A Family Day at Universal Studios Hollywood

Today was a special day as we spent several hours exploring Universal Studios, Hollywood with our 6-year-old son. We arrived around 10:30 am at the Hilton hotel at Universal. The hotel itself is a 5-minute walk to the park and if you don’t want to walk there is a shuttle that takes you directly there.

We had bought our park tickets online and added the express pass to skip the lines. Getting into the park was a breeze. I also had downloaded the Universal app, that has allot of useful information such as a park map and wait times on the rides. The park is very well themed and with various Characters meet and greet through out the park. One of the drawbacks with a 6-year-old is that there are several rides that have a minimum height, Luckly my son just made the 42” min.

The park is divided into 2 sections the upper and lower lot. The upper lot having the more kid friendly rides. We concentrated the rides that were geared for the younger audience and so we started our adventure on the upper lot. We first went on Kung fu panda adventure and then headed to the Harry Porter Land where we rode the rollercoaster called “Flight of the Hippogriff”. He did get a little scared since this was his only his second coaster. We did explore the Wizarding World of Harry Porter while here but just took a look around as my son was not too familiar with Harry Porter.

We next headed to the famous Studio Tour. We did pass through Springfield from the Simpsons and ordered the largest doughnut ever. One look at it and my son told us he wanted to eat all of it by himself.

The studio tour was well worth it as it had something for everyone to enjoy. It last for 45-50minute and you do get to see working movie and tv studios as well as various movie sets. We got to experience “King Kong 360”, where you go to skull island and see Kong fight Dinosaurs that attack the tram. We experienced an earthquake simulator and saw a flash flood. The tour also takes you to Amityville where you encounter Jaws. We passed through the War of the Worlds set and were chased by Norman from Psycho. For the studio grand finale, you get to be part of the fast and furious 3 experience. My son really enjoyed this as he had never had an experienced a ride like with 3d effects.

After the studio tour, we headed to production plaza where we tried the ride “Secret Life of Pets” this is a ride not to missed. All our family thought it was fantastic and my son gave it 2 thumbs up. We did one last ride before stopping for lunch, the “Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride”. I truly enjoyed this ride as you get turned into a minion. My son was not too happy when I told him he was going to get turned into a Minion, but we did explain it was only pretend.

We did get lunch at one of the many food options and took a 30-minute break to reenergize. My son wanted to go to” Super Silly Fun Land” where he went to the small water park to cool off. There are no slides just lots of water sprouts and various buckets of water dropped from above. We did bring a change of clothes for him since we knew he was going to soaked after getting inside.

We also tried our luck at the Minion type carnival games and where my son had an awesome time. The good thing that everyone wins a prize here.

Our next stop was the lower lot where we headed to the Jurassic World-The Ride. The ride is a water ride where you get too immersive yourself with long forgotten dinosaurs. The drop at the end did get my son a little scared as it comes from nowhere. He did say it was a bit scary but liked it.

We also went to Dino Play, an interactive playground for kids. My son had a blast exploring the playground and going down the slides.

Our last stop for the day was the Water World Show. Its an amazing live action show that is only performed twice per day. My son was entertained from start to finish. There are plenty of stunts and explosion and yes you will get wet if you sit in the front. This was a great way to finish our day.