Universal Orlando, A Failed Disney Want-to-be.

Giving credit where due, this was awesome!

I’m a Harry Potter fan so I wanted to go to Universal Orlando to see the Harry Potter setup. The castle was very cool and the ride gave a taste of each of the movies. A disappointing aspect was the wait was over an hour and the first announcement of a single rider line was well after we waited in line for over 30 minutes. The entire Harry Potter section was dramatically overcrowded on a Monday in January with no known school holiday.(see photo) I wanted to buy a Potter theme shirt for my grandson and it was not possible to get into any of the stores. As a matter of fact, there was an hour wait to just get into two of the stores so they could take your money. In addition, the prices were even more exorbitant than Disney prices which are obscene themselves. I did enjoy the dragon duel ride which was a very good pseudo coaster type ride. I’ve been told that if you go late in the day, it is less crowded. I was also told I was not properly prepared to experience it. Since I wasn’t willing to dress in robes or costumes that is possible but regardless it was too crowded to enjoy.

The Crowd

The Harry Potter stuff was well done but far too crowded to enjoy. The rest of the park was primarily store and carnival concession style games and there wasn’t a great deal to see of interest to me. It wasn’t overly crowded anyplace but the Harry Potter area. We did ride the Spiderman 3D ride which was ok. Parking was more expensive than Disney parking. After spending 4 days at Disney and not feeling like I had seen everything I hoped to see, we left Universal after 5 hours feeling like that was all we could stand. I have been to Disney more often than I can count and still enjoy it. I will not be returning to Universal Orlando, in spite of having enjoyed Universal California.

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