When planning this holiday, Universal Studios & Island of Adventure were the two parks I was most looking forward to visiting. I have heard so many great things and most reviews claim that these parks are better than Disney. I’ve been prepping Bella for the famous Jurassic Park River Ride and we were on a mission to complete both parks in one day.

Using the Kenny the Pirate app, we used the crowd calendar and it suggested that Wednesday was the least busy day, it also happened to be the coldest day. We brought the cold weather from England, but thanks to the girls Mickey Mouse blankets, brought from Walmart at just $14.99 the girls were toasty warm. Don’t buy blankets from the parks, you’ll easily spend $49.99!

We found it very tricky to search for admission prices for a day ticket for Universal Studios & Island of Adventure, I think they prefer to give you a heart attack at the gate and kick start your day with a rollercoaster of emotions. I’m going to make your lives easier and tell you what the price of a family ticket (2 adults x 1 child, under 3 go free) is. Now are you sitting down? We paid an eye watering $850 to get into both parks, this included a premium fast pass, which gave you the opportunity to skip the queues and ride as many times as you like.

When we first entered the park, we were told (only when asked) that the Jurassic Park River Ride was closed for refurbishment , can you imagine our disappointment? We then learnt that a lot of the roller coasters weren’t running either because it was too cold. It was a not a fun start to the day and we were even tempted to ask for a refund, but we decided to make the best of it with the hope that it would get warmer as the day went on, and I’m really glad we did because we ended up having a great day.

It’s not my usual cheerful start to a blog but I just want to prepare families for the extortionate entrance fee. Now for the fun stuff! We headed for Seuss Landing first, it’s a Cat in the Hat themed part of the park and it had a couple of rides that both girls could ride.

Although the girls did really enjoy the day, I wouldn’t recommend Universal Studios & Island of Adventure for really young children. There were only a couple of rides that Flo could go on. However what both parks do really well is parent swap. Each parent gets to ride, whilst the other parent and child wait in the designated parent swap area, which has seating and a film playing and when the ride has finished they get to swap and jump straight on the ride without having to queue again.

I was in my happy place when we entered Hogsmead. It’s so well done, you really do feel like you’ve stepped into a Harry Potter book. I may of ditched the girls, buggies and Husband when I first spotted Hogwarts Express and I probably let out a happy squeak too. My happiness was soon squashed by the fact that Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was closed due to technical problems and the queue for The Flight of The Hippogriff was 45 minutes long, even though we had the Premium Fast Pass.

We decided to check out Jurassic Park as you all know how much Bella loves Dinos! Due to the refurbishment of the Jurassic Park River Ride, a lot of Jurassic Park was boarded up, which I think killed the atmosphere a bit. We joined a queue to meet a raptor and scared the crap out of both of the girls. He was very realistic and didn’t really respect personal space, the last straw for Flo was when it opened its jaws really wide behind her head and screeched.

My Hubby and Bella had a ride on Pteranodon Flyers, Flo was too small to ride so we hung out in Camp Jurassic; a Dino themed play area. Thanks to the close encounter with a Raptor, Flo was unusually overly cautious, but she soon relaxed and had fun exploring caves and took great pleasure in making me climb up and down flights of stairs a hundred times.

Before we stopped for lunch, Bella was feeling brave so I took her on the Skull Island: Reign of Kong. It’s a 3D, stimulator ride and it’s really scary for a four year old, I had to cover her eyes through most of it. A lot of rides in both Universal Studios and Island of Adventure are simulators and although Bella was tall enough to ride them (she’s 106cm tall), they are all really inappropriate for her age.

After a pit stop for lunch, we decided to head back to Hogsmead to suss out the ride situation. I’m so glad we did because we managed to ride both, The Flight of The Hippogriff and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and they were both bloody amazing! My favourite was the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, it’s a 3D simulator ride and it’s so cleverly done. I had a big smile on my face during the whole ride.

Bella absolutely loved the Flight of The Hippogriff. It’s a very fast, rollercoaster type ride and she loved it so much she rode it twice! We then headed to the Leaky Cauldron for a warm Butterbeer, which tastes like warm marshmallows and we also picked up some chocolate frogs to eat on Hogwarts Express. You can ride the Hogwarts Express to get between the two parks.

If you have a Premium Fast Pass you get to ride for free, but if you only have a normal admission ticket, I believe there is an extra cost. Whilst riding on the Hogwarts Express, the windows turn into screens and it plays scenery that you would expect to see on your way to Hogwarts. When you arrive at a Universal Studios, you step out of Kings Cross Station and The Knight Bus is directly opposite.

You then take a walk down Diagon Alley which is amazing. We did the Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts ride and it was fantastic. We then checked out Springfields USA and did The Simpsons ride, which is another simulator ride. Bella was terrified because Sideshow Bob kept trying to kill the Simpsons and then he threatened to kill you, at one point Bella turned to me and said: “I don’t want to die Mummy”.

Both of the girls loved the Kang & Kudos Twirl & Hurl ride. We didn’t get to Universal Studios until gone 4pm and the park closes at 7pm, so we had to rush to try and get things done. My Hubby rode on The Incredible Hulk Rollercoaster, which he claims to be one of the best rollercoaster rides he has ever been on, we also did the Shrek 4D experience and Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. It was getting really cold and the park was closing so we started to make our way back to the car park.

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We decided to walk through the City Walk which was around 15 minutes to get back to the car and we stumbled across the Universal Studio Cinematic Celebration and it was stunning. The show celebrates iconic, cinematic songs and water fountains and lasers are used in time to the music. There was also fireworks at the end of the show. I love the atmosphere at the night at Universal Studios, it’s buzzing.

Both of the girls fell asleep in their buggies whilst we were walking back to the car so we decided to have a cheeky drink in a bar, before heading to home. Both Universal Studios and Island of Adventure are definitely worth visiting, they both offer so many amazing rides and attractions, I just wouldn’t say it was the best place to visit if you have young children.