Universal Studios Hollywood

Two weeks ago my sister and I took a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood.

She had never been before so I was super excited to take her.

It had been awhile since I was last there, about 5 years ago and there had been quite a few additions to the park.

The park has two sections, the Upper Lot (which is the main section) and the Lower Lot. We decided to head down to the lower lot first, and after 4 sets of huge escalators we arrived.

The first ride we spotted was REVENGE OF THE MUMMY THE RIDE, if you like high speed roller coasters then this bad boy is for you! I am pretty sure my sister and I were the loudest people on the ride haha, we didn’t have much of a voice when we got off. It was so fun, but not for the faint of heart.

Oh and beware, they have some Mummy characters walking around, or should I say “hiding” one jumped out and scared the ever living daylights out of me as we were walking through the line. Everyone around us got a pretty good laugh.

Then we headed over to TRANSFORMERS THE RIDE 3D.

This ride wasn’t here the last time I was at Universal so I was super stoked. My sis and I both agreed this was our second favorite ride at the park. (stay tuned to find out our favorite)

It’s a motion based thrill ride and was so much fun. We even saw a few Transformers outside of the ride which looked so real.

Ok, so this summer had been HOT. Southern California has been having a major heatwave and it didn’t let up during our visit. After Transformers we made our way to JURASSIC PARK THE RIDE.

I remember it being a water ride, you sit in a little raft and there is a big drop at the end so I figured we would be able to cool off a little. We cooled off, and by cooled off I mean we got completely DRENCHED. You would have thought we had hopped in the shower with all our clothes on haha.

I wish I had some pictures from the actual ride (I left my phone in the locker) because the dinosaurs looked so real, you thought you were actually in Jurassic Park.

By this time we were getting hungry.

Now I usually don’t have high hopes for food at amusement parks, so I wasn’t expecting to eat anything amazing however we saw this taco truck BUMBLEBEE’S MAN’S TACOS.

It was actually really good! I ordered the nachos, which could have fed both my sister and I and she ordered some chicken tacos. Yum Yum.

One of my favorite parts of Universal Studios Hollywood is the STUDIO TOUR BEHIND-THE-SCENES- TRAM RIDE.

If you didn’t know Universal Studios is an actual working movie studio. Many popular movies and shows were filmed right at the studio such as Jurassic Park, Psycho, CSI, Back To The Future, The Grinch and many many more.

You hop on a tram and they take you all throughout the back lots of the studio, showing you various movie sets which is just so cool to me. They even have a few interactive rides thrown into the mix as well which makes it even more exciting.

My favorite part was probably going down “Wisteria Lane” Any Desperate Housewives fans out there? I LOVED that show, and seeing the coveted street was so fun. Here are some shots I snapped while on the tour.

And now we save the best for last.

THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

I have been anticipating seeing the Harry Potter section of the park since I heard they had created one at the Hollywood location.

My sister and I are huge Harry Potter fans and it literally felt like we stepped directly into Hogwarts. The detail they put into every part of the Wizarding World was just amazing.

They have a shop where you can purchase wands and then take a “course” on how to use it. They teach you certain spells you can use throughout the park and fun things happen right before your eyes.

Our first stop in the Wizarding World was the FLIGHT OF THE HIPPOGRIFF, a fun little roller coaster, which just so happens to be Universal’s first outdoor roller coaster.  If you have young children this one is perfect for them. We then made our way to the jaw dropping castle, I mean can you believe this? It looked even more incredible in person. Like I said before, the detail they put into this place was just spectacular and the castle was no exception.

As we walked through the castle we had no idea what the HARRY POTTER AND THE FORBIDDEN JOURNEY ride was even about.

But Holy Moly, our minds were blown. This ride was both my sister’s and I favorite ride we had ever been on EVER. It was unlike anything we had ever seen and definitely took the cake as the best ride.

We couldn’t leave Hogwarts without grabbing ourselves a Butter Beer from the MAGIC NEEP AND BUTTER BEER CARTS. Sooooo good!!

We had such a fun time and I could probably fill up pages and pages about our trip, but if you ever get a chance to visit Universal Studios Hollywood, definitely go!

I would also recommend checking out their Express Passes. It gives you a one time express access (skip the line) for each attraction. We pretty much walked onto every single ride which was awesome.

Be sure to check out City Walk after you enjoy the park (or before) It’s a huge strip just outside of Universal with lots of shopping and dining. Two of my favorite things! They also have a movie theater and a huge stage where you can catch some great entertainment. As always, thank you so much for stopping by!

*Thank you Universal Studios for Sponsoring this post!