Universal Studios One Day Itinerary

So you’re planning your first trip to Universal Orlando Resort and your day at their first park, Universal Studios. Let’s talk about what your one-day itinerary should look like!

When we took our trip to Universal Orlando, I won’t lie. I was a little overwhelmed. I’m a Disney person, and Universal seemed *very* different. So I wasn’t sure how to start planning. I had been to Universal before, but not since I was a kid…like when the Jaws and Back to the Future Rides were still there.

But luckily I came up with a pretty good Universal Studios one day itinerary for and I want to share it with you, plus some lessons we learned that we would do different next time! This is an itinerary built to maximize your rides and minimize your waits!

However, if you there’s a special area of the park you want to focus on (like Harry Potter if you’re a big fan or DreamWorks Land if you have young kids), you might skip some of the other rides in this park to spend more time in those areas!

Rustic waterfront area at Universal Studios Orlando featuring weathered wooden docks and themed buildings styled like a vintage fishing village. The scene includes a small lighthouse, signage like “Chez Alphonse & Son Co.” and “Boatyard,” all reflected in calm water under a partly cloudy sky. — I love the lake views at Universal Studios!

What’s At Universal Studios Florida?

Let’s start with some Universal Studios basics…like what is even at this park?

First, this is the original Universal Resort park. The three others are Islands of Adventure, Epic Universe (the newest), and Volcano Bay (the water park).

Also a point of clarification: Universal Studios refers to this specific park, while Universal Resort refers to all the parks and hotels. However, people often use Universal Studios interchangeably to refer both to this specific park and to the resort as a whole.

For our purposes though, we’re just talking about this specific park in this post!

Since Universal Studios is the original it definitely feels a little…aged. Like to me, the Simpsons land needs to go. And even though I think the Men in Black ride is fun, I also think it’s time for something new there.

But on the other hand, they have recently added some new Minions attractions to the front of the park AND Universal Studios has my favorite Harry Potter land: Diagon Alley. They also have a newer DreamWorks Land that is specifically focused on the youngest visitors.

One thing you should know too: SO many of the rides at Universal Studios are motion simulators. Minions Mayhem, Race through New York, The Simpsons Ride, Transformers, and Fast and the Furious are all motion simulators. Some of the are good…some of them aren’t.

But you should just know that going in, because many of the rides may not wow you like the rides in the other parks. To me the best rides are Escape from Gringotts and Revenge of the Mummy. I also really liked Transformers and of course get a nostalgic kick out of E.T. Adventure.

Know Before You Go

Smiling woman poses in front of the Universal Studios entrance in Orlando, Florida. She is standing by a metal railing with the iconic spinning Universal globe and the large yellow park archway visible in the background, surrounded by palm trees and water. — Ready for my day in Universal Studios!

Before you go, here are some tips for planning your visit:

Buy your tickets in advance. I love to buy tickets through Undercover Tourist to save money!
Download the Universal Orlando app before you go and start to study the map so you know where things are. Also, link your reservations to the app.
Bring a portable phone charger, a poncho, and a water bottle. If you get Express Pass, you may also want a lanyard to easily scan into your rides.
Consider Express Pass, which lets you access shorter lines, but you don’t necessarily need it here. To me, this is definitely the easiest Universal park to do without Express Pass.
Arrive early, ideally 30 minutes to 1 hour before your park entrance time. Usually there is not Early Park Admission for resort guests at Universal Studios (just at the other parks).

One Day Itinerary With Express Pass

I’m going to give you two different itineraries: one with Express Pass and one without Express Pass. While we had Express Pass for the park, I also think this is a pretty easy park to do without Express Pass.

But let’s start with an itinerary for Express Pass.

Morning: Minion Land, Breakfast, and New York

While we had considered going to ride Escape from Gringotts first, we ultimately decided to just start at the front of the park which stayed very uncrowded first thing in the morning as most people headed back to Diagon Alley. And it turned out to be a good thing, because Gringotts was closed most of the day we were there!

The park opened at 8:00, so we headed down to the bus stop from our resort around 7:00. We were waiting in line by 7:40 and heading into the park just before 8:00.

We went straight to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem because it’s a pretty popular ride where the line can sometimes get long. I thought it was a super cute ride!

Entrance to the “Despicable Me Minion Mayhem” ride at Universal Studios Orlando, featuring a whimsical gray brick facade with a steep roof and cartoonish details. Large orange signage with Minion figures decorates the front, alongside a metallic pod-shaped structure and themed character murals. — The entrance to Despicable Me Minion Maybe is right as you walk into the park.

