Universal Studios Hollywood in 1 Day

For Spring Break 2025, our family of six headed to Southern California. After five unforgettable days immersed in Disney magic, we drove towards Burbank to enjoy Universal Studios Hollywood. We swapped Cinderella’s castles for Hogwarts. Universal offers a different kind of energy compared to Disney. It’s higher octane and more blockbuster big energy, which can be tricky to navigate with four kids (ages: 12, 10, 6, and 3). We were all especially eager to visit Super Nintendo World, which had opened since our last visit in 2022. Here’s how we spent an action-packed day at Universal Studios Hollywood, and we hope it inspires your visit.

Lights, Camera, Universal!

We had spent the night at the SpringHill Suites Los Angeles Burbank/Downtown. We find that Springhill can fit our family of 6 fairly comfortably. Their typical room features two queen beds, plus a large coach that offers a trundle or pullout bed. It took us about 20 mins to get from the hotel to Universal Studios E.T. Parking Garage. We got to the park about 9:30 AM. We opted not to rope drop because our day at Universal was later in our trip and we had fewer must-dos. The kids (and parents) appreciated a little extra sleep.

Walking through Universal Plaza, we started our journey alongside Po on the Kung Fu Panda Adventure. Our 12-year-old is a huge Kung Fu Panda fun and absolutely loves this ride. It is essentially sitting in a movie theater where the seats spray mist, vibrate, and other physical effects that are synchronized to the short show. Plus, it’s not intense, so Amanda (who’s prone to motion sickness) and our 3-year-old can enjoy the ride along with the rest of us. I appreciate that they have this ride, but it feels like the Kung Fu Panda franchise is underused in the Universal Parks, considering it has some great characters and an expansive setting. From an underutilized theme, we journeyed into a fully immersive world with our next stop taking us to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Mischief Managed

We left the Muggle world behind and were transported into the Wizarding World, walking the cobblestone street of Hogsmeade. The Wizarding World and Super Nintendo World is easily the most immersive and thematic areas at Universal Studios Hollywood. The California park offers a much more compact Wizarding World when compared to the Florida parks. Hollywood primarily focuses on Hogsmeade Village, featuring iconic shops like Honeydukes and Ollivanders, plus Hogwarts Castle. Unlike Universal Orlando, there isn’t a Diagon Alley, Ministry of Magic, nor is there a Hogwarts Express ride. It is still an incredible experience just a small footprint and much more manageable to do in a morning.

We headed straight for the Hogwarts Castle, which houses the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. The queue is outstanding as you make your way through the castle you see key locations like Dumbledore’s office, Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and you even see the Sorting Hat. The ride is fairly intense for our family. Basically, a row of 4 seats is attached to a robotic arm simulating drops, turns and spins which make it feel like you are flying above the castle grounds. Plus, the ride involves the Hungarian Horntail dragon, the whooping willow, spiders from the Forbidden Forest, and dementors. This means that only the big kids and I ride this one.

Next, we shifted to a great family-friendly, introductory rollercoaster on the Flight of the Hippogriff. The ride features Buckbeak the hippogriff that Hagrid brings to the Care of Magical Creatures class in the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The queue has you walk around the forest to get to Hagrid’s House. It’s a really quick ride with a ride time of about 1 min.

Those are the two rides in Wizarding World, so the rest of the morning was spent exploring the shops in Hogsmeade. Our first stop was Ollivanders, makers of fine wands since 382 BC. We recommend waiting to see the show, where you get to witness a wand-choosing ceremony with a randomly selected guest (often a child wearing a birthday pin). We explored the shop and helped our 3-year-old pick out a wand. Big sisters already have wands from our prior visit in 2022. Once everyone had their interactive wands, we put our spellcasting to the test all around Hogsmeade. The kids had fun making window displays come to life with a flick of their wand.

