How to Spend 3 Days at Universal

This blog covers tips for spending 3 days at Universal Orlando in order to cover as much ground as possible in this short amount of time!

It’s a no-brainer that theme parks have lots of activities to keep one busy. When my siblings and I took a trip to Universal Orlando Resort and Universal’s Islands of Adventure with three-day park hopper tickets, I was excited to explore all the park had to offer. We divided our time wisely between rides, restaurants, and other activities within the parks.

I believe three days at Universal was the perfect amount of time to spend in the parks. I’ve outlined a basic day-by-day guide below to help you in planning for your upcoming Universal Orlando Resort trip. While I do not expect you to follow my guide exactly, I hope this gives you an idea of ways you can spend your days in the parks. It is a bit difficult to plan days out by the hour when visiting theme parks, especially since wait times for rides can significantly impact your day. Having too concrete a plan can lead to disappointment. I do, however, think it is important to nail down your can’t-miss activities so you can prioritize them during your time in the parks, which is exactly what I’ve done below. Enjoy!

For more tips and tricks for things to see in Orlando, read my feature in Redfin here!

How to Spend 3 Days at Universal Theme Parks

Day One

Explore the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley

Day one is all about crossing off the items at the top of your bucket list. For Harry Potter fans, exploring the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Diagon Alley is most likely at the top of that list. As someone who is not a super dedicated Harry Potter fan (yet), even I was taken aback by how mystical Harry Potter World was. Once you walk through the brick alleyway across from the Knight Bus, it is like entering an entirely different universe! You will be greeted by magical shops recreated from the movies, a Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon breathing fire, and a large number of individuals dressed in their best Hogwarts attire. Harry Potter fans can easily spend at least half a day here. Between the food, shops, and the Escape from Gringotts ride, it will be hard to say goodbye to Diagon Alley.

Additionally, fans visiting Universal Studios in Orlando can buy an interactive wand from Ollivander’s Wand Shop in Diagon Alley. This wand comes with a map outlining the different areas the wand can be used in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Aside from looking at the map, you can also find the interactive areas by searching for golden markers on the ground, which show the name of the spell and the wand motion. Just don’t get the markers confused with drainpipes as I did. (Insert facepalm emoji.) My sister spent a good deal of time walking around to the different storefronts casting spells. It was always fun to see what each spell would do, as we had no idea what to expect each time. Her favorite area to use her interactive wand was near the restrooms in Diagon Alley. When she motioned her wand at the umbrella, water came pouring down!

Have an Iconic Butterbeer

One thing you must do while visiting the Universal parks is try butterbeer in all of its forms! You can order regular butterbeer, iced butterbeer, or hot butterbeer. My favorite was the hot butterbeer. The parks even serve delicious butterbeer ice cream! To find out the best places to order butterbeer throughout the parks, read my restaurant guide to Universal.

Ride the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade

If you have park hopper tickets at Universal, you will be ecstatic to know you can ride the Hogwarts Express between parks! When entering the train line, you must present your park ticket to go through. Once you board the train, you and your traveling party are given an entire train room. Rather than having clear windows to look through, the windows instead act as screens, making you feel as if you are truly traveling to Hogsmeade or back to London. This made spending three days at Universal theme parks go much more smoothly for us, as we could easily hop back and forth between parks.

If you have park hopper tickets, you can also just as easily walk out of one park and into the other. However, riding the Hogwarts Express is an unforgettable experience well worth the wait.  

Go on the Rides You’ve Been Looking Forward to the Most

Aside from exploring the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you should also use your first day in the park to go on the rides you’ve most been looking forward to since lines can be unpredictable. My favorite rides included Revenge of the Mummy, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, and, lastly, my personal favorite was Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. However, lines for Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure can get quite long, and the park made it extremely difficult to be able to get in line for this ride at times.

How to Get a Spot in Line for Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure: Universal introduced something called Virtual Line, where you must reserve a time slot in order to be able to get in line for certain rides. It does not act as a FastPass or Express ticket. It simply gives you a spot in line. I am not sure whether this was introduced solely because of COVID and social distancing measures, but we found ourselves growing very annoyed at the process. New time slots were released at 11 am, 2 pm, and 4 pm. We hopped on the app right when the clock turned those times, but all the times for that day had already been reserved within the first five seconds. Oftentimes, the app would pop up with a time slot, and we would choose it, but then the app would tell us that time was no longer available. It was extremely frustrating because we were not allowed to get in line until we reserved a spot. With everyone hopping on the app at the same time to reserve spots, we thought it would be impossible.

