Two Disney Parks and Two Universal Parks in Three Days

Last week I took a trip to Orlando and went to two Disney parks and two Universal parks in three days. I arrived Wednesday, Dec. 11, went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Thursday, Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Friday, and Universal’s Islands of Adventures and Universal Studios Florida on Saturday. Unfortunately my friend was not able to join me, but the silver lining was that I got to go on the single-rider lines, which were always faster. With reserving the three FastPass slots per day at the Disney parks, and getting the Express pass at Universal, I was able to go on all the rides I was hoping to go on. I’ll give my rating, 1-10, for each ride.

Day 1: Disney’s Hollywood Studios (more photos)
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (a very large area dedicated to Star Wars) opened in August, so it was neat to see that. It almost felt like you were on one of those planets you see in the movies. I was not able to go on the ride that opened just the other week, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, since all of the spots were reserved around 7am that day.

• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. I was able to sit in the front, which I think is the best on any roller coaster. Most of it is in the dark, which was fun, but not my favorite. 7

• Tower of Terror (first FastPass). I knew there would some type of free falling, and I don’t usually love that, but I went, and I actually enjoyed it. Wasn’t that scary. 7.5

• Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (second FastPass). The show was fun and enjoyable. It was like they were shooting scenes in a movie. Kind of a cool concept. 7.5

• Toy Story Mania. You get to shoot stuff and it tallies your score. Fun. 7.5

• Star Tours (third FastPass). Same line to get in as it was around 20 years ago when I rode it last time, but the ride has been updated. It’s still fun. 8

• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. This is one of the rides in the new area Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It was pretty cool in that you go on a ship with a few other people, and each person has a role to play (pilot, gunner, engineer). My main problem with the ride is that I was looking at the buttons instead of looking ahead, so I missed a bunch of the visuals. An interesting idea and good attempt at something different though. 7

Day 2: Disney’s Animal Kingdom (more photos)
The main reason I took the trip to Orlando was to go on the flight simulator ride Avatar Flight of Passage, and check out Pandora (the planet from the movie Avatar). You are able to book FastPass one month ahead of your trip at 7am, and when I checked a month before at 8am, all the FastPass were gone for the whole day for that ride. So without FastPass, I wanted to get there before the park even opened to try and avoid long lines. On the day I went, the park opened at 9am. When I got there at 8:45am, the gates to the park were open even though the rides had not started. So I hustled to that ride, and when I made it to the end of the line there was already a 90-minute wait. But it was worth it! All of Pandora was very impressive, and the line going into that ride was phenomenal. Oh, and the ride itself was one of the best I’ve ever been on. 9.5

• Dinosaur. Fun car ride through the time when dinosaurs roamed the planet. 7

• Expedition Everest. Fun roller coaster. 7.5

• It’s Tough to be a Bug. 3-D show. Quite enjoyable. 7.5

• Festival of the Lion King. Fun show with acrobats, singers, and really big animals (not real animals). 8

• Kilmanjaro Safaris (first FastPass). Lots of animals (real ones this time), and the jeep guide gave lots of good information, not just about the animals, but about protecting endangered species and the environment. 7

• Na’vi River Journey (second FastPass). A mellow boat ride through the river. Was cool seeing all the animals and plants of Pandora. Not the most exciting, but good nonetheless. I actually went on it a second time to sit on the other side of the boat to see the things I didn’t see the first time. 7.5

• Rivers of Light show (third FastPass). A neat light show on the water after dark. 7.5

Day 3: Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida (more photos)
The last time I went to these parks was about five years ago in 2014. That was before the Express pass, and before anything Harry Potter at Universal Studios Florida. (Islands of Adventure was where HP was back then.) The ride that opened most recently was Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Islands of Adventure, and I knew I wanted to go on that, along with the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios that I hadn’t been on yet. So to do both rides in one day, I needed to get the two parks in one day ticket (see what Universal did there?), and I also went for the Express pass since there were a bunch of rides I wanted to go on at each park. I was glad I got the Express pass, but you were not able to use it on Hagrid’s ride. However, the single-rider line went quickly, and instead of waiting around 90 minutes, I only waited 20. And being a single rider and using the Express pass for the other rides, I didn’t have to wait longer than 20 minutes for any ride the whole day. I rode a ton of rides, and a lot of the rides jerk you around quite a bit, so my stomach was feeling a bit queasy at the end of the day. OK, here are the rides I went on.

Universal’s Islands of Adventure

• Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. This roller coaster was quite fun. Goes fast, you get to see Hagrid and some magical creatures, and it’s over before you know it. 8

• Skull Island: Reign of Kong. You’re in a car, riding around Skull Island, and you see all sorts of big and mean animals, along with King Kong. It’s fun. 7

• The Amazing Adventures of Spider-man. I really like this ride. When I went on it when I was there a number of years ago I said it was one of the best rides I ever went on. It was still really really good. 8.5

• The Incredible Hulk Coaster. This goes really fast. I was in the front, which I think is the best for these high-speed rides. 8.5

• Poseidon’s Fury. You go on a guided tour of Poseidon’s temple, and see some cool stuff along the way. 7.5

• Hogwarts Express (train between Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios). This was fun. Drops you off in the London train station, by platform 9 3/4. 7

Universal Studios Florida

• Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. It was fun and action-packed. 8

• Fast & Furious: Supercharged. You’re on a party bus! The ride had technical difficulties and we were stuck on the ride not moving for about 5 minutes. But other than that it was pretty fun. 7

• Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. This was cool. 7

(These next rides I went on last time so I won’t give write-ups.)

• Revenge of the Mummy: 7

• Shrek: 7

• Minions: 8

• Transformers: 7

• Men in Black: Alien Attack: 7