As a Christmas gift to ourselves, we decided to take a trip to Orlando to visit all the amusement parks. Neither my husband nor I had ever been to Orlando, so we were definitely overwhelmed by the amount of things that needed to be booked and the amount of research we needed to do beforehand, but it was definitely all worth it! So here’s all the details of my trip to Universal Studios and Disney World!

Going to Orlando is going to look different for everybody, depending on the amount of days you plan on staying and the ages of people that are with you. We just took ourselves, so this is a trip that we planned for two adults. We were able to do every single thing we wanted to do, which made for long (and sometimes exhausting) days, but I’m so glad you did it that way because I’m not sure when we’ll be back again.

We were in Orlando for 7 full days. We decided to do 3 days at Universal Studios/Island of Adventure, then the other 4 days at each of the Disney World Parks. We honestly did everything that we wanted to do at Universal in 2 days, and then 1 day at each of the 4 Disney parks was great for us. We also didn’t rent a car. We stayed at resort hotels and just took an uber to and from the airport.

Universal Studios/Island of Adventure

We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel which was AMAZING! It’s a 10 minute walk from the park entrances and was so convenient. We paid for the breakfast buffets every morning, planned on eating lunches in the parks, then dinners on the City Walk. Everything is so close which I loved. Also if you stay at a resort park, you get a free express pass to use on all the rides. This made staying at the Hard Rock Hotel more than worth it. 

My main draw for going to Universal Studios and Island of Adventure was Harry Potter World, so we definitely took advantage of everything “Harry Potter” that the parks had to offer. We ate at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley, rode all the HP rides, drank frozen butterbeer, and watched the Hogwarts firework show. We also made sure to get a park hopper pass so that we could ride the Hogwarts Express between the parks. Our favorite ride, hands down, was Hagrid’s in Island’s of Adventure. We rode it 3 times! Other favorites were the Jurassic Park Velocicoaster and The Mummy. 

For food we ate at the Cow Fish (which was good but they were super behind on seating even with a reservation), Antojitos Mexican (which was pretty standard mexican food, and Mythos (definitely need a reservation and the Souvlaki Couscous Bowl was amazing).  

Disney World

After a couple days at Universal, we took a day to check in to our Disney hotel, Disney Yacht Club, explore the Boardwalk, enjoy the jacuzzi, and make a game plan for our first day at the Disney Parks. I will note that if you just walk into a Disney park without a game plan, you will probably end up waiting in a lot of long lines and not be able to ride all the rides. We listened to many podcasts in the weeks leading up to our trip to learn how to use genie+ and lightning lane, what were the top priority rides we wanted to hit at each park, and made all dining reservations ahead of time so that we could work our schedule around that. Like I said, strategy is key. 

We also rope dropped every single park, which means we were up and out the door early in the morning so that we could start waiting in line as early as 6:30am.  If you stay at a Disney resort, you get the opportunity for early park entry which means you can get in the park 30 minutes before the general public, which is awesome and highly recommend taking advantage of. 

*special note- Since we’d be leaving so early each morning for rope drop/early entry, we signed up for Walmart+ and had groceries delivered to our hotel after we checked in so that we could eat breakfast in our room and pack snacks for the day.

Hollywood Studios-

My favorite rides were Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania. And our favorite show was the Frozen Sing-along (sooooo fun!). The Star Wars rides were just ok in my opinion. We had lunch at Ronto Roasters in Galaxy’s Edge (the Ronto Wrap was the perfect quick lunch in between rides) and dinner was at the Sci Fi Dine-In (where we got yummy burgers and milkshakes while eating in old vintage cars). Highly recommend both! We also stayed for the Fantasmic Show at the end of the evening and it was BOMB! So so good!

Animal Kingdom-

My favorite rides were Avatar in Pandora and the Kilimanjaro Safari. This park also has a lot of really fun shows like The Festival of the Lion King and Feathered Friends in Flight. Both are so fun! There aren’t a ton of rides in this park so we were able to leave early and spend some relaxation time in our hotel in the evening. For food we ate at the Satu’li Canteen at Pandora for lunch, and then took a shuttle to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to have dinner at Sanaa (the naan bread appetizer was delicious). I highly recommend both!

Magic Kingdom-

This was probably the most exhausting day. This park has the most rides, many of which are similar to Disneyland in CA. We also ate the most at this park and I felt soooo sick by the end of the evening. All good food, but there was just so much. My favorite rides were Pirates of the Caribbean (for nostalgia’s sake), Thunder Mountain, and Tron was also pretty good. Food we ate were the chicken waffle sandwich at Sleepy Hollow, the soft serve coconut dole whip cups at Aloha Isle, then we had dinner at the Be Our Guest Restaurant (I thought the experience was fun but I probably wouldn’t eat there again because it’s soooo expensive and I didn’t feel like the food was overly amazing). We also were able to catch a couple of the parades. Some were small and over within minutes and some were a little larger and over in 15-20 minutes. I wouldn’t prioritize these over the rides, but they are fun to watch if you happen to have time to see one.

Epcot-

I’m glad we ended on this day because it was definitely the most chill. We rope dropped Ratatouille and Frozen Ever After, which were both fun, but my FAVORITE ride (and dare I say my favorite ride in all of Disney) was Guardians of the Galaxy! We were able to ride it twice and I loved it! For food, we had lunch in Tokyo, snacks in China, crepes in France, and dinner in America. All the food was pretty good. For Christmas, Epcot also had a special christmas program with a live orchestra, choirs, and actress Marlee Matlin narrating The Nativity. It was beautiful! The firework show at the end of the night was amazing. Definitely worth staying for!

Disney After Hours Events-

Since we were there in December during Christmas time, there were a couple after hours events that you could purchase tickets for separately. We bought tickets to Jollywood (in Hollywood Studios) and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (in Magic Kingdom). Our thought was that we would be able to use these events to ride some of our favorite rides extra times, as well as see some of the special shows that these events had to offer. In reality, these events were so crowded that the lines for rides were actually longer than they were during the day. And you couldn’t use any lightening lanes for these events.

For shows, we went to The Nightmare Before Christmas show at Jollywood, which was fun but probably not worth the price of the ticket. We also saw a show at MVMCP where all the characters and some professional singers sang live which actually was pretty fun, and they did a special event where Olaf from Frozen decorated Cinderella’s castle for Christmas. Both fun things, but again, it was very crowded and we didn’t feel like the events were worth the prices of the tickets.

Overall…

I’m so glad we were able to go on this trip! I’ve been wanting to go to Orlando for years but the timing never worked out. And it can be a pretty expensive trip, so I’m glad we waited so that we could do it right. I also heard that another Universal Park is going to open in 2025 which will include the Ministry of Magic from Harry Potter! I’ll definitely be going back to Universal to see that when it’s done!

Want to check out other trips I’ve taken? Click here!