Finally, after refreshing over and over, we were able to reserve a spot in line. We figured out the system a bit better by our last day. Here’s what I suggest: have everyone you are traveling with download the app. Once the hour arrives to reserve a spot in line, everyone in your group should be on the app trying to reserve a spot. The odds will be more in your favor if you do this. In fact, my brother and I were both able to reserve time slots for our last day. I reserved my time slot 30-45 minutes after his. In doing this, we were able to get in line twice in a row! If you are doing this, make sure you do not book your time slots too closely together since you still have to wait in line after you show your pass. While this is a little frustrating, the ride is completely worth it. In fact, I told my siblings this was my favorite ride I’ve ever been on in my lifetime. It’s that good.

Mini Golf at CityWalk

Depending on what time Universal closes your first day, you may find yourself still high on adrenaline after exiting the park. The park closed at seven on our first day, but the night was not over for us. After grabbing dinner, we decided to go mini-golfing at CityWalk. The mini-golf course, named Hollywood Drive-In Golf, can be found at the entrance to CityWalk. I think it is much cooler to do at night since the golf course is lit up with neon lights. There are two courses to choose from: the alien course and the haunted course. We opted to play the haunted course, which ended up being a blast! We putted our way through the spooky course and even got sprayed by some swamp creatures. This wacky golf course was the perfect way to end our first evening.

Day Two

Breakfast at Leaky Cauldron

We began day two at Universal with breakfast at Leaky Cauldron, an exact replica of the rustic pub found in the Harry Potter movies. We did not need reservations to eat here. Instead, we ordered our food on the app while waiting in line for a table. Once the host sat us at a table, we scanned our table number so our order could be delivered to us. I am unsure what this process will look like post-COVID, but this is what our experience was like due to the ongoing pandemic.

Our food was quite delicious! I ordered a pancake breakfast, which also came with bacon, sausage, and a croissant. My siblings ordered breakfast, as well as some hot butterbeer. This was a fantastic way to fuel up for the day.

Ride Some Lesser Crowded Rides

If you’d rather spend the day riding your favorite rides again, have at it! As for us, we wanted to ride some of the less popular rides since we knew we would have another day. We rode the Men in Black ride, E.T., Despicable Me, and some other rollercoasters and water rides. Even though we rode lots of these other rides, we still made some time for our favorites throughout the day. However, it was fun to wait in shorter queues and experience more rides. If you want to experience all that Universal has to offer, make sure you dedicate some time to the rides outside of Harry Potter World. If you’d rather stick to strictly Harry Potter World, then have a blast!

Meet Characters Around the Park

Our second day in the park was on a Saturday. While Saturdays at Universal tend to be extremely crowded, there is also a fun atmosphere in the parks due to more characters being out and about. I saw a vast difference between Friday and Saturday while we were there. I don’t recall seeing characters out on Friday, but on Saturday, it seemed there were characters everywhere that I turned my head to! Some notable characters include Puss in Boots, Shrek, Dora, Spider-Man, and the Grinch. Although, my favorite character encounter at Universal was with Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang, along with the Mystery Machine! As a long-time Scooby-Doo fan, you could say I was freaking out a little. I jumped at the chance to take my photo with them, even though it had to be a socially distanced photo. It’s so much fun walking around and meeting characters. You never know who you will bump into!

End the Day in Hogsmeade

If you have park-to-park admission, you should definitely end one of your nights in Hogsmeade. We were able to get a place in line for Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure on Saturday night, allowing us to ride it in the dark. This was such a fun experience. Additionally, Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts castle look absolutely dashing at night. Even if you cannot get a place in line for Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, it is still an incredible place to end your day. Grab a hot butterbeer and sit on a bench while watching wizards in training practice spells with their wands.

Day Three

Back on All Your Favorite Rides

If you have a third day at Universal theme parks, you should either go on the remaining rides you have yet to experience or you should go back and ride all your favorite rides. My siblings and I voted for the latter. By this point, we knew which rides were worth the lines and which were not. We had picked out our favorites and knew we would want to spend our last day riding those. If Virtual Line is still in effect when you visit, make sure you are checking the Universal app throughout the day so you can reserve your spot in line for your favorite rides.

Say Goodbye to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Lastly, once your final day is up, you must say farewell to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It is always sad to end such a fun vacation like this one. Harry Potter fans will find it extremely hard to part ways with Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts castle, the Hogwarts Express, the Knight Bus, butterbeer, and the magical essence of Harry Potter World. But don’t worry. Harry Potter World will always just be one broomstick ride away.

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