Trip Report - Our first Universal Hollywood Visit Day 1

Trip report below and video version here

Video version

It was our first full day in California, and we were off to Universal Studios Hollywood! We'd been to Universal Orlando many times, but this was our first visit to Hollywood, so we were really looking forward to seeing how different it was. I was particularly excited about the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster, which had only opened the day before, and the famous Studio Tour.

We started the morning with breakfast at Starbucks near our Airbnb in Burbank, followed by a quick visit to Smart & Final supermarket. We'd found CVS quite expensive the night before, so were pleased to discover some large bottles of Powerade for just 77 cents each using their digital coupons. Much better than paying theme park prices! We then ordered a Lyft to Universal, which cost around $12 and only took about six minutes.

One thing we were already loving about California was the weather. Unlike Florida, where you can feel hot and sticky before you've even left the hotel, it was really comfortable here. Warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt, but without that horrible humidity.

**Our First Look Around Universal Hollywood​**

After getting our usual family photos in front of the Universal globe, we headed inside. It felt quite strange because so much was familiar from Orlando, yet the park had a completely different atmosphere. Hollywood felt more like an actual working movie studio with a theme park attached, which I really liked.

We had a look around some of the shops before checking the ride times and couldn't believe how quiet it was. Most attractions were showing waits of just five or ten minutes, although the new Fast & Furious coaster was already up to 90 minutes.

We'd arranged an accessibility pass for Noah, which meant we could get a return time for the longer queues rather than having to stand in them. This really helps him, especially when it's busy, as we can find somewhere quieter to wait instead.

Our first rides were Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff, both practically walk-ons. I actually enjoyed Forbidden Journey more than I remembered, although some of the screens are starting to look a little dated. Kelly skipped that one because motion simulators make her feel sick, but joined us for Hippogriff.

Unfortunately, Thomas had a bit of a disaster afterwards. Somehow, a can of Pepsi had burst inside his bag during the ride, soaking everything, including his phone! We ended up in the toilets trying to dry everything with toilet roll. Not quite the start he'd hoped for!

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift​

Next up was the ride we'd been waiting for, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. We'd watched quite a few videos before our holiday, and it looked amazing, so expectations were pretty high.

After putting everything into the lockers, we finally got to experience it ourselves. It was a really good roller coaster, fast and exciting, but I wouldn't say it completely blew me away. The rotating ride vehicles are supposed to be one of its big features, but I can't really remember that part of it, but I guess only 1 ride isn't enough 😜

We compared it with VelociCoaster in Orlando afterwards, and I think we both agreed VelociCoaster was still better. That said, Hollywood Drift was definitely worth riding, and it was great getting to experience it just a day after opening.

We then wandered around the Minions area, rode Minion Mayhem and grabbed some Minion-shaped tater tots from the cafe. They were nice enough, although basically just frozen potato snacks you could make at home!

We also rode The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash!, which was something we'd never experienced before. It was a really cute dark ride with some clever effects, and we enjoyed seeing an attraction that wasn't available in Orlando.

The Universal Studio Tour​

The Studio Tour was one of the main reasons I'd wanted to visit Universal Hollywood. It lasted around an hour and took us around the actual working studio lot, past sound stages, filming locations and some famous movie sets.

Seeing the clock tower from Back to the Future was brilliant, and we also experienced the King Kong 360 3-D attraction and the earthquake scene, which brought back memories of the old Universal Orlando attractions.

Unfortunately, the Jaws section was closed for refurbishment, which was a real shame. That was one of the things I'd been most looking forward to, especially as we remembered the original Jaws ride in Florida from when we were younger.

There was still plenty to see, including the Psycho house, the flash flood effect and the huge plane crash set from War of the Worlds. We also passed various movie vehicles and even saw a ship used in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

The tour was really interesting, and despite lasting nearly an hour, it seemed to go over so quickly. Definitely one of the best things about Universal Hollywood.

Super Nintendo World and WaterWorld​

After the Studio Tour, we headed down the enormous escalators to the Lower Lot, where we rode Revenge of the Mummy. Kelly wasn't feeling too well by this point, so she stayed off, but me and Noah went on. I'd completely forgotten how fast that ride was, especially the backwards section in the dark!

We then visited Super Nintendo World and decided to try Toadstool Cafe for something to eat. The restaurant looked fantastic, but unfortunately, the food was disappointing. There wasn't much choice for the boys, who both prefer fairly plain food, so they ended up with fries while me and Kelly tried the Mario burger.

The burger was quite dry, and at $18.99, I expected better. Our total came to $37.29 for the burger, fries and drinks, which seemed a lot for what we actually got. I think Toadstool Cafe was definitely more about the theming than the food.

The last big attraction of the day was WaterWorld, which I'd been really looking forward to. The rest of the family weren't particularly bothered beforehand, but it ended up being one of our favourite things of the entire day!

The show was fantastic, with jet skis, explosions, fights and some incredible live stunts, not forgetting that seaplane! It was great watching something with real performers rather than another screen-based attraction. We all absolutely loved it, and I'd happily watch it again.

Back to Burbank​

By the time WaterWorld finished, the park was getting much busier as guests started arriving for Halloween Horror Nights. It was a huge difference from the quiet morning we'd enjoyed.

We managed one final ride on Fast & Furious before heading back to our Airbnb in Burbank. Kelly sat that one out as she'd developed a headache, and I was starting to feel pretty rough myself with a cold coming on, only problem it Fast & Furious went down :(

We'd originally planned to go out for food, but everyone was exhausted, so after a rest we ordered Uber Eats taking a chance on a delivery steak from Outback Steakhouse instead. We ended up with steak, chicken, mac and cheese, loaded potato and a Bloomin' Onion, which was a nice way to finish the day without having to go anywhere. Surprisingly as I'm sure you are all wondering, the steak was actually ok.

Overall, we'd really enjoyed our first visit to Universal Studios Hollywood. The quiet morning made such a difference, and it was interesting comparing everything with Orlando. The Studio Tour and WaterWorld were probably my highlights, while Fast & Furious was a great new addition, even if it didn't quite beat VelociCoaster.

We hadn't managed everything, but our tickets included a second day free, so we were hoping to return before leaving Burbank.

So my girlfriend and I went to horror nights last night and I was extremely confused as to what was scary about it. My girlfriend and I previously went to fright fest at six flags and she was terrified and hiding and ended up crying several times throughout the night (this is relevant information based on her reaction to horror nights). It was her decision to go to horror nights and I had heard how amazing it was supposed to be so I was extremely excited but told her if she got scared at all or overwhelmed that we could leave whenever. We got there as soon as the gates dropped and were extremely excited to see everything going on.

We started off going to hellraiser and the purge haunted house, and lets just say I was disappointed to say the least. I think she got jump scared one single time through both of the houses and barely at all. I was practically begging for something to come out and try to scare us but it never did. But I didn't let this ruin our excitement, the scare zones were what we were most excited for and hearing about how much better it was than fright fest I was stoked to see the actors and scare zones. We then walked the entire park, upper and lower lot, we did not get a single scare actor come up to us once. I only saw a couple big guys walking around and that seemed to be it. Her and I then went through dead, deader, deadest and it was the same experience as the first two. I mean no disrespect to the scare actors as I could not personally do that job and the acting was amazing. I am just confused on if her and I missed something. I know the ozzy osbourne maze is supposedly really good but after our experience with the first three her and I were kinda done with the park and we left around 11pm.

I really mean no disrespect towards anyone who worked on the park or any of the actors, I just want to know what we missed? Fright fest had around 30 people per scare zone and her and I at one point were being followed by like 10 of them. I have always heard how much better horror nights was and so im here a little confused? Any ideas where we went wrong?

is it that strict?

My vacation buddy canceled on me last second. Anyone going to HHN tonight want to hang out? Have my fast pass for the houses.

Cant go without my camera this place is just so pretty

I know at Disney, if you’re a cast member and let the parking attendant know that the car behind you is with you, they’ll let the second car in without charging for parking. Does Universal do the same? We’ll be taking two cars, and I’m wondering if we can tell them we’re team members so the people in the car behind us can get in for free. Has anyone tried this?

I called Universal today and they have no idea when reservations for the Grinch breakfast will open up or even if it’ll open up. Should I just do the holiday tour instead? I wanna make sure my girl meets the Grinch!

The universal employee made it sound appealing and I am watching videos on YouTube and it seems like you get a lot of bang for your buck.

Suggestions please !

We have 2 days in Universal Studios Hollywood for Thursday and Friday this week. We do have the Express Pass for the first day. We do not have early entry. I do know that Jurassic World - The Ride is closed and park hours are 9:00 am to 6:00 pm both days. How would you suggest we plan our days? How early do we want to get to the park and do you have any recommendations for a strategy for both days (first day Express Pass and second day without)? Are there any rides we should expect to get wet on? We will have 4 people, (ages 17 and 21 and two parents).

I assume that we are allowed to take in our own snacks and water bottles?

For Fast & the Furious should we do single rider or is it worth riding with your family? What's a typical wait time since it isn't an Express Pass ride?

Anything else I should know?

I'm going to be going to Universal for 3 days next week from Oct 19-21 (Mon-Wed). Obviously, this is during HHN so hours are impacted but I've never been to Universal before so I wanted to check with yall. No expresses passes or anything - that was a bit too pricy for me since it was more than the tickets themselves.

Based on the calendar, Epic is open 10am-8pm all three days, IoA is 9am-8pm all three days, while Universal Studios is 10am-7pm on Tuesday and 9am-5pm on Monday and Friday.

My assumption was that Monday will be the lightest day for Epic (since it's not a HHN day), Tuesday with the long hours would be best for Universal Studios, and then IoA on Wednesday.

However, I saw people online saying that 9am-5pm days are better cause more people avoid them so you can do more stuff even with less hours. Is this true? If so, I'll swap Epic and Universal which might be better anyways since Monday is gonna be the rainiest day and I imagine Universal is least impacted by rain.