Then, because it was right there, we did Villain-Con Minion Blast at 8:15, which is less like a ride and more like a standing shooting game. I’ll be honest…it’s completely chaotic though and I didn’t really get a hang of it until it was almost over.

We weren’t quite hungry yet, so we headed to Jimmy Fallon’s Race Through New York at 8:30 (with no wait even without our Express Passes). This ride gets a lot of hate, but I honestly really enjoyed it.

At 8:45 we had breakfast at TODAY Cafe. It was fine. Convenient to where we were, but nothing special. I had a Ham and Egg sandwich that I joked was more like ham or egg because they were located in different parts of the sandwich (not stacked on top of each other). But it was fine.

Close-up of a ham and cheese sandwich cut in half, served on a wooden plate lined with branded paper. The sandwich is made with crusty ciabatta-style bread, layered with thinly sliced ham and melted cheddar cheese. Other food items and drinks are slightly blurred in the background. — My breakfast sandwich at the TODAY Cafe

Lots of people like to have breakfast at Leaky Cauldron, but it was out of the way of where we wanted to be in the morning. So TODAY Cafe was our best option.

After a quick stop with Scooby Doo characters when we spotted them at the front of the park, we headed to Revenge of The Mummy at 9:25. The Mummy is a dark coaster and I liked it, but my 11-year-old thought it was a little intense (I think mostly because you couldn’t see what was coming).

We also stopped by Central Park to look for the hiding pets from Secret Life of Pets.

Lunch Time: San Francisco and Diagon Alley

Next we headed to the San Francisco area in the back of the park and did Fast and the Furious – Supercharged at 9:45.

Can I be honest? I hated every second of this ride and I wish we had gotten out of line when there was a 15 minute delay. Although honestly the queue and pre-shows are the best part. It’s a motion simulator party bus that is entirely too loud and chaotic and you can hardly see anything. Some people love it, but personally I’m glad it’s closing when Universal gets their new Fast and the Furious coaster in 2027.

After that, we headed into Diagon Alley around 10:20, stopping first to see the Knight Bus that’s outside the main Diagon Alley area.

The Knight Bus from the Harry Potter series on display at Universal Studios Orlando, shown as a tall, triple-decker purple bus surrounded by manicured greenery and trees. A lamppost and ornate black fountain sit nearby, with guests stopping to take photos in the sunny themed area. — The Knight Bus is just outside Diagon Alley and you can peak inside!

Then we honestly just spent about an hour exploring the magical Diagon Alley (and Knockturn Alley, the dark wizard area!) and shopping a bit. We also got to go into Gringotts and take pictures since the ride (and therefore the queue) was closed.

At 11:20, we headed into lunch at Leaky Cauldron. The food was fine, nothing amazing but a solid option. I had the fish and chips. But they have other British pub food too like Cottage Pie and Bangers & Mash.

At 12:00 we had ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s. They are really popular for their different flavors like Butterbeer and Sticky Toffee Pudding. But since I’m a pretty basic girl, I just got chocolate. I liked it, but it didn’t blow me out of the water as like amazing quality ice cream or anything.

Then we continued to wait to see if Gringotts would open. But since it didn’t look like it would, we headed to the rest of the park.

Afternoon: The Rest of the Park!

Around 12:20, we headed into Springfield and rode The Simpsons Ride. Again, this was not a ride I really enjoyed. It just wasn’t that great and definitely felt really dated. So I would skip this next time.

(You can also ride the Twirl ‘n’ Hurl here, which is a Dumbo-like ride. But we skipped this.)

Colorful, animated-themed area of a theme park featuring The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios. A large entrance shaped like Krusty the Clown’s face leads into the attraction. Surrounding the ride are carnival-style booths, character banners, and palm trees. Visitors walk around the lively area under a bright blue sky. — Heading toward The Simpsons Rides. This area of the park really felt pretty dated to me.

Immediately after this, we rode Men in Black Alien Attack!, which was honestly more fun than I expected! (Pro Tip: for a high score just hold down the trigger the whole time!)

At 1:05 we got in line for E.T Adventure. This is one of the few rides that’s still there from when I was a kid that I remember! It’s weird, but it’s nostalgic and family-friendly, and I loved going on it again!

At 1:30 we headed to the Bourne Stuntacular for the 1:45 show. The technology in this show is truly incredible and it is worth seeing for sure! But do be aware than it can feel kind of intense and definitely has violence in it. It was honestly almost a little too much for me at certain points.

As soon as we were walking out of the Bourne Stuntacular, we got a notification that Escape from Gringotts had reopened, so we rushed over there to ride it! (I’m not even sure what time this was exactly because we were in so much of a rush that I didn’t take any pictures for timestamps!)

Around 3:30 we headed back to explore DreamWorks Land. This land really caters to the youngest of kids, with some adorable areas themed after Trolls, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and more. (The Kung Fu Panda area has lots of water play, so be prepared for potentially wet kids.)

We rode the Trollercoaster with pretty much no wait. It’s a cute kiddie coaster, but not worth waiting on for long.

Colorful fountain display at the entrance of DreamWorks Imagination Celebration in Universal Studios Orlando, featuring large statues of Poppy and Branch from the Trolls movie. The characters stand joyfully atop a pink and purple flower pedestal surrounded by playful water jets and whimsical scenery. — The Trolls fountain in DreamWorks land!

Honestly, if I had a younger kid we would have spent a bunch of time here. But my kiddo is 11, so we were good with just looking around a bit and then moving on.

Then at 4:00 we headed for the last ride we hadn’t done yet that we wanted to: Transformers: The Ride-3D. Honestly, out of all the motion simulators, this may have been one of my favorites in Universal Studios park. It’s loud and there’s a lot going on, but it was well done.

Evening: Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure

The day that we were in Universal Studios was a Halloween Horror Night, which we had no interest in. (It’s also a separately ticketed event.) So we hopped on the the Hogwarts Express around 4:15 to head over to Islands of Adventure.

Note that you can only do this if you have a Park-to-Park ticket.

Because Studios was closing early that night the line was long even with Express Pass. But I’m glad we got to ride the Hogwarts Express!

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying Islands of Adventure. We knew we were coming back another day so I didn’t really feel the need to get a lot done. But we hopped on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (twice!), rode the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride, The Cat in the Hat (what a weird fever dream), ate dinner at Doc Sugrue’s Desert Kebab House, and hopped on The Incredible Hulk Coaster before the park closed. All without Express Pass!

Alternatively, you can totally just head back to your hotel early or re-ride some of your favorite rides from earlier in the day!

One Day Itinerary Without Express Pass

Ok, now let’s talk about what your day would look like without Express Pass. This wasn’t our itinerary, so I don’t have exact time stamps from our experience, but I’ll try to give you a general time frame of what this could look like.

Morning: Escape from Gringotts + High Wait Time Rides

You’ll want to use your morning time judiciously and do as many high-wait rides as you can first thing! And definitely plan to be at the park at least 30 minutes to an hour before it opens!

When you get into the park, head straight to Diagon Alley to ride Escape from Gringotts! This is the ride that definitely gets the longest wait time in the park, so knock it out first thing this morning.

Then, resist the urge to continue exploring Diagon Alley and head to a few more rides that can get high wait times. You can come back to Diagon Alley.

Inside the Gringotts Bank attraction at Universal Studios, featuring a grand marble interior with tall stained-glass windows and ornate columns. Lifelike goblin animatronics sit behind dark wood teller desks under glowing lamps, creating an immersive scene from the Harry Potter universe. — Because Gringotts was closed most of the day we were there, we got to go into the queue for pictures without the crowds!

Work your way back to the front of the park, riding first Revenge of the Mummy followed by Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. These two rides also tend to get very high wait times!

Hopefully you can get these three done by about 9:30 (assuming an 8:00 park opening).

Personally I would try to knock out those three rides without needing to stop for breakfast. But if you are hungry now you can eat at either TODAY Cafe or Leaky Cauldron. But this might also be a good day to plan to have breakfast before you head to the park.

Then after breakfast head to one more higher-wait time ride: Transformers: The Ride 3D. Then enjoy more rides at the front of the park: E.T. Adventure and The Simpsons Ride.

Entrance to the E.T. Adventure ride at Universal Studios Orlando, marked by a large wooden archway with a forest silhouette and moonlit image of Elliott and E.T. flying on a bicycle. Guests walk beneath the sign, surrounded by pine trees and vibrant wall art, with a posted wait time of 35 minutes. — The entrance to the ET ride

If you’re traveling with younger kids, you might decide to spend some dedicated morning time in DreamWorks Land here too and ride the Trollercoaster.

Lunch: Diagon Alley

For lunch, head back to Diagon Alley and have lunch at Leaky Cauldron. This is where we ate and the food was good (albeit not amazing) and it was fun to eat in a Harry Potter themed restaurant!

Then spend some time this afternoon just enjoying Diagon Alley. There is so much to see here! So many details! And be sure to go back into the Knockturn Alley, the dark wizard area that does feel a little hidden if you aren’t looking for it.

Whimsical, crooked buildings in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Orlando, styled with steep rooftops, turrets, and signs for fictional shops like “Mrs. Skower’s Magical Mess Removers” and “Flea Powder.” The cobblestone alleyway and fantasy architecture evoke the magical world of Harry Potter under a partly cloudy sky. — The theming in Diagon Alley is just so fantastic!

And if you buy a wand, you’ll want to spend some time going around to do the magic tricks in different display windows.

You might be able to catch some of the street shows in Diagon Alley too. And then have ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s.

Afternoon: More Rides + Shows

Now it’s time for some of the rides you didn’t do earlier that tend not to have very high wait times. Head out of Diagon Alley and over to World Expo to ride Men in Black Alien Attack. Then ride Kang & Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl if you want to.

After these rides, consider one of the shows. There are several in this area of the park: The Bourne Stuntacular, the Horror Make-Up Show, DreamWorks Imagination Celebration, and Animal Actors on Location. Pick one (or more!) of these to see to get out of some of the heat of the afternoon.

Then keep heading back around toward the entrance and do the Villain-Con Minion Blast. It’s fun, and kiddos will especially like it. But it’s also not groundbreaking if the wait it too long. (Usually it’s pretty short though!)

Rest Time: If you want an afternoon rest time, now would be a great place for it! Then when you come back into the park, just pick up here. Because the park closed early on the day we were there though, we didn’t have a rest time.

Then start circling back toward Diagon Alley and ride Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. I actually really love this one despite the hate it sometimes gets!

Entrance to the "Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon" attraction at Universal Studios. The marquee resembles the NBC Studios facade with "The Tonight Show" and "NBC Studios" signage, featuring a large cutout of Jimmy Fallon above the entrance under a clear blue sky. — Entrance to Rate Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon

Then go back toward San Francisco and ride the Fast and Furious Ride, which I honestly hate so skip this if you don’t like violence and loud noises.

Evening: Have Fun!

If you’ve been able to follow this plan, you’ve done pretty much all the rides at Universal Studios Orlando!

So for the evening, choose your own adventure. First of all: dinner. Some of the options are Illumination’s Minion Cafe, Finnegan’s Bar and Grill, and Lombard’s Seafood Grille.

Then maybe you want to hop back on some of the rides you did earlier in the day. Or maybe something was broken down earlier and you want to hop on it.

Or, if you want to you can head back to your hotel for an early evening, hop over to Islands of Adventure, or enjoy some time in CityWalk. Basically just have fun doing whatever you feel like doing!

Final Tips + What I’d Do Differently Next Time

Large rotating globe fountain at the entrance of Universal Studios Florida, featuring the word “UNIVERSAL” in bold gold letters. The globe is surrounded by mist and decorative fencing, with palm trees, landscaped greenery, and theme park buildings in the background under a clear blue sky.

So what would I do differently next time I go to Universal Studios?

Mainly, there are some rides I would skip. Most notably, I would skip Fast and Furious Supercharged and The Simpsons Ride. I didn’t really enjoy either of these and didn’t think they were worth the time they took when I could have been re-riding something I loved or spending more time exploring Diagon Alley.

Other than that, I think we planned our day pretty well!

Here are a few more things to know though:

Several rides in Universal Studios have Single Rider lines: Escape from Gringotts, MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack, Revenge of the Mummy, Transformers: The Ride 3D, and Fast And Furious Supercharged.
If you have a kid who doesn’t want to ride something, use the family waiting area and child swap. The rides at Universal Resort all have designated family waiting areas. The whole family can get a ticket for child swap and then all wait in line together. Then, the first parent can go on the ride while the second parent waits in the waiting area with the kid(s). Then they can swap places without the second parent having to wait in line. Just ask a team member about using this when you enter the line and they can help you.
If you have Express Pass, get a lanyard. If you have express pass you’ll be scanning your paper Express Pass all the time, so get a lanyard to both protect it and make it easy to scan into rides.