Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure — Attending over 40 with no kids
If you find yourself with a reservation for Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure, (theme park) for one reason or another and you are over the age of 40 with no kids here are some tips to enjoy the adventure.
Executive Summary: (1) You can consume the parks at Universal Studios in 2.5 days and fully visit the City Walk Adventure. (2) This will require finding a deal on the park tickets where you can get 5 days for the cost of 3 days. This is traditionally called the “3 Parks for 5 Days” that is park to park (3) This assumes you will stay at a hotel that is not “on property”. The Marriott branded hotels are a great choice and have a free shuttle. (4) You need to get the park to park pass as you need to go between parks at various times to achieve all the rides. (5) Read the books on Harry Potter, see the Fast and Furious Movie and other Universal produced items. The rides will make more sense.
The team at Universal creates an amazing theme park! The rest rooms are clean, the park is clean and the surrounding City Walk is also clean and very available. I am thankful for the investment that Universal spends in cleanliness. The cleanliness is augmented with a number of exciting items to see.
Your investment in visiting the park should look at the time of year to go. Recently my visit occurred with an arrival at night on Tuesday, September 17, 2019 through a departure on Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 6AM. During this time the park was extremely manageable for the crowd size. While lines did exist, the “maze” that is setup was largely empty. This yielded wait time less than 45 minutes for all of the popular rides. If I had kids, it would seem to make sense to pull them out of school to visit the park during this “off season”. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to visit during a peak time, to wait in line and potentially fail to attend every ride.
With my schedule, I was able to participate in all of the major attractions in two and a half days. This included starting Wednesday at Universal Studios Florida to attend the rides and spend additional time in the “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Dragon Alley”. Wednesday evening was a trip over to Universal Islands of Adventure to consume more attractions.
Thursday, wrapped up all of the major rides at Universal Studios Florida and left the remaining night for the majority of the rides at Universal Islands of Adventure. For your first night at the Universal Islands of Adventure, skip the 8PM “Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle” and use that time to consume the rides. Please note, on this schedule you will find yourself participating in the water rides after the sun goes down. You will need to prepare for a wet afternoon, but you will have achieved all of the rides! You definitely want to wrap up the rides before Friday and Saturday.
For the rides you do not finish on Thursday, travel back to the Universal Islands of Adventure on Friday and finish off the remaining ones that had a long line. Once that is done, you can now go re-visit a ride, or can start to attend the shows available. You have now gone through all of the rides in 2.5 days.
Key items to cover on your visit: (1) Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. This is the newest ride at Universal Islands of Adventure. At a cost of 300MM to build you will want to get your piece of the action. Source is here
Key items that you should prioritize lower over the other attractions: (2) Poseidon’s Fury
If you have not seen the Universal Theme park and you have a significant other, it is a great trip for a few days.