Want to see Universal Hollywood in 24 hours? It's definitely possible! I took our two oldest (6, 7), and we saw the entire park - plus a tiny bit of LA! And the big bonus is that it helped us ring in a little FALL - especially during the Hogwarts light show!!
getting there
We found cheap tickets the night before (yeah... you read that right, night before), which put us on a 7:30am Southwest flight out of Phoenix, and we landed in Burbank before 9am. If you can get a flight into Burbank, it's a smaller airport, but very much closer to Universal.
From the airport, we got an Uber straight to the Sheraton Universal, where we dropped our bags at the hotel valet and went to the bathroom off the lobby to get organized. Once we felt ready to greet the day with only our tiny crossbody bag on, we were off. It was an easy 5 minute walk up to the park. Note there is also a shuttle, but if you take the parking garage elevator (across from the main entrance) to the top floor and then cut through the Hilton above... it's probably about the same amount of time as the shuttle! We were on our first ride by 10am!
rides
And ride we did! To get right to it, I polled the kids after, and these were "our" top three rides:
Flight of the Hippogriff (Harry Potter) - Best overall. We did this one twice (which meant waiting in that long general line the second time) and it was SO SO worth it. The kids weren't tall enough for the other Harry Potter rollercoaster, but this one was perfect for us in this stage of life here!
Minion Mayhem - Kids just LOVED this for some reason?! It was also a repeat, but I was still trying to figure out why the second time around...
Jurassic World Ride - Borderline scary - big drop, getting wet… but what else do you need? Our 6 yr old did not desire a repeat of this... but still talks about how much she loved it.
And speaking of rides, since it was just a day, we splurged and got the “one-time use” express tickets (which means you get to use the express line one time for each ride). We picked this option instead of two days of general admission tickets (as those options are comparable), and I think it was the right move because we went on ALL the rides (except 2 where we didn’t meet the height restrictions) that day. I figured that we wouldn't repeat any rides, but we did repeat two... which meant we had to go without the express pass on those two, and it was a very noticeable difference. So yeah- definitely a time saver to have the passes!
Last note on rides. Check the height of your kids (and requirements for all the best rides) before you commit to flights/tickets/etc. And wear your tallest shoes! But seriously... Andrew *barely* made the height requirement to 'ride alone' for many of these rides. And that is important if you're solo parenting... because if a kid has to ride with an adult, it has to be one adult per kid... so there was a brief moment when we arrived that I thought we were screwed. But Andrew's ability to stand tall saved the day! :)
other fun!
And you may know this, but there is a lot more to do than just rides. If you have the time (and we did, thanks to the express pass), here are a few fun (free) activities:
shows
Did you know there are a bunch of free short shows on various schedules throughout the park? Schedules are on the app! Here are a few we went to:
Universal's Animal Actors: The first show we saw was the one about training the animal movie stars - which included a lot of humor (like the animals getting 'loose' and chasing each other around the stage) and a lot of real animals (owls flying over your head)!!
Special Effects Show: Next we hit up the special effects show. It was super cool (like magic show on steroids) but also borderline too much for my 7 yr old...and then we actually had to leave when my 6 yr old started crying so... maybe use your judgement (better than I did) there!
Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle: Our last and favorite show was the Harry Potter light show (more on that below!)
character sightings
We didn't specifically seek out any sightings, but we enjoyed the random ones we came across! There were mainstream characters like the Minions, and then there were also super obscure characters - and even really live animal stars!
Maybe the coolest character was right at the bottom of the Jurassic ride, called Raptor Encounter. They had a dinosaur that you could get pretty close to and looked legit real. Plus the "handler" did a great job of acting like it was an actual dinosaur and giving us all the facts... so the kids really loved that one! And a note that there is also a playground that doubles as a dino dig center (with fossils hiding in the sand) if you're looking to continue the dino fun with younger kids.
wizarding world of harry potter
If I'm being honest, this is most definitely why we were here. Yeah I wanted the big kids to experience the true joy of a theme park... but this trip was also for me and my Harry Potter obsession. And it was as magical as I envisioned. We spent a couple hours here in the morning, and then we came back for the light show and one more round of the Flight of the Hippogriff at night too. Some of our favorite stuff in the Wizarding World of Happy Potter was:
magic wands!
First we went to the "show" at Ollivanders (the wand shop), where you see inside the actual shop (looks just like the movie!!), and a volunteer is selected to pick his wand. Even though my kids weren't chosen, it was really cool to see. They test out a few wands with the kid chosen, and all the crazy stuff happens - you know since the wand is picking the kid! :) Then they open the back door up to the actual shop (which you can also enter directly from the outside), and you're free to wander around.
If you want, the staff will ask you a few questions to help pick the right wand for you (this part is optional). It was pretty pricey to get a wand (especially the interactive ones), but we did splurge. And I don't regret it because they had fun casting spells around Hogsmeade afterwards! The wands come with a map, and it shows you different spots around the Wizarding World that have spells set up (mostly behind shop windows) for you to cast. We had about a 25% success rate of casting spells... which was a bit frustrating but also was kind of fun to keep "training".
The funniest thing that happened (which is not part of the wand map!) was when Andrew was casting a spell on these doors.... and actually angered the troll inside. ;) So that was by far his best spell cast! So even though they were not cheap, I'd say the wand was worth it because it was the main thing they still talk about today (and brought to school for 'show and share') when they reminisce on the trip.
lunch + jellybeans
We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks. We went early (like borderline breakfast time) so there wasn't a big line. We got two entrees - fish and chips and shepherds' pie - and it was definitely enough for us. Food was OK, but make sure you don't miss the warm butter beers! They are super creamy and glorious. If I find a good copy cat recipe, I'll definitely be posting. (And even though it says 'beer' in the name, there is not alcohol unless you ask the bar to add it - which we didn't do in the morning since we were about to go on a bunch of rides)!
We also stopped at the candy shop for the jellybeans from the book - the ones that are ALL the flavors! (If you're not familiar with this, it includes normal flavors but also snot, blood, puke, etc.... and they are quite lifelike!) The kids thought it was hilarious, and it was also our favorite souvenirs for the little ones back home too. Once we were home, we ate the rest while having a Harry Potter movie night at home a few weekends later, and it brought back all the good memories.
flight of the hippogriff:
The bigger ride, Forbidden Journey (at the castle), did look like it would have rocked our worlds... but alas, we were not tall enough to make that happen. So we thought we were settling for this other one - Flight of the Hippogriff. But, as it turns out... it was actually awesome!! So awesome, that we rode it more than once (see fav rides above)! It has a lot of cute details from the books/movies, and the top of the ride provides a great view of Hogwarts too.
So that wrapped up our time at the Wizarding World during the daytime. It was perfect timing to leave around lunch, as the sun was getting a little hotter (read: not as many snow top vibes going on), and we explored the rest of the park for the rest of the afternoon (meaning all the shows, rides, and character sightings I mentioned above).
And then... at night... we came back! We rode the Flight of the Hippogriff a second time (yeah worth the wait without express tickets!), and then we wandered around a bit while we waited for the light show. Even though the park wasn't super packed throughout the day, it seemed PACKED at the light show. We found a spot squished between a million other people with a view of Hogwarts...and waited. And boy oh boy oh boy was this so so so so worth it!! This is literally my own unprofessional video, and it still looks awesome (but it was even cooler in person).
So clearly, I'm obsessed with the Wizarding World... and I really hope this inspired at least one person to go check out the magic!!
exploring LA
With just 24 hours, we spent most of the time at the park and had super limited time to actually explore the city. Oh and it's important to note that we lived in LA for 4 years, so when I say 'explore the city', I really mean - have some good FOOD! We just could not be in LA without trying out some (non-theme park) food... and squeezed it in through a dinner and breakfast outside the park (but close by).
dinner at tokyo cube
We left the park around 5, and dropped our souvenirs at the hotel before going to a sushi place called Tokyo Cube. It's pretty close by, so if you're up for it, you could walk the 30 minutes there. But we were a little worn out from walking the park all day, so we jumped into an Uber from the Sheraton. We all love sushi, and it's so fun to be in a big city - where we know we'll find some awesome sushi with some creativity! Tokyo Cube is just that. They had a bunch of different types of edamame (do the garlic!), drinks served in coconuts, and really creative rolls… we needed nothing else. And if you go - don’t miss the lemon + salmon roll! Then we jumped back into an Uber and headed straight to the park entrance for a few last rides and the light show!
donuts at k's donut emporium
We had an early flight, so we knew it may be a challenge to grab breakfast. But I used the 'add stop' function on Uber to stop by a donut place on our way to the airport. We picked K's Donut Emporium just because it was open super early (5am) and highly rated on Google, but it actually was so good too! Like I said, I miss the LA food badly, and this was the perfect example of why I miss it. At first glance, this is just a little convenience store with a grab and go coffee. And the food is very reasonable, so you're thinking you shouldn't expect much... but it's also SO good. The freshest, pulpiest orange juice and the softest donuts! We brought them to the airport and polished them off before heading through security... all before 8am.
And that's a wrap on our 24 hours in LA to go to Universal Hollywood! We didn't hit every thing, but we came close!
Oh oh oh and a little bonus here at the end. IF you are there during September or October and with another adult... DEFINITELY check out Halloween Horror Nights. Absolutely w-i-t-h-o-u-t (!!) kids (it's very seriously scary)... but it's SO AWESOME. We used to go every year for 'date night' when we lived in LA. So yeah, just tack that right on to the end of this itinerary if you're there at the right time and with the right people! And even if you're not into all the various mazes (again - people with chainsaws, etc. jumping out at you in a VERY realistic setting), most of the rides are open (just not Harry Potter area), so you can also get on rides with almost no wait time.
Here's some pictures as proof that it's scary... but FUN!
OK that is all. :)
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