Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, Orlando

Travel distance/time from Florida Delight (24.9 miles: 39 minutes)

The number one movie and TV based theme park in the world.  At this real working motion picture studio you’ll go behind the scenes and beyond the screen as you experience an incredible array of rides, shows, movie sets and attractions including Transformers The Ride 3-D, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, The Simpsons Ride, Revenge of the Mummy and Shrek 4-D and loads more. Not forgetting too the totally magical ET ride. We first went on this many years ago and did again when we visited in January and we were as impressed by it as much as we were the first time we experienced it.

The park is divided into two - Universal Studios and The Islands of Adventure. You can  board the Hogwart's Express from Hogsmeade Station which takes you to "King's Cross" station in Universal Studios (or travel in opposite direction from Kings Cross). You will need to purchase a park to park ticket if you want to board the train at either station and visit both parks.

We visited in January of this year and it was really good in terms of how quick the queues were for all of the rides. Most were no longer than 5- 10 minutes waiting time with the exception of the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride which was over an hour. In peak season all of these rides will, I am sure, have much longer waiting times. We loved all of the rides especially flying over the grounds of Hogwarts on the Forbidden Journey although this ride was too much for my 80 year old parents!

The new King Kong ride which opened in 2017 attracts big queues and whilst it is a very good ride it seemed to be over very fast and the wait of nearly an hour didn't feel quite worth it really.

Loved too Jurassic Park River Adventure but did get very wet, which just added to the fun.  

We started our day in Universal Studios and then after lunch caught the Hogwart's Express over to the Islands of Adventure. Both parks are fantastic but initially we were most impressed by the rides in The Islands of Adventure. However after now having been to both parks three times we think that the Universal Studios park with attractions such as Diagon Alley and rides such as the Transformers is the best.