Lunch was at The Three Broomsticks, and while we forgot to snap pics of the food (rookie move), we did remember to document the true star: frozen Butterbeer. Cold, creamy, and just as magical as you'd hope. After lunch, we swung into Honeydukes for ice cream and chocolate frogs. While we enjoyed our sugary treats, we caught the Triwizard Spirit Rally. Students from Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons show off their school pride just like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Secret Life of Minions

Around 1:30 PM, we made our way to The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash. The wait time for this ride can be a little long but the queue is a highlight. Essentially, you are walking through Katie’s apartment building seeing different funny scenes with the pets. The girls love seeing Buddy get a back massage from the mixer. The ride is a family-friendly dark ride full of character and fun scenes.

Next, we went across the street to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, where things went bananas. The queue has you enter Gru’s house and you eventually get turned into a minion as the ride begins. It is a motion simulator that is a step up from the Kung Fu Panda Adventure. We also went for a spin on Silly Swirly at Super Silly Fun Land which is a spinner ride like Dumbo. The kids enjoyed playing around on the Super Silly Fun land playground. We stayed in the dry zone of the land because we hadn’t brought swimsuits or a change of clothes.

Now the time had come to ride the GREAT escalator ride down to the Lower Lot! If your not familiar, Universal Studios Hollywood is built on a hillside. The park is split into two levels: the Upper Lot and the Lower Lot. To get between them, you take four separate massive escalator sections that take about 7 to 10 minutes one way, depending on crowds and how quickly you're moving. Or as our family calls it, the GREAT escalator ride!

Super Nintendo World

We arrived at the Lower Lot around 3:00 PM and headed straight to Super Nintendo World. The last time we visited in 2022, it was still under construction, so we were all looking forward to discovering this new land. We slid through a green pipe and got sucked into the vibrant Mushroom Kingdom. It felt like stepping into a video game. We explored the land and played some of the interactive mini-games, such as Goomba Crazy Crank and Piranha Plant Nap Mishap.

We raced into Bowser’s Castle for Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. I know I have mentioned a lot of queue but I’m a sucker for the little details. We waited in the queue about 30 mins and enjoyed the experience because it takes you deep into Bowser’s Castle with each room being packed with Mario-themed Easter eggs. There are stacks of books with fun titles and every trophy from Mario Kart. The attention to detail is top-notch, and it’s fun to step into each new room, finding another little detail. The ride is also a great family-friendly experience. You are in a 4-seat kart, and everyone has on augmented reality Mario hat headsets. As you compete in a kart race, interactive elements like steering, collecting coins, and throwing shells.

After all that kart racing, it was time to get dinner at Toadstool Cafe. This was one of our favorite dining experiences of our whole Spring Break. Much like Bowser’s Castle, the restaurant was filled with rich theming. The kids loved the “windows”, which are screens showing busy toads around the Mushroom kingdom working, and occasionally Bowser’s ship attacks the Kingdom. Amanda got the Super Star Chicken Salad and I ordered the Mario Burger topped with bacon, mushrooms, and cheese and the bun is stamped with Mario’s mustache. Our oldest powered up with the Spaghetti Marinara with delicious Toadstool Cheesy Garlic Knots, and the rest of the girls got Mario Mini Burger Adventure Sets. Our 6-year-old loved the Super Star Lemon Squash, a honey lemon soda with mango star jellies and tropical bursting boba.

I hope Super Nintendo World is an indicator of the level of theming Universal plans to use in any future expansions. Projects like Epic Universe in Florida will be highly thematic and something we will have to explore in the future.

The Grand Finale

Amanda and the 3-year-old headed back to Mario Kart for a second lap, while the rest of us made our way up to the upper lot to ride one of our favorite attractions: Flight of the Hippogriff in Hogsmeade. We were able to ride it two more times. We met back up, so Amanda and the littles could ride The Secret Life of Pets a second time. I took the big kids to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey again.

As our time at Universal wrapped up, we stopped at a few stores to pick-up a few souvenirs to remember our trip. As we walked to the parking garage, we came across an epic dance party, complete with a live DJ and a jumbotron, happening in CityWalk. The kids couldn’t resist joining the party and busting some moves. It was the perfect end to a day packed with rides, memories, and movie magic.