Here’s a recap of day at Islands of Adventure, including Hogsmeade, Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, Butterbeer, VelociCoaster, and family ride favorites.
After an early bedtime on arrival day, we were ready for our first full park day at Universal Orlando: Islands of Adventure! We decided to do just the two older parks on this trip because 1) They were close to our hotel and didn’t require a bus 2) We only got the Express Pass at these two parks and 3) We only really had two days!
I also did not get the park-to-park tickets to 1) save money and 2) keep us from zig zagging back and forth and just focus on one park at a time. This meant we didn’t get to ride the Hogwarts Express, but we didn’t even know to miss it.
If you missed my first post about our trip, you can read about our stay at Loews Royal Pacific Resort, pool hopping, and arrival day here: Universal Orlando Arrival Day.
Island Of Adventure Early Entry and Rope Drop Strategy
One of the biggest perks of staying at Royal Pacific is Early Park Admission, which let us enter Islands of Adventure before the official park opening. The park opened at 9, so we got to go in at 8. Wake up was around 6:30!
I went to Tuk Tuk Market in the hotel to pick up breakfast provisions, which became our routine every morning. Coffee for me, fruit and yogurt, and usually a donut or two for the boys.
My uniform for the day was athletic clothes, tennis shoes, sunglasses, visor, sunscreen, and a belt bag. Not cute, but highly practical. This ended up being our hottest and sweatiest day of the trip because so much of Islands of Adventure is outdoors. If you’re visiting in the summer, hats and sunscreen are absolutely essential.
What To Pack
We also packed a single backpack with snacks, sunscreen, water bottles, a tiny umbrella, and ponchos. Plus room for souvenirs. I got these collapsible water bottles to make the backpack as light as possible. They worked out great! We filled them up at water fountains around the park. I also got these ponchos and these rain booties. We are so glad we didn’t have to use them! A good problem to have. I got the booties after my shoes got socked at Hollywood Studios last time and it sort of ruined my afternoon having soggy feet. I also put an AirTag and kid wristband on Birch just in case we got separated.
We arrived at the gates right around 8:00 a.m. and headed straight for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which is usually the most popular ride in the park. And then… we learned it was delayed for technical difficulties. Ugh! Our whole morning revolved around getting to this ride early!
Hogwarts and the Forbidden Journey
Since Hagrid’s wasn’t operating, we pivoted to the next ride on our list: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey inside Hogwarts Castle. This ended up being one of my favorite rides of the entire trip!
The queue alone is incredible. You walk through Hogwarts, passing familiar locations from the movies including classrooms, portraits, and Dumbledore’s office. The attention to detail is unbelievable.
The ride itself is motion simulation and takes you flying through the castle. You go almost upsidedown at one point in the coaster-like chairs, but you never go fast. Birch admitted afterward that the giant spiders and Dementors scared him a little, but he was also proud that he rode it.
His official review: “I loved it. But I don’t want to do it again.”
Flight of the Hippogriff
Next we rode Flight of the Hippogriff. Birch was hesitant to ride this one at first because it looked fast, and he said he wanted to do Child Swap. But once we got to the front of the line he changed his mind. Good thing because it ended up being one of his favorite rides of the day.
Exploring Hogsmeade
Before the crowds really built up, we spent some time wandering through Hogsmeade. The plan was to spend the morning there and the afternoon on the other rides in the park.
For his souvenir, Birch picked out an interactive wand, which you can use at the interactive spell locations around the village at all three of the parks. We found it to be a little tricky and there were lines by the time the crowds picked up, but it was still fun.
We also went into Honeydukes for a chocolate frog, which was way more about the experience than eating a solid block of chocolate on a hot day was practical : )
Hagrid’s Again
When we realized Hagrids was operating, so did everyone else. Despite our Express Passes, we still waited over an hour in the hot sun to ride. Part of the problem was that everyone lined up at once, and the other part was that one of the trains was broken so they were going slower than usual through the queue.
This was probably the most frustrating part of the trip because it ate up a huge chunk of our morning and we were so hot and sweaty. Luckily we had water, but anyone without water or needing the bathroom was out of luck! (The non-express line was apparently 2+ hours!)
That said, the ride really is fantastic. Once we finally got on, we all agreed it was worth riding.
Child Swap
When I first planned this trip I wasn’t sure how the rides would work with one parent and two kids of different ages, but the Child Swap option was great! They had family rooms for me to wait with Birch while Mazen rode, and I got a special ticket to ride after Mazen got back to wait with Birch. They were really accommodating.
Watching Harry Potter in the family room:
The only negative was that Mazen gave me his phone for Hagrids, so we had no way of communicating. It took him so long to go through that we worried he had exited the ride. We frantically went in and out of the ride exit 3 times before we found him waiting in the family room. Lesson learned: take phones with you at all times either in zip pockets or a belt bag! (What did we do before phones!?)
Lunch at Three Broomsticks
One thing we did right was eating lunch early. We walked into Three Broomsticks only a 5 minute wait and found a table immediately. I LOVED eating lunch in the Harry Pottery establishments! I also loved that they had mobile ordering that was super easy and fast. Food arrived at our table within 10 minutes. They are very efficient!
I ordered the rotisserie chicken salad, which was surprisingly good. Birch got mac and cheese with grapes. Mazen ordered a loaded baked potato.
And of course we finally tried Butterbeer! I can confirm the hype is real. LOVED the frothy whipped cream-like topping.
Skull Island: Kong
After lunch we headed toward Skull Island: Reign of Kong. The underground entrance was really scary, so Birch chose child swap for this too. Mazen got to ride, but it broke down right when it was my turn! Oh well.
Spider-Man (a Birch favorite)
Next up was The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. This was a 3D ride in a little car that moved on a track. This ended up being one of Birch’s favorite attractions of the trip, and we did it twice. Surprisingly he was more scared the second time through and closed his eyes until Spiderman rescued us.
Jurrasic Park + VelociCoaster
I took Birch to the Jurassic Park Discovery Center playground, while Mazen and I took turns riding Jurassic World VelociCoaster. He LOVED this playground, which had a treehouse with nets, and a network of slides and caves. The caves were nice and cool!
VelociCoaster was INCREDIBLE! The ride launches, twists, climbs, hangs you upside-down 5 feet over the water, and generally does things that seem physically unreasonable. The over-the-top drop was literally over the top. I screamed in fear and loved it at the same time.
I think VelociCoaster may have officially replaced every other coaster as my favorite of all time, beating out the Busch Gardens Pantheon!
Mazen didn’t used to like thrill rides, but he couldn’t stop talking about this one. He is now a major thrill ride guy.
Hulk, Storm Force, and Seuss Landing
After VelociCoaster, we headed into Marvel Super Hero Island. Mazen and I used Child Swap again so we could ride The Incredible Hulk Coaster. Birch and I rode Storm Force Accelatron “teacups” while we waited on M.
From there we headed into Seuss Landing. The Cat in the Hat was cute, quirky, and air-conditioned, which was a selling point by that stage of the afternoon.
We also rode the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride, which ended up being another Birch favorite. It offers a relaxing ride above the land with great views.
Back to the Hotel
By late afternoon we were completely exhausted. We hit 17,000 steps this day and 7 miles! We took the water taxi back to Royal Pacific and immediately headed for the pool. After spending most of the day outside, a swim felt amazing.
Dinner at Jake’s American
Knowing this was a huge day, I thought we’d want to stay at the hotel for dinner, so I didn’t make a reservation in CityWalk and we went to Jake’s American Bar inside Royal Pacific. The patio was quiet and lovely.
Birch and I both got pizzas, and Mazen had a chicken sandwich. My biggest regret of the trip was that I was much too full to order the S’mores skillet!
