "rides" and some attractions which made the experience even better. Our Tram host made the experience great as well with some of the jokes, tidbits & more that she talked about while on our tour. 

One of the spots I was most looking forward to visiting was the Hogsmeade area, I've loved Harry Potter since I was in the third grade, so I was so excited about being able to visit. It is another area of the park where you will feel transported into the world, there are a lot of small details that add some extra magic to the area. We did try the butterbeer, two of us were fans and the rest of us were not. It was overly sweet & had a very strong butterscotch flavor; it made my sons stomach upset so he only had about a quarter of his. If you've tried the butterbeer at either Universal, what are your thoughts on it? We also picked up some chocolate frogs, every flavored jellybeans & a cauldron cake from the sweets shop. I felt like the chocolate frogs were a bit overpriced & they tasted old/chalky, so I do not think I'd purchase them again. Even though some of the jellybeans are disgusting flavors, it was fun to get. My son made a game out of the jellybeans & put together a little trivia game where if we got an answer wrong, we had to spin a wheel that told us how many beans we had to eat. I loved the cauldron cake; it might have been just a basic chocolate cupcake with frosting on top, but it was adorable and came in a food safe silicon cauldron that can be re-used to make another small cupcake in. 

Foodwise all of the lines for the restaurants were ridiculously long & for large families some of the prices might not be the most affordable such as ten dollars for one slice of pizza. A great alternative to spending a fortune on food at the park if you don't want to? There are two options, one is visiting City walk just outside of the park that has slightly cheaper food options like Panda express or two you are allowed to bring in some small snacks + bottled water. I did not know that was an option until we saw a bunch of families walking around with snack bags in hand that were brought from home/hotels. 

The character spotting's were a blast, I was ecstatic that I was able to be the first person in line for the first meeting time with Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. I could feel that I had an absolutely silly face the entire meeting & I didn't really say much in the moment was my emotions were all over the place and I was a little nervous, but I am glad I had that opportunity. We also stopped by to see Donkey from Shrek & my daughter was able to get some photos with King Julien. 

Even with the fun rides we were able to go on & the characters we were able to meet, our favorite moment in the park was hands down seeing the Water World Show. Wow! They put on quite the performance with everything from amazing stunts to explosions, the crowed being included and more it isn't a show that is to be missed. It was wonderful being able to visit the park, in the future I think if I had a chance to revisit Universal I would want to visit the one in Florida instead simply because they have more rides & more space available for everyone to spread out.

If you are planning a trip to southern California & are looking for other activities to do feel free to type in "Things to do in California" in the search bar of my blog so you can find some other great activities in California. This was not a sponsored review, we paid to get into the museum ourselves. I enjoy being able to share spots like this with my readers who may not be able to visit in person but are still interested in learning more about these spots, or for anyone planning vacations in the area. 

Have you ever been to Universal? If so, what was your favorite part? And if you haven't been, would you like to visit Universal or is there another travel destination that is at the top of your "To Visit